Homosexuality in the Workplace: Communication and Diversity

Introduction: Sources of Communication Difficulty

There is likely a combination of factors causing Nichole to have difficulty communicating with her homosexual coworker. The most prominent of these is that Nichole does not view this coworker simply as a colleague. Instead, she defines him or her primarily in terms of sexual orientation. This perception is likely rooted in deep, long-term causes. For instance, she may be a practicing member of a religious denomination that regards homosexuality as fundamentally wrong or even perverse. Alternatively, Nichole could have had a negative personal experience related to homosexuality that has given her an aversion to people of this orientation. It is also possible that she simply finds homosexual behavior repulsive and struggles to engage with someone she knows partakes in it.

Regardless of the specific reason, the root cause of Nichole's difficulty is clear: she is associating this particular employee with homosexuality and homosexual tendencies rather than with the department or business function he or she is responsible for within the organization. This conflation of personal identity with professional role is at the heart of her communication breakdown. Employment discrimination based on sexual orientation in the United States has a long history, and individual biases of this kind reflect broader social patterns that workplaces must actively work to counter.

Value Judgments and Workplace Antagonism

It is also quite likely that value judgment underlies Nichole's difficulty communicating with her homosexual coworker. On some level, she probably believes that her own convictions about sexuality are superior to those of her colleague. This value judgment can manifest in numerous ways — through religious conviction, views on social issues, assessments of workplace effectiveness, or virtually any other dimension of life. The point is that Nichole likely believes her perspective on sexuality is correct and that her coworker's choices are intrinsically wrong. Left unaddressed, this attitude may eventually lead to a situation "characterized by antagonism" (Hernandez, 2010, p. 33).

Why Communicating Across Diverse Backgrounds Matters

It is vital for employees to be able to communicate with a wide range of people from diverse social backgrounds, for several important reasons. First, the professional sphere of life is markedly different from one's personal sphere. In personal life, individuals exercise considerable and nuanced control over whom they interact with and how. In the workplace, however, that same autonomy is simply not available. Employees are not only likely to encounter but are required to interact with people whose social backgrounds differ significantly from their own. How well one manages this is an intrinsic part of professionalism. True professionals achieve their objectives and perform their jobs regardless of personal discomfort or cultural differences.

This notion of cultural diversity is at the core of Nichole's difficulty and explains why the ability to communicate across different backgrounds is so important. Her coworker's sexual orientation represents a cultural difference that Nichole must set aside in order to perform her job. Her professional function is not to work exclusively with people who share her sexual orientation — it is to collaborate with others and achieve her department's goals. Doing so necessarily requires working effectively with people from diverse social backgrounds.