SIOP LGBT Committee

Organizational Values and Valuing Yourself

The “Study of the Month” column features LGBTA-related research studies conducted by members of SIOP.  If you are interested in having your research highlighted, please contact Nicholas Salter at nsalter@ramapo.edu.

Most organizations have a set of values and beliefs that become the norm among a majority of its employees.  However, many employees may not share those beliefs and are faced with a decision of whether or not to conform. The current study is a national sample of LGB employees.  Participants responded to an online survey pertaining to the disclosure of sexual identity in the workplace. 

Choosing to disclose sexual identity is a choice many LGB employees make according to their own constitution as well as their organizational culture.  The current research shows that the decision to disclose sexual identity is directly related to how much LGB employees chose to disclose other aspects about themselves such as their values and beliefs at work.  Employees who are more disclosed (disclosed to more people) about their LGB status are less likely to conform to organizational values that do not fully align with their own.  Employees who are less disclosed about their LGB status are more likely to withhold their own views, create false impressions and ostensibly embrace those of their organization.  However, a higher sense of authenticity in LGB individuals lead to lower levels of conformity to organizational norms. 

An organization where LGB employees are less disclosed about their minority status may also be an environment that compels those same individuals to suppress their person values and beliefs.  These findings suggest that employers should encourage a sense of authenticity among their LGB employees if they wish to promote an environment that fosters diversity of thought and benefits from the different experiences of all its employee.

This study was presented at the annual Society for Industrial & Organizational Psychology conference in April of 2013 by Jacob M. Waldrup, Jose Rodriguez & Valentina Bruk-Lee.  For more information, please contact

Jacob at jake.waldrup@gmail.com.

The “Study of the Month” column features LGBTA-related research studies conducted by members of SIOP.  If you are interested in having your research highlighted, please contact Nicholas Salter at nsalter@ramapo.edu.

Mentors in the workplace can significantly contribute to job-related outcomes of their protégés, and some research suggests that having a similarly diverse mentor may provide certain benefits that having a dissimilar does not provide. Yet, little research has examined the influence of employment mentors for gay and lesbian employees. As such, the current study examined the job-related outcomes of gay and lesbian employees who either had a gay or lesbian mentor, a heterosexual mentor, or no mentor. Results showed that employees who had a mentor received more benefits than employees without a mentor. Gay and lesbian employees who had a gay or lesbian mentor reported greater psychosocial job-related outcomes such as increased job satisfaction, but did not experience greater tangible benefits such as increased salary. Additionally, gay and lesbian employees who had a gay or lesbian mentor reported receiving more mentoring advice about managing one’s gay or lesbian identity in the workplace and perceived their mentors as better role models than gay and lesbian employees with a heterosexual mentor. Taken together this study illustrates the benefits of mentors (regardless of sexual orientation) for gay and lesbian employees, and it highlights the specific benefits that gay and lesbian employees gain from having similar sexual orientation mentors. Employees who can serve as mentors to others should do so as this helps to build up protégés, and can be particularly effective for protégés who are managing their sexual orientation identity in the workplace.

This study was published in 2012 in Human Performance, V. 25 by Michelle R. Hebl, Scott Tonidandel, and Enrica N. Ruggs. For more information, please contact Enrica Ruggs at enrica.ruggs@rice.edu