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The purpose of this paper is to interrogate ways in which sex and sexual orientation are excluded from the agenda of work relationships in one probation service.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to interrogate ways in which sex and sexual orientation are excluded from the agenda of work relationships in one probation service.
Design/methodology/approach
The research was conducted through conversational interviews with members of a team responsible both for supervision of colleagues and for development of supervisory practice. Straight and lesbian officers responded to a perceived lack of skills to effectively “work with” sexuality issues.
Findings
Responses lead to discussion of the discursive “silence” of sex, and to the specific positioning of lesbian identity. Specifically, it critiques approaches to supervision that do not explicitly value lesbian experience
Research limitations/implications
This small study does not include the voices of black or gay male officers. It also does not explore the experience of bisexuality.
Practical implications
The finding of this research can be used to support development of good supervisory practice.
Social implications
The paper sheds light on day to day interactions that “silence” experience of sexual orientation.
Originality/value
The paper draws on original research interrogating both lesbian and straight experience. In so doing it sheds light on both discursive practices of a sexual agenda and practice issues in supervision.
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The purpose of this paper is to explore the methodological implications of queering organizational research. The author examines three related questions: what does queering…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the methodological implications of queering organizational research. The author examines three related questions: what does queering organizational research entail?; how have organizational scholars queered research to date?; and how does queering organizational research and methodologies advance our understandings of organizing processes?
Design/methodology/approach
The paper begins with an overview of queer theory, which is followed by a review of the ways in which organizational research and methodologies have been and can be queered. The paper concludes with a discussion of the value of queering organizational research and methodologies and offers research questions that can guide future research that draws from queer theory.
Findings
The author claims that methodologies are queered through a researcher’s commitment to enacting the philosophical assumptions of queer theory in a research project. Much of the value of queering methodologies lies in its disruption and critique of conventional research practices, while enabling us to explore new ways of understanding organizational life.
Originality/value
Queer theory is still nascent but growing in organizational research. To date, there has been little consideration of the methodological implications of queering organizational research. This paper discusses these implications and can thus guide future research that is informed by queer theory.
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For geographers doing qualitative research, autobiographical narratives offer a discrete avenue into life experiences, everyday lived geographies, and intimate connections between…
Abstract
For geographers doing qualitative research, autobiographical narratives offer a discrete avenue into life experiences, everyday lived geographies, and intimate connections between places and identities. Yet these valuable sources remain mostly untapped by geographers and largely unconsidered in methodological treatises. This article seeks to elicit the benefits of using autobiographical data, especially with regard to stigmatised sexual minorities in Western societies. Qualitative research among gay men, lesbians and bisexuals (GLB) is sometimes difficult; due to the ongoing marginalisation experienced by sexual minorities in contemporary Western societies, subjects are often difficult to locate and reticent to participate in research. But autobiographical writing has a long history in Western GLB subcultures, and offers an unobtrusive means to explore the interpenetration of stigmatised sexuality and space, of GLB identity and place. A keen awareness of the power of geography of spaces of concealment, resistance, connection, emergence and affirmation underpins the content and form of GLB autobiographical writing. I demonstrate this in part through the example of my own research into gay male spatiality in Australia. At the same time we need to be aware of the generic limitations of autobiographies. Nevertheless, this article calls for wider attention to autobiographical sources, especially for geographical research into marginalised groups.
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This paper discusses how professionally qualified cisgender lesbian, gay, bisexual or queer (LGBQ) women youth workers present their self. The research examined how youth workers…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper discusses how professionally qualified cisgender lesbian, gay, bisexual or queer (LGBQ) women youth workers present their self. The research examined how youth workers consciously or unconsciously shared their sexual identity with young people with whom they worked. Whilst this research focussed on youth workers, issues discussed are relevant for practitioners from a range of professional backgrounds such as therapists, social workers, teachers and health care practitioners. The research focused only on the experiences of cisgender LGBQ women as the experiences of men and trans women are different and so requires separate research.
Design/methodology/approach
This research taking a qualitative approach, used in-depth interviews to discuss how respondents shared information about their identity.
Findings
Some of fifteen youth workers interviewed reported not having choices about being out with the young people as their sexuality had been leaked. Others were able to pass and so choose when, or if, to be out with young people. Their different strategies to sharing information regarding their sexuality used by these participants reflected different approaches to being out.
Originality/value
Although there is evidence in the literature of how being out or closeted impacts on teachers there is little written about the effect on youth workers or other professionals. The little research that has been undertaken in this area focusses on the impact of identity on the clients rather than on the professionals. This article contributes to filling this gap in the literature.
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This qualitative study explores the past experiences of six post-secondary students who self-identified as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and/or Queer (LGBQ) and held leadership roles in…
Abstract
This qualitative study explores the past experiences of six post-secondary students who self-identified as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and/or Queer (LGBQ) and held leadership roles in student organizations at one large public institution. The purpose of this exploration was to better understand the impact of friendship on the development of a leadership identity. Utilizing Komives et al.’s (2005) Leadership Identity Development (LID) model as a framework, data were obtained from a series of three in-depth interviews with each participant and analyzed through a grounded theory approach. The significance of friendship was noted across all stages of the LID model. Based upon my findings and the suggestions put forth by the participants, a number of recommendations are made for higher education research and practice.
Vanja Bogicevic, Yizhi Li and Edward D. Salvato
Hospitality firms adopted diverse hiring policies and public declarations of support for LGBTQ+ causes through brand activism. The impact of activism on LGBTQ+ employees’…
Abstract
Purpose
Hospitality firms adopted diverse hiring policies and public declarations of support for LGBTQ+ causes through brand activism. The impact of activism on LGBTQ+ employees’ workplace experiences has been ambiguous. This study aims to examine the hospitality and tourism employees’ perceptions of gay and lesbian leaders as token-hires among hospitality employees and the spillover effect on company’s motives for hiring the leaders. This study further explores LGBTQ+ employees’ reactions to token-hiring as a form of activism, and how workplace interactions as passing/revealing LGBTQ+ individuals shaped their career development.
Design/methodology/approach
This research adopted a sequential mixed-methods design. An experiment examines how employees judge gay vs lesbian hospitality leaders as token hires, contingent on their own gender identity. It further tests the conditional mediation of tokenism on company’s egoistic motives for activism. A qualitative study explores the reactions to token-hiring as activism from the perspective of LGBTQ+ leaders who reflect on their own careers and workplace experiences.
Findings
Tokenism in the hospitality workplace is recognized as the phenomenon attributed to groups at the intersection of identities (e.g. gay men). Findings demonstrate the spillover effect of tokenism perceptions of gay male leaders by other men on company’s egoistic motives for activism. This effect is not observed for a lesbian female leader. Results from interviews suggest that hospitality and tourism LGBTQ+ employees predominantly take the post-gay vs political approach when managing their sexual identities at work and feel ambivalent toward token-hiring as LGBTQ+ brand activism.
Originality/value
This research contributes to understanding workplace challenges of LGBTQ+ employees and how they are perceived by others contingent on gender identity. It also explores the role of tokenism in their experiences.
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Brian Heaphy, Andrew Yip and Debbie Thompson
This brief paper presents selective findings from a project that explored the issue of ageing in a non‐heterosexual context, and the implications for social policy. The study…
Abstract
This brief paper presents selective findings from a project that explored the issue of ageing in a non‐heterosexual context, and the implications for social policy. The study generated studied the life circumstances of lesbians, gay men and bisexuals aged between the fifties and eighties, and generated prospective and retrospective data on non‐heterosexual ageing. There are diverse definitions and meanings of ‘old age’ among participants, and a range of possibilities exist for how ageing is negotiated. The participants acknowledged that ageing generally affects their self‐perception and the ways they live. The research documented a range of experience in terms of confidence in sexual identity and financial security. While a high proportion of the sample lived alone, many were in couple relationships. Relationships with families of origin, partners, and especially friendships, were considered important. Very few participants had made plans for old age or health crises, and only a small proportion believed that health professionals were positive towards their sexuality. Most considered care/residential homes as an undesirable housing option for old age. Most would like housing and support services to be gay‐friendly, but they were generally not confident about this prospect. The participants generally believed that they were discriminated on the basis of sexuality, and that older non‐heterosexuals were an invisible constituency to policy makers and service providers.
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Jessica Shipman and Jason L. Powell
This article looks at the problems Sociology has in theorising modern discourses in the light of the rise and consolidation of Postmodernism. The paper begins with an historical…
Abstract
This article looks at the problems Sociology has in theorising modern discourses in the light of the rise and consolidation of Postmodernism. The paper begins with an historical sketch of the emergence of Enlightenment and how its values helped to engender intellectual curiosity amongst the precursors of modernist sociological theorising. Indeed, the paper analyses how Sociology faces up to enlightenment thought and legacy via a critical analysis of the modern‐postmodern debate: its historiography, pathologies, and futurology. At the same time, there has been a huge escalation of neo‐Nietzschean theorists under the label of ‘postmodernist’ who have castigated the enlightenment to the dustbin of the history of ideas, that its metanarratives of ‘progress’ and ‘freedom’ have failed and that western rationality is exhausted (Lyotard, 1984). Subsequently, the paper assesses to what extent the values of the ‘project of modernity’ have to be abandoned, and whether, in turn, sociology can offer the epistemic stretching of postmodern narratives.
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The purpose of this study is to examine how the religious beliefs and experiences of a white Evangelical English teacher, Amy, shaped her enactment of critical inquiry pedagogy in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine how the religious beliefs and experiences of a white Evangelical English teacher, Amy, shaped her enactment of critical inquiry pedagogy in her English classroom.
Design/methodology/approach
This study drew on three in-depth interviews focused on a white Evangelical English teacher’s negotiation of her faith and understanding of critical inquiry issues in her teaching.
Findings
The teacher embraced anti-racist pedagogy by aligning definitions of structural racism with her understanding of the inherent sinfulness of humankind. She did so at the risk of her standing within her Evangelical community that largely rejected anti-racism. On the other hand, the teacher struggled with embracing LGBTQ+ advocacy, believing that affirmation of LGBTQ+ identities ran counter to her beliefs in “the gospel.” Her theological beliefs created complications for her when students brought the issue up in her class.
Practical implications
This study illustrates the way an English teacher incorporated anti-racism into both her teaching and religious identity, demonstrating that for some, the main concepts promoted in teacher education programs are held against a theological standard. It suggests that more work must be made by English teacher educators to provide space for religious pre-service teachers to find religious justification for engaging in LGBTQ+ advocacy.
Originality/value
One of the goals of English education is to encourage students to read texts and the world critically. However, the critical inquiry may be seen by Evangelical teachers and students as value-laden, too political and hostile to religious faith. This study examines the tensions that arise for an English teacher who is a white Evangelical. It contributes to possible strategies for the field to address these tensions.
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W.W. Ecton, Melvin Houston and Alan Reinstein
Certified public accountants (CPAs), internal auditors, management accountants and other accounting and non‐accounting professionals rely heavily on the concept of due…
Abstract
Certified public accountants (CPAs), internal auditors, management accountants and other accounting and non‐accounting professionals rely heavily on the concept of due professional care to help assure the public that they prudently exercise their responsibilities. In turn, accountants failing to use adequate due professional care face legal actions when “problems” arise. Based on an analysis of several legal databases, ascertains how the courts view professionals’ use of due professional care and how accountants can minimize such legal liabilities. Then analyses how the CPA profession can better comply with this important auditing standard.
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