To test the relationships between (perceived) discrimination, employment status and reporting discrimination, I formulate a model which also encompasses the concepts of disclosure of sexual orientation and homonegativity in the workplace. The model also takes into account contextual factors and a subject’s demographic characteristics which are presumed to affect the observed outcomes.
In this section I describe the relevant concepts and how they relate to each other. Based on this I formulate the hypotheses. My model is schematically depicted in Fig. 1. Bold lines mark the hypothesised relationships. Non-bold lines stand for control variables. The single-headed arrows indicate causality (from the antecedent to the consequent) and double-headed arrows mutual relationship.
Employment status in this article refers to being (un)employed. Sexual orientation discrimination is defined as a less favourable treatment in the labour market because of one’s sexual orientation. This definition excludes so-called positive discrimination and is more restrictive than the definition by Arrow (1973), according to whom labour market discrimination exists when two equally qualified individuals are treated differently in the labour market on the basis of a personal characteristic unrelated to productivity.
The term homonegativity is used as a synonym for sexual prejudiceFootnote 3 against lesbians and gays. Even though homonegativity and discrimination in the workplace are conceptually closely related, I treat them as two distinct concepts. Discrimination refers to discriminatory incidents or negative conduct perceived by the subjects that were targeted at themselves. Homonegativity relates to a subjects’ perception of attitudes, climate and conduct towards gay people in their workplace in general (i.e. not directly targeted at the subjects themselves).
Concealment at work ↔ discrimination at work
Even though people can reportedly estimate one’s sexual orientation based on body movements (Johnson et al. 2007), facial cues (Freeman et al. 2010; Brewer and Lyons 2017) or voice (Fasoli et al. 2017), sexual orientation is traditionally viewed as a non-observable type of diversity (Milliken and Martins 1996). Direct discrimination on basis of sexual orientation requires knowledge or suspicion that an employee is gay. Gay people may not experience direct discrimination if no one knows or suspects that they are gay, even though they may experience indirect discrimination through the presence of a hostile environment (Ragins and Cornwell 2001).
The model by Chung (2001) postulates that identity management is one of strategies that gay employees can use to cope with potential discrimination. The level of concealment (disclosure) is assumed to affect the extent of discriminatory behaviour.
But there is also an opposite causality. While deciding on how to manage information related to their sexual orientation, gay people assess the benefits and costs of coming out (Rostosky and Riggle 2002). Because disclosure of one’s sexual orientation can increase the risk of social rejection, prejudice and discrimination (Chaudoir and Fisher 2010), gay employees are more likely to conceal when they fear discrimination and stigma (see stigma theory by Ragins and Cornwell 2001).
Hypothesis 1
The concealment of sexual orientation in the workplace will be positively related to perceived discrimination.
To correctly estimate the relationship between the concealment of sexual orientation and perceived discrimination in the workplace, homonegativity needs to be taken into account.
Homonegativity at work ↔ discrimination at work
Homosexuality is still associated with stigma in Western societies. Theory and research have consistently indicated that stigmas evoke negative attributions about the target and that they lead to prejudice (Ragins et al. 2007). Prejudice often predicts discrimination toward persons with stigmatized identities (Pichler et al. 2010) even though other factors moderate this relationship (Herek 2000). For example, prejudiced individuals may be guarded about expressing overt, formal forms of discrimination but they may still exhibit—perhaps unintentionally—bias in more subtle ways.
An opposite causality may also take place. Presence of discrimination may affect the level of negativity against lesbians and gays. Following the justification-suppression model of Crandall and Eshleman (2003), expression of prejudice is restrained by individual’s beliefs, values and social norms. Tolerance of anti-gay discriminatory behaviour in the workplace may be seen as legitimization of prejudice against gay people and exacerbate its level.
Hypothesis 2
The homonegativity in the workplace will be positively related to perceived discrimination.
Homonegativity at work ↔ Concealment at work
The model of managing concealable stigmas at work views anticipated acceptance of the concealable stigma as the primary predictor of revealing or concealing the stigma. The acceptance refers to interpersonal/organisational climate, culture, policies, procedures and representation of LGBT in the organisation. Gay people are expected to conceal (reveal) their sexual orientation more if they perceive the environment as more rejecting (accepting). When a gay person is not certain to what extent they should disclose sexual orientation, they may use information seeking behaviours—so-called signalling (Jones and King 2013).
In an opposite direction, disclosure of sexual orientation in the workplace is expected to influence the attitudes towards gay people. (Previous) exposure to homosexuality or knowledge of a gay person is related to individual’s attitudes towards homosexuality—the less people are in a (conscious) contact with gays and lesbians, the more hostile attitudes they have toward them (see for example Herek and Capitanio 1996; Estrada and Weiss 1999; Basow and Johnson 2000; Cotten-Huston and Waite 2000; Levina et al. 2000; Horvath and Ryan 2003).
Hypothesis 3
The concealment of sexual orientation in the workplace will be positively related to the homonegativity in the workplace.
In the model I link the concepts of concealment, homonegativity and perceived discrimination at work to reporting discriminatory incidents and to the probability of being unemployed.
Reporting discrimination
Reporting covers different actions such as confiding in a trusted person, confronting the perpetrator(s), engaging management, or taking legal action. According to Stangor et al. (2003), discriminatory incidents are reported only if they are suspected and affirmed as such by the victim. This is more likely with certain types of behaviour or perpetrators and it depends on a victim’s cognitive, affective and motivational processes. When deciding whether to report/confront discrimination publicly, the victims weigh the costs and benefits of reporting.
Most people who experience discrimination do not file a formal claim (Bell et al. 2013). The reluctance to report discrimination (particularly to authorities or legal institutions) partly stems from the perception that the costs of reporting discrimination are too severe (fear of retaliation or being perceived as a troublemaker) (Major and Kaiser 2008). Gay people face an additional cost if they (partly) conceal their sexual orientation. Publicly reporting discrimination could involve spreading awareness about their sexual orientation. This is particularly undesirable in an environment hostile towards gays and lesbians.
Hypothesis 4
Concealment of sexual orientation by gay people will be negatively related to reporting discrimination.
Being unemployed
Research suggests that gays (and depending on a study also lesbians) have different unemployment probabilities than their straight counterparts. This difference is usually explained by labour demand and labour supply factors. I concentrate on factors related to (the experience of) discrimination. For a more thorough theoretical overview see Fric (2017).
Bell et al. (2013) postulate that stigmatised individuals can be disadvantaged in access to employment or in treatment (compensation, promotion, harassment, etc.). A specific case of differential treatment is discriminatory job loss which is an involuntary separation due to inequitable treatment based on personal factors that are irrelevant to performance.
Discrimination may have feedback effects on the behaviour of the victim. Neoclassical labour supply theory extended with the concept of cognitive dissonance suggests that discriminated workers may cut back labour supply or withdraw from the labour market altogether (Goldsmith et al. 2004). This is supported by the empirical evidence (Habtegiorgis and Paradies 2013). Discrimination may also negatively affect the employee’s motivation, self-esteem and self-efficacy which play an important role in access to employment (Kanfer et al. 2001).
Discrimination can also negatively impact an employee’s labour market prospects. Victims are less likely to receive good references and stating discrimination as a reason for leaving the previous employer can be detrimental for employment chances. The resulting prolonged unemployment makes it even more difficult to become re-employed as lengthy unemployment is a signal to employers that something is “wrong” with the applicant (Goffman 2009).
Because discrimination may lead to job separation, longer expected unemployment duration and decreased labour supply, I hypothesise that:
Hypothesis 5
Perceived discrimination will be positively related to the probability of being unemployed.
Given that homosexuality is a non-observable stigma and that discrimination is more likely to occur when gay people disclose their sexual orientation, I assume that ceteris paribus:
Hypothesis 6
The concealment of sexual orientation in the workplace will be negatively related to the probability of being unemployed.
Hypotheses 1 to 4 partly replicate previous research and they allow to control for important contextual factors in which relationships tested by hypotheses 5 and 6 take place. Testing hypotheses 5 and 6 represents the main contribution of this paper. Their importance goes beyond the academic research—because unemployment can be detrimental to individual’s socioeconomic status, the potential significant relationship between unemployment and perceived workplace discrimination/concealment of sexual orientation could have policy implications.
Other predictors
The relationships in the model may be influenced by contextual factors and subjects’ demographic characteristics. To account for such effects, I control for unemployment rate, presence of anti-discriminatory legislation, perception of prevalence of general discrimination against lesbians/gays in a given country (which is a distinct concept from the perception of discrimination in the workplace against oneself), subjects’ education, and age.
It is important to control for sex because of different challenges that gays and lesbians face in the labour market. While there is relatively consistent evidence that gays are disadvantaged compared to heterosexual men, the position of lesbians compared to heterosexual women seems to be more questionable (Drydakis 2014; Fric 2017). The reason may be that public attitudes towards gays are less positive than towards lesbians, especially in heterosexual men (see for example the meta-analysis by Kite and Whitley 1996). Gays are also commonly stereotyped as feminine or effeminate while lesbians are often believed to be overly masculine (Tilcsik 2011). Given these different perceptions, the behaviour of employers, colleagues or customers toward gays and lesbians may not be uniform. To account for these differences I formulate separate Structural Equation Model (SEM) models for gays and lesbians and in logistic regression models I introduce interaction terms with sex.