Understanding LGBT individuals' employment environment in Taiwan: a relational framework perspective

• Date: 19 March 2021
• Pages: 656-684
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-02-2020-0042
• Published date: 19 March 2021
• Author: Jennet Achyldurdyyeva,Li-Fan Wu,Nurbibi Datova

Understanding LGBT individuals’

employment environment in

Taiwan: a relational

framework perspective

Jennet Achyldurdyyeva and Li-Fan Wu

Institute of Human Resource Management, National Sun Yat-sen University,

Kaohsiung, Taiwan, and

Nurbibi Datova

School of Business Management, National Sun Yat-sen University,

Kaohsiung, Taiwan

Abstract

Purpose –The purpose of this study is to examine the aspects of workplace environment andthe experiences

of LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) employees in an Asian context; a subject that has hitherto

been somewhatneglected. It responds to a call for more contextual research in the field of employment diversity

in organizational management in general.

Design/methodology/approach –This is a mixed method study, which utilizes multiple sources of primary

and secondary data and consists of in-depth personal interviews, a survey of LGBT employees,published data

(including legislation and state policies), reports issued by social and media organizations, documentary

evidence from Taiwanese companies and insights drawn from the existing literature.

Findings –It was found that there is an interplay between the macro, meso and micro levels in the multilevel

relational framework applied to diversity of employment in Taiwan. Macrolevel factors, such as supportive

legislation, mass media and social tolerance toward LGBT community positively affect mesolevel factors, such

as stable and secure social networks among the LGBT community in the form of legal and social organizations

(NGOs, social media, bars, restaurants, etc.) as well as many companies inclusion of sexual orientation in their

definitions of diversity. However, this is opposed by macrolevel, cultural values related to family structure and

intergenerational relationshipsthat inhibit pro-active integration and equality of LGBT individuals at the meso

organizational level. Companies headed by older-generation leadership can be slow to advocate, support and

promote sexual-orientation diversity in their workplaces. In contrast, microlevel data shows that LGBT

employees receive robust psychological support from their peer group, friends and the LGBT community,

although gaining acceptance by family and coworkers remains a challenge.

Research limitations/implications –Future studies need to focus on the dynamics of the meso- and

microlevel factors by investigating how organizational structure, perspectives of leaders and HR managers,

diversity management practices and attitudes and behaviors of LGBT employees and other coworkers affect

development and integration of sexual-orientation diversity programs within organizations.

Practical implications –Managers, policy makers in organization as well as educators benefit from the

context-sensitive findings and recommendations offered in this paper.

EDI

42,5

656

The authors would like to thank Professor Leong Chan-Hoong (Singapore University of Social Sciences)

for providing rigorous and very helpful developmental comments throughout the submission and

review process, Professor Eddy Ng (Dalhousie University) for the invitation to submit our work to this

special issue, Professor Richard Greggory Johnson III (University of San Francisco) for his comments on

an the earlier version of this paper at the EDI conference in 2019 and the two anonymous reviewers for

their comprehensive comments and sensible suggestions during the review process. The authors would

also like to express their deep gratitude to the interview subjects who kindly provided their time and

insights and the representatives of the Taiwan Social Change Survey in the Institute of Sociology at

Academia Sinica for their free and prompt data release that was essential to our research design. The

authors did not receive any specific funding for this work and confirm that there are no conflicts of

interests associated with the study, the companies and the interview respondents.

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 18 February 2020

Revised 22 July 2020

13 November 2020

12 January 2021

Accepted 23 February 2021

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:

An International Journal

Vol. 42 No. 5, 2023

pp. 656-684

© Emerald Publishing Limited

2040-7149

DOI 10.1108/EDI-02-2020-0042

Social implications –Understanding of LGBT individuals employment environment helps to facilitate or

hinder the positive development of equal society and benefit both LGBT employees, their coworkers and

managers.

Originality/value –Limited research exists on the LGBT employees experiences at work in Asia. This study

makes unique contribution to the understanding of sexual orientation category of diversity at work in Taiwan

context.

Keywords Diversity management, Sexual orientation, Gay men, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender employees,

Workplace environment, Human resource management, Equal employment opportunity, Inclusion, Asia

Paper type Research paper

Introduction

Sociocultural, economic and political changes have transformed the norms and rules of the

labor market (Cook and Glass, 2009;Yadav and Lenka, 2020), thereby making diversity and

inclusion management an increasingly important area of organizational and management

studies (Ferner et al., 2005). Diversity management and inclusion means recognizing

individual differences, valuing them and viewing them as potential strengths of the

organization (Davis et al., 2016;Hollenbeck et al., 2018;Kramar and De Cieri, 2008). Workplace

diversity and inclusion in a global context is commonly explored through the simple lens of

the visible diversity dimensions of gender, age and nationality (Farndale et al., 2015);

however, the reality is that the modern workforce has invisible diversity dimensions, such as

sexual orientations, religious beliefs, political views, educational backgrounds and mental or

physical characteristics (Ely and Thomas, 2001;Jehn et al., 1999;Kim and Von Glinow, 2017).

Developments in equal employment opportunity and same-sex legislation in the last few

decades have created higher visibility and attention for LGBT individuals (lesbian, gay,

bisexual and transgender) in many societies (Anteby and Anderson, 2014) and increased the

relevance of research on sexual-orientation diversity (Anteby and Anderson, 2014;Bell et al.,

2011;Kim and Von Glinow, 2017).

In this study, the authors adopt the older but narrower term describing sexual orientation

–LGBT –for employees, as it is the most frequently considered collective group in workplace

diversity research (K€

ollen, 2013,2015), despite an acknowledgment of the complexity of first

hand experiences (McCall, 2005) and the extended modern identification continua (Killerman,

2013;Paisley and Tayar, 2016). LGBT employees are still an “invisible”but fairly large

minority group (Gonsiorek and Weinrich, 1991;Ragins, 2004). It is estimated that there are 70

million LGBT individuals in China (Forbes, 2017); 9 million in the US (Gates, 2011); 3.7 million

in the UK (Erens, 2003) and 1 million in Taiwan (Chen and Chang, 2019;Hsu and Yen, 2017).

LGBT is also a large and important group in many labor and consumer markets (Badgett

et al., 2013;Day and Greene, 2008;Leppel, 2009;Ozeren, 2014). For example, previous studies

show that women in same-sex couples earn more than heterosexual women (Leppel, 2009).

The total purchasing power of LGBT individuals, known as the “pink economy”(Ram



ırez,

2011), is estimated at USD 300bn in China (China_Daily, 2016) and USD 917bn in the US

(Witeck_Communications, 2016) and in Taiwan in 2017 an estimated USD 8m was spent

during Taiwan Pride week alone (Liao, 2018). In addition, demographic changes, such as an

aging population, migration and increasing numbers of women entering the workforce lead to

the important need for inclusion of LGBT talents (Bell et al., 2011) derived from a group which

now comprises a large part of the workforce as a whole (Kim and Von Glinow, 2017).

Sexual-orientation diversity (gay, lesbian, bisexual, trans and intersex individuals)

currently lacks attention in mainstream management research (Bullough et al., 2017;Ragins

et al., 2003). Gender is a powerful source of identification for individuals (Acker and Van

Houten, 1974) and shapes how individuals, companies and institutions operate (Koveshnikov

et al., 2019). The necessity to acquire an understanding of sexual-orientation diversity at work

LGBT

individuals’

employment

environment

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