Towards Making an Invisible Diversity Visible: A Study of Socially Structured Barriers for Purple Collar Employees in the Workplace

Zia Ullah, Esra AlDhaen, Rana Tahir Naveed, Naveed Ahmad, Miklas Scholz, Tasawar Abdul Hamid and Heesup Han
Additional contact information
Zia Ullah: Leads Business School, Lahore Leads University, Lahore 54000, Pakistan
Esra AlDhaen: Marketing Department, College of Business & Finance, Ahlia University, Manama 10878, Bahrain
Rana Tahir Naveed: Department of Economics and Business Administration, Art & Social Sciences Division, University of Education, Lahore 54770, Pakistan
Naveed Ahmad: Faculty of Management Studies, University of Central Punjab, Lahore 54000, Pakistan
Miklas Scholz: Department of Building and Environmental Technology, Division of Water Resources Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Lund University, P.O. Box 118, 221 00 Lund, Sweden
Tasawar Abdul Hamid: School of Commerce, Cardiff Metropolitan University, Cardiff CF5 2YB, UK
Heesup Han: College of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Sejong University, Seoul 143-747, Korea

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 16, 1-16

Abstract: Eunuchs and members of the transgender community are yet to be recognized as an effective human resource and this diversity in the workforce is still invisible. A tiny portion of the transgender community is employed, and they are tagged as purple collar employees. It is generally claimed that coworkers do not accept members of the transgender community in the workplace and are not willing to work with them due to their different personal, social, and work-related characteristics. This study aimed to investigate coworkers’ attitudes towards transgender colleagues and their willingness to work with them in the workplace. We selected the Punjab province of Pakistan as the context for the study where more than five hundred thousand members of the transgender community live. We collected data from 363 randomly selected respondents working in an organization where transgender people also worked. We applied Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to analyze the data. Our findings revealed that coworkers do not hesitate to work with transgender people merely based on their biological differences. Coworkers’ willingness was more influenced by social attributes (trust and support) and work attributes (knowledge, ability, and motivation) irrespective of gender differences. The study strongly suggests tapping this invisible human resource and mainstreaming this resource to emancipate transgender people from poverty and to bring a productive diversity in the workforce. Government should frame policies to provide all human rights including national identity, health and educational facilities, and organizations should provide transgender people with jobs to properly utilize this untapped human resource.

Keywords: transgender; invisible diversity; workplace barriers; personal attributes; social attributes; work attributes (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

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