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THE ANNOUNCEMENT THAT Infosys has reached an out-of-court settlement with its former employee over a sexual harassment suit in the US should occasion no surprise. Such a resolution would have been in the interest of both the parties. For the company it eliminates a source of uncertainty that had cast a shadow over its future earnings. Had the charges been upheld by a court, the punitive damages might have been substantially higher. The business environment is difficult enough for companies in this industry without their having to suffer further uncertainties. As for the employee, subjecting herself to an inquisition that a trial of this nature must necessarily throw up is not a pleasant prospect coming as it does in the wake of a traumatic experience. In the event, an out-of-court settlement represents a realistic compromise.

It would be futile to pretend that a phenomenon of sexual harassment does not exist in the Indian context and that the Infosys case is an aberration that only a culture of permissiveness that characterises the environment in the US could have created. Harassment, sexual or otherwise, is an inevitable feature of any social system where the constituent members are arranged in a pyramid structure of differing social standing. Indian society has been more deeply divisive with income and gender inequalities adding to the divisions created by caste. In the event, the corporate sector, which in the final analysis is a mere reflection of society at large, cannot be immune to these pressures. But a heartening feature is that the corporate sector has shown an increasing commitment to putting in place human resource policies that go some way in instilling a feeling among women employees, clearly the more disadvantaged, that their own contribution to the organisation would be recognised for what it is worth and further, their gender would not come in the way of their pursuing their career goals. The process needs to be pushed along.

While these policies are welcome in themselves, this alone is not enough. What they seek to do is a redress mechanism once harassment has taken place. Instead, needed is a proactive system that seeks to prevent harassment rather than redress it after it has occurred. The present organisational culture fosters a belief that human beings matter a lot more than business processes. While human beings do matter, managerial effectiveness is also about successful processes. Because companies often fail to recognise this, the situation leads to the creation of a personality cult around select employees in the belief that they make things happen. This, in turn, could lull the these "elite" employees into believing that they are above rules that apply to ordinary individuals and, worse, inculcate in the minds of senior management that such employees have to be humoured in their foibles. The organisation at one level needs to demystify the role of individual manager/employees and emphasise the role of processes to the final outcome. That would be the surest safeguard against attempts at harassment.

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