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Sexual Harassment In The Hospitality Industry

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1. Introduction
Sexual harassment is a common occurrence not just in the hospitality industry but also in all sorts of businesses and situations. It is described as a “stealth poison” (Salvaggio, 2011, p. 608) significantly affecting victims and several stakeholders in all sorts of way in the short and long term. Accordingly, the US Merit Systems Protection Board has estimated an expense of $267 million to the federal government over two years due to sexual harassment. The figure represents the cost of reduce productivity ($204.5 million), paying sick leaves ($26.1 million), and lastly the cost to replace employees who have left ($36.7 million) (Earnshaw, Davidson, 1994, p. 5). Both the material and immaterial costs of sexual harassment are high due to the wide range of detrimental effects it has ranging from psychological impact on individuals to the legal payment companies have to pay.

In fact, multiple companies that are fighting sexual harassment case are dealing with “six figure legal costs” despite being on the upside of the court case (Roumeliotis, Kleiner, 2005, p. 44). Due to sexual harassment, a prestigious corporation on the Fortune 500 can even expect a loss of $6.7 million annually just from the costs of paying for loss of productivity and the employee’s wellbeing (Hongchintakul, Kleiner, 2001, p. 186). This figure excludes the litigation costs and the after effect of the damage to the company’s reputation and loss of customers. Sexual harassment is an

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