Workplace Contextual Supports for LGBT Employees: A Review, Meta‐Analysis, and Agenda for future Research

The past decade has witnessed a rise in the visibility of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. This has resulted in some organizational researchers focusing their attention on workplace issues facing LGBT employees. While empirical research has been appropriately focused on examining the impact of workplace factors on the work lives of LGBT individuals, no research has examined these empirical relationships cumulatively. The purpose of this study was to conduct a comprehensive review and meta‐analysis of the outcomes associated with three workplace contextual supports (formal LGBT policies and practices, LGBT‐supportive climate, and supportive workplace relationships) and to compare the relative influence of these workplace supports on outcomes. Outcomes were grouped into four categories: (a) work attitudes, (b) psychological strain, (c) disclosure, and (d) perceived discrimination. Results show that supportive workplace relationships were more strongly related to work attitudes and strain, whereas LGBT supportive climate was more strongly related to disclosure and perceived discrimination compared to the other supports. Our findings also revealed a number of insights concerning the measurement, research design, and sample characteristics of the studies in the present review. Based on these results, we offer an agenda for future research

Workplace climate, job stress, and burnout among gay men

In this survey study of 181 gay men, a minority stress framework informed an examination of the impact of workplace factors on the experience of burnout. Participants were employed in the same workplace for at least six months and had attained at least an undergraduate degree. Survey responses were gathered via the internet as well as from paper surveys. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) workplace climate was hypothesized to have an indirect effect (mediation/moderation) on the relationship between two predictors, gay identity and job stress, and one outcome, burnout. Hierarchical multiple regressions and a bootstrapped path analysis were used to estimate and evaluate the significance of indirect effects. These analyses suggested that LGBT workplace climate functioned as a significant mediator for the relationship between threat (a dimension of job stress) and personal efficacy (a dimension of burnout) and for the relationship between gay identity and personal efficacy. LGBT workplace climate did not function as a significant moderator. These results identify LGBT Workplace Climate as a mechanism through which chaotic work experiences and negative attitudes about sexual identity contribute to the feeling of inefficacy at work among gay men. These findings highlight the importance of understanding how improving workplace conditions for LGBT employees can prevent burnout and in turn, increase work performance and satisfaction

TTK inhibition radiosensitizes basal-like breast cancer through impaired homologous recombination

Increased rates of locoregional recurrence are observed in patients with basal-like breast cancer (BC) despite the use of radiation therapy (RT); therefore, approaches that result in radiosensitization of basal-like BC are critically needed. Using patients' tumor gene expression data from 4 independent data sets, we correlated gene expression with recurrence to find genes significantly correlated with early recurrence after RT. The highest-ranked gene, TTK, was most highly expressed in basal-like BC across multiple data sets. Inhibition of TTK by both genetic and pharmacologic methods enhanced radiosensitivity in multiple basal-like cell lines. Radiosensitivity was mediated, at least in part, through persistent DNA damage after treatment with TTK inhibition and RT. Inhibition of TTK impaired homologous recombination (HR) and repair efficiency, but not nonhomologous end-joining, and decreased the formation of Rad51 foci. Reintroduction of wild-type TTK rescued both radioresistance and HR repair efficiency after TTK knockdown; however, reintroduction of kinase-dead TTK did not. In vivo, TTK inhibition combined with RT led to a significant decrease in tumor growth in both heterotopic and orthotopic, including patient-derived xenograft, BC models. These data support the rationale for clinical development of TTK inhibition as a radiosensitizing strategy for patients with basal-like BC, and efforts toward this end are currently underway