A literature review on discrimination at work:Mobbing, glass ceiling, sexual harassment

ABSTRACT A LITERATURE REVIEW ON DISCRIMINATION AT WORK: MOBBING, GLASS CEILING, SEXUAL HARASSMENT Yeşim ELBİR Department of Management Information Systems Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Ahmet Fazıl ÖZSOYLU September 2022, 138 pages As a universal issue, discrimination has been discussed, researched, and tried to be prevented for a long duration of time. There is a lot of work and research on the concept of discrimination. This issue is extremely important and worth researching in business life. In this study, gender discrimination, which is one of the most important sub-headings of discrimination, has been examined. It is sufficient to examine the published reports of gender discrimination to explain why this issue is important. According to the Global Gender Gap Report published by the World Economic Forum in 2022, Turkey ranks 124th among a total of 146 countries. According to these data, Turkey is not very successful in gender equality. Equality approaches to individuals' gender roles are indicators of development. Therefore, solutions should be sought in this regard. Identifying the problem is very important for the solution. Identify how and why discrimination occurs and then focus on solving the problem. The aim of this study is to define the concept of gender discrimination and to deal with undesirable behaviors in business life on the basis of gender discrimination. In addition, the most cited studies on gender discrimination, mobbing, glass ceiling, and sexual harassment were selected in the study. While conducting the study, a literature review was conducted by giving priority to the studies carried out in the health, education, tourism, and service sectors related to foreign, domestic, Middle Eastern, Asian, and African countries. In the first part of this study, the concepts of sex and gender, gender equality, inequality, and discrimination were examined to make the subject of discrimination more understandable and explanatory. In the second part, theoretical approaches related to gender roles and theoretical approaches related to gender discrimination are included. In the third part, under the title of gender discrimination, the concepts of mobbing, glass ceiling, bullying, and sexual harassment, which are among the undesirable behaviors in business life, are discussed comprehensively. In the fourth part, a broad literature review of undesirable behavior was made. The literature review was carried out by examining the studies conducted from the first emergence of the concepts to date, taking into account the studies in specific industries. In the last part, a general evaluation was made on the subject, guided by the information obtained from the broad literature review. According to the results of this study, the existence of discrimination and gender inequality in many different countries, in different sectors, and at various levels has been clearly demonstrated. The concept of discrimination is a very common and familiar topic for the business world. It has been clearly demonstrated that female employees are exposed to more discrimination than male employees. The importance of this issue should be realized and necessary studies should be carried out for its solutions. Keywords: discrimination, glass ceiling, mobbing, sexual harassment