Why Workplace Harassment Prevention Remains Ineffective: A Conceptual Analysis of Formal Compliance, Organizational Defense, and the Neglect of Perpetrator Psychology

Training programs, consultation channels, and legal compliance measures have been widely adopted as responses to workplace harassment. Yet even when these institutional arrangements are in place, harm in the workplace often persists. This paper conceptually analyzes five structural factors that make it difficult for harassment prevention measures to function effectively. The five factors addressed are: (1) formal compliance in which the implementation of training becomes an end in itself; (2) the hollowing out of consultation channels; (3) the prioritization of organizational defense by responsible departments; (4) the silencing of affected individuals; and (5) the neglect of perpetrator psychology in institutional design. Particular attention is given to the fifth factor: the absence from institutional design of questions such as why perpetrators seek to dominate others and why they treat their own values as moral imperatives. This neglect is identified as a significant limitation of current harassment prevention approaches. This paper is a conceptual working paper based on observational reflection. The author received assistance from AI tools (ChatGPT, Claude, and Grok) in the preparation of this paper. Details are provided in the AI Use Statement within the paper.