J.A.C.M. Doorewaard

Covered by Equality: The Gender Subtext of Organizations:

This paper describes the results of an empirical study of the gender subtext in organizations. We examine the divergence of practice and impression of gender distinctions: gender inequality is still persistent in organizational practices while a dominant perception of equality occurs at the same time. Our analysis focuses on the processes (re)producing this divergence. We argue that both the persistency of gender inequality and the perception of equality emerge from a so-called gender subtext: the set of often concealed, power-based gendering processes, i.e. organizational and individual arrangements (objectives, measures, habits), systematically (re)producing gender distinctions. These gendering processes are examined in five departments in the Dutch banking sector. We explore the gender subtext in three organizational settings: show pieces (the token position of the few women in top functions), the mommy track (the side track many women with young children are shunted to) and the importance of being asked (the gendered practices of career making).

Individual autonomy in work teams: The role of team autonomy, self-efficacy, and social support

Task autonomy is long recognized as a means to improve functioning of individuals and teams. Taking a multilevel approach, we unravelled the constructs of team and individual autonomy and studied the interplay between team autonomy, self-efficacy, and social support in determining individual autonomy of team members. Hierarchical regression results of a survey among 733 members of 76 health care teams showed that individual autonomy was related not only to the level of team autonomy, but also to self-efficacy and social support. Moreover, results suggested that social support moderates the extent to which team autonomy is incorporated into the individual tasks of team members. In highly autonomous teams, individuals experiencing moderate support from co-workers and supervisors reported higher individual autonomy than members experiencing either low or very high support.

Self-Managing Teamwork and Psychological Well-Being Review of a Multilevel Research Domain

In this article, we present a qualitative discussion of 28 empirical studies on self-managing team-work and psychological well-being. We address three questions: (a) Which variables did they include and which results did they obtain?; (b) How did authors deal with issues of level of theory, measurement, and analysis?; and (c) Do such level issues affect the results of the studies? This review demonstrates that only job satisfaction is consistently related to self-managing teamwork. In addition, authors often fail to specify the level of their theory, thereby impeding judgment on the appropriateness of analysis procedures. Finally, we present preliminary evidence that level issues may affect the results. We plead for the incorporation of multilevel theory andanalysistechniquesintothefieldofself-managingteamworkandpsychologicalwell-being.

A multi-level mediation model of the relationships between team autonomy, individual task design, and psychological well-being

The past decade and a half witnessed a global trend towards the use of participatory team-based interventions. In the present contribution, we address the widespread idea that the resulting increase in team autonomy fosters employee psychological well-being. Specifically, we address the common but mostly implicit rationale for this widespread idea that the well-being effect occurs because the increase in team autonomy is reflected in individual task design. We collected survey data from 733 members of 76 healthcare teams. The results of multi-level mediation analyses were supportive of our theoretical framework. The higher the team autonomy, the more active learning behaviour and the less emotional exhaustion team members reported. These relationships were mediated by the individual job characteristics of autonomy, variety and demands. These results draw attention to individual task design in a team context.