(LGBT) Diversity and Equality in the Workplace: Playing with Fire

Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences / Revue Canadienne des Sciences de l'Administration, 2017

Full bibliographic details must be given when referring to, or quoting from full items including the author's name, the title of the work, publication details where relevant (place, publisher, date), pagination, and for theses or dissertations the awarding institution, the degree type awarded, and the date of the award.

IAEME Publication, 2018

Diversity and Inclusion are the critical elements of the workplace regardless the size of the organization. Today in the world around 27 million LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) is present, and around 8 million are in the US and 3.5 million are in Australia. These enormous numbers show that the workplace has to be LGBT supporter, and these talents cannot be ignored. At the higher management level, LGBT employees have strong interpersonal skills, empathy, creativity, and high emotional intelligence. It leads the team to expand its customer base and ability to retain the customer or clients as they will have a trust in the enterprise. Such initiates will improve the brand image of the business.

Southern Management Association (SMA) Conference at Charlotte, North Carolina, USA, 2016

Although race, sex and gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) discrimination is declining in parts of the world, few studies have examined perceptions of international LGBTs. We conducted an exploratory, online survey of 150 LGBT workers from diverse industries in Australia, New Zealand, Asia, Europe and North America. Four research questions were examined: 1. Do employees feel discriminated against and perceive their careers are limited due to their sexual orientation?; 2. Which factors contribute to LGBTs’ perceptions of discrimination?; 3. What factors are associated with being out vs. closeted?; and 4. Do LGBTs provide a specific work perspective and is this perspective appreciated by their employers? Although 70% of the sample is open at work, only a minority (26%) feel discriminated against; at the same time only 25% feel their employer provides any LGBT support. While 55% of the sample agreed that being LGBT provides a different perspective, only 12% feel their organization appreciates this perspective; however, 76% believe their sexual orientation has no effect on their job. Open-ended responses provide additional insights into the research questions. Lastly, limitations, practical implications and future research directions are presented.

A systematic review was carried out on literature within the business, management, and broader social sciences disciplines, from 1985 to the present day, on the careers and workplace experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) workers. Major themes identified included identity, sexual orientation discrimination, career/identity overlap, and social issues. Discussion and conclusions build on these themes. In addition, the characteristics of the literature surrounding this topic were also examined. Findings include the growth of academic interest in LGBT issues in recent years and, despite this, the relative dearth in management studies regarding this population. The topic still remains under-researched; areas that require further study and exposition are highlighted. Recommendations are made for HRD practitioners and for future research. This article is of relevance to LGBT individuals, managers, HRD practitioners, academics in the field, and for wider policy influencers interested in the promotion of workplace diversity.

Employee voice has largely been examined as a universal concept in unionized and non-unionized settings, with insufficient attention to diversity of workers (Rank, 2009). As invisible minorities, gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender employees provide a valuable focal point from which to examine employee voice mechanisms. Positing that gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT) employees are often silenced by what is perceived as “normal” in work organizations, this paper considers some of the negative consequences of this silencing, and proposes ways in which voices of GLBT employees and other invisible minorities may be heard. With its relevance to policies and practices in other organizations, the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy of the U.S. military is used as a lens through which to analyze voice, silence, and GLBT employees. Specific recommendations are provided for HR managers to facilitate the expression of voice for GLBT employees in today’s increasingly diverse organizations.

African Journal of Career Development

Background: In searching, entering and adapting into a career, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and other non-conforming (LGBTQIA+) individuals must consider how an organisation’s cultural norms will not only affect their work but also their gender and sexual identity. This includes actively seeking welcoming workspaces, employing coping strategies against minority stressors or having to exit a work environment because of prolonged homophobia. However, it is not constructive to immediately assume that this will be the career trajectory of all LGBTQIA+ individuals.Objectives: This review sought to explore how LGBTQIA+ individuals navigate intersections of gender and/or sexuality diversity in varied work environments.Methods: A desktop review of qualitative and quantitative studies was conducted to search for publications to answer the following question, what are LGBTQIA+ individuals’ experiences of gender and sexuality diversity within various work environments?Results: Given li...

2006

This article reports emerging findings from a qualitative research study about lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) people at work in the UK. The research focuses on the personal experiences and strategies of LGB people amidst changing organisational responses to sexuality within a new legal and political landscape following the introduction of the Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003. The article draws specifically on the perceptions of lesbian respondents about a range of issues concerning social inclusion and exclusion in the workplace including coming out at work, treatment by managers and colleagues, workplace and organisational culture and participation in LGBT groups and networks

13) Harding, R. & Peel, E. (2007) Heterosexism at work: Diversity training, discrimination law and the limits of liberalism. In V. Clarke & E. Peel (Eds.) Out in Psychology. (pp. 247-272) Chichester: Wiley., 2007

Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 2010

The central premise of this article is that organizations have social and economic interests in building policies and practices that support lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered (LGBT) workers. This argument is based on empirical evidence that LGBT workers continue to face discrimination at work from which they are not protected under federal law, and (b) discrimination has negative consequences for individual's mental and physical health, and on reasoning that (c) organizations share responsibility for the social good of the communities in which they operate. We offer practical suggestions for creating LGBT-supportive organizations and propose that industrial-organizational psychologists have an ethical obligation to support such efforts.

The queer community’s presence continues to increase in the United States, while more individuals become visible throughout workplaces. An increasingly diverse workforce leaves organizations struggling to leverage the knowledge and experience lesbian and gay leaders bring to discussions. Limited research informs organizations of the strategies lesbian and gay people in leadership roles use to navigate their ascension into their positions, while managing the disclosure of their sexual orientation and professional identity. This qualitative, phenomenological study involved recruiting 15 participants through purposeful, homogeneous sampling processes and snowball sampling, identifying cisgender lesbian or gay people in leadership or managerial roles, with a minimum of 5 years of experience, who are 50 years of age and older. Data analysis revealed seven key findings: (a) coming out involves disclosure and concealment strategies, (b) identity includes self-care and integrating personal and professional life, (c) social change establishes new norms that cultures adapt, (d) discrimination occurs most frequently through the “lavender ceiling” and microaggression, (e) the workplace culture is most affected by leaders and policies, (f) activism is critical to the advancement of equity, and (g) Supportive leadership involves mentoring and building a professional network. Through social constructionism theory and queer theory, this dissertation aimed to understand the key findings from the data-collection phase. The conclusions from this study highlight the impact the gay-rights movement of the 1970s and the AIDS crisis of the 1980s had on creating a generation of activist leaders. Further, workplace climate plays a significant role in disclosure decisions. Leaders of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, iiitransgender, and queer (LGBTQ) community aged 50 years and older tend to follow a passive-disclosure process and use a mask of professionalism to conceal their sexual orientation. Organizations have several recommended approaches to create an inclusive and open workplace for the LGBTQ community.