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Diversity Management in Public Administration: Effects of Institutional Context Conditions on the Experiences of Discrimination of LGBTIQ* individuals


Diversity and equal opportunity are the talk of the day. In public administration, the term diversity management also covers numerous measures and tools that are supposed to ensure the equality of all employees – independent of gender or sexual orientation. Nonetheless, public administrations still appear to have room for development in some aspects.

In this context, this research project studies the perceived discrimination experiences of LGBTIQ* individuals who are employed in the public sector. Specifically, it aims to analyze whether – and if so -  what institutional context conditions (size of institution, structure of organization, team compositions etc.) have an influence on the perceived discrimination of LGBTIQ* persons.

Specifically, the following research questions will be answered:

  • What institutional context conditions influence the experiences of discrimination of LGBTIQ* employees in public administration?
  • How do these context conditions influence the experiences of discrimination of LGBTIQ* employees in public administration?
  • What intervention possibilities are suitable to limit the perceived discrimination of LGBTIQ* individuals given the institutional context conditions?


The expected project goal is the development of specific recommended actions for public administrations for them to recognize and alleviate the perceived discrimination of the employees – while taking their specific institutional context conditions into account.


In the first step, the research project takes an explorative approach: With the help of literature research  and (phone) interviews, institutional context conditions are identified that affect the discrimination experience of LGBTIQ* persons in public administration. In the next step, these institutional context conditions are operationalized for hypothesis-testing and tested in a larger quantitative study.

Project team:

Cooperation partner:

University of Technology and Economics Berlin. This is a joint project of two professors for Public and Nonprofit Management at the University for Technology and Economy Berlin and the Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences.

Web team - Faculty 3ID: 6536