Transcript
LISA SADARAKA: Frontline employees, waiters, waitresses, bar staff, tour guides were experiencing it on a regular basis. I interviewed employees who had actually left the indutsry because of their frustrations with having to deal with this behaviour ona daily basis. I interviewed one male tour guide in particular who explained and described the frustrations of having to wrok as a tour guide daily and being harassed by female customers and that ultimately led to him leaving the industry so it is prevalent, it's not something that we're talking about. I felt like I'd opened up Pandora's Box. I wasn't sure what response I was going to get, given the sensitive nature of the research but once one person came forward there were others that came forward and I just had an overwhelming response to the study and I think it indicated to me that this is an issue that is getting brushed under the carpet.
SALLY ROUND: You pinpointed some of the perceived causes of the harassment. What were they?
LS: First and foremost, unsurprisingly alcohol was found to have the biggest influence on customer behaviour so no surprises there I guess and that's consistent with previous studies. There was this 'moral holiday' perspective that emerged as well so employees were of the perspective that visitors to the island behaved inappropriately simply because they were away from home, they had this sense of anonymity so there was this perception that when visitors travel they leave their morals and manners behind and that obviously impacts behaviour. Aesthetic labour - the perception that the appearance of employees in the industry, that there was this expectation that they had to present themselves in a certain manner and behave in a certain way and some employees even went as far as saying that there was an expectation by their employers to behave in a mnner where they werea ppearing single and available to customers to increase business. The unique findings of the study, though, and these were some themes that came tthrough that I struggled to link back to previous studies and these were unique to the study and its location, so first and foremost the traditional dancing, costumes, so this perception that the commodification of our culture, the sexualisation of our dance and the style and techniques. Participants described our dance as very seductive and very provocative. You know talked about the revealing costumes that we're wearing today in comparison to the conservative costumes worn in the past. And I guess just one other thing as well - the destination marketing was perceived to perhaps have an influence on visitor behaviour. For many Pacific island destinations including the Cook Islands we play on these themes of sun, sand and sex and there's all these exotic images and the 'dusky maiden' perception and beautiful island women, bronzed, toned bodies of males so there was this perception that some of the marketing images, some of the slogans, some of the catchphrases that are used to promote the Cook Islands as a holiday destination contains sexual inuendoes and undertones and were perhaps suggestive and provocative. I guess just as an example one of our destination taglines at the moment is "Play With Me".
SR: Did you get the sense that the participants were only just realising this as you talked to them, or was it something that they didn't like and they were really pushing back against it?
LS: No absolutely not. In most cases when I started the interview participants were I guess a little bit unsure because there is this lack of awareness and when I started talking to them, I'd start off with 'what do you think sexual harassment is?' because I think that's a very subjective question and then asking them for some examples of behaviours that they had experienced by customers. Some reall common behaviours came through such as pinching of the buttocks, touching of the breasts, sexual gestures, staring was a really common one , propositioning from customers and also sexual remarks, comments on physical appearance so once we started talking about these behaviours , the penny started to drop and then there were discussions around 'so what do you think are some of the causes of this?' which obviously led to these factors that I've just raised. Employers talked about experiencing a lack of productivity at work, a lack of job performance and overall job satisfaction and, one of the most significant outcomes of the study, valuable employees were actually leaving the industry because of sexual harassment and I think that's a real concern.
SR: You interviewed employers as well, the marketing people in the tourism industry, were they aware of this sexualisation marketing push. Was it something they were doing directly?
LS: From an employer organisational perspective, once we started talking about these issues, there was this realisation that yes we can see how this may impact on visitor behaviour. I think it was just this realisation that actually we do need to stop and think about this. I was really impressed with how respective everybody was to the findings of the study.
SR: And what are your recommendations for addressing it?
LS: I think first and foremost there needs to be a commitment from industry. Employers need to take responsibility for providing a safe work environment for employees and to promote a zero tolerance work environment when it comes to sexual harassment. One of the things that the findings of the study was that very few organisations had policies and procedures in their workplace. There's another need also for training and education to upskill employees and increase awareness of sexual harassment. One of the common themes or feedback that came through from employees was that they tolerated sexual harassment by customers, simply because they lacked the skills and the confidence to respond to it. I think also some other areas that I raised around training and cultural awareness as well so that employees are aware of how cultural differences and impact people's perceptions of sexual harassment and behaviour, social skills training, bodily language, assertive training as well so that employees have that confidence to respond to inappropriate behaviours by customers and I think it's about raising awareness around the commodification of our culture and are we concerned about it. Do we need to address it?
