The Moderating Effect of Equal Opportunity Support and Confidence in Grievance Procedures on Sexual Harassment from Different Perpetrators M. Sandy Hershcovis Sharon K. Parker Tara C. Reich ABSTRACT. This study drew on three theoretical per- spectives – attribution theory, power, and role identity theory – to compare the job-related outcomes of sexual harassment from organizational insiders (i.e., supervisors and co-workers) and organizational outsiders (i.e., offend- ers and members of the public) in a sample (n = 482) of UK police officers and police support staff. Results showed that sexual harassment from insiders was related to higher intentions to quit, over-performance demands, and lower job satisfaction, whereas sexual harassment from outsiders was not significantly related to any of the outcome variables investigated. We also examined two moderator variables: equal opportunity support and confidence in grievance procedures. Consistent with our hypotheses, equal oppor- tunity support mitigated the effects of sexual harassment from supervisors on intent to quit and over-performance demands. Confidence in grievance procedures moderated the relationship between sexual harassment from supervi- sors and all outcome variables. Implications for theory and practice are discussed. KEY WORDS: attribution theory, equal opportunity, power, role identity, sexual harassment Over the last two decades, a large literature has accumulated in the area of sexual harassment (Cortina and Berdahl, 2008). While early research aimed to understand the sources of motivation for sexual harassment and its prevalence (e.g., Gutek, 1985; Gutek and Morasch, 1982; MacKinnon, 1979), later research moved toward issues of definition and mea- surement (Fitzgerald et al., 1995; Magley et al., 1999). More recently, researchers have conducted integra- tive work to identify key consequences and new questions (Willness et al., 2007), showing that sexual harassment is negatively related to a range of indi- vidual and organizational outcomes including psy- chological and physical well-being (Barling et al., 1996; Chan et al., 2008), job satisfaction (Lapierre et al., 2005), organizational commitment (Harned et al., 2002), and intent to stay with the organization (e.g., O’Connell and Korabik, 2000). Although research to date has examined the effects of sexual harassment on different targets (i.e., men and women) and the impact of different types and levels of severity of harassment (e.g., Langhout et al., 2005), there has been less theoretical and empirical atten- tion paid to potential differential effects of sexual harassment from different perpetrators (Raver and Gelfand, 2005; Willness et al., 2007). The sexual harassment literature has typically focused on harass- ment from organizational insiders (i.e., supervisors and/or co-workers), with much less attention on whether and how sexual harassment from outsiders (i.e., customers and/or other members of the public) affects employees (see Gettman and Gelfand, 2007 for an exception). Further, sexual harassment from supervisors and co-workers are often operationalized together, such that the unique effects of supervisors and co-workers cannot be disentangled. As Raver and Gelfand (2005) suggested ‘‘the nature of per- petrators of sexual harassment is an important issue to address in future research…so that it assesses harassment from each source…separately’’ (p. 395). In this study, we take a multi-focal perspective by examining the effects of sexual harassment from three different perpetrators – supervisors, co-work- ers, and members of the public (‘‘outsiders’’) – to understand whether sexual harassment from different sources affects victims in different ways. Journal of Business Ethics (2010) 92:415–432 Ó Springer 2009 DOI 10.1007/s10551-009-0165-2