Mysteries, Battles, and Games: Exploring Agency in Metaphors About Sexual Harassment

Autor: Shawna Malvini Redden, Jennifer A. Scarduzio
Rok vydání: 2023
Předmět:
Zdroj: Management Communication Quarterly. :089331892311724
ISSN: 1552-6798
0893-3189
DOI: 10.1177/08933189231172427
Popis: Given the personal nature of sexual harassment and the typically confidential, bureaucratic reporting processes in organizations, first-person stories about sexual harassment reporting are somewhat rare. In fact, targets of harassment are routinely silenced by the reporting process, with confidentiality rules protecting harassers, organizations, and only occasionally, harassment targets. Consequently, we know little about how those who experience sexual harassment from coworkers make sense of their experiences, what their experience reporting is like, and how they navigate the stigma of sexual harassment after they report. In this study, we draw upon in-depth interviews with a diverse group of workers to understand how they metaphorically frame their experiences as mysteries, battles, and games. We argue that these metaphors direct attention to the ways people make sense of harassment in wholly negative symbolic frames, with diminished agency, and implicate organizations as agents in the harassment process.
Databáze: OpenAIRE