The Effect of Attitude towards Sexual Harassment on Sexual Harassment in Workplace: Meditating Role of Intention to Sexual Harassment

This research was carried out with the purpose of investigating the effect of attitude towards sexual harassment (overt, covert negative, and positive) on sexual harassment in the workplace considering the mediating role of intention to sexual harassment. The design of the research was a correlational study. The population of the research was all the males banking organizations, stock exchange, and insurance offices in Tehran city from among them, 273 were selected based on the convenience sampling method. The research tools included sexual harassment questionnaire (Fitzgerald, Gelfand, & Drasgow, 1995) and a researcher-made questionnaire on attitude toward sexual harassment (Hosseini, Mehdad & Saffarinia, 2021) and intention to sexual harassment (Hosseini, Mehdad & saffarinia, 2021). Data were analyzed by using the Pearson correlation coefficient and structural equation modeling. results showed there was a significant positive relationship between positive attitudes towards sexual harassment and intention to sexual harassment and a significant negative relationship between overt and covert negative attitudes towards sexual harassment with an intention to sexual harassment (p≤0.05). Moreover, there was a significant positive relationship between covert negative attitudes and positive attitudes toward sexual harassment with sexual harassment. In addition, there was a significant positive relationship between intention to sexual harassment and sexual harassment (p≤0.05). Moreover, the results of structural equation modeling showed that the direct effect of positive attitude towards sexual harassment on intention to sexual harassment and intention to sexual harassment on sexual harassment was significant and results of indirect effects showed that only the indirect effect of positive attitude towards sexual harassment on sexual harassment is significant with mediating role of intention to sexual harassment (p≤0.05). It can be concluded that by increasing the positive attitude towards sexual harassment, the intention to sexual harassment increases and leads to sexual harassment. Therefore, to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace, there is a need to change attitudes toward sexual harassment as well as organizational intervention to combat the conversion of intent to behavior.