Top Management Team Crisis Communication After Claims of Sexual Harassment

Both sexual harassment and managerial crisis communication are important topics in undergraduate, graduate, and executive programs. This article describes a group role-play exercise that engages students in the process of responding to a public claim of workplace sexual harassment and requires small groups to share their reactions within a press conference. The role-play can be used in a variety of courses that cover management, group dynamics, human resources, public relations, and/or strategy. Within this article, we describe its use in an undergraduate or graduate management course, but instructions for adding complexity for an executive course are also included in the appendices. Ideally, this exercise and full debrief would take two or three class periods depending on the course focus and length of class period. Exercise objectives, description of the exercise and adaptations, and all materials needed to conduct the 50-minute exercise are included