LGBT voices in work-life: a call for research and a research community

ABSTRACT

Despite an apparent expansive inclusivity of the aims of work–life programmes, there remains a fairly narrowly defined heteronormative view of the family. Alternative and non-normative perspectives of family life, and especially those pertaining to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transsexual (LGBT) identities, remain relatively occluded and under-researched. The aim of this paper is to question the presence and relevance of LGBT voices and perspectives in work–life research as they seem neither visible nor on the frontline of work–life research despite their increasingly legitimate presence in organisational and societal discourses.

RÉSUMÉ

Malgré le fait que les programmes de réconciliation vie professionnelle-vie personnelle semblent s’ouvrir vers tous les employés, la vision de la famille et de la vie personnelle reste largement basée sur une norme hétérosexuelle. Les modèles alternatifs spécialement lesbiens, gays, bisexuels et transsexuels sont aussi peu présents qu’analysés. Cet article questionne la présence et la pertinence d’entendre les voies et les perspectives LGBT au sein de la recherche travaille-famille. Ceci est essentiel car ces voies et perspectives semblent peu audibles et visibles au sein des corps académique et scientifique alors que leur présence dans le discours social et organisationnel est en progression.

KEYWORDS:

• LGBT
• work–life management
• multi-level contexts
• diversity
• heteronormative view
• homonormative view

MOTS-CLÉS:

• LGBT
• réconciliation vie professionnelle-vie personnelle
• diversité
• norme hétérosexuelle
• norme homosexuelle

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Jean-Charles E. Languilaire is assistant professor in Business Administration at Malmö University. He is also a work-life researcher at the Centre for Work Life and Evaluation Studies and the Centre for Sexology and Sexuality Studies. His research focuses on individual’s work/non-work experiences considering individuals’ boundary making and boundary development processes. His genuine research interest lays how individuals via boundary management develop four life domains; work life, family life, social life and private life. His doctoral thesis “experiencing work/non-work” presents an overall theoretical model of these individual processes as contextual processes. Nowadays he further explores how diverse contexts – organisational, societal, sustainable contexts, as well as the urban context - affect individual’s work/non-work experience. Beyond he also focuses on how alternative lifestyles (including self-employed and LGBT) may render individual’s work/non-work experiences unique.

Neil Carey is principal lecturer for internationalization in the Faculty of Health, Psychology & Social Care. His Ph.D. research explored how creative fiction might queer the cultural stories attaching to (homo) sexuality. His research interests include queering qualitative research, discourse and issues relevant to the internationalization of higher education. His work is published in Qualitative Inquiry and Journal of Vocational Behavior, and he has co-authored (with Angela Goddard) an introductory book on Discourse as part of The Basics series published by Routledge.

Notes

1. We searched for LGBT, nested and related terms in the titles or abstracts.