Sexual Harassment Case Summary

The impending case study demonstrates an evident and common ethical violation of sexual harassment in the workplace. To protect the privacy of the corporation and individuals who were directly involved, names and organizations have been changed accordingly. Any private, public, or non-profit organization could potentially experience a situation similar in the case that follows and it is important to demonstrate ethical and responsible decisions when dealing with such a dilemma. The reader will be subjected to the issues of conflict of interest, roles, and subjective versus objective responsibility. The reader will also be exposed to the decision making model and the principle of individual responsibility by Terry Cooper to help demonstrate how the dilemma can be resolved. Sexual harassment is a challenging ethical issues as cases continue to rise each passing year and a majority of the cases go unreported by individuals for fear of retaliation, the possibility of being fired, and even some being ashamed of the act itself. The article Workplace Sexual Harassment Poll Finds Large Share Of Workers Suffer, Don't Report, claimed that, “Thirteen percent of respondents…reported having been sexually harassed by a boss or another superior, and 19 percent have been harassed by a co-worker other than a boss or superior. Of those
It generally applies to employers with 15 or more employees, including federal, state, and local governments” (Para. 1). Sexual harassment in the workplace is a clear violation of this federal law and serves as a major ethical dilemma. This federal law was mandated to ensure harassment of any kind would not be tolerated and allegations of any sort could result in legal action being