Cultural values and perception of sexual harassment

This paper is an effort to understand the effect of an individual's cultural values on his perception of sexual harassment. The meaning of the term harassment and the legal definition of the same in different countries. In this paper there is a comprehensive study of the effect of local culture and laws of a country on the perception of sexual harassment by people. Globalization has brought people from different countries together and therefore people of diverse cultures have been thrown together. People of varied cultural background interpret actions and behaviors of their colleague as per their own value system hence there is a clash of cultures at times leading to sexual or general harassment. Men and women generally differ in what they perceive to be sexual Harassment. The study is done based on the laws and perceptions of four countries. The paper doesn't study the effects based on gender, it is a general paper. It was found in the study that predominantly countries have paid more attention to the sexual harassment rather than other forms of harassment. Also in some cases the law only talks of harassment in the purview of sexual type. The paper concludes that there is a strong effect of a country's culture on the perception of harassment. Lot of time any acceptable behavior in the host country can be unacceptable for the visiting or expat community.