The impact of leader’s support and leader’s sexual orientation on inclusion of gay men in the workplace: an experimental study

Choudhury, Abhishek Roy (2022) The impact of leader’s support and leader’s sexual orientation on inclusion of gay men in the workplace: an experimental study. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

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Abstract

A leader who models inclusive behavior can contribute significantly toward the creation of a supportive environment for diverse members. To date, studies identifying how leader’s support for inclusion of gay men and how leader’s sexual orientation can influence inclusion of gay men are scarce. With a scenario based experimental study, I examined whether leaders’ support for inclusion of gay men and leaders’ sexual orientation have an impact on followers’ decision to hire a gay man and follower’s attitudes toward gay men co-workers. Hypotheses were tested on a sample of 149 full-time working adults of mixed occupations using two-way analysis of variance. The results showed followers are more likely to hire a gay man when their leader supports inclusion of gay men than when their leader does not support inclusion of gay men in the workplace. Results also suggested that followers are less likely to hire a gay man employee and are less likely to have positive attitudes toward their gay men co-workers when their leader is a gay man compared to when their leader is a heterosexual man. The implications of these findings are discussed.

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