Expanding the Concept of Diversity: Discussing Sexual Orientation in the Management Classroom

Although diversity in the workforce is an important issue for organizations and management educators, sexual orientation is one source of workforce diversity that is rarely examined. However, students may feel uncomfortable discussing the issue in the classroom. This article describes an exercise conducted to see whether students' analysis of a case study differed if the protagonist was homosexual or heterosexual. The results, which showed differences between the two groups, and the implications for management education are described.