The good ol' boy system: alive and well at Laocoon Aeronautics Corporation.

Oyler, Jennifer D. ; Pryor, Mildred Golden ; Haden, Stephanie S. Pane 等

DESCRIPTION

The purpose of this case is to present a dilemma regarding the actions that should be taken in response to incidences of sexual harassment at Laocoon Aeronautics Corporation. Averil Hughes, a high-ranking and well-respected director on the executive leadership team at Laocoon, is offended by the sexual propositions and innuendos made to her by her direct supervisor, William Prewett. Her boss's behavior not only incites an array of negative emotions within her, but she believes that by not appeasing Prewett's sexual advances her job performance and future at the company could be compromised. Averil eventually reports the harassment to William's direct supervisor, Tony Zi. The case concludes with Tony contemplating how he should handle this complicated and delicate situation.

SYNOPSIS

This cutting-edge, dilemma case examines sexual harassment from the lens of a female executive in the gender-biased, U.S. defense industry. The uniqueness of this case is that while more females are moving into male-dominated organizations in this industry, very few cases have examined sexual harassment within these organizations. The majority of the case focuses on Averil Hughes' meteoric rise from employee to the executive ranks within Laocoon Aeronautics Corporation and chronicles events that led to her filing a sexual harassment claim against her boss and Vice-President of Military Aerospace and Electronic Systems, William Prewett. In addition, the case provides a broad overview of the U.S Defense Industry and detailed insight into the organizational culture at Laocoon Aeronautics Corporation. The case concludes with Averil reporting the sexual harassment claim to William's boss, Tony Zi, the Executive Vice-President of Business Development and Operations. Tony Zi is faced with a difficult decision- how to legally manage a sexual harassment claim that involves his best friend, William Prewett, and one of his star hires, Averil Hughes.

INTRODUCTION

Averil Hughes intently gazed out her office window, as the sun slowly set over the Colorado River and back into Shepherd Mountain. To Averil, this moment was the favorite part of her work day especially given the events of the past few months. Although Averil had worked for Laocoon Aeronautics Corporation for almost 12 years, she had never faced such a difficult sell of the Organizational Excellence Program. William Prewett, Vice-President of Military Aerospace and Electronic Systems, vehemently refused to participate in the program that was headed up by Averil. To Averil's surprise, William had recently appointed her as the lead Six Sigma expert for the Odysseus Group. Averil was thrilled with this opportunity because she was the first Director of Divisional Quality and Excellence to be appointed with an above security clearance. Typically, these types of appointments were reserved for the Senior Vice-President of Organizational Quality and Excellence. Further, Averil believed that her appointment would serve as the perfect stepping stone to entice William to participate in the Organizational Excellence Program. As Averil continued to watch the final rays of light peer through her window, she took a deep breath and thought about her meteoric rise to fame at Laocoon Aeronautics Corporation.

Averil had graduated at the top of her MBA class from The Pamplin College of Business at Virginia Tech and was heavily recruited by multiple Fortune 100 companies. Rather than take an immediate position with one of these companies, Averil opted for a prestigious internship with Quality Management guru, Joseph Juran, in New York City. Through this internship, she spent two years learning the fine techniques that comprised quality analysis and planning. At the end of her internship, Averil interviewed with five Fortune 100 companies and again received several offers of employment. Eventually, Averil decided upon a Supervisory Quality Assurance Specialist position with Laocoon Aeronautics Corporation, a Fortune 100 Company with more than 5,000 employees, so that she could help to implement Total Quality Management (TQM) processes and principles throughout the organization. Averil quickly rose through the ranks at Laocoon because she was not afraid to question old principles and practices within the organization and because she was one of the few females in the executive leadership ranks for Laocoon Aeronautics Corporation. Within two years, she became certified as a Master Black Belt and was moved into a Lead Quality Assurance Specialist position. Eventually, she was promoted to Director of Divisional Quality and Excellence for the Military Aerospace and Electronics Division at Laocoon Aeronautics Corporation.

THE U.S AEROSPACE AND DEFENSE INDUSTRY AND LAOCOON AERONAUTICS CORPORATION (2)

The Cold War with the Soviet Union resulted in an unprecedented buildup of conventional and nuclear weapons and laid the foundation for the U.S. Aerospace and Defense Industry. Military defense contractors emerged in the 1950s and 1960s to bid on contracts and to supply the Department of Defense (DoD) with a steady stream of proven weapon systems. Laocoon Aeronautics Corporation was created during this period to provide research, development, testing, and evaluation of aerospace systems. Aerospace systems encompass manned and unmanned aircraft, laser systems, and microelectronics. Like many other competitors in this industry, Laocoon eventually diversified beyond aerospace systems into electronic systems and information systems. In the Aerospace and Defense industry, electronic systems include advanced electronic technologies that support American and foreign national security and non-defense applications. Meanwhile, information systems typically provide advanced enterprise solutions to civilians, commercial, intelligence, and military customers.

[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]

As the Aerospace and Defense industry experienced dramatic budget cuts towards the end of President Reagan's tenure in office, successful defense contractors responded by becoming agile competitors. Laocoon's strategies were aimed at diversifying into nondefense related industries and implementing TQM. The later strategy was congruent with DoD requirements for defense contractors to implement a TQM program before the end of 1992. In response, Laocoon had undergone a fundamental restructuring that involved moving the Director of Divisional Quality and Excellence from under the supervision of the Senior Vice-President of Human Resources to its own executive position as Senior Vice-President of Organizational Quality and Excellence (See Figure 1). In this executive position, the Senior Vice-President of Organizational Quality and Excellence was given a department that consisted of two Directors of Divisional Quality and Excellence for each business operational division in the company. These directors reported directly to the Senior Vice-President of Organizational Quality and Excellence and to the Vice-President of the respective operational division.

Averil Hughes was one of two Divisional Quality and Excellence directors. She reported directly to Jimmy Edison, Senior Vice-President of Organizational Excellence and Quality, and William Prewett, Vice-President of Military Aerospace and Electronic Systems, who in turn reported directly to the Executive Vice President of Business Development and Operations, Tony Zi. The corporate headquarters for Laocoon Aeronautics Corporation was located in Baltimore, Maryland. So, Averil only meet with Jimmy Edison four times per year. Meanwhile, the Military Aerospace and Electronic Systems Division was located in Austin, Texas. Both Averil Hughes and William Prewett were based out of Austin, Texas. Meanwhile, Tony Zi divided his time between Austin, Dallas (Communication and Information Systems Division), and Baltimore.

ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AT LAOCOON AERONAUTICS CORPORATION

The organizational culture at Laocoon Aeronautics Corporation resembled the male-dominated culture of many other firms in the U.S. Aerospace and Defense industry. Executive indulgences in alcohol combined with professional escorts at lavish corporate outings and executives looking the other way when ethical violations occurred was the norm at Laocoon. Throughout the lower ranks of the company, extramarital affairs were prevalent as office romances blossomed while coworkers turned their heads to avoid the situation. Of the few women who dared to break the gender barrier at Laocoon, most suffered unwelcome sexual comments and lewd jokes on a daily basis. In fact, Laocoon's culture was one where sexual harassment of women had been tolerated. The culture was so perverse that most women were too scared to make complaints when they were harassed.

Over the 12 years that Averil had been employed at Laocoon, the human resource department had required members of the executive team, managers, supervisors, and employees to attend annual sexual harassment training. The purpose of the training was to educate all employees about sexual harassment and to help employees understand their rights to work in a harassment free environment. However, each time Averil had attended one of the annual training sessions for executives she could overhear many of her male colleagues joking about the training.

"Just because I tell my secretary that she is hot and that she could get a raise if she dressed in a shorter skirt doesn't mean a thing."

"My secretary loves for me tell her she looks good. Hell, if weren't for me, she would be working at the local Wal-Mart."

"Which flavor of the month is William sleeping with these days- the dumb blonde or the feisty brunette?"

Typically the room would erupt into a loud roar of laughter. Everyone had heard the scandalous stories about William Prewett and his frequent sex capades with the female employees at Laocoon.

Averil had also noticed that sometimes the male executives signed the attendance form and sat in the back of the room just so that they could leave the training after it began. The prevailing belief of many male executives at Laocoon Aeronautics Corporation was that sexual harassment training did not apply to them.

At the direction of the CEO, the Senior Vice-President of Human Resources, in coordination with the Senior Vice-President and General Counsel, had developed a formal sexual harassment policy. This policy was outlined in annual sexual harassment training and was also posted in writing on bulletin boards next to the executive and employee bathrooms. Specifically, the sexual harassment policy outlined the formal complaint process which included instructions on how to report complaints, when to bypass supervisors if they were involved in the harassment, assured employees of anonymity and prohibited retaliation when a complaint was filed, guaranteed a prompt and thorough investigation of the complaint, and provided procedures for disciplinary actions for the harasser if found guilty. To complement the annual sexual harassment training and policy, the Senior Vice-President of Human Resources sent out annual-mails that clearly stated that Laocoon Aeronautics Corporation was a workplace free of sexual harassment and that any form of sexual harassment would not be tolerated.

WILLIAM PREWETT-A WOLF IN SHEEP'S CLOTHING

William Prewett, the Vice-President of Military Aerospace and Electronics Division and one of Averil's managers, had seemed like a great boss. He allowed his directors to set their own work schedules as long as they completed all assigned work according to Laocoon's strict timelines. He also negotiated with Laocoon to provide his directors with plush office suites that had great views of the Colorado River. William even scheduled a monthly golf game with his directors at Deep Creek Country Club followed by a dinner at Ruth Chris Steakhouse. To top off these perks, William had recently appointed Averil to serve as the Six Sigma Specialist on the Odysseus Group.

April 2007

Laocoon Aeronautics Corporation had been awarded a $1 billion dollar contract to develop and eventually manufacturer a laser-guided weapon system for the DoD. Naturally, William was elected to serve as head of the Odysseus Group. The Odysseus Group was operating under strict deadlines and required above top secret security clearances as outlined by the DoD. So, the Odysseus Group began to work past the traditional work hours of 5:00p and well into the night. Soon, William began to cater dinner for the late night work sessions. After one of these late night sessions, William asked Averil to head down to the Warehouse District with him to have a few drinks and unwind from the day. Averil thought that it sounded like fun and so she met William for drinks at the Twisted Olive.

After a couple of pomegranate martinis, Averil was ready to leave, but William insisted that she stay while he ordered one more drink. Averil obliged and seized the opportunity to discuss some of the organizational change initiatives that she wanted to see accomplished. After all, she had been desperately trying to get William on board with the rest of the organization for the new Organizational Excellence Program for quite some time.

William stopped her before she got too far by saying, "Has anyone ever told you that you look like Jennifer Garner? Since we are away from work, I just have to tell you that I have been watching you for awhile now. You are so damn attractive ..."

Averil, sensing that William was approaching his limit of alcohol intake for the evening, quickly explained: "William, it's time to go buddy. You have drunk way too much this evening."

William, in response, argued, "No, no baby ... It's you that I want, no more drinks ... Let's go back to my place."

Without hesitation, Averil got up from the table, waved good-bye to William, and quickly darted out door. On the way home from the bar, Averil just shook her head in dismay and partially dismissed William's actions because he had been drinking way too much.

Since Laocoon Aeronautics Corporation was a private defense contractor and comprised of mostly engineers and scientists, Averil found herself in a mostly male-dominated world. For the Odysseus Group and in the Military Aerospace and Electronic Systems division, Averil was the lone female among the executive leadership ranks. While there were female engineers and research scientists, and even a few female supervisors, she was the only female executive at all of the divisional meetings. Nevertheless, Averil enjoyed working for Laocoon and rightfully so. Not only had she moved up quickly in the executive ranks, but also she was comfortable working for an organization that did not have many female employees. In Averil's opinion, she had grown up with all brothers, so working with men was no big deal to her.

May 2007

Several weeks after the martini incident, Averil was excited when William asked her during an Odysseus Group session to schedule a meeting with him to discuss the Organizational Excellence Program. For months, Averil had been pleading with William to implement the organizational change initiatives established by the CEO and the Senior Vice-President of Organizational Quality and Excellence. Averil thought that her new Quality Assurance specialist, Adam Bartol, should go with her in order to learn how to interact and work with William Prewett.

As they entered his office, William snapped at Averil in a coy manner and said, "Why is he here? I didn't invite him to my office!"

Immediately, Averil asked Adam to wait for her in the outer office with William's secretary. As Adam left William's office, William yelled in a demanding tone, "Shut the door son and don't come back until you're invited!"

With a strange look, Averil asked William, "What's up with your crappy attitude? I thought that today would be an excellent time for you to meet Adam and to let him sit in on our meeting. We really need to begin implementing the organizational change initiatives established by our executive team."

William suddenly stopped her and said, "Organizational change initiatives are not the most important things to me today."

A bit frustrated, Averil asked, "Then what is?"

William replied, "You know, sexual things. Why don't we leave work early and head over to The Cafe at Four Seasons? Then, if we drink too much, we can just stay at the hotel."

As Averil immediately stood up to leave, she said, "Let me know if and when you want to start managing your division instead of acting like an idiot. You may proposition other women in this organization, but you will not proposition me again! Your comments today and when we were at the Twisted Olive are highly inappropriate!"

Averil was boiling over with anger. Her first reaction was to slap William Prewett from Austin to El Paso. Here she was, almost 40 years old, managing a department comprised of quality engineers and assurance specialists, and William had just treated her like she worked in a brothel.

Adam had no clue why his boss was walking so fast in those Jimmy Choo shoes or why she looked so angry. She had not stayed too long in William's office, but Adam had heard all the rumors about William and his infinite sex capades. Adam's imagination ran wild about what happened in William's office, and he quickly decided that he would not like working with William.

Averil contemplated telling the Executive Vice-President of Business Development and Operations and William Prewett's boss, Tony Zi, about her encounters with William, but she decided against it. After all, she loved working for Laocoon Aeronautics Corporation and did not want to create unnecessary issues for the company. She forced herself to suppress the feelings of anger, anxiety, and shame that were overwhelming her. While she knew in her heart that she had done nothing to encourage this inappropriate behavior on the part of her boss, her mind began to fill with doubts about the possibility that she somehow gave him the wrong impression. She even began to question the motives behind her rapid rise through the ranks in the organization. While her credentials and stellar performance were more than enough to undeniably justify her promotion through the company, she wondered whether her gender and appearance may have also been factors. All of these doubts were starting to take a toll on Averil's confidence, selfesteem, and motivation.

Early June 2007

Throughout early June, Averil continued to work on design processes with the Odysseus Group. William seemed to return to his normal self and became the good boss that Averil remembered. However, he still avoided the Organizational Excellence Program and consequently his division was lagging behind on the organizational change initiatives.

Shortly thereafter, William talked to Averil after an Odysseus Group session and suggested that they needed to meet to discuss productivity management and things like "production environments, motivation and reward systems, and the impact of technology."

William went on to suggest that Averil should come to his lake house for the weekend because he could guarantee her a "quality experience."

Averil was so frustrated and degraded because she knew that William was not talking about managing production activities. His blatant sexual innuendos made her realize that he had no intention of treating her with respect as a colleague, and he did not appear to be at all concerned about legalities.

Averil knew that something had to be done. She could not allow William to continue his sexual advances. Not only had William invited her to his vacation home on Lake Austin for a weekend of debauchery, but also he had propositioned her for sex and made inappropriate comments on at least two separate occasions. To top things off, he refused to participate in the organizational excellence initiative that was headed up by Averil unless she agreed to drinks and dinner one night after work. Although Averil had grown up with two brothers and was accustomed to them and their friends talking about women; she had never experienced a situation where a man, and for that much a boss, had blatantly forced himself on her.

REPORTING THE CLAIM TO TONY ZI--FRIEND OR FOE?

Late June 2007

Averil scheduled a meeting with Tony Zi, Executive Vice-President of Business Development and Operations, who had been with Laocoon Aeronautics Corporation for 25 years. During the meeting, Tony was obviously concerned about Averil, yet he was also worried about losing William as a Divisional Vice-President.

Tony asked, "What do you want the company to do? William is one of our best Vice-Presidents."

In response, Averil demanded, "I either want him fired or he needs to be demoted with a drastic reduction in his salary. End of story ... no exceptions. I want everyone in this company to get the message that sexual harassment is not tolerated!"

Tony suggested to Averil, "Why don't I just move you to the Communications and Information Systems Division? I'll make sure that William gets additional training and understands that his behavior is not appropriate."

Averil snapped back at Tony, "Do what you want to do, but he will never change. He'll do this again!"

Averil left wondering what Tony would do and how many females had been victims of William's sexual harassment but had suffered in silence.

If an investigation revealed that William Prewett was guilty of sexual harassment, Tony knew that the company had several options. First, William could be relieved of his supervisory status and demoted from Vice-President of Military Aerospace and Electronic Systems back to his original position of electrical engineer. Second, William's salary could be docked by 10-20%, he would be forced to attend a professional treatment program, and he would keep his current position. Third, William could be permanently terminated from Laocoon.

Tony agonized over how to handle the situation. Tony and William had both started at Laocoon Aeronautics Corporation at the same time as engineers in Airborne Surveillance. Further complicating the situation was the fact that Tony and William were fraternity brothers from their college days at The University of Texas, and they had maintained their friendship for almost 30 years. At the same time, Tony knew that additional members of executive leadership team were just as guilty of sexual harassment as William was. In fact, Laocoon's culture was one where sexual harassment of this type had been tolerated. Over the years that Tony had been employed at Laocoon and before he became the Senior Vice-President of Human Resources, Tony had also attended the sexual harassment training and had joked with the other guys about the training. He even had bragged to his colleagues that members of the executive leadership team were in attendance so that they could learn how to harass at a higher level.

Now Tony found himself wondering if what the Senior Vice-President of Human Resources had preached was really true. Tony wondered if this type of behavior really did demoralize employees. Also, he contemplated whether there had be declines in job satisfaction and more psychological distress in female employees at Laocoon Aeronautics Corporation because of the proliferation of sexual harassment. He knew that if William was demoted this would only be the beginning of having to address this type of behavior at Laocoon. He also wondered who would be the next Vice-President or Director that would need to be disciplined because of inappropriate behavior. In the old days, helping William survive would not have been a problem; but now, legally, such behavior could not be tolerated.

Tony was also very concerned about Averil. She was a superstar member of the executive leadership team. She was highly respected by her peers and was an intelligent, self-motivated leader. More importantly, Tony was responsible for hiring Averil; and he had a great deal of respect for her. Maybe Averil would be satisfied if Laocoon simply moved her to Director of Divisional Quality and Excellence for the Communication and Information Systems Division. As he was preparing to leave the office for the day, Tony was sure of one thing--there was no possible way that he would sleep tonight if he did not make a decision about William and Averil.

APPENDIX 1

U.S. SEXUAL HARASSMENT LAW AND THE EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY

COMMISSION (EEOC)

Sexual harassment is a form of gender discrimination that is prohibited by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Title VII applies to employers that have 15 or more employees and includes state and federal governments, labor organizations, and employment agencies. The EEOC has defined sexual harassment as consisting of "unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature" (EEOC, 2009, para.2). The EEOC guidelines outline two forms of sexual harassment: quid pro quo and hostile work environment. Quid pro quo harassment occurs when sexual harassment is made explicitly or implicitly as a term or condition of employment or is used as the basis for employment decisions. The second form of sexual harassment, a hostile work environment, interferes with the individual's work and/or creates an offensive and intimidating work environment. This form of sexual harassment manifests when a victim is subjected to unwanted and pervasive sexual comments, innuendos, touching, or conduct of a sexual nature.

The United States EEOC was created by the Kennedy administration to primarily enforce Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. While the EEOC became officially active on July 2, 1965, the EEOC did not initially have power to enforce the statute until the introduction of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972. Because Title VII did not officially prohibit sexual harassment, the U.S. Supreme Court held in the 1986 case of Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson that sexual harassment is a form of gender discrimination in employment and is a direct violation of Title VII. In 1993, the Supreme Court, in its decision of Harris v. Forklift Systems, Inc., ruled that psychological harm is not a requirement for a sexual harassment claim.

APPENDIX 2 SEXUAL HARASSMENT LIABILITY DETERMINATION

In response to the increasing number of sexual harassment claims in the 1980s, Congress amended Title VII to allow victims to recover damages under federal law. Then, in June 1998, the Supreme Court issued two opinions that interpreted Title VII and its applicability to sexual harassment claims. These opinions were based on Burlington Industries Inc. v. Ellerth and Faragher v. City of Boca Raton. The Supreme Court agreed that sexual harassment is a form of gender discrimination in employment and represents a direct violation of Title VII. As such, the employer is liable for sexual harassment by employees and supervisors, the burden of sexual harassment prevention falls upon the employer, and the employer must respond promptly when sexual harassment occurs. First, if the employee suffers tangible employment actions because of sexual harassment, the employer will be found liable for damages (Laabs, 1998). Tangible employment actions include termination, salary reduction, and poor work assignments. Second, even if the employee does not suffer tangible employment actions and if the company has no affirmative defense, the employer will be found liable (Laabs, 1998). Affirmative defense examines the extent to which 1) the employer exercises reasonable care and 2) the plaintiff employee takes advantage of corrective actions provided by the employer (Daniel, 2003). Reasonable care includes establishing a sexual harassment policy, training all employees and managers on avoiding sexual harassment, and investigating and taking action when complaints are presented (Laabs, 1998). Further, the plaintiff employee must actively take part in employer corrective opportunities. If the company fails to meet both components of the affirmative defense, the company will be held liable for damages (Daniel, 2003).

APPENDIX 3 SEXUAL HARASSMENT IN THE WORKPLACE: STATISTICS IN THE UNITED STATES

Rates of Incidence across all Occupations and Organizations

According to a meta-analysis based on more than 86,000 respondents (Ilies, Hauserman, Schwochau, & Stibal, 2003), at least 24% of women report being sexual harassed at work and 58% report experiencing some form of harassing behaviors. The difference in estimates is most likely attributable to women being hesitant to label negative experiences as sexual harassment at work.

Numbers of Women in Nontraditional Occupations and Industries: The Case of the Aerospace and Defense Industry

The number of working women entering into nontraditional occupations is steadily rising in the United States. (3) In the U.S. Aerospace and Defense Industry, 21.9% of the workers were female in 2007 (U.S. Department of Labor, 2008). Further, of occupations that require a bachelor's degree or higher in this industry, 11.5% of engineers were women (U.S. Department of Labor, 2009).

Adverse Outcomes in Male-Dominated Jobs and Organizations

Women in nontraditional, male-dominated occupations experience adverse working conditions, such as isolation, segregation, and withholding of training opportunities, and more sexual harassment as compared to women in more traditional occupations (Berdahl, 2007; Fitzgerald, Drasgow, Hulin, Gelfand, & Magley, 1997; Glomb, Munson, Hulin, Bergman, & Drasgow, 1999; Gruber, 1998; Gutek, Cohen, & Konrad, 1990; Mansfield et al., 1991).

REFERENCES

Berdahl, J.L. (2007). The sexual harassment of uppity women. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92, 425-437. Burlington Industries v. Ellerth, 118 S. Ct. 2257 (1998). Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S.C.A. [section] 2000e et seq. (1964).

Daniel, T.A. (2003). Developing a "culture of compliance" to prevent sexual harassment. Employment Relations Today, 30, 33-42.

Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972. 42 U.S.C.A. [section] 2000e et seq. (1964).

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. (2009, March 11). Sexual harassment. Retrieved September 21, 2009, from http://www.eeoc.gov/types/sexual_harassment.html

Farragher v. City of Boca Raton, 118 S. Ct. 2275 (1998).

Fitzgerald, L. F., Drasgow, F., Hulin, C. L., Gelfand, M. J., & Magley, V. J. (1997). Antecedents and consequences of sexual harassment in organizations: A test of an integrated model. Journal of Applied Psychology, 82, 578-589.

Glomb, T. M., Munson, L. J., Hulin, C. L., Bergman, M. E., & Drasgow, F. (1999). Structural equation models of sexual harassment: Longitudinal explorations and cross-sectional generalizations. Journal of Applied Psychology, 84, 14-28.

Gruber, J. E. (1998). The impact of male work environments and organizational policies on women's experiences of sexual harassment. Gender and Society, 12, 301-320.

Gutek, B. A., Cohen, A. G., & Konrad, A. M. (1990). Predicting social--sexual behavior at work: A contact hypothesis. Academy of Management Journal, 33, 560-577.

Harris v. Forklift Systems, 510 U.S. 17, 23 (1993).

Ilies, R., Hauserman, N., Schwochau, S, & Stibal, J. (2003). Reported incidence rates of work-related sexual harassment in the United States: Using meta-analysis to explain reported rate disparities. Personnel Psychology, 56, 607-631.

Laabs, J. (1998). What you're liable for now. Workforce, 77, 34-42.

Mansfield, P.K., Koch, P.B., Henderson, J., Vicary, J.R, Cohn, M., & Young, E.W. (1991). The job climate for women in traditionally male blue-collar occupations. Sex Roles, 25, 63-79.

Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson, 477 U.S. 57 (1986).

U.S. Department of Labor. (2008). Employed persons by detailed industry and sex, 2007 annual averages. Retrieved September 20, 2009 from http://www.bls.gov/cps/wlf-table14-2008.pdf

U.S. Department of Labor. (2009). Quick facts on nontraditional occupations for women. Retrieved September 20, 2009 from http://www.dol.gov/wb/factsheets/nontra2008.htm

ENDNOTES

(1) This case is based upon actual events in an existing organization, but all names of actual persons and the organization are disguised for purposes of anonymity. Also, an earlier version of this case was presented at the 2009 Southwest Case Research Association Meeting in Oklahoma City, OK.

(2) The U.S. Department of Labor also refers to the U.S. Aerospace and Defense Industry as the Aerospace Products and Parts Manufacturing Industry.

(3) Nontraditional occupations are those for which women comprise less than 25% of the total employed.

Jennifer D. Oyler, Texas A & M University of Commerce

Mildred Golden Pryor, Texas A & M University of Commerce

Stephanie S. Pane Haden, Texas A & M University of Commerce