Gender Identity And The Culture Of Organizations

Gender, Identity and the Culture of Organizations considers how organizations operate as spaces in which minds are gendered and men and women constructed. This edited collection brings together four powerful themes that have developed within the field of organizational analysis over the past two decades: organizational culture; the gendering of organizations; post-modernism and organizational analysis; and critical approaches to management. A range of essays by distinguished writers from countries including the UK, USA, Canada, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands and Sweden, explore innovative methods for the critical theorizing of organizational cultures. In particular, the book reflects the growing interest in the impact of organizational identity formation and its implications for individuals and organizational outcomes in terms of gender. The book also introduces research designs, methods and methodologies by which can be used to explore the complex interrelationships between gender, identity and the culture of organizations.

Gender, Identity and the Culture of Organizations considers how organizations operate as spaces in which minds are gendered and men and women constructed. This edited collection brings together four powerful themes that have developed within the field of organizational analysis over the past two decades: organizational culture; the gendering of organizations; post-modernism and organizational analysis; and critical approaches to management. A range of essays by distinguished writers from countries including the UK, USA, Canada, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands and Sweden, explore innovative methods for the critical theorizing of organizational cultures. In particular, the book reflects the growing interest in the impact of organizational identity formation and its implications for individuals and organizational outcomes in terms of gender. The book also introduces research designs, methods and methodologies by which can be used to explore the complex interrelationships between gender, identity and the culture of organizations.

An engaging contribution to the increasing body of knowledge about gender and organizations, Gender, Culture and Organizational Change examines gender-based inequality in organizations and considers how sexual and social relations between women and men based on sexuality, power and control determine the cultures, structures and practices of organization and the experiences of men and women working in them. Gender, Culture and Organizational Change represents a decade of experience of managing change and implementing theory in public sector organizations during a period of major social, political and economic transition and analyses the progress that has been made. It expands to make wider connections with women and trade unions in Europe and management development for women in the "developing" countries of Africa and Asia. It will be valuable reading for students in social policy, gender studies and sociology and for professionals with an interest in understanding the dynamics of the workplace.

The author discusses her focus upon the relations between gender, power and culture in organizations, and upon the need to come to grips with the pervasive, elusive and ambiguous nature of gender in work settings, including through allusive, metaphoric analyses. She introduces two key metaphors for the book. The first is of the sexual contract, which centres on the sexuality of organizations and 'static' gender difference. The second, of the alchemic wedding, highlights a plurality of cultural models of femaleness and woman/work relationships, and processes of dynamic difference, transformation and transcendence. Gender, Symbolism and Organizational Cultures will be essential reading for students and all those interested in issues of gender, power and change in organizations, in organizational theory and behaviour, the psychology and sociology of organizations, and women's studies.

Organizational Culture and Identity discusses the literature concerned with culture in organizations and explains why the term has been invoked with such enthusiasm. Martin Parker presents further ways of thinking about organizations and culture which suggest that organizational cultures should be seen as `fragmented unities' in which members identify themselves as collective at some times and divided at others.

"At last there is a lucid, well-written OB book, which covers key issues required in OB teaching, but which has a mind of its own. Students and faculty will recognize this is more than standard fare." - Bill Cooke, Manchester Business School

This work of reference represents a remarkably complete, detailed and extensive review of the field of gender, work and organization in the second decade of the 21st century. Its authors represent eight countries and many disciplines including management, sociology, political science, and gender studies. The chapters, by top scholars in their areas of expertise, offer both reviews and empirical findings, and insights and challenges for further work. The chapters are organized in five sections: Histories and Philosophies; Organizing Work and the Gendered Organization; Embodiment; Globalization; and Diversity. Theoretical and conceptual developments at the cutting edge of the field are explicated and illustrated by the handbook’s authors. Methods for conducting research into gender, work and organization are reviewed and assessed as well as illustrated in the work of several chapters. Efforts to produce greater gender equality in the workplace are covered in nearly every chapter, in terms of past successes and failures. Military organizations are presented as one of the difficult to change in regards to gender (with the result that women are marginalized in practice even when official policies and goals require their full inclusion). The role of the body/embodiment is emphasized in several chapters, with attention both to how organizations discipline bodies and how organizational members use their bodies to gain advantage. Particular attention is paid to sexuality in/and organizations, including sexual harassment, policies to alleviate bias, and the likelihood that future work will pay more attention to the body’s presence and role in work and organizations. Many chapters also address “change efforts” that have been employed by individuals, groups, and organizations, including transnational ones such as the European Union, the United Nations, and so on. In addition to its value for teachers and students within this field, it also offers insights that would be of value to policy makers and practitioners who need to reflect on the latest thinking relating to gender at work and in organizations.

An understanding of identity is fundamental to a complete understanding of organizational life. While conventional management textbooks nod to in-groups, cohesion and discrimination, this text offers instead a deeper, more nuanced understanding of why people, groups and organizations behave the way they do. With conceptions of identity perhaps less stable than they have ever been, the authors make complex theoretical issues accessible to the reader through the use of lively examples from popular culture. The authors present an overview of the key issues, as well as an examination of cutting-edge research and topical forces currently re-defining identity, such as globalisation, the fair trade movement and online identities. This text is a succinct, relevant and exciting overview of the field of identity studies as it relates to business and management and applied social sciences, an is an invaluable resource to undergraduate and postgraduate students of management on any course that has an identity component.