TÜBİTAK 1001 - Project Funded by The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey

Ackowledging and Coping with Sexual Harassment at Work and Social Life, December 2024–ongoing. Project No: 124K975.

Principal Investigator:  Assoc. Prof. Dr. Yonca Toker-Gültaş (METU, Psychology)

Researchers:

Prof. Dr. H. Canan Sümer (Özyeğin University, Psychology)
Prof. Dr. Aslı Göncü-Köse (Çankaya University, Psychology)
Assoc. Prof. Dr. A. Başak Ok (Ankara University, Psychology)

Scholarship students:

Zeynep Işıl Demircioğlu, MSc. (METU, Psychology)

TÜBİTAK STAR scholarship students
Elis Berber (METU, Psychology)
Öznur Maden (METU, Psychology)

Synopsis:
Rates of labeling experiences as “sexual harassment” do not correspond to rates of exposure to behaviors that may constitute sexual harassment: only 20% of victims in the U.S. (Magley et al., 1999) and 27% in Türkiye (Sümer et al., 2023) have been found to characterize their experiences as sexual harassment. Ignoring the incident and avoiding the harasser are the most commonly used coping strategies, while formally reporting the incident is the least common (Wasti & Cortina, 2002). Although labeling sexual harassment and coping with harassment have received attention in the Western literature, their predictors have not been systematically examined; therefore, the primary aim of the project is to identify the extent to which women label potentially harassing behaviors as “sexual harassment” and the coping strategies they adopt in both social and workplace contexts, as well as the attitudinal and perceptual factors that shape these processes.

International Labor Organization Funded Project

Research on Women’s and Men’s Perceptions and Experiences of Violence and Harassment at Work. Partnered by Özyeğin University.

Our research titled Perceptions and Experiences of Violence and Harassment in the Workplace has been completed in partnership with the International Labor Organization (ILO) and Özyeğin University (Principal Investigator: Prof. Dr. H. Canan Sümer). Findings are based on data collected from 3007 employees in Istanbul. You can access the detailed research reports in Turkish and English via the following links:

TR:  https://www.ilo.org/tr/publications/yerinde-siddet-ve-taciz-algilari-ve-...

ENG:  https://www.ilo.org/publications/perceptions-and-experiences-workplace-v...

TÜBİTAK 1001 - Project Funded by The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey

Workplace Mistreatment from Incivility to Harassment: Outcomes and Intervention Methods from a Cultural Perspective, October 2019–August 2022. Nezaketsizlikten Tacize, İş Yerinde Kötü Muamele: Kültürel Bağlamda Sonuçlar ve Müdahale Yöntemleri. Proje No: 119K363. Principal Investigator: Prof. Dr. H. Canan Sümer (Özyeğin University, Psychology) Researchers: Prof. Dr. F. Pınar Acar (METU, Business Administration) Associate Prof. Dr. Aslı Göncü-Köse (Çankaya University, Psychology) Assistant Prof. Dr. A. Başak Ok (Ankara University, Psychology) Assistant Prof. Dr. Yonca Toker-Gültaş (METU, Psychology) In collaboration with: Assistant Prof. Dr. Derya Karanfil (Bakırçay University, Psychology) Scholarship students: Meltem Düzgün, MSc. (METU, Psychology) Dilara Çavdar (Özyeğin University, Psychology)

Synopsis:

Forms of workplace mistreatment, such as incivility, mobbing, abusive supervision, discrimination (especially gender discrimination), and sexual harassment have been studied widely in relation to their antecedents and consequences for employees and organizations. In the initial stage of our project, we held focus-group meetings with employees from various cities of Turkey, developed culture-relevant measures of these mistreatment forms, and subjected the new measures to pilot testing. We will further study the consequences of such workplace mistreatment, develop materials for the prevention of mistreatment and organizational interventions, and empirically test the effects of our interventions.