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Empower the powerless: Practical implications for breaking silence

The focal article by Medeiros and Griffith (2019) discusses some ways to reinforce longitudinal benefits and prolong behavioral change of sexual harassment training. Although we generally agree with the suggestions, we noticed that the focal article did not address two of the most important elements to understanding the workplace sexual harassment: power and dependence. Weber (1978) defined power as “the probability that one actor within a social relationship will be in a position to carry out his will despite resistance” (p. 53). Research has shown that a majority of sexual harassment incidents occur when perpetrators with higher power coerce sexual behaviors onto victims with lower power (e.g., Thacker & Ferris, 1991). For example, it is more common for supervisors than their subordinates to be a perpetrator rather than a victim. Likewise, it is more common for teachers than their students to be a perpetrator rather than a victim. One common characteristic of the two examples is that those who are more likely to be a perpetrator can exert power over their weaker counterparts. Most of the sexual harassment trainings have focused on informing the employees with the definitions of harassment, severe consequences of sexual harassment, and administrative steps to report such incidents (Berdahl & Raver, 2011). Despite their practical usefulness, we argue that such trainings are unlikely to make a significant change. In general, the prevalence of workplace harassment does not originate from employees’ lack of knowledge in identifying the sexually harassing behaviors. Rather, it results from a lack of environmental resources that can be utilized to effectively punish sexual harassers and discourage victim tolerance (Roehling & Huang, 2018). Lack of such resources is closely associated with the power distance and dependence between a harasser and a victim at workplace. The discussion of these critical elements in understanding sexual harassment at the workplace, however, was largely overlooked in the focal article. Thus, in this commentary, we emphasize the need for understanding power and dependence to effectively reduce workplace sexual harassment.