The Role of Support for Transgender and Nonbinary Employees: Perceived Co-Worker and Organizational Support's Associations With Job Attitudes and Work Behavior

The development of diverse and inclusive workforces is increasingly being prioritized by organizations. However, organizations often struggle to adequately address the unique issues faced by transgender and nonbinary (TNB) people, and this can result in workplace discrimination, with deleterious consequences on employees' job attitudes and behavior, and their well-being. Co-worker and organizational support may play an important role for TNB employees' job attitudes and behavior. In an online survey with 225 TNB employees, we investigated how perceived co-worker support relates to job attitudes and work behavior, specifically job satisfaction, affective commitment, turnover intentions, job anxiety, and counterproductive work behavior. We also investigated whether these relationships were mediated by perceived organizational support. We found significant associations between perceived co-worker support and all job attitudes and work behavior. We also found that all of these relationships were mediated by the extent to which the organization was considered supportive. The findings thus suggest that companies should focus on supporting TNB employees at both the organizational and interpersonal level.Public Significance Statement Perceived organizational and co-worker support interact and jointly promote positive job attitudes and work behavior in TNB employees, namely more job satisfaction and affective commitment, and less turnover intentions, job anxiety, and counterproductive work behavior. Companies should thus focus on supporting TNB employees at both the organizational and interpersonal level.