***Apologies for Cross-Posting***
SVRC
SSB/SH Virtual Research Collaborative
A virtual discussion of working papers or caucus topics related to social sexual behavior (SSB) or sexual harassment (SH) in the workplace.
When? 60-minute sessions hosted on the 3rd Thursday of each month starting at 3:30 PM EST/2:30 PM CST/1:30 PM MST/12:30 PM PST. To receive calendar invitations and updates, please email the SVRC organizer, Dr. Shannon Rawski at rawskis@uwosh.edu
What Platform? Collaborate Ultra. If you're new to this platform, here is a helpful user guide: https://help.blackboard.com/Collaborate/Ultra/Participant
How do I log on? Look at the session descriptions below or check your calendar invitations for links to the sessions. You can log into the session up to 15 minutes prior to the session start time. Sessions are capped at 100 participants. If the cap is reached, you may not be admitted to the session.
Who? The SRVC invites a snowballing list of researchers interested in SSB, SH, or related issues. Faculty and graduate students are welcome. If you, your colleague(s), or graduate student(s) are interested in attending the SVRC, please send your/their name(s) and email(s) to the SVRC organizer, Dr. Shannon Rawski at rawskis@uwosh.edu
What's on the schedule this fall? We have one caucus and three working paper sessions lined up for this fall semester. See the descriptions below. If you would like to present during the spring 2020 semester, email the SVRC organizer, Dr. Shannon Rawski at rawskis@uwosh.edu
Sept. 17th 3:30 PM EST/2:30 PM CST/1:30 PM MST/12:30 PM PST
Topic/Title: Social Sexual Behavior & Sexual Harassment in the Age of COVID-19
Presenter/Facilitator: Shannon Rawski, Ph.D. (U. Wisconsin Oshkosh)
Session Type: Caucus
Description: The pandemic has changed the nature of work for the foreseeable future, how might the shift toward virtual work, the stress of work-life demands, the vulnerability of essential workers, and the reliance on virtual training solutions affect social sexual behavior, sexual harassment, bystander intervention, and training effectiveness? Dr. Shannon Rawski will facilitate this caucus by posing discussion questions to the group and dividing participants into virtual breakout rooms. The session will end with a large group discussion and potential research agenda.
Presenter Bio: Dr. Shannon L. Rawski specializes in the effectiveness of anti-sexual harassment training programs and their unintended, negative side effects as well as employee interpretations of sexual harassment in the workplace. She has published her research in peer-reviewed academic journals such as the Journal of Organizational Behavior, the Journal of Social Issues, Human Resource Development Quarterly, International Journal of Selection and Assessment, and Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, among others. Dr. Rawski earned her Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior from the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas and is currently an Assistant Professor of Management and Human Resources at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh.
Oct. 15th 3:30 PM EST/2:30 PM CST/1:30 PM MST/12:30 PM PST
Topic/Title: Banking on Leniency: How Idiosyncrasy Credits Impact Responses to Sexual Harassment
Presenter/Facilitator: Jennifer Griffith, Ph.D. (U. New Hampshire)
Session Type: Working Paper Presentation
Description: Holding those who engage in sexual harassment accountable is a long-standing issue in organizations that has, to date, remained seemingly out of reach. The use of idiosyncrasy credits (i.e., allowances for deviant behavior) to excuse sexual harassment aids in perpetuating attitudes that sexual harassment is acceptable, regardless of the stance communicated in training. Dr. Jennifer Griffith will present a working paper applying the theory of idiosyncrasy credits to a sexual harassment scenario in order to understand which, if any, of the characteristics that contribute to idiosyncrasy credits (e.g., status, performance, credit used previously) influence (a) the evaluation of the severity of the behavior and (b) the proposed response to the behavior.
Presenter Bio: Jennifer Griffith, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Organizational Behavior and Management at Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics, and a Fellow at Prevention Innovations Research Center, both housed within the University of New Hampshire. She is also the Director of the Modern Work Lab, a student-led research group, and Cofounder of Whisper Coalition, a research-driven resource that provides practical tools for reducing sexual harassment and improving gender equity in the workplace. Her research broadly focuses on the workplace impacts of psychosocial factors (e.g., attributions, expectations, emotion, and identity). Most recently, this work has considered workplace policy and interventions both pre- and post-hire to address identity-based bias and sexual harassment.
Nov. 19th 3:30 PM EST/2:30 PM CST/1:30 PM MST/12:30 PM PST
Topic/Title: Judgments Regarding Sex-Based Harassment of Uppity Women and Wimpy Men: The Influence of Social Identity and Moral Disengagement
Presenter/Facilitator: Ho Kwan Cheung, Ph.D. (U. Albany, SUNY)
Session Type: Working Paper Presentation
Description: Recent #TimesUp and #MeToo movements led to a global reckoning toward the issue of sexual harassment that has been plaguing men and women in the workplace for decades. Even though there is increasing awareness and lack of tolerance toward the issue, not all targets of harassment benefitted equally. Media attention as well as existing research on sexual harassment often places heterosexual men in the harasser position and women in the target position. As such, Dr. Cheung will present a working paper building on previous work that suggests sex-based harassment is a display of power to maintain existing hierarchy and examining harassment against both women and men who violate gender norms. Specifically, drawing from research on social identity threat and moral decision-making, the paper proposes that targets who violate gender norms pose a social identity threat tasked with evaluating harassment claims, regardless of the individuals' gender. Such identity threat may motivate evaluators to deem targets less worthy of moral concern and therefore lead to more lenient judgments of the harassment incidents.
Presenter Bio: Dr. Ho Kwan Cheung is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University at Albany, SUNY. She received her master (2016) and doctoral degrees (2018) in Industrial-Organizational Psychology from George Mason University. Her research program broadly aims to examine the manifestation and consequences of gender and family-related discrimination and to identify remediation strategies to ensure an inclusive workspace. Her work has been published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, Psychological Science, Group & Organization Management, Harvard Business Review, etc. Prior to joining the Albany faculty, she has also worked in women's policy research in Washington, D.C.
Dec. 17th 3:30 PM EST/2:30 PM CST/1:30 PM MST/12:30 PM PST
Topic/Title: Exploring Workgroup and Newcomer Dynamics in the Study of Workplace Harassment
Presenter/Facilitator: Julia DiBenigno, Ph.D. (Yale School of Management)
Session Type: Working Paper Presentation
Description: Dr. Julia DiBenigno will present data from an ongoing ethnographic field study that inductively examines harassment experiences in a historically male-dominated government agency that has struggled with widespread reports of sexual harassment for decades. Analysis of interviews with over 300 informants working in over 40 distinct workgroups at ten organizational units, combined with observations of these workgroups suggests the importance of considering the role that workgroup structures and newcomers play in explicating the dynamics of harassment at work. This study also seeks to identify inclusionary versus exclusionary practices in workgroups that can amplify or dampen these dynamics. By taking work-group level dynamics seriously, this study aims to shed new light on puzzles related to the prevalence and persistence of harassment at work despite widespread efforts to eradicate it.
Presenter Bio: Dr. Julia DiBenigno is an assistant professor of Organizational Behavior at Yale School of Management and Yale Sociology (by courtesy). She uses ethnographic methods (observation and in-depth interviewing) to advance our understanding of topics related to the sociology of work and occupations, collaboration between professional groups, diversity, and culture change in non-profit and government organizations. Her research has appeared in Administrative Science Quarterly and the Academy of Management Annals and has won multiple best paper and best dissertation awards. She received her Ph.D. and MS in Work and Organization Studies from the MIT Sloan School of Management. Prior to graduate school, she worked as a consultant for Deloitte's Organization and Change practice and graduated summa cum laude as the salutatorian of Columbia College with a BA in psychology and a concentration in Women's and Gender Studies.
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Shannon L. Rawski, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Management & Human Resources
College of Business
University of Wisconsin Oshkosh
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