Hostile Work Environment Essay

The process of defining a hostile work environment involves numerous criteria. Such include, but not limited to, sexual harassment, discriminative employment practices, discriminative employee promotion practices, and ethnically tailored employee socialization behavior in an organization (Federal Communications Commission, 2008). According to the laws and regulations provided for in the numerous employment Acts, all employees are equal. Such has the implication that only skills and academic qualification must lay the basis of employment, rather than sexual orientation. Therefore sexual harassment practices, which is evidently common in the employment sector, remains an ethical issue as it promotes the concept of inequality between men and women in the community (DeLorenzo, 1998). This essay seeks to discuss three criteria that must be met in order to define a hostile work environment, namely; sexual harassment, discriminative employment practices, and discriminative employee promotion practices. The author also identifies the key ethical issue within sexual harassment. The process of qualifying a hostile work environment must entail the following among key criteria among others. First is sexual harassment. According to the underlying definitions, sexual harassment entails encompasses any form of unethical practices engaged by employers or employees against an employee simply because of their sexual orientation (DeLorenzo, 1998). Numerous findings have established that female employees have eminently been victims of sexual abuse in an organization in the quest for promotions as well as job security. Such have also been evident during the recruitment practices by companies were candidates follow victims of sexual favor requests by recruiting officials in order to be recruited. In addition, sexual harassment is quite evident in a workforce that is predominantly marked with members of the same gender. In spite this common practices, the qualification of sexual harassment must provide sufficient evidence to be admissible in the legal court proceedings (DeLorenzo, 1998). Such must include proof of sexual assault statements by employees or management against the accuser or request for sexual favors in order to enjoy particular employment privileges in the organization. Another criterion for qualifying hostile work environment is assessment of discriminative employment practices in the organization (Federal Communications Commission, 2008). It is a common practice by organizations to engage in keeping employee recruitment records. This is quite instrumental in identifying and qualifying desired skills and qualifications in future recruitment exercises. Such have the implication that, by accessing such records, an investigator can sufficiently identify any discriminative recruitment practice in the organization based on the available qualifications by applicants and various recommendations on individual members of the interview panel. The third criterion for that must be met in order to define a hostile work environment is proof of discriminative employee promotions and awarding practices in an organization (Federal Communications Commission, 2008). Promotions, awards, and salary increments are by principle to be guided by performance and capability of individual employees in executing given posts in an organization. Therefore, discriminative promotion practices can be easily identified by examining the roles, leadership skills, experience, and academic qualifications of the various employees in the organization. Lastly, the key ethical issue within sexual harassment is that it negates the underlying principles equal opportunities for all in the society (DeLorenzo, 1998). The concept of equality dictates for equal treatment of all irrespective of their sexual orientations. Despite this, sexual harassment finds much emphasis in determining the enjoyment of company privileges as well as on the interpersonal relations among the company’s workforces. Such contradict ethical principles by promoting unfair gender oriented practices in the organization.