Kathryn Haynes

Moving the gender agenda or stirring chicken's entrails?: Where next for feminist methodologies in accounting?

Purpose – The paper critiques recent research on gender and accounting to explore how feminist methodology can move on and radicalise the gender agenda in the accounting context. Design/methodology/approach – After examining current research on gender and accounting, the paper explores the nature of feminist methodology and its relation to epistemology. It explores three inter-related tenets of feminist methodology in detail: Power and Politics, Subjectivity and Reflexivity. Findings – The paper suggests that much research in the accounting is concerned with gender-as-a-variable, rather than being distinctly feminist, thus missing the opportunity to radicalise the agenda. It makes suggestions for how a feminist approach to methodology could be applied to the accounting context. Originality/value – The paper calls for a wider application of a feminist approach to accounting research and where this might be applied. Keywords – feminism, methodology, epistemology, gender, accounting, power, reflexivity, subjectivity Paper type – conceptual paper

A therapeutic journey?: Reflections on the effects of research on researcher and participants

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the effects of undertaking research on both participants and researcher.Design/methodology/approach – Taking an auto/ethnographic approach, the paper provides a reflexive account of the impact of research on identity construction, especially in relation to the specific areas of the accounting profession and motherhood.Findings – There are potential therapeutic effects of undertaking and participating in research.Originality/value – The paper provides an analysis of a little considered area in qualitative research, namely the effects of the research on those involved.

Tensions in (re)presenting the self in reflexive autoethnographical research

The purpose of this paper is to explore a number of tensions arising in the presentation of autoethnographical research. The paper provides a reflexive autoethnographical account of undertaking and publically presenting autoethnographical research. The paper problematises the extent and form of disclosure; the voice and representation of the researcher; the difficulties in dealing with sensitive subjects; conflicts between public and private domains; questions of validity; the extent and form of theorisation of autoethnographical narratives; and emotion and performativity in presenting autoethnographical research. The paper provides an analysis of the potential of autoethnography, while exploring the presentational and performative context of academia.

Collaborating to Achieve Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability? Possibilities and problems

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the possibilities and problems for collaboration in the area of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability. The paper explores the nature and concept of collaboration and its forms, and critically evaluates the potential contribution a collaborative approach between agencies might offer to these agendas. Design/methodology/approach: The paper explores different forms of research on collaboration, together with a UK Government report on collaboration, to evaluate how the issue is addressed in theory and practice. Findings: Sustainable development creates extensive challenges for a wide range of agencies, including governments, non-governmental organizations, businesses and civil society. It is unlikely, however, that solutions will be found in any one quarter. Collaboration between agencies in some form would seem a logical step in supporting measures towards a more responsible and environmentally sustainable global economy. Originality/value: The paper offers new insights into developing a research and praxis agenda for collaborative possibilities towards the advancement of CSR and sustainability.

Exploring ourselves: Exploiting and resisting gendered identities of women academics in accounting and management

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to examine gendered identities of women academics by exploring the interplay and exploitation of internal and external, personal and academic, identities. The paper also considers the relative prioritisation of the three main academic activities of teaching, research, and administration, in which an enhanced emphasis on research performance, as opposed to teaching and administration, is what is often deemed to represent “success” in academia. Design/methodology/approach – Drawing on autoethnographical detail, the paper reflects on the complexities of identities as they are constructed, developed, experienced and understood both by themselves and by others. By presenting several short autobiographical vignettes, the paper examines perceptions of the gendered identity of women in academia as caring, “motherly” and nurturing, and demonstrates attempts to exploit so‐called “natural” feminine, mothering traits as a means of fulfilling the pastoral and administrative components of universities. Findings – In considering such stereotypes, the paper addresses examples of their self‐fulfilment, whilst considering how academic structures and practices also impose such distinctions, in a context where academic “success” is often typified by research, publications and academic networking. Originality/value – The paper considers both possibilities for resistance and the negative implications for the career success of women academics, arguing that, until these gendered stereotypes are challenged, women academics will continue to be disadvantaged within academic institutions.

Sexuality and sexual symbolism as processes of gendered identity formation: An autoethnography of an accounting firm

Purpose - The aim of this paper is to critically evaluate sexuality and sexual symbolism within the organisational culture of an accounting firm to explore how it is implicated in processes of gendering identities of employees within the firm. Design/methodology/approach - The paper uses a reflexive autoethnographical approach, including short vignettes, to analyse the inter-relationships between gender, sexuality and power. Findings - By exploring the symbolic role of artefacts, images, language, behaviours and buildings in creating and maintaining gendered relations, male sexual cultures and female sexual countercultures, the paper finds that sexual symbolism in this accounting firm entwines gendered power and domination, practice and resistance, in complex cultural codes and behaviours. It draws out implications for organisations and accounting research. Originality/value - The paper extends current conceptualisation of gendered constructs in accounting to include sexuality; applies organisational and feminist theory to autoethnographical experience in accounting; and contributes a seldom-seen insight into the organisational symbolism and culture of a small accounting firm, rather than the oft-seen focus on large firms.

Exploring metaphors of capitals and the framing of multiple capitals: Challenges and opportunities for

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the potential of the metaphor of capital, and to chart the development of the multiple capitals concept in the International Framework and consider how it might develop and be used. In doing so, the paper discusses the implications of the contributions to this special issue in the further development of the capitals concept. Design/methodology/approach – The authors draw on documents of the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC) and review the literature on capitals to consider the formation of the metaphor of multiple capitals. This is reflected upon while recognising the varied involvement of the authors with the IIRC capitals conception. The challenges of conceiving a multiple capitals framework are critiqued with reference to empirical and theoretical contributions drawn from recognition of planetary boundaries, gendered capitals, power and intersection of capitals and important practical and conceptual insights raised by papers in th...

Power and politics in gender research: a research note from the discipline of accounting

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to offer a research note exploring how feminist methodologies could bring new insights into research on gender in the accounting context.Design/methodology/approach – The paper applies some central tenets of feminist research methodology to a brief critique of current research on gender and accounting, in order to overcome some of the power relationships inherent within the research and define a more explicitly political research agenda.Findings – The paper suggests that much research in the accounting is concerned with gender‐as‐a‐variable, rather than being distinctly feminist, thus missing the opportunity to radicalise the agenda. It calls for a wider application of feminist methodology to the accounting context.Originality/value – This paper offers a brief insight into the discipline of accounting to discuss the interaction of research methodology and gender in this particular environment.

A two-year stretch : the functions of an identity workspace in mid-career identity work by management academics

This article examines the way in which identity workspaces function to facilitate and stimulate transitions at mid-career. We explore our collective experience as a cohort of a mid-career management academics participating in a 2-year fellowship program, which acted as an identity workspace in which mid-career identity work took place. Using insights from our narratives, interviews, and experiences, we demonstrate how the fellowship provided rites of passage, experimentation, and social defenses, and we analyze our identity work, in relation to mid-career development, disciplinary orientation, and relationships with existing institutions. We conceptualize the identity workspace as a liminal zone in which to experiment with provisional selves, finding that identity workspaces function through alterity as well as identity, and at a communal as well as individual level. The article draws out the challenges for the academic community to facilitate mid-career identity work experienced in this identity workspace within existing institutions.

Managing Services: Challenges and Innovation

Preface 1. Managing Services and the Service Sector: An Introduction 2. Service Measurement and Definition: Challenges and Limitations 3. The Shifting Terrain of Service Operations Management 4. Employment in Service and the Service sector 5. Gender and Diversity Challenges in Professional Services Firms 6. Management Innovation in the UK Consulting Industry 7. Society s Grand Challenges: What Role for Services? 8. Reconceptualising Service through a Service-Dominant Logic 9. Innovation in Services: An Overview 10. Offshoring and Outsourcing of Administrative and Technical Services: a Modularity Perspective 11. Service Systems for Value Co-Creation