LGBTQ+ | Research Center
The mission of the IPR CDEI is to conduct, support, and promote research and insights relating to diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace focused on six core areas: BIPOC, LGBTQ+, women, intersectionality, disabilities, and mental health.
Research Topics:
Latest Research:
The Spiral of Advocacy: How State-Based LGBT Advocacy Organizations Use Ground-Up Public Communication Strategies in Their Campaigns for the “Equality Agenda”
Dean E. Mundy, Ph.D.
This report is based on in-depth interviews with leaders of statewide LGBT advocacy organizations to examine the various communication strategies used in political campaigns and to provide insights into how social advocacy could influence the democratic process at local, state, and national levels.
Public Relations, Activism, and Identity: A Cultural-Economic Examination of Contemporary LGBT Activism
Erica Ciszek, Ph.D.
This study examines the contemporary articulation of LGBT activism and LGBT youth outreach as a historically contextual moment. Ciszek used the cultural-economic framework model, to examine identities in terms of what norms they legitimize and why consumers adopt or reject some identities.
Finding Calm in the Storm: How Trait Mindfulness Aids Employees After Perceived Discrimination at Work
Christian Thoroughgood, Ph.D., Katina Sawyer, Ph.D., Jennica Webster, Ph.D.
Researchers examined how employees with stigmatized identities are able to “weather the storm” of prejudicial experiences at work. Participants’ trait mindfulness and paranoid cognition were analyzed for their influence on response to workplace discrimination.
What Lies Beneath: How Paranoid Cognition Explains Relations Between Transgender Employees’ Perceptions of Discrimination at Work and Their Job Attitudes and Wellbeing
Christian Thoroughgood, Ph.D., Katina Sawyer, Ph.D., Jennica Webster, Ph.D.
This study explores how paranoid cognition shapes transgender individuals’ experiences in the workplace. Paranoid cognition is defined by characteristics including rumination and hypervigilance.
A Workplace Divided: Understanding the Climate of LGBTQ Workers Nationwide
Human Rights Campaign Foundation
The Human Rights Campaign Foundation explored the prevalence of LGBTQ workers feeling pressure to hide their sexual orientation and/or gender identity on the job and the cost of that concealment both to individuals and employers at large. The foundation also researched the benefits employers and workers gain when workplace climates are more welcoming of LGBTQ people.
The Bones are the Same: An Exploratory Analysis of Authentic Communication with LGBTQ Publics
Erica Ciszek, Ph.D., Kate Pounders, Ph.D.
Researchers identified the components of authentic communication with LGBTQ publics and examined potential differences in what constitutes authentic communication for LGBTQ publics compared to other publics.