ORIGINAL ARTICLE Mapping sexual orientation research in management: A review and research agenda Eliza K. Byington 1 | Georg F. B. Tamm 2 | Raymond N. C. Trau 3 1 Department of Work and Organisational Studies, University of Sydney Business School, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia 2 Department of Management and Marketing, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia 3 Department of Management, Macquarie University, North Ryde, New South Wales, Australia Correspondence Eliza K. Byington, Department of Work and Organisational Studies, University of Sydney Business School, University of Sydney, Room 4176, H70 – Abercrombie Building, Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia. Email: eliza.byington@sydney.edu.au Abstract Attitudes, norms, and laws regarding sexual orientation are undergoing a worldwide revolution. Managers and HR professionals play a key role in responding to these changes, and managing issues related to sexual orientation diversity in organizations. As such, the amount of management scholarship on sexual orientation has been rap- idly growing to help inform practice. However, at present, the literature is fragmen- ted across management specialty areas. This makes it difficult to have an overview of what has been learned to date, and detect research opportunities. Thus, this article aims to provide the first integrative review of sexual orientation research across the management field over 23 years. We use bibliometric techniques to (a) systematically identify and map 111 topics in this literature (map downloads from: https://bit.ly/ SOTopicMap), (b) identify topic trends and topic citation rates, and (c) derive an inductive taxonomy of major topic clusters. We then identify key theories and rela- tionships in the literature, review key findings for scholars and practitioners, and identify future research directions. Among these, we highlight the need to incorpo- rate sexual orientation as a standard demographic question in management research, and highlight best practices for doing so from other scientific fields. KEYWORDS sexual orientation, bisexual, gay, lesbian, LGB, diversity, bibliometric review 1 | INTRODUCTION The significant changes occurring in laws, norms, and attitudes regard- ing sexual orientation are likely to impact management practices and social dynamics in organizations in the years to come. Namely, over the last two decades, lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) identities have gained increased attention, and have rapidly shifted from taboo, to politically contested, to accepted in some contexts. These changes have numerous practical implications for organizations, and create a vast array of research opportunities. For example, 29 nations around the world have now legalized same-sex marriage—with implications for the partner benefits organi- zations provide their employees. This creates opportunities for organizational change research on how companies can successfully implement these changes. In India, the recent decriminalization of homosexuality has removed the risk of criminal conviction and up to 10 years in prison for an estimated 135 million people (Wildman, 2020). This has implications for the social identities employees can openly claim at work, as well as social dynamics among coworkers (Bowen & Blackmon, 2003). The growing importance of sexual orientation research is also underscored by the increasing prev- alence of LGB identification. In the United States, the number of indi- viduals identifying as LGB is approaching 11 million, with this portion of the population growing by 29% between 2012 and 2017 alone (Newport, 2018). Notably, this growth came almost entirely from Mil- lennials, of whom approximately 8.1% identify as LGB (or transgen- der 1 ) (Newport, 2018). In the United Kingdom, approximately 49% of people age 19–24 do not identify as “purely straight” (Dahlgreen & Eliza K. Byington and Georg F. B. Tamm contributed equally. DOI: 10.1002/hrm.22026 Hum Resour Manage. 2020;1–23. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/hrm © 2020 Wiley Periodicals LLC. 1