Regine Bendl

Diversity management discourse meets queer theory

Purpose – The papers aim is to examine how diversity management discourse reproduces heteronormative essentialist notions of identity in organisations.Design/methodology/approach – This is a critical analysis of diversity management discourse that draws upon concepts, frames and the language of queer theory and insights from social identity construction to offer an alternative approach to reconceptualising diversity management. The key question of the paper is: what are the conceptions of identity underpinning the diversity management discourse and how do they reproduce heteronormativity?Findings – The paper unveils the reproduction of binaries in diversity management discourse. Possible counter strategies from queer theory are proposed to alter the diversity management discourse.Originality/value – This paper offers a first reading of diversity management discourse against the grain from a queer perspective and offers possible points of departure for altering diversity management discourse.

Gender Subtexts Reproduction of Exclusion in Organizational Discourse

Many scholars have set out to re-read, deconstruct and reconstruct organizational texts in terms of gender. Their work examines the gender subtexts in the extant literature. First, this text uses the term gender subtext and discusses the methodological basis of gender subtext discourse. Then, eight forms of gender subtext are presented, which reflect the current reproduction of gender in organizational discourse. These variations of gender subtext are based on a re-reading of 24 texts. This paper forms part of a wider intellectual objective of creating discursive space, which transgresses mainstream malestream disciplinary borders, aiming to create gendered organization theory.

Recalibrating Management: Feminist Activism to Achieve Equality in an Evolving University

In this paper we examine the process of incorporating gender equality into a higher education institution as it evolves into a managerial university. The case illustrates the ongoing processes between structure, activism and features of gender equality, and provides insights into how activists adapt to changes in governance and influence managerial responses to equality. Tracing the interaction of employee activism with new managerialism over nearly two decades, four phases of change are identified. These provide a basis for generating two concepts – managerial recalibration and individual activism – while challenging the social abeyance hypothesis of social movements.

Revisiting feminist activism at managerial universities

Purpose – In this paper the authors aim to examine the forms in which feminist activism is played out at contemporary managerial universities and pose the following question: what notions of feminist activism and feminist theory have to be revisited in order to sustain the target of gender equality and support its move further into the centre and the mainstream of managerial universities?Design/methodology/approach – Based on action research the authors document a workshop which they organised for different constituencies (administrators, researchers and feminist activists) working towards gender equality at an Austrian university and discuss its results in the context of feminist theory.Findings – The five voices collected at the workshop show that feminist theories are still the underlying guiding principles for feminist activism towards gender equality at managerial universities. As this is the first time that different generations of feminist activists have been present at managerial universities and ...

Executive search as ethnosociality: A cross-cultural comparison

In this article, we explore how executive search consultants in Austria, Finland and Sweden address ethnicity. Our findings suggest that while consultants working in these different sociocultural settings may attribute different meanings to ethnicity, they share a tendency to evade questions of ethnicity with regard to the search process. We specify three discursive practices that serve to eliminate questions of ethnicity from executive search: constructing whiteness as self-evident, constructing varieties of whiteness (articulating deficiency and lack for those not belonging to Us), and distancing responsibility for the current situation to clients and society. In view of these findings, we argue that executive search can be understood as an arena for ethnosociality that stops cultural diversity at the door of management suites and serves to undermine efforts to promote cross-cultural understanding in organizations. Our study indicates that sustaining whiteness as a privileged ethnicity takes multiple forms. While executive search consultants play an important role in these processes, it is suggested that they inherit a more fundamental problem in society and they have few opportunities to change the ethnic status quo at the top.

Magie der Meritokratie. Hindernisse transformativer Geschlechterpolitik in Organisationen

Meritokratische Gesellschaften wenden das Leistungsprinzip als Garant und Gradmesser fur gerechte Verteilung an. Die damit verbundene Chancengleichheitsannahme wird aber nicht realisiert. Wir sprechen daher vom Mythos der Meritokratie und weisen auf vielfaltige Probleme sozialer Ungleichheit, besonders auch auf die anhaltende Geschlechterungleichheit hin. In der Debatte uber die Forderungen des WGBU sehen wir den dringenden Bedarf, die Agenda zu erweitern und die transformative Geschlechterpolitik mit zu berucksichtigen. Wir betrachten Arbeitsorganisationen als Orte und Treiber der Transformation und regen an, Organisationen als gesellschaftliche Einrichtungen zu verstehen, die eine Transformation in Richtung Geschlechterdemokratie, Geschlechtergerechtigkeit und Geschlechtergleichstellung wirksam vorantreiben konnen.

An indisputable “holy trinity”? On the moral value of equality, diversity, and inclusion

There seems to exist a widespread, unquestioned and unquestionable consent, both in research and practice, that there is a moral value inherent in equality and related initiatives toward diversity and inclusion. However, this consent is primarily based on political convictions and emotional reasons, and is without any strong ethical grounding. Whilst a considerable volume of research has been carried out into different facets of the economic value of initiatives toward equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI), comparatively little research has been undertaken into its moral value. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to structure the moral perspectives on EDI more precisely and more critically.,After discussing the interrelation of the three concepts equality, diversity and inclusion, the authors discuss the way in which initiatives toward diversity and inclusion are justified morally in literature. The authors point out the crucial position of equality, and then, subsequently, outline how different approaches to equality try to achieve moral legitimacy. Being an important group of initiatives in this debate, the authors subsequently reflect upon the moral (il)legitimacy of affirmative action (AA). The concluding section of this paper provides a brief summary of the findings.,The moral evaluation of equality, diversity and inclusion remains an under-theorized field. Within the discourse on equality, diversity and inclusion, the term “justice” is largely used in an intuitive way, rather than being rooted in a specific moral philosophy. As there are several conceivable, differing moral perspectives on EDI, one cannot expect an indisputable answer to the question as to whether a given approach toward equality, diversity and inclusion is morally praiseworthy or just. However, the widespread assumption that equality is morally praiseworthy per se, and that striving for equality morally justifies any initiative toward diversity and inclusion, is untenable.,This paper addresses the lack of theorizing on the moral value of initiatives toward equality, diversity, and inclusion, such as diversity management, AA or various equal opportunity approaches. Future research could enrich the discourse on the moral evaluation of diversity management, inclusion programs and organizational equality approaches with new philosophical facets and perspectives, perspectives that might differ from those taken in the predominantly American discourse.

Divers, intersektional und/oder queer? Multiparadigmatische Perspektiven in der Organisationsforschung

Intersektionalitat und queere Perspektiven finden immer mehr Eingang in die diversitatsorientierte Organisationsforschung. Beiden Ansatzen ist gemeinsam, dass sie ermoglichen, die (Re-)Produktionsprozesse der unterschiedlichen Diversitatskategorien verschrankt zu beleuchten und zu analysieren. Forschungspraktisch findet die Zusammenfuhrung der beiden Ansatze aktuell in der Organisationsforschung nur sehr rudimentar statt. Ziel des vorliegenden Beitrags ist es, das Potential der Verschrankung von Intersektionalitat mit queeren Perspektiven fur die organisationale Diversitatsforschung zu reflektieren, indem zunachst getrennt deren jeweilige historische Entwicklung, Relevanz, Potentiale und Limitationen aufgezeigt und danach Herausforderungen und Zukunftsperspektiven, basierend auf einer Verbindung der beiden Ansatze, prasentiert werden.

The stepfamily metaphor: further insights and alternatives for understanding the M&A discourse

The aim of this paper is to analyse the heuristic value of the stepfamily metaphor for describing and formulating non-economic issues of merged and acquired (M&A) companies. Based on organisational discourse methodology we evaluate the stepfamily metaphor introduced by Allred et al. and provide new insights into the nature, antecedents and processes of M&As. Firstly, we review arguments for considering M&A corporations as stepfamilies. Secondly, we introduce Cornelissen’s domain-interaction model for evaluating metaphors. Thirdly, we apply the model to appraise the heuristic value of the stepfamily metaphor. Lastly, we discuss how the stepfamily metaphor can transcend the limitations of rational-economic explanations for M&A failures and propose variations on the stepfamily to enhance understanding of M&A.

Gender Mainstreaming, Diversity Management and Inclusive Excellence: From Similarities and Differences to New Possibilities

During the past 20 years various policy initiatives and organizational strategies to improve the representation of women and reduce inequalities in higher education have emerged in the European Union (EU) and the United States (US). There are currently three prevailing strategies for bringing about equality: 1) Gender mainstreaming in the EU public non-profit sector, 2) diversity management in the EU and US for-profit sectors, and 3) inclusive excellence in the nonprofit subsector of US higher education. From a feminist perspective much more is needed to improve the status of women in higher education as well as to become more inclusive to individuals whose ethnicity/race, sexual orientation, age, religion or beliefs, disability, or nationality may differ from those the dominant group. Despite the increasing complexity and importance of equality strategies and the large bodies of literature associated with the first two strategies, there is limited research comparing their attributes (e.g., Bendl 2004), and the third strategy has yet to be critically analyzed.