Organizational Behavior | Journals

The IUP Journal of Organizational Behavior

Exploring Experiences at Work Beyond the Binary: Identity, Inclusion and Allyship †

Article Details

Pub. Date	: April, 2022
Product Name	: The IUP Journal of Organizational Behavior
Product Type	: Article
Product Code	: IJOB020422
Author Name	: Sumitra Balakrishnan* and Mallhar Mohapatra**
Availability	: YES
Subject/Domain	: Arts & Humanities
Download Format	: PDF Format
No. of Pages	: 34

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Abstract

With progress in the fight for workplace equality for employees who do not have a cisgender identity, discrimination towards members of oppressed social classes is slowly becoming more covert. The paper studies two groups of stakeholders in organizations, non-cisgender employees and HR personnel, across multiple sectors to understand the provisions, challenges and implementation needs of such employees. Provisions and needs of non-cisgender employees as organizational members were studied. These included the sufficiency of imperative workplace facilities, provisions and policies for inclusion, the facilities and provisions for equal compensation, maternity and parental benefits, and remote working conditions.

Anti-harassment and anti-sexual harassment policies in the workplace, along with the willingness to report any incidents, were included. The importance of inclusivity as practiced in the organization and measures like allyship has been studied. HR managers were asked about the feasibility of implementation of progressive measures that help non-cisgender employees through infrastructure and anti-discrimination policies, inclusivity measures, bias at the workplace, measures to counter and prevent sexual harassment and abuse, allyship and creation of a non-cisgender friendly culture at their workplace. It was found that basic resource allocation and allyship can be facilitators for inclusivity.

Introduction

Staid definitions of gender and gender roles can perpetuate inequalities throughout one's life. Even though non-binary identification is becoming more widely accepted, binary thinking about gender imposes a social and behavioral framework in which numerous standards are frequently imposed inequitably. Gender researchers underline the significance of socialization and perpetuations on gender identity construction. For both men and women, expectations are imposed not just at the individual level but also at the institutional level; this leads to both binary genders changing behavioral aspects of