Sexual Orientation at Work

This book focuses on sexual orientation within organizations, with a particular emphasis on the impact of changing legislation, individual and social attitudes, and behavior on how sexual orientation is understood and experienced in the workplace. This volume brings together international research on sexual orientation to draw out its implications for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and heterosexual individuals, developing a nuanced understanding of attitudes, behavior and the dynamics of sexuality within contemporary organizations. The chapters in this book identify and assess structural and cultural developments in organizations in different countries as they respond to changing social attitudes, new labor market and legislative conditions, and challenges to traditional attitudes and patterns of behavior from increasingly diverse stakeholders both within and outside work organizations.

The ‘first wave’ of research in the area of sexual orientation at work focused primarily on organizations as difficult places for lesbian, gay and bisexual people to be. It identified homophobia, discrimination and workplace inequities. While acknowledging previous important research contributions, this book draws primarily on the ‘second wave’ sexual orientation research agenda which has developed as lesbian, gay and bisexual people have increasingly gained rights and recognition in the public sphere, alongside heterosexual, focusing instead on sexuality as a key dynamic within organizations. As such, the book examines the opportunities for lesbian, gay, bisexual and heterosexual people to understand and experience sexual orientation in different ways, and also explore any limits on recognition and visibility in the workplace. The book is one of the first to engage with sexual orientation in the workplace at a time when this subject matter is of increasing importance to organizations and in a context of change, reform, and emerging debate.