Psychological Climate, Work Place Harassment and Health Outcomes in Female Sales Person

Abstract

Workplace harassment faced by females remains a significant issue affecting physical and psychological health of females in sales jobs. The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between psychological climate, work place harassment and health outcomes in female sales person. It was hypothesized that demographic variables (i.e. age, marital status, education, total working experience, working experience on current job and monthly salary) are likely to be associated with the perceived psychological climate and work place harassment. Perceived psychological climate was expected to predict work place harassment and physical and psychological health of female sales persons. The research sample consisted of 100 females, of all age groups recruited from different shopping malls of Lahore through convenient sampling technique. Work Harassment Scale (Björkqvist et al, 1992), Psychological Climate for Sexual Assault (Estrada et al., 2011), Health Status Questionnaire (Chiropractic, 2000) and demographic information sheet were used to assess study variables. Data was analyzed using Pearson product moment correlation and regression analysis. Results revealed that age had a negative relationship with the psychological health of female sales person. Greater the age the poor was the psychological health of the female sales person. Perceived psychological climate had significant negative relationship with work place harassment. Environment perceived as more supportive towards females in terms of harassment predicted lesser experience of work place harassment. This signified that the supportive psychological climate in reporting of the incidence of harassment and actions taken against harassment at work places reduces the chances of work place harassment.