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Monitoring Harassment in Organizations

Author

Listed:
  • Laura E. Boudreau
  • Sylvain Chassang
  • Ada Gonzalez-Torres
  • Rachel M. Heath

Abstract

We evaluate secure survey methods designed for the ongoing monitoring of harassment in organizations. We use the resulting data to answer policy relevant questions about the nature of harassment: How prevalent is it? What share of managers is responsible for the misbehavior? How isolated are its victims? To do so, we partner with a large Bangladeshi garment manufacturer to experiment with different designs of phone-based worker surveys. Garbling responses to sensitive questions by automatically recording a random subset as complaints increases reporting of physical harassment by 288%, sexual harassment by 269%, and threatening behavior by 46%. A rapport-building treatment has an insignificant aggregate effect, but may affect men and women differently. Removing team identifiers from survey responses does not significantly increase reporting and prevents the computation of policy-relevant team-level statistics. The resulting data shows that harassment is widespread, that the problem is not restricted to a minority of managers, and that victims are often isolated in teams.

Suggested Citation

  • Laura E. Boudreau & Sylvain Chassang & Ada Gonzalez-Torres & Rachel M. Heath, 2023. "Monitoring Harassment in Organizations," NBER Working Papers 31011, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:31011
    Note: DEV LS
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    Cited by:

    1. Nugent, Jeffrey B., 2023. "A new institutional perspective on business associations: Filling a gap between firms and states in the dynamic analysis of Richard Day," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 211(C), pages 49-59.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • C42 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: Special Topics - - - Survey Methods
    • D82 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
    • J70 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - General
    • J71 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Discrimination - - - Hiring and Firing
    • J81 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Standards - - - Working Conditions
    • J83 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Labor Standards - - - Workers' Rights
    • M54 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - Labor Management

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