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1 – 10 of 656Mengjun Huo and Chao Li
Innovation is the most important quality of enterprise management. It is an important and controversial issue whether the heterosexual leadership structure of the chairman and…
Abstract
Purpose
Innovation is the most important quality of enterprise management. It is an important and controversial issue whether the heterosexual leadership structure of the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) makes the work “easy” or “very tired” in enterprise innovation. This study investigates the specific impact of the heterosexual leadership structure on enterprise innovation investment, and further explores influence mechanism between them from two perspectives. Specifically, from the perspective of enterprise leaders including the chairman and CEO, this paper analyzes the impact of surname sharing, intergenerational differences and top management team (TMT) external social network between the heterosexual leadership structure and enterprise innovation investment. And from the perspective of enterprise itself, this study explores the impact of ownership and organizational slack between the heterosexual leadership structure and enterprise innovation investment.
Design/methodology/approach
By using ordinary least squares regression (OLS), this study mainly takes the unbalanced panel data of A-share listed companies from 2008 to 2019 in Shanghai and Shenzhen as the research sample to empirically analyze the relationship and influence mechanism between the heterosexual leadership structure and enterprise innovation investment.
Findings
The results show that the heterosexual leadership structure of the chairman and CEO has a negative impact on enterprise innovation investment. Surname sharing and ownership positively moderate the negative impact of the heterosexual leadership structure of the chairman and CEO on enterprise innovation investment. Intergenerational differences and TMT external social network negatively moderate the relationship between the heterosexual leadership structure of the chairman and CEO and enterprise innovation investment. In addition, the moderating effects of intergenerational differences and TMT external social network on the relationship between the heterosexual leadership structure and enterprise innovation investment both depend on organizational slack. When organizational slack is lower and intergenerational differences are higher, the negative impact of the heterosexual leadership structure of the chairman and CEO on enterprise innovation investment will be the strongest. And when organizational slack is lower and TMT external social network is higher, the negative impact of the heterosexual leadership structure of the chairman and CEO on enterprise innovation investment will be the strongest.
Originality/value
By exploring the influence and the boundary mechanism of the heterosexual leadership structure of the chairman and CEO on enterprise innovation investment, the “heterosexual difference effect” is verified in this paper, that is, when men and women work together, work is very tired. This not only enriches the existing research of enterprise innovation investment, but also provides practical guidance for effectively improving enterprise innovation investment from a new perspective. In addition, it broadens the moderating mechanism of the impact of the heterosexual leadership structure of the chairman and CEO on enterprise innovation investment, which is conducive to reasonable response to improve enterprise innovation investment.
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Jennica R. Webster and Gary A. Adams
The goal of this study was to help explain the underrepresentation of lesbian women and gay men (LG) in senior leadership positions by examining bias in the allocation of…
Abstract
Purpose
The goal of this study was to help explain the underrepresentation of lesbian women and gay men (LG) in senior leadership positions by examining bias in the allocation of developmental opportunities (sponsorship/coaching and challenging work assignments). It further sought to test stigma-by-association as one reason for the biased allocation of developmental opportunities.
Design/methodology/approach
An online experimental vignette study (N = 273) using a 2 (target gender: male vs female) by 2 (sexual orientation: LG vs heterosexual) design was conducted.
Findings
LG workers were less likely to be allocated developmental opportunities than heterosexual workers overall and relative to their same-sex heterosexual counterparts. Further, lesbian women were least likely to be allocated developmental opportunities. These effects also operated indirectly via participants concerns about stigma-by-association.
Originality/value
Sexual orientation and gender identity minority workers remain underrepresented in senior leadership positions and oftentimes despite having better objective qualifications. Research has begun examining bias in leader selection. This study, however, directs attention to the biased allocation of developmental opportunities which make one competitive for senior leadership positions and occur prior to leader selection. In doing so, the authors provide a baseline understanding of an important reason why LG might be underrepresented in leadership positions.
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In this chapter, I use a critical sociological lens to look at ways sport organisations and scholars could think about and practice gender equity in institutional contexts in the…
Abstract
In this chapter, I use a critical sociological lens to look at ways sport organisations and scholars could think about and practice gender equity in institutional contexts in the United Kingdom. Sport clubs or organisations shape the participation of those involved in the sport and those working in and for these organisations as volunteer, coach, manager, referee, director, board member, etc. Differences in organisational forms and settings inform ways sport organisations think about sport, gender, race, abilities, sexuality and class relations. These ways of thinking may enhance and/or resist the use of sport equitable practices. Organisations are constructions, however, and not fixed objects but always in flux and becoming. In this chapter, I use a critical/queer perspective to make visible and question organisational processes that may contribute to the exclusion of women and minorities in sport governance. I specifically focus on the normative embodiment of leadership, dominant heteronormative practices and diversity as an organisational value. I suggest several ways in which attention to these processes could be part of a critical research agenda that focuses on initiatives that promote gender equity. I end with a few examples of what such an approach might look like.
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This paper seeks to identify, examine, and discuss the unique challenges for lesbians who serve in leadership positions in corporate America.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to identify, examine, and discuss the unique challenges for lesbians who serve in leadership positions in corporate America.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing upon a multi‐disciplinary framework of management, diversity, feminist, and leadership literature, the paper critically examines the myriad of pressures exerted upon all women in leadership positions, and then identifies the pressures that are specific and unique for lesbians.
Findings
There are pressures that are unique for lesbian leaders. These pressures include negotiating the heterosexism of the organization; invisibility versus visibility, and gender expression and gender role expectations.
Originality/value
The paper provides implications for human resource development to assume a stronger and more active role in uncovering tacit issues embedded in leadership so that organizational workplaces become locations of greater equity, access, and fairness for all who aspire to leadership positions.
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Benjamin E. Liberman and Frank D. Golom
The purpose of this paper is to extend the “think manager, think male” research paradigm by examining managerial stereotypes as a function of both gender and sexual orientation…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to extend the “think manager, think male” research paradigm by examining managerial stereotypes as a function of both gender and sexual orientation, thus comparing the similarity of managerial stereotypes against the stereotypes of male (heterosexual and gay) and female (heterosexual and lesbian) managers.
Design/methodology/approach
In total, 163 heterosexual participants used the 92-item Descriptive Index attribute inventory to rate one of five target groups: successful managers, heterosexual male managers, heterosexual female managers, gay male managers, and lesbian female managers. Intraclass correlation coefficients were calculated to assess the degree of correspondence between ratings of the target groups.
Findings
The findings showed a higher correspondence between the descriptions of heterosexual male or female managers and the successful manager prototype than between the descriptions of gay male managers and the successful manager prototype. Additionally, results showed that the stereotypes of lesbian female managers were seen as having a moderate level of fit with the successful manager prototype.
Practical implications
The results of this study suggest that heterosexuals’ beliefs about gay male and lesbian female managers’ abilities are important. In particular, heterosexuals’ stereotypes that gay males lack the qualities of being a successful manager can limit gay men’s access to positions with managerial responsibilities and impede their progress into leadership positions.
Originality/value
This study addresses a critical gap in the management literature as it is the first empirical investigation to assess whether the “think manager, think male” phenomenon holds for managers who are members of sexual minority groups.
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Luke Fletcher, Shaun Pichler and Lakshmi Chandrasekaran
Based on authentic leadership (AL) theory and research on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) workplace experiences, this study proposes that AL explains variance beyond…
Abstract
Purpose
Based on authentic leadership (AL) theory and research on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) workplace experiences, this study proposes that AL explains variance beyond transformational leadership (TL) in attitudinal outcomes for LGBT managers compared to non-LGBT managers. It is further predicted that core self-evaluations (CSEs) bound relationships between AL, LGBT status and outcomes.
Design/methodology/approach
A time-lagged survey of 193 LGBT and 218 non-LGBT (i.e. heterosexual and cisgender) managers was conducted. The first survey assessed respondents' evaluations of their leadership behavior and CSEs whereas the second survey, conducted one month later, assessed role engagement and career satisfaction.
Findings
Regression and moderation analyses revealed support for the hypotheses. AL seems especially relevant for LGBT leaders, particularly at low levels of CSEs.
Practical implications
Leadership development programmes emphasizing AL could be particularly beneficial for LGBT managers, especially those low in CSEs. Harnessing a leader’s sense of identity could help those who have been marginalized.
Originality/value
The current study proposes, explains and demonstrates that relationships between AL and leader outcomes will likely be different between managers with and without stigmatized identities, in this case those who are (not) LGBT.
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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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Nceba Ndzwayiba and Melissa Steyn
The purpose of this paper is to critically analyse the discourses of gender empowerment in South African organisations to determine the extent to which they reify or resist the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to critically analyse the discourses of gender empowerment in South African organisations to determine the extent to which they reify or resist the entrenched oppressive gender binaries.
Design/methodology/approach
Multiple case studies design and critical discourse analysis were employed to collect and analyse the data. Research entailed critical analysis of 36 published documents containing information on gender and gender empowerment. Semi-structured interviews were also conducted with six transformation managers as change agents who are tasked with the responsibility of driving gender empowerment in the selected organisations.
Findings
The authors found that gender in studied organisations was insularly defined within the confines of the male–female gender binaries. Consequently, designed gender empowerment strategies and ensuing initiatives mainly focussed on promoting the inclusion of heterosexual women in and on protecting these women from heterosexual men. Thus, gender empowerment systematised heteropatriachy in organisational culture and processes while invisibilising and annihilating the possibility of existence of alternative genders outside these naturalised binaries. Transformation managers, as change agents, fell short of acknowledging, challenging and changing these entrenched ideologies of patriotic heterosexuality.
Research limitations/implications
The paper uses Galting’s (1960) and Paul Farmer’s (2009) concept of structural violence and Rich’s (1980) notion of “deadly elasticity of heterosexual assumptions”, to theorise these gender empowerment discourses as constituting and perpetuating violence against queer bodies and subjectivities.
Practical implications
The paper recommends that corporates need to broaden their conceptions of gender and to design and entrench gender discourses that promote gender justice and equality.
Social implications
This inquiry proves Joan Acker’s (2006) and Baker’s (2012) views that inequality and injustice are produced and entrenched in a reciprocal relationship between society and the workplace.
Originality/value
This paper focusses on constructions of gender in organisations. By doing so, it links the observed violence against women and gender binary non-conforming people in society with organisational discourses of gender that perpetuate such violence instead of challenging and changing it so that democracy can be realised for all.
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Arosha Adikaram and Subashini Weerakotuwa
This paper aims to explore how sexual harassment is experienced and understood by heterosexual working men in their day-to-day work lives in an Asian patriarchal culture…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore how sexual harassment is experienced and understood by heterosexual working men in their day-to-day work lives in an Asian patriarchal culture, underpinned by rigid sex-role norms and gender role stereotypes, which promote heterosexual hegemonic masculinity
Design/methodology/approach
Using qualitative research approach, 19 in-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with self-identified heterosexual men.
Findings
The findings indicate common, yet unique, ways heterosexual men experience sexual harassment at workplaces, perpetrated by women and men, holding different organizational positions. Unwanted sexual attention, gender harassment, sexploitation and sexual hubris are, thus, identified as the main manifestations of sexual harassment for men. The nature of the experiences, how they were understood and perceived by heterosexual men, who the harassers were, how men have responded to their experiences and the existing theories point toward numerous explanations for the heterosexual men’s experiences of sexual harassment. Among these reasons, hegemonic masculinity, power and sexual attraction were found to be predominant.
Originality/value
The themes and explanations of different and sometimes unique sexual harassment experiences expand and add to the understudied area of sexual harassment of heterosexual men in general, and in a cultural context, rarely explored, more specifically.
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Debolina Dutta and Vasanthi Srinivasan
There is an emerging interest in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) inclusion among researchers and practitioners. However, the interplay of macro-, meso- and…
Abstract
Purpose
There is an emerging interest in Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) inclusion among researchers and practitioners. However, the interplay of macro-, meso- and micro-level factors that influence the behavior of various agencies, systems, structures and practices in different national, cultural and social contexts still needs to be researched. This paper aims to examine how organizations meaningfully engage with the marginalized and underrepresented workforce, especially the LGBTQ community, to promote diversity and inclusion through comprehensive policies and practices, thereby developing a sustainable inclusivity culture.
Design/methodology/approach
Adopting a practice theory lens and using a case study design, including multilevel interviews with 28 different stakeholders, this study examines how organizations institutionalize LGBTQ inclusion practices in an emerging market context with a historically low acceptance of the LGBTQ community.
Findings
Findings indicate that macro influences, such as regulatory, societal and market pressures and adopting international standards and norms, impact meso-level structures and practices. At the organizational level, leadership evangelism and workforce allyship serve as relational mechanisms for institutionalizing LGBTQ-inclusive practices. Furthermore, collaboration, partnerships and enabling systems and processes provide the structural frameworks within which organizations build an LGBTQ-inclusive culture. Lastly, at the micro level, cisgender allyship and the LGBTQ micro work environments provide the necessary psychological safety to build trust for authentic LGBTQ self-expressions. This study also indicates that organizations evolve their LGBTQ inclusion practices along a trajectory, with multiple external and internal forces that work simultaneously and recursively to shape HRM policies and practices for building an inclusive culture.
Originality/value
This study addresses the significant gaps in diversity and inclusivity research on LGBTQ employees and contributes to the literature in three significant ways. First, this study examines the diversity management mechanisms at the organizational level and explicates their interplay at the micro, meso and macro levels to create congruence, both internally and externally, for engaging with LGBTQ talent. Second, this study adopts a practice theory lens to examine the behavior of various actors, their agencies, the “flow” of underlying and emerging structures and processes, the continuous interplay between structure and action and how they enable inclusive culture for the LGBTQ community as a whole. Last, it addresses the call by diversity researchers for context-specific multilevel research design, including qualitative research, focusing on national, cultural and institutional contexts, where socio-organizational and historical factors and interactions among them shape diversity practices. Much of the literature on LGBTQ inclusion has, thus far, been within the Western context. By examining the emergence of inclusion practices in emerging markets like India, this study contributes to diversity and inclusion research.
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