Sexual harassment training: Recommendations to address gaps between the practitioner and research literatures

Abstract Sexual harassment training is a common human resource activity, and the practitioner literature is replete with advice about how to implement it. Little research, however, has specifically explored what makes sexual harassment training effective. This paper uses what we know from general training research and theory and sexual harassment research to assess the extent to which the practitioner literature is making relevant and reasonable recommendations for sexual harassment training. We identify practitioner‐research gaps in the literature, including areas that academic research and theory suggest are important for training effectiveness but where the practitioner literature falls short. The practitioner literature may be silent, offer incomplete advice, make recommendations that do not directly link to research findings, or present recommendations that are inconsistent with research findings. We recommend that these gaps be bridged and we provide specific suggestions for how human resource managers can improve the quality of the sexual harassment training they provide. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.