Sexualities, Work and Organizations

Sexuality is arguably the most under-researched of all diversity areas in work organizations. This book brings together and relates stories of minority sexual identity from six organizations drawn from three different industry sectors: the Emergency Services, the Civil Service and the Banking sector.

Here sexual minorities freely recount stories of their own workplace experiences. Three main themes emerge from the data: silence, disclosure and response. Issues of voice and silence are particularly pertinent for those who are not part of the dominant heterosexual discourse; issues of disclosure are highly important for sexual minorities for whom coming out is a major defining moment; and, highly unusually, in this book readers get an insight into how people respond to sexual minorities, as other employees' reactions to stories are related too.

This book makes a significant contribution to our understanding discursive construction of identity in the workplace, as experienced by sexual minorities and
provides a snapshot of minority working lives at the beginning of the 21st century.

This is an extremely well written, highly innovative, timely and engaging book which as well as human resources management, it will also be of interest to scholars in other areas such as sociology and general business and management.

James Ward is a Visiting Fellow at Kingston University, Surrey and Managing Consultant for the PA Consulting Group in London.