Discourses of leadership: Gender, identity and contradiction in a UK public sector organization (original) (raw)

Changing Leadership and Gender in Public Sector Organizations

British Journal of Management

The aim of this paper is to examine the ways in which leadership at middle management level in the public realm is gendered. This is attempted largely through a consideration of academic literature, supported by some empirical findings from a research investigation into higher education and social work in Sweden and England and a review of literature that reveals varying types of leadership characterized as masculinist. Taking the position that context shapes social relationships and subject positions, and provides opportunities as well as constraints, we consider leadership in the public sector under the sway of new public management, framed by neo‐liberalism and the valorization of competition, self‐interested instrumentality, uncertainty and risk, operationalized in public sector organizations through performative regimes. It is argued that while some women and men are willing participants in the new regimes, others are antagonistic or ambivalent, finding themselves mired in neo‐...

The Discursive Construction of gender in contemporary Management literature

Journal of business ethics, 2008

This article analyses how the new type of worker is constructed in respect to gender in current management literature. It contributes to the increasing body of work in organisational theory and business ethics which interrogates management texts by analysing textual representations of gender. A discourse analysis of six texts reveals three inter-connected yet distinct ways in which gender is talked about. First, the awareness discourse attempts to be inclusive of gender yet reiterates stereotypes in its portrayal of women. Second, within the individualisation discourse, formerly discriminatory elements of gender lose their importance but a gender dimension reappears within the idea of 'Brand You'. Third, in the new ideal discourse, women are constructed as ideal workers of the future. The article argues that there is little space within this web of discourses for an awareness of the continued inequalities experienced by women in relation to men to be voiced and that this rhetorical aporia contributes to a 'post-feminist' climate.

Theorizing the micro-politics of resistance: New public management and managerial identities in the UK public services

Organization studies, 2005

This article presents theoretical and empirical analysis of the micro-politics of resistance. We theorize resistance at the level of meanings and subjectivities, drawing attention to the multidirectional and generative effects in identity construction. We address two shortcomings present in much of the theorizing of resistance, namely, the conceptualizing of resistance as a set of actions and behaviours, and the narrow conception of resistance as a reaction to repressive power. Focusing on the UK public services, we draw from texts generated within interviews with public service professionals in the police, social services and secondary education to explore the meanings individuals ascribe to the discourse of New Public Management (NPM) and their positioning within these meanings. The analysis contributes to the study of organizations in three respects. First, it offers a more detailed and varied understanding of resistance that can account for different motivations and ways in which individuals struggle to transform meanings. Second, drawing on specific cases, it illustrates the process of the micro-politics of resistance. Third, it presents an empirically grounded understanding of the character and conduct of NPM that can accommodate greater complexity and nuance.

Negotiating Identity and Performing Leadership in Discourse A Gender-Based Study

NUST Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities

This research adopts a social constructionist perspective and a discourse approach to explore how men and women in leadership positions construct their identities and perform leadership within workplace talk. The key objectives of the study are to analyze uniformity and variation in the discourse features and interactional styles, the role of norms and stereotypes in determining the linguistic choices available to male and female leaders, and the implications of uniformity and variation in their language use. The theoretical framework of this study draws on Judith Butler’s Performativity theory (1990) along with West and Zimmerman’s concept of ‘Doing gender’ (1987). The data for this research is collected through semi-structured in-depth interviews conducted with males and females holding leadership positions in the selected research sites. The data analysis reveals that both male and female leaders use a variety of discourse features and employ language as an effective tool to nego...

Why Can’t I Be You? The Hidden Gender Assumptions in Management Narratives

This work examines the assumptions related to gender in management narratives. Through four interviews to managers of the public sector I developed a piece where their stories constitute the basis for a general analysis on gender in these positions. The project can be considered a permanent dialog between personal narratives and theoretical approaches since all the material is analysed through a discursive perspective, studying notions like performativity and biopower which complement the ideas of narrative inquiry. Using this methodology it is possible to identify a performative network that operates on the managerial dimension, which facilitates segregation and the emergence of discriminative roles for women, discarding essentialist ideas that state what is the natural position of them due to their intrinsic traits. Any kind of production coming from this set of norms should be examined carefully since it will be shaped under the logics of the masculine paradigm so the direction of feminist researchers and activists should be to exceed this network through subversion. This project intends to be a contribution on that path, identifying hidden traces of sexism even at environments where gender is not a technical concern but on practice the exclusion is still present. Finally I propose that public management could be the right area to start implementing non-discriminative policies since, on the contrary than the private sector, their drivers are not strictly economic so there is room for initiatives related to social equity, democratization and humanization.

• Dye, Kelly E., and Mills, Albert J. (2011) `Dueling Discourses at Work: Upsetting the Gender Order,’ Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences, 28/4, pp.427-439

Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences Revue Canadienne Des Sciences De L Administration, 2011

Findings of an extensive archival study of Pan American Airways (PAA) strongly support Acker's (1990) notion of the presence and importance of a dominant discourse of organizing logic in structuring a gendered order. Findings also demonstrate that the presence of alternative, but not necessarily feminist, discourses can serve to upset the gender order of organizations. Thus, we conclude that changing the organization's gender substructure (Acker, 1992b) by changing the dominant discourse or introducing competing discourses may help to destabilize "truths" and interrupt the perpetuation and reification of policies, practices, and understandings that are often taken for granted despite their ability to silence voices and privilege some groups over others.

Professional partner' or 'management's bitch'?: a discourse analytic study of the identity construction of HR practioners in English local government

2012

Sue Kinsey-HR identity in local government Acknowledgements My heartfelt thanks go to my supervisors, Professors Christine Coupland and Mike Humphreys for their unswerving support, wise words and encouragement. Even when I apparently disappeared for lengthy periods, they never gave up on me, as they might reasonably have done. I could not have achieved this work without the willing participation of the local government employees whose working lives are laid bare here. Finally, to my long-suffering partner, Ginny, and to my children, who have foregone weekend trips and crept about the house quietly for an unreasonable length of time: thank you for your patience, love and support.