Online Commentary Regarding Workplace Harassment

Abstract

This study aimed to examine online commentary about enacted workplace harassment conflict to determine the applicability of existing, functional definitions of workplace harassment in this new context. Online comments (N=721) were analyzed through an inductive thematic analysis to identify trends in women’s commentary about harassment in the workplace. The analysis developed nine themes of content evident in women’s discourse about workplace harassment as well as characteristics of each content theme which were compared to literature on harassment conflict. The study confirms that current, definitions of harassment closely relate to how women describe workplace harassment conflict in this new, mediated context.