Customer power, perceived behavioral control, and life insurance salespeople's reactions to customer sexual harassment

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-03-2021-0061
• Published date: 24 May 2022
• Date: 24 May 2022
• Pages: 1209-1224
• Subject Matter: HR & organizational behaviour,Employment law,Diversity,equality,inclusion
• Author: Yi-Ling Lin,Lu-Ming Tseng

Customer power, perceived

behavioral control, and life

insurance salespeople’s reactions

to customer sexual harassment

Yi-Ling Lin

Tai-Da Insurance Broker Company, Taichung, Taiwan, and

Lu-Ming Tseng

Department of Risk Management and Insurance, Feng Chia University, Taichung,

Taiwan

Abstract

Purpose–Sexual harassment is often the result of the abuse of power by perpetrators over victims. This study

investigated the effects of customer reward power, customer coercive power, perceived behavioral control

(PBC), and personal factors on full-time life insurance salespeople’s intentions to report customer sexual

harassment.

Design/methodology/approach –This study collected quantitative data through questionnaire surveys. A

total of 743 valid questionnaires were collected.

Findings –Two types of customer sexual harassment (quid pro quo and hostile work environment) were

evaluated. PBC was found to be the most influential factor affecting whistleblowing intentions. Regression

analysis indicated that customer reward power significantly affected whistleblowing intentions toward quid

pro quo customer sexual harassment. The male salespeople experienced stronger customer coercive power

than did the female salespeople.

Originality/value –Not every society views customer power and customer sexual harassment in the same

manner. By examining Taiwan’s life insurance salespeople and including the concept of customer power, this

study broadens the understanding of whistleblowing intentions toward the two types of customer sexual

harassment.

Keywords Customer sexual harassment, Customer reward power, Customer coercive power, Perceived

behavioral control, Life insurance salespeople

Paper type Research paper

Introduction

Workplace sexual harassment is a severe problem in Asian countries (Cheung et al., 2018;Jin

et al., 2018). The Taiwanese government approved the Gender Equality at Work Act in 2002.

This act provides a clear definition of sexual harassment and outlines procedures for solving

sexual harassment problems. In addition, according to this act, employers must actively

prevent workplace sexual haras sment, implement corrective meas ures, and provide

substantial assistance to victims. However, more than 80% of Taiwanese working women

who were sexually harassed at their workplaces indicated that their employers did not

implement corrective or remedial measures to solve sexual harassment problems (Chen,

2006). Another study reported that more than half of the nursing employees in Taiwan were

sexually harassed, whereas approximately 70% of the victims were unwilling to speak out

regarding their experiences (Chang, 2018).

In addition to workplace sexual harassment, customer sexual harassment is a severe

problem in Taiwan (Tseng and Kang, 2015). Customer sexual harassment can be categorized

into two types: quid pro quo and hostile work environment (Otsri, 2020). Quid pro quo occurs

when a harasser (a customer) exhibits unwanted sex-based behavior toward a victim (a

service worker) in exchange for benefits. By contrast, an offensive, threatening, or hostile

Reactions to

customer

sexual

harassment

1209

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

https://www.emerald.com/insight/2040-7149.htm

Received 4 March 2021

Revised 9 January 2022

Accepted 28 April 2022

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:

An International Journal

Vol. 41 No. 8, 2022

pp. 1209-1224

© Emerald Publishing Limited

2040-7149

DOI 10.1108/EDI-03-2021-0061

work environment for service workers is created when a customer exhibits unwanted sex-

based behavior. Although researchers have discussed the negative effects of customer sexual

harassment on the well-being of service workers (e.g., Hughes and Tadic, 1998;McDonald,

2012), few studies have compared service workers’reactions to different types of customer

sexual harassment behaviors. This study attempted to understand service workers’

whistleblowing intentions toward the two types of customer sexual harassment behaviors by

including Taiwanese life insurance salespeople as research participants.

To more effectively understand whistleblowing intentions toward customer sexual

harassment, the role of customer power should not be ignored. Researchers have provided

interpretive frameworks to examine the relationship between power and sexual harassment

behaviors (Hadi, 2018;Tinkler and Zhao, 2020). Power is at the core of sexual harassment

problems (Mishraand Stair, 2019). However, no empirical studyhas examined the relationship

between customer power and service workers’whistleblowing intentions toward customer

sexual harassmentbehaviors. Customers can use two types of customer powerto influence the

behaviorsof service workers: customer reward powerand customer coercive power (Fine et al.,

1999). This study proposed thatcustomer reward power and customer coercive power would

adequately explain whistleblowing intentions toward customer sexual harassment.

We proposed that perceived behavioral control (PBC) is another factor that affects life

insurance salespeople’s intentions to report customer sexual harassment. PBC is defined as

an individual’s perception of the ease of performing a certain behavior. According to Ajzen’s

(2005) theory of planned behavior (TPB), behavioral intentions are directly affected by PBC.

Thus, this study proposed that PBC can predict life insurance salespeople’s whistleblowing

intentions toward customer sexual harassment.

A study reported a significant relationship between personal factors (such as gender) and

sexual harassment problems ( Rothgerber et al.,2020). This study investigated the

relationship between personal factors and whistleblowing intentions toward customer

sexual harassment.

This study examined the effect of customer reward power, customer coercive power, and

PBC on the whistleblowing intentions of life insurance salespeople when they encounter

sexual harassment by customers. Figure 1 depicts the conceptual model and variables

involved in the study. Customer reward power, customer coercive power, PBC, and personal

Customer reward power

Customer coercive power

Perceived behavioral control

Personal factors

The life insurance

salespeople’s intentions to

report customer sexual

harassment

Figure 1.

The conceptual model

of this research

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