Debra E. Meyerson

Theories of Gender in Organizations: A New Approach to Organizational Analysis and Change1

ABSTRACT This chapter presents a framework for understanding gender and organizational change. We consider three traditional treatments of gender and discuss the limitations of each as a basis for organizational analysis and change. We then propose a fourth approach, which treats gender as a complex set of social relations enacted across a range of social practices in organizations. Having been created largely by and for men, these social practices tend to reflect and support men’s experiences and life situations and, therefore, maintain a gendered social order in which men and particular forms of masculinity dominate ( Acker, 1990 ). We provide numerous examples of how social practices, ranging from formal policies and procedures to informal patterns of everyday social interaction, produce inequities while appearing to be gender-neutral. Drawing on previous research and our own three-year action research project, we develop an intervention strategy for changing gender relations in organizations accordingly.

Advancing Gender Equity in Organizations: The Challenge and Importance of Maintaining a Gender Narrative

Building on Coleman and Rippins analysis of how the methodological approach we took in this project made it difficult for us to keep gender equity a primary goal of our organizational change efforts, we reflect on how our conceptual approach to gender, described in the Meyerson and Kolb paper, exacerbated this problem. We explore the consequences of losing the gender focus of our work for our ability to make meaningful change in organizations. Finally, we describe how we have developed our approach to organizational change so as to maintain our focus on gender as a basis of our critique and gender equity as an objective of our intervention.

Interpretations of stress in institutions: The cultural production of ambiguity and burnout.

This ethnographic study of interpretations of stress among hospital social workers reveals concrete ways in which institutional systems take form in the mundane actions and interpretations of individuals embedded in these systems. It also reveals how organizational cultures reflect and reinforce institutional conditions that have been negotiated in the interactions of individuals. Here, the institutional systems of medicine and social work come together in the everyday work of the social workers and result in two patterns of cultural dominance. Within these distinct types of culture emerge two forms of stress experience, including a dominant form, consistent with medical ideology, and a marginalized form, consistent with social work ideology. Some surprising patterns of interpretation emerge, including interpretations of ambiguity and burnout as normal, social, and desirable when the social work ideology is dominant. This institutional analysis of stress has theoretical, practical, and epistemological implications.

Interpreting Silence and Voice in the Workplace A Conversation about Tempered Radicalism among Black and White Women Researchers

This article began as an exploration of Black and White women’s efforts to address inequality and make changes in the workplace, but we soon turned the mirror back onto ourselves as Black and White women engaged in change efforts. Our struggles over interpreting the data revealed how Black and White women struggle to make sense of whether the other is a reliable ally. Black women wonder whether White women will raise their voices or be silent yet again. White women wonder whether Black women can trust that silence is sometimes a strategy. Charting a course through defensiveness, questioning, and some distinct “aha” moments led us to understand our phenomenon and ourselves more deeply. We end this article at a way station, not a final destination, with open questions about the prospects for cross-race collaboration.

Beyond Grantmaking Philanthropic Foundations as Agents of Change and Institutional Entrepreneurs

Studies examining the role of philanthropic foundations in advancing social change have primarily focused on the impact of foundations’ financial resources. Few scholars have analyzed how foundations also leverage social mechanisms to advance and legitimate desired change. We conceptualize philanthropic foundations as agents of change known as institutional entrepreneurs to illuminate the social mechanisms they employ in pursuit of institutional change. We study the case of charter schools within the field of U.S. public education, where foundations elevated a new organizational form—the charter management organization—by engaging in three social mechanisms: recombining cultural elements to establish the form, enforcing evaluative frameworks to assess the form, and sponsoring new professionals to populate the form with preferred expertise. We argue that foundations are distinctive due to their ability to simultaneously pursue social mechanisms that are often considered to be the realms of different types of institutional entrepreneurs.

The seam line : Arab workers and Jewish managers in the Israeli textile industry

In the current business scenario, the study of individuals’ behavior in a workplace is the key challenge for the managers. The psychology and perspective of every individual is different, and when two different personalities come in contact, there is a high risk of conflicts arising. Hence, a study of organization behavior and its concept has become necessary for every management student. The study that relates to behavior of individuals in a group and the organization has been described by various authors in differentiated ways. The book ORGB 2e, is also one of the books that helps in understanding the concepts of organization, behavior of individual, the processes adopted by the organizations for communication, formation of teams and other organizational processes. The set procedure in which the authors have divided the concepts in the book is appreciable. The flow that begins with understanding basic concept of organizational behavior, which is then carried forward in understanding behavior of individual, and that continues with interpersonal behavior and structure of organization as a whole.1. Introduction 2. Methods: reflections on the field 3. On factory daughters and the culture of the workplace 4. The sewing plants: scenes from the social arena 5. The seamstresses: in motion toward reconstructing work and life 6. The supervisors: go betweens 7. The managers: embodying a double system 8. Out with the old and in with the Hi-Tex 9. Conclusion Notes References Index.

The separation of law and justice: Managing impressions of corporate ethics programs

This article is based on the study of two companies that differ in their definition of thics, one with a narrower definition than the other. The one with the narrower definition invited skepticism about its commitment to the spirit of ethics but was better to claims made against their own standards and language. The implications of these findings for corporate ethics programs are discussed.

Playing the Field: Implications of Scale in the California Charter School Movement

Whether the aim is to slow global warming, reduce poverty, or improve urban education, social entrepreneurs and philanthropists seek scalable solutions to the pressing social problems of our time. More recently, however, academics, nonprofit leaders, and consultants have questioned the emphasis on scale on two counts. First, a number of scholars have shown that organizations can significantly grow their impact without growing in size (Dees et al., 2004; Uvin et al., 2000; Wei-Skillern and Marciano, 2008). Second, social entrepreneurs and their observers have documented the challenges associated with scaling social change organizations.