Paradox lost: A systematic review of trans workplace research and the case for a trans epistemology

Abstract

The purpose of this review is to synthesize 92 target‐focused empirical studies about transgender and nonbinary employee experiences published between 2010 and 2025. By focusing on epistemological orientations, findings indicate studies vary in approach and interpretation, with 25 studies adopting a positivist approach that treats phenomena as objective and measurable, 41 that use a critical realist approach that considers the interaction between the individual and their context, and 23 that adopt a relativistic stance, where reality is viewed as socially constructed and meaning therefore dynamic and interpretive. Three studies combine approaches. Consequently, the studies analyzed rest on different assumptions about the nature of trans identity in the workplace, which may affect theory building and obscure why studying “transness” is critical to the advancement of organizational science. Though science and practice benefit from studies that treat trans employees as a social identity group, findings suggest that additional insight is gained when “transness” itself is studied as a unique and paradoxical way of knowing where gender is treated as an intrinsic way of being that can only take form in a social context. Adopting such an approach may allow researchers to focus less on the difficulties trans employees encounter individually and more on the organizational norms that perpetuate barriers for trans and cisgender people alike.