Although research on the experiences of sexual minority employees has made significant progress in the past two decades, most studies have focused predominantly on the negative consequences sexual minority employees encounter in the face of workplace heterosexism. The role of change agent that sexual minority employees may play in terms of disrupting and advocating equal treatment has been overlooked. Further, very few studies related to sexual minority employees were conducted outside of USA. Through 2 studies conducted in China, we link the literature from institutional change and reasoned action theory to examine the factors would trigger lesbian and gay (LG) employees to engage in changing workplace heterosexism, the behaviors would LG employees display to change workplace heterosexism, and factors would impede/facilitate LG employees’ engagement in changing workplace heterosexism. Study 1 revealed that LG employees display both explicit and implicit change-oriented behaviors. Study 2 found that the experience of institutional contradiction derived from LG employees’ personal interest of receiving equal treatment and workplace heterosexism is the trigger for LG employees to have the intention to change workplace heterosexism and subsequently display change-oriented behaviors. In addition, LG employees’ organizational continuance commitment and perceived changeability play different roles in shaping LG employees’ intention to change and change-oriented behaviors. Key words: LG employees, institutional contradiction, change-oriented behavior, proactivity continuance commitment, perceived changeability
