Humour, sexual harassment, and police managers´ discretionary practices

Abstract

In this article, we describe and analyse police managers’ response to incidents of gender and sexual harassment as they play out in a police workplace context. The aim is to examine managers’ supervisory discretion in safeguarding employees’ legal rights, through three research questions: 1) What implicit understandings of sexual harassment, in the organisation, are made visible by managers´ approach to harassment; 2) what do these implicit problem understandings mean for which incidents become legitimate and illegitimate experiences of harassment in the organisation; and 3) which types of harassment incidents are employees protected against? Based on two cases of harassment, observed during 6 months of fieldwork, we explore and analyse humour and managers’ power of definition, applying socio-legal perspectives on implementation of laws and rights in a work context. Through this, small incidents of everyday harassment become visible and highlight the role of police managers in transforming policy to action.