This chapter consisted of Background of the study, statement of the problem, purpose of the study, questions of the study, significance of the study, delimitation, and the definition of terms.
Background of the Study
Can coming out as a gay or a lesbian influence their job satisfaction in the workplace?
Are there any discriminations between employers and their colleagues and those group of people? What will happen when someone talks about her/his sexual orientation?
It was not until in 1930’s did the vocabulary Tong-Shin-Liang, as the same meaning of homosexual, show up in Chinese academic literature. However, different from the terms of Western countries, local Taiwanese used to call homosexuality such as Bo-Li-Chuan (the glass circle), Tu-Ze (rabbit) or Ren-Yao (man monster). In the late 1950s, finally, the English vocabulary “gay” was introduced to Taiwan through US tourists, and it was the first time that gay replace the word Bo-Li- Chuan.
Recently, there is an increasingly acceptance of the Homosexual in the current society.
Many scholars have reached the goal from some of the aspects so far. One of the most significant method is to look at public thought on homosexual (Lax, & Phillips, 2009). Due to the rising number of homosexual populations, there are some particular values and norms that homosexual population are unwilling to share with the homosexual population. They want to work with same sex because they think that heterosexual population are disgusting and let them feel sick. Based on Marsiglio (1993), it was reported that up to 46% of gay have lost one friend after disclosing their sexual orientation. Moreover, some of the researchers have discovered that there is a factor of increasing risk in the gay community which indicated that they may
have depression, anxiety or even low in self-esteem. Also, there are still psychological health issues in gay and lesbians, due to the discrimination (Chakraborty, McManus, Brugha, Bebbington, & King, 2011) and the reason might because of being unable to come out. It will prevent homosexual employees from getting good performance if the workplace is discriminated and hostile. Furthermore, it will gain more costs because of employees’
absenteeism, and they will also be lack of self-confidence, reporting in low job satisfaction, and need someone else to motivate them. Many scholars (Badgett, Lau, Sears, and Ho, 2007;
Blandford, 2003; Clain and Leppel, 2001) suggest that homosexual might have experienced a very difficult time in the labor market outcome, to put it differently, there may be some discriminations on their wages or income. Badgett et al. (2007) found a positive connection between coming out and a non-discrimination policy in their workplace. Winfeld and Spielman (2001), asserted that we should create a supportive workplace in order to let these gay and lesbians have a more positive work environment and attitude. At the same time, researchers have continuously proved a theory that there is a positive effect on the employees’ achievement including work-related attitude and their behaviors. It was indicated that the employees may get assistances or feedbacks from the workplace, subordinates, supervisors and the clients in their companies. Only when after we improve the level of workplace friendship can one employee come out with comfort. Therefore, there is a need to study whether coming out or workplace friendship will influence job satisfaction. By this method, we can find the relevant issues and ways to help homosexual enhance their self-capability in order to gain their job satisfaction.
Statement of the Problem
Come out to be a lesbian or gay, or so called “disclosure”, might be a stressful topic for homosexual. Coming out contains the very beginning action of admitting the sexual orientation.
In this step, sometimes it will be followed with the uncertainty and some questions inquired by someone else of being as a homosexual (Savin-Williams, 1990).
Even though many societies have stated that the rate of acceptance of LGBT group has already grown up, still other researchers are continuing to provide attention and care about what will happen after the choice of coming out, and have put plenty of emphasis on the problem of safety first. Vargo (1998) has warned that there will be some potential problems after coming out including in their family, society, and even finance. In addition, how will the workplace be in order to accept homosexual? What Although the workplace may be friendly, but still, there are lots of people have the opposition aspect toward homosexual. As a consequence, the problem of coming out in the workplace should not be neglected, and it is important to enhance the level and the content of the real workplace friendship in order to let those gay and lesbian employees to reach the goal of their company and have a higher job satisfaction.
Purpose of the Study
Nowadays, it is such a progressive and civilized society that we are receiving the latest news and conceptions. For example, the gay marriage will be one of the instances. There are some problems that Homosexual are easier to experience and affected by the perspectives after they have chosen to come out. To understand what will happen after one person decide to come out and try to open his or her sexual orientation in the workplace will help strengthen the awareness of how their job satisfaction will be. The main purpose of this research is to measure
his or her job satisfaction after someone decides to come out and also want to examine how the workplace friendly level or degree will influence not only the choice of coming out but also how openly will someone disclosure his or her sexual orientation. Juster, Smith, Ouellet, Sindi, and Lupien (2013) stated that “Completely disclosing one’s sexual orientation is correlated with less stress (and its various manifestations)” (p. 105). Therefore, we will explore homosexual job satisfaction to see whether there is any correlation with before they came out and the affection.
Questions of the Study
Based on the preceding part of background of study and the purpose of the research, the research questions were developed below:
1. Whether coming out will influence job satisfaction and how does the level of coming out will influence job satisfaction?
2. Does workplace friendship have any relationships with job satisfaction?
3. Does workplace friendship influence the degree and choice of coming out?
Significance of the Study
This research intends to give a new perspective of job satisfaction of homosexuality. The result of the study will not only focus on the homosexual’s job satisfaction but also give a guidance to them when they are in the dilemma of whether to come out in their workplace or not. The research will help those gays and lesbians pay attention to their sexual identity instead of being hiding in the closet for a long time. Although there are lots of reasons that will influence the behavior of homosexual, but based on the self-experience, it is believed that disclose one’s sexual orientation is the first step to identify themselves. This study is also expected to make the working environment in a friendly way for gays and lesbians as well as
all the employees. Moreover, we hope that through this research, we can rebuild the concept of workplace friendly and gain their job satisfaction for those who have come out openly in order to prevent them from being treated with discrimination and Stigma.
Delimitations of the Study
This research aims to check out the relationships between coming out, workplace friendship, and job satisfaction. There are four items in coming out in order to recognize the participant’s coming out status. It contains completely concealed, incline to conceal, incline to disclose, and completely disclosed to let them choose. This study will only focus on homosexual, as a consequence, which means that it only includes gay and lesbians and limits the participants. However, the originally participants were thought to be LBGTQ, which stands for Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay, Transgender, Queer. After considering the study scope, the study narrows the scope due to the number of the population and let it to be more specific. To put it another way, the study will focus on gay and lesbians whether they have come out or not, having friendly or discriminate experience in the workplace that influence their choice of coming out.
Last, thanks for the convenience of internet, some of the participants will fill out the questionnaire by the internet, while others will use traditional paper questionnaire. Additionally, we hope that every participant can share the precious thoughts, experiences, and feedbacks.
Definition of Terms Come Out
In this study, coming out is defined as not only about the process by one individual accepts one person’s sexual orientation, gender identity, (to “come out” to oneself) but also the process by which one shares one’s sexuality, gender identity, or sexed status with in their current
relationship (to “come out” to others). Come out can be a continual, life-long process for homosexual. The theory of Button (1996) will be adopted in order to measure the level of coming out in this study and test by the 4-point scale.
Workplace Friendship
In this study, workplace friendship is defined as, “a voluntary, personal relationship typically providing intimacy and assistance” (p.20). It will be measured by the method called,
“Treatment Discrimination toward Sexual Minorities Scale” (Button, 2001), and it will grade the level of discrimination of the participants in the workplace. It contains 9 items in the scale with satisfactory internal consistency (α = .97). The participants need to answer according to a 5-point Likert Scale, and some of the questions are designed in reversed.
Job Satisfaction
The definition from Locke (1976) was: “a pleasurable or positive emotional state resulting from an appraisal of one’s job or job experiences” (p. 1304).
Hulin and Judge (2003) noted that job satisfaction is made of multidimensional responses to one person’s job and those responses includes affective, cognitive and behavioral. In this study, job satisfaction will be measured by Weiss, Dawis, and England’ s (1967) Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) short form, and there are 20 questions in the questionnaire.
Each participant should rate their degree of their current job’s satisfaction.
Gay
A sexual and affectional orientation toward people of the same gender.
Lesbian
A woman whose primary sexual and affectional orientation is toward people of the same gender.