The effects of female sexually fluid workplace romance on their work and life

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-01-2022-0007
• Published date: 15 August 2022
• Date: 15 August 2022
• Pages: 87-103
• Subject Matter: HR & organizational behaviour,Employment law,Diversity,equality,inclusion
• Author: Quan Thuong Pham,Hung Quang Le,Khuong Ngoc Mai,Anh Trieu Phan

The effects of female sexually fluid

workplace romance on their

work and life

Quan Thuong Pham and Hung Quang Le

Faculty of Marketing and International Business, HUTECH University,

Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam, and

Khuong Ngoc Mai and Anh Trieu Phan

School of Business, International University, Vietnam National University,

Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam

Abstract

Purpose –Drawing on scholarships of workplace romance, LGBT at work and sexual fluidity, this present

research aims to investigate the effect of female sexually fluid romantic relationships at work on their work

and life.

Design/methodology/approach –The authors used qualitative approach and interviewed 30 female

workers who experienced sexual fluidity at work.

Findings –From interviews with 30 female employees in Vietnam who experience fluidity in their romance,

the authors find out positive and negatives effects on their psychology at work (affective/behavioral/cognitive

change and mental health), work outcome (job attitudes and performance/productivity) and relations with

coworkers.

Originality/value –This research discovers common and distinct features in the workplace romance of

female sexually fluid employees. The research finding supports queer perspective which is exerting more

salient impacts on our contemporary society and workplace.

Keywords Female employees, Workplace romance, Sexual fluidity, LGBT at work, Mental health, Job

attitudes

Paper type Research paper

Introduction

Workplace is a common context for the start of a romantic relationship (Boyd, 2010;Gallo,

2019). A large workplace romance (WR) literature has been developed by organization

researchers and business professionals. Based on a systematic review of the literature (Pierce

et al., 1996), the findings are mixed and inconclusive. Some discovered that workplace

romances could boost career productivity and staff morale. On the downside, romance at

work can take time and energy away from work, increase envy and distrust due to favoritism,

and increase susceptibility to sexual harassment (Mainiero, 1986;Powell, 2018). Boyd (2010)

conducted more recent review of literature and proposed more positive and tolerant

managerial approach on WR. The scope of these studies is limited since they focus

exclusively on heterosexual relationships, ignoring those of gay and lesbian employees

(Powell and Foley, 1998). Wilson (2015) also noted that most studies examine heterosexual

WR and leave unanswered questions about non-heterosexual relationships.

Since sexually fluid relationships are related to non-heterosexual sexuality, we need to

look at existing studies on LGBT issues in the workplace. Over three decades, research on

Sexually fluid

workplace

romance

87

The authors thank all research participants for welcoming me into their world, their unwavering

support, their time, and their friendship.

Declaration of conflicting interests: The author declares no potential conflicts of interest with respect to

the authorship and/or publication of this article. There is no funding for this research.

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

https://www.emerald.com/insight/2040-7149.htm

Received 16 January 2022

Revised 5 May 2022

13 June 2022

Accepted 21 July 2022

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:

An International Journal

Vol. 42 No. 1, 2023

pp. 87-103

© Emerald Publishing Limited

2040-7149

DOI 10.1108/EDI-01-2022-0007

LGBT at work has emerged and attracted increasing attention from scholars worldwide.

Maher et al. (2009) mentioned homosexuality at work with three waves. In the 1800–1970s

homosexuality was still viewed as a disease, while 1972–1990 witnessed a perceptual change

of LGBT from disease to a sin, resulting in harmful social attitudes towards LGBT (prejudice,

discrimination, exclusion). In the third wave, since the 1990s, queer theory has acted as a

theoretical framework for encountering heteronormativity at work. Despite these recent

positive changes, management and organization scholars consider that research on non-

heterosexuality in the workplace is still underestimated, with many potential issues in need of

investigation, including romantic relationships or partnerships at work (Anteby and

Anderson, 2014;Colgan and Rumens, 2015).

Recently, there is a growing trend of integrating queer theory into organizational

scholarship to challenge fixed and categorized views on identity, gender and sexuality in

related discourse in the workplace (Ng and Rumens, 2017). Sexual harassment, romantic

relationship, sexualized labor and heteronormativity at work are some most salient strands

whose theorization queer theory can potentially contribute to improving (Hearn, 2014). Queer

perspective is a theoretical lens view for the present research to investigate the effect of

female sexually fluid romantic relationships at work on their work-related and life outcome.

Having sexual attractions, desire and identity that change over time is not a new

phenomenon and is known to occur in either short or long term. Those events of human

sexuality are called “sexual fluidity”whose causes, expressions, and prevalence have

controversially been investigated. Until recent times, this concept becomes more salient in our

contemporary society thanks to the social and cultural movements (Savin-Williams and

Ream, 2007). Diamond (2009) defines sexual fluidity as changes in sexual attraction over time

with regard to the context. She suggests that each person may have an overall sexual

orientation, but variations are more and more common in the intimate relationships of many

women. The differences in sexual fluidity across genders have not been conclusively

established, although female sexual fluidity is considered to be more prevalent (Diamond,

2016;Katz-Wise, 2015). This present research pioneers the integration of sexual fluidity into

organization, so we would like to focus on female subjects due to the prevalence and more

thorough research of female sexual fluidity. The idea of fluid sexuality has not been

addressed empirically in organizational sexuality research, despite scholars acknowledging

that both sexuality and gender are fluid (McMurray and Pullen, 2020;Rumens, 2019).

From all the above scholarships on WR, LGBT at work, queer theory and female sexual

fluidity, the present research explores the experiences of female employees with sexual

fluidity in their organization. We aim to explore their psychology, work-related outcome, and

relationships with coworkers with regard to the fluidity in their sexual attractions with other

colleagues. Although issues related to their sexual identity and management are

preliminarily mentioned in this current work, within a scope of one research article, we do

not go into details but rather leave the full discussion of identity on a different working paper

(Pham, 2022b).

Literature review

Because this study aims to investigate the impact of female sexually fluid romantic

relationships at work on their psychology, work outcome and relations in their workplace, the

main relevant literature is workplace romance, LGBT at work and female sexual fluidity.

Workplace romance (WR)

Much of the research on organizational romance has a functionalist and managerial

orientation focusing on whether romance impacts positively or negatively on the workplace.

EDI

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