Abstract:
Purpose – The decision-making styles of human resource professionals (HRPs) in resolving complaints of
sexual harassment are extremely important as they form the backbone of effectiveness in the resolution of a
complaint. The purpose of this paper is to explore these decision-making styles and gauge their effectiveness in
resolving such complaints.
Design/methodology/approach – Employing a qualitative research approach, semi-structured interviews
were conducted with 35 HRPs of 30 companies in Sri Lanka.
Findings – We found eight decision-making styles used by HRPs in resolving complaints of sexual
harassment: (1) analytical, (2) behavioural, (3) directive, (4) conceptual, (5) avoidant, (6) dependent, (7) intuitive
and judgemental, and (8) manipulative and persuasive. HRPs were found to generally adopt combinations of
these styles, with one or two styles being dominant while one or two were used as back-up styles. In resolving
complaints of sexual harassment, certain combinations of these styles were found to be more effective than
others because they led to procedural, distributive and interactional justice.
Practical implications – The implications of these findings for self-reflection and in training for the HRPs
are also discussed.
Originality/value – The findings of this study assist us in understanding how and why HRPs make different
decisions when resolving seemingly similar complaints and the effectiveness of such decisions.
