An article in the New York State Society of CPA’s CPA Journal raises a very important and tough topic for internal auditors.
ICYMI | The Effect of Sexual Harassment on Internal Audit Risk Assessments: Are You Part of the Solution or Part of the Problem? is written by a couple of academics, one of whom has worked as an internal auditor. (BTW, ICMI stands for ‘in case you missed it’.)
Sexual and other forms of harassment is a serious problem, especially when the great majority of cases go unreported and those that are reporting often do not end well for the person reporting harassment.
There can also be huge penalties for corporations. Just this week, NPR reported that:
The University of Southern California has agreed to pay more than $850 million to hundreds of women who were treated by a former campus gynecologist accused of sexual abuse.
The article covers only part of the ground, but it is still valuable reading. For example, it says:
- According to a 2016 U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) report… surveys of those who experienced sex-based harassment in the workplace tend to respond by avoiding the harasser (survey findings ranged from 33% to 75%); denying or downplaying the gravity of the situation (54%–73%); or attempting to ignore, forget, or endure the behavior (44%–70%)….
