Abstract

In November 2013, the managing editor of Indian weekly news magazine Tehelka, Shoma Chaudhury (Shoma), was shocked when she received an e-mail from her subordinate and woman journalist, accusing Tarun Tejpal (Tarun), founder and Editor-in-Chief of Tehelka, of sexually assaulting her on two occasions during THiNK Fest 2013. In the e-mail, the victim provided a detailed and graphic account of the alleged sexual assault and demanded an official written apology from Tarun, an acknowledgement of the assault to be circulated among the staff and bureau of Tehelka, and the setting up of an anti-sexual harassment cell at Tehelka to probe the matter. To complicate matters for Shoma, Tehelka did not have any internal complaints committee as mandated by law. What should she do now?

Learning Objectives

The case is structured to achieve the following Learning Objectives:

• Understand the issues and challenges related to grievance handling, particularly involving sexual misconduct at the workplace
• Examine actions to be taken when an employee experiences any kind of sexual harassment at the workplace
• and Recognize the need to implement norms to prevent sexual harassment in organizations.

Keywords

Grievance handling; Sexual harassment; Power; Leadership; Organizational behavior; Human resource management; Corporate governance