Research looks at the challenges of social media for gay employees

Lucas Amaral Lauriano, a professor at IÉSEG and a member of ICOR, recently carried out research looking at the use of social media by gay male employees, members of the LGBTQIA+ community who are still stigmatized in many organizations. As many companies encourage their employees to use social media such as Twitter or Facebook in a professional context, the boundaries between our personal and professional lives are becoming increasingly blurred.

Together with his coauthor Thiago Coacci (Federal University of Minas Gerais), he carried out 480 hours of observations and 20 interviews with gay employees at a Latin American subsidiary from the automotive sector to look at this in more depth.

Lucas recently outlined the main findings of the study, and the different coping mechanisms used by gay employees, in this video:

Further details are also available in this interview where he also speaks about the implications for companies in terms of their diversity & inclusion initiatives:

The full study is available at the Academy of Management journal.