Table 1. Chart of Risk Factors for... | Emerald Publishing

Table 1.

Chart of Risk Factors for Harassment and Responsive Strategies (for an extended version, see US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 2021).

Risk Factor	Risk Factor Indicia	Anecdotical Examples from Academia
Homogenous workforce	Historic lack of diversity in the workplace Currently only one minority in a work group (e.g., team, department, location)	UK: Brown and Leigh (2018), point out that the proportion of university staff declaring health conditions or impairments with around four percentage is three times lower than for undergraduate students Germany: The proportion of foreigners among academic staff at German universities can be estimated at 12.7 percent (Destatis, 2020) EU: The field of study education has the highest proportion of women among doctoral graduates at 67 percent. The lowest proportion of women (22 percent) is in information and communication technologies (European Commission, 2021)
Workplaces where some employees do not conform to workplace norms	“Rough and tumble” or single-sex-dominated workplace cultures Remarks, jokes, or banter that are crude, “raunchy,” or demeaning	In Nature’s 2021 salary and job satisfaction survey, 32 percent of respondents said they had witnessed discrimination against or harassment of colleagues in their current job. […] Twenty-seven percent of respondents said they had personally experienced discrimination, bullying or harassment in their present position (Woolston, 2021)
Cultural and language differences in the workplace	Arrival of new employees with different cultures or nationalities Segregation of employees with different cultures or nationalities	In the European Union there is the European Charter for Researchers as well as the article 179 in the European treaty itself where mobility for researchers is promoted and established as a desirable goal. Internationality, thus, is a political target of European academia In general, there is also a difference between academic cultures in America, Europe and Asia. The European approach is about excellence and tradition, research oriented, and multiple languages are typical. Asia is more utilitarian and international, supporting innovation research to promote entrepreneurial thinking, creativity, and global adaptability. In America academia is characterized by democratic and inclusive values with contestation, embeddedness and diversity as constituting elements. Therefore, diversity exists not only by personal cultural diversity and differences but also at an academic level (Boyle, 2022)
Coarsened social discourse outside the workplace	Increasingly heated discussion of current events occurring outside the workplace	“Social protest movements such as #MeToo and #BlackInSTEM have shone a light on the need for greater diversity, equity and inclusion at scientific institutions worldwide […]” (Woolston, 2021). In Nature's international survey, 40 percent of the scientists felt that employers undertook sufficient measures for a diverse workplace (Woolston, 2021)
Young workforces	Significant number of teenage and young adult employees	UK: While the most Professors are aged around 51–55 years, the largest group of academics is in the age bracket from 31 to 35. That is a solid 20-year gap just between the most common ages (HESA, 2014)
Workplaces with “high value” employees	Executives or senior managers Employees with high value (actual or perceived) to the employer, for example, the “rainmaking” partner or the prized, grant-winning researcher	Germany: A professorial employment usually goes in hand with a lifelong calling (except for some states where the first calling is limited or has a try out phase) while scientific employees only have excess to limited time contracts. These are furthermore limited to six years because of the “Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz.” Due to this law, there is a steady fluctuation in the workforce, while the people in charge – the professors – remain in their positions (Bundesministerium der Justiz, 2020)
Workplaces with significant power disparities	Low-ranking employees in organizational hierarchy Employees holding positions usually subject to the direction of others, for example, administrative support staff, nurses, janitors, etc. Gendered power disparities (e.g., most of the low-ranking employees are female)	The staff at most research institutions are differentiated into scientific and non-scientific employees, who in turn have different hierarchical levels with specific status characteristics. A typical differentiation of the scientific career is into the regularly temporary PhD students and postdocs as well as into permanent scientists and chair holders. The non-scientific career is more oriented toward an authority structure; for example, into tariff employees without management responsibilities, unit or team leaders, department heads, and presidential offices
Workplaces that rely on customer service or client satisfaction	Compensation directly tied to customer satisfaction or client service	Teaching courses and related duties (taking exams, supervising academic papers, mentoring) are usually firmly linked to academic careers, and in many countries they are a prerequisite for tenure or the professor. In this sense, academic employees are regularly exposed to a classroom situation in which they depend on student acceptance and cooperation
Workplaces where work is monotonous or tasks are low-intensity	Employees are not actively engaged or “have time on their hands” Repetitive work	As in every workplace, there are also monotonous activities in science, for example, address research, text formatting or repetitive laboratory work. In a survey of employees at the German Max Planck Society, one in two respondents stated that they had occasionally or frequently been instructed to perform work below their own competence level (Schraudner et al., 2019)
Isolated workplaces	Physically isolated workplaces Employees work alone or have few opportunities to interact with others	Depending on the scientific discipline, teamwork has a different status. For example, while life scientists regularly work in teams, law and humanities scholars tend to be lone wolves Canada: The Ryerson University informs on their homepage section “Facilities Management and Development” extensively about existing rules and dangers of working alone or in isolation. A lot of these rules are posed by the Ontario Law, but also by the Environmental Health & Safety Department of the university. Therefore, it seems fairly common that staff has to work isolated or alone. (Ryerson University)
Workplaces that tolerate or encourage alcohol consumption	Alcohol consumption during and around work hours	NL: The University of Amsterdam introduced a change in policy regarding drinking at the workplace or at events with this: “Having a glass of wine or a beer at a work reception or university event is regarded by many as the most natural thing in the world — but we would like to see the UvA break that mold. Our new alcohol policy will focus on fostering a new social standard in which alcohol consumption is not automatically the norm” (Wiers, 2021) UK: Cross sectional study among university staff: “Over one third (35%) of respondents were classified as hazardous drinkers. Twenty three percent reported having blackouts after drinking and 14% had injuries or had injured someone. The odds of being a hazardous drinker for an employee in central departments (Human Resources, Registry etc.) is only one third of that of an employee in science and health-related departments […]. The proportion of hazardous drinkers was higher in males compared to females (43% and 30% respectively)” (Awoliyi et al., 2014)
Decentralized workplaces	Corporate offices far removed physically and/or organizationally from front-line employees or first-line supervisors	Germany: Germany’s largest non-university research organizations – like Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, the Max Planck Society, Leibniz Gemeinschaft and Helmholtz Gemeinschaft – are constituted as associations of institutes with a coordinating umbrella organization. The Fraunhofer Gesellschaft has over 75 institutes, and the MPS 86 institutes, of which five are even abroad. The Leibniz Gemeinschaft has 96 institutes distributed across Germany and the Helmholtz Gemeinschaft eighteen

Risk Factor	Risk Factor Indicia	Anecdotical Examples from Academia
Homogenous workforce	Historic lack of diversity in the workplace Currently only one minority in a work group (e.g., team, department, location)	UK: Brown and Leigh (2018), point out that the proportion of university staff declaring health conditions or impairments with around four percentage is three times lower than for undergraduate students Germany: The proportion of foreigners among academic staff at German universities can be estimated at 12.7 percent (Destatis, 2020) EU: The field of study education has the highest proportion of women among doctoral graduates at 67 percent. The lowest proportion of women (22 percent) is in information and communication technologies (European Commission, 2021)
Workplaces where some employees do not conform to workplace norms	“Rough and tumble” or single-sex-dominated workplace cultures Remarks, jokes, or banter that are crude, “raunchy,” or demeaning	In Nature’s 2021 salary and job satisfaction survey, 32 percent of respondents said they had witnessed discrimination against or harassment of colleagues in their current job. […] Twenty-seven percent of respondents said they had personally experienced discrimination, bullying or harassment in their present position (Woolston, 2021)
Cultural and language differences in the workplace	Arrival of new employees with different cultures or nationalities Segregation of employees with different cultures or nationalities	In the European Union there is the European Charter for Researchers as well as the article 179 in the European treaty itself where mobility for researchers is promoted and established as a desirable goal. Internationality, thus, is a political target of European academia In general, there is also a difference between academic cultures in America, Europe and Asia. The European approach is about excellence and tradition, research oriented, and multiple languages are typical. Asia is more utilitarian and international, supporting innovation research to promote entrepreneurial thinking, creativity, and global adaptability. In America academia is characterized by democratic and inclusive values with contestation, embeddedness and diversity as constituting elements. Therefore, diversity exists not only by personal cultural diversity and differences but also at an academic level (Boyle, 2022)
Coarsened social discourse outside the workplace	Increasingly heated discussion of current events occurring outside the workplace	“Social protest movements such as #MeToo and #BlackInSTEM have shone a light on the need for greater diversity, equity and inclusion at scientific institutions worldwide […]” (Woolston, 2021). In Nature's international survey, 40 percent of the scientists felt that employers undertook sufficient measures for a diverse workplace (Woolston, 2021)
Young workforces	Significant number of teenage and young adult employees	UK: While the most Professors are aged around 51–55 years, the largest group of academics is in the age bracket from 31 to 35. That is a solid 20-year gap just between the most common ages (HESA, 2014)
Workplaces with “high value” employees	Executives or senior managers Employees with high value (actual or perceived) to the employer, for example, the “rainmaking” partner or the prized, grant-winning researcher	Germany: A professorial employment usually goes in hand with a lifelong calling (except for some states where the first calling is limited or has a try out phase) while scientific employees only have excess to limited time contracts. These are furthermore limited to six years because of the “Wissenschaftszeitvertragsgesetz.” Due to this law, there is a steady fluctuation in the workforce, while the people in charge – the professors – remain in their positions (Bundesministerium der Justiz, 2020)
Workplaces with significant power disparities	Low-ranking employees in organizational hierarchy Employees holding positions usually subject to the direction of others, for example, administrative support staff, nurses, janitors, etc. Gendered power disparities (e.g., most of the low-ranking employees are female)	The staff at most research institutions are differentiated into scientific and non-scientific employees, who in turn have different hierarchical levels with specific status characteristics. A typical differentiation of the scientific career is into the regularly temporary PhD students and postdocs as well as into permanent scientists and chair holders. The non-scientific career is more oriented toward an authority structure; for example, into tariff employees without management responsibilities, unit or team leaders, department heads, and presidential offices
Workplaces that rely on customer service or client satisfaction	Compensation directly tied to customer satisfaction or client service	Teaching courses and related duties (taking exams, supervising academic papers, mentoring) are usually firmly linked to academic careers, and in many countries they are a prerequisite for tenure or the professor. In this sense, academic employees are regularly exposed to a classroom situation in which they depend on student acceptance and cooperation
Workplaces where work is monotonous or tasks are low-intensity	Employees are not actively engaged or “have time on their hands” Repetitive work	As in every workplace, there are also monotonous activities in science, for example, address research, text formatting or repetitive laboratory work. In a survey of employees at the German Max Planck Society, one in two respondents stated that they had occasionally or frequently been instructed to perform work below their own competence level (Schraudner et al., 2019)
Isolated workplaces	Physically isolated workplaces Employees work alone or have few opportunities to interact with others	Depending on the scientific discipline, teamwork has a different status. For example, while life scientists regularly work in teams, law and humanities scholars tend to be lone wolves Canada: The Ryerson University informs on their homepage section “Facilities Management and Development” extensively about existing rules and dangers of working alone or in isolation. A lot of these rules are posed by the Ontario Law, but also by the Environmental Health & Safety Department of the university. Therefore, it seems fairly common that staff has to work isolated or alone. (Ryerson University)
Workplaces that tolerate or encourage alcohol consumption	Alcohol consumption during and around work hours	NL: The University of Amsterdam introduced a change in policy regarding drinking at the workplace or at events with this: “Having a glass of wine or a beer at a work reception or university event is regarded by many as the most natural thing in the world — but we would like to see the UvA break that mold. Our new alcohol policy will focus on fostering a new social standard in which alcohol consumption is not automatically the norm” (Wiers, 2021) UK: Cross sectional study among university staff: “Over one third (35%) of respondents were classified as hazardous drinkers. Twenty three percent reported having blackouts after drinking and 14% had injuries or had injured someone. The odds of being a hazardous drinker for an employee in central departments (Human Resources, Registry etc.) is only one third of that of an employee in science and health-related departments […]. The proportion of hazardous drinkers was higher in males compared to females (43% and 30% respectively)” (Awoliyi et al., 2014)
Decentralized workplaces	Corporate offices far removed physically and/or organizationally from front-line employees or first-line supervisors	Germany: Germany’s largest non-university research organizations – like Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, the Max Planck Society, Leibniz Gemeinschaft and Helmholtz Gemeinschaft – are constituted as associations of institutes with a coordinating umbrella organization. The Fraunhofer Gesellschaft has over 75 institutes, and the MPS 86 institutes, of which five are even abroad. The Leibniz Gemeinschaft has 96 institutes distributed across Germany and the Helmholtz Gemeinschaft eighteen