The Importance of Allies and Allied Organizations: Sexual Orientation Disclosure and Concealment at Work | Reflection

 The Importance of Allies and Allied Organizations: Sexual Orientation Disclosure and Concealment at Work

Jennifer L. Wessel

Brief overview:

This survey study examined three support systems: organization support, maximum support or key relations' support or allies, and average supportiveness of coworkers, as they relate to the likelihood of sexual orientation disclosure of LGB employees. LBG employees participant = 125, total coworkers in study is 371 (2.97 mean coworkers per participant). It concluded that the maximum support coworker and organizational support are two stronger predictors of disclosure than the average supportiveness of coworkers. With no significant difference in which one is the strongest predictor. So it is better to have one very supportive, advocative, and respected key coworker relation AND having an organization's policy support THAN having lots of coworkers who are on average supportive. 

Interesting notes:

- Quality of relationship > quantity. The importance of key relations reflects the positive threshold effect's point of view, meaning that having one really supportive person can carry the whole organization's positive atmosphere. 

- "...relationships are redundant resources, in which one very supportive relationship has protective properties against other negative relationships and additional positive relationships do not add any significant variation in outcomes" (Kroenke, Kubzansky, Schernhammer, Holmes, & Kawachi, 2006; Varvel et al., 2007; as cited in Wessel, 2017, p. 242).

- Though the study did not specifically say what they meant by 'organization support', they mentioned the following as what organizations could do: having a diversity training program, an inclusive organization policy, having the perceived organization supportiveness, communicate those policies in the right and best way to the workers, promoting an atmosphere of collegiality, noncompetitiveness, and trust, having an LGB ally program, and city legislation (Wessel, 2017, p. 251).

- The study mentioned that other stigma disclosure could be of research interest, like certain religious identity and having a past criminal record (Wessel, 2017, p. 252). Perhaps this could be another area in our micro-inclusion research as well? However, I assume that this kind of research may very well be limited in number. --> comments made on the survey form.

- The study also drew on other research on the negative effects of stigma concealment, like an association to low self-efficacy, low job satisfaction, low organizational commitment, stress-related illnesses (These could be found on p. 241, first paragraph). And negative job outcomes (p. 251, line 7). 

- *(sentence structure): 'Ranging from..., to..., to..., and ending with....'

-  *(sentence structure): examine the relative influence of... = which one is more important than others

- *(word): ...they work as a dyad...

- *(word): autonomy support = voluntarily support 

- *(future research) The influence of the first coworker whom one discloses to, aggressive coworkers, how inclusive policies are being communicated and received by employees, and the influence of status that one coworker. have on disclosure. 


References

Wessel, J. L. (2017). The importance of allies and allied organizations: Sexual orientation disclosure and concealment at work. Journal of Social Issues, 73(2), 240-254. doi: 10.1111/josi.12214 















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