Nancy Harding
Biographic Data
| ID | 3999951 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Nancy Harding |
| GIVEN NAMES | Nancy |
| FAMILY NAME | Harding |
| SIGNATURE | HARDING N |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Bradford |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5225-2870 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 32 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 357 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 31 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1989 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 11 |
Fifty years of fighting sex discrimination: Undermining entrenched misogynies through recognition and everyday resistance
This article marks the 50th anniversary of the passing of the UK’s Sex Discrimination Act (1975). The UK offers an important historical case study of how such laws are, or are not, translated into practice. The success of the Act is mixed: there has been progress but much more needs to be done. In this study, we seek understanding of the mechanisms through which changes, albeit limited, have been made, with the aim of identifying strategies for c…
Strangers in conversation: Judith Butler with gender, work and organization
Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analyzed during the current study
Re/searching leadership: A critique in two agonies and nine fits
Since the 19th century, much academic effort has been expended researching leadership. Bodies of theory have risen to dominance, proved unsatisfactory and been replaced by another generation of ultimately disappointing leadership thought. This repetitive pattern continues, so we ask what motivates this continuing, seemingly fruitless search? Focusing on researchers and not leadership per se, our analysis is inspired by two surprisingly complement…
If philosophers went on a leadership course: A (serious) farce in three Acts
Leadership development is big business, with business schools and private providers offering leadership development programmes claimed to help turn managers into wise, good and able leaders. Leadership development originated in philosophy and, in the Western tradition, dates back at least as far as Socrates. This article asks: how would philosophers qua wisdom-lovers [philo-sophes] respond to contemporary programmes? We use the dramatic licence o…
Organizational socialization as kin-work: A psychoanalytic model of settling into a new job
Socialization, the transition from newcomer to embedded organizational citizen, is an inevitable feature of organizational life. It is often a painful and traumatic experience, but why this is so, and how its difficulties can be ameliorated, is not well understood. This article addresses this issue by developing a new person-centred model of socialization. We introduce the concept of kin-work, i.e. the replication of one’s first experiences of be…
Instrumentality and influence of Fayol’s doctrine: History, politics and emotions in two post-war settings
Why does Administration Industrielle et Générale have a major status in the history of management thought? We argue that the rational reason for the enthusiasm for Fayol’s theory disguises the irrational and unconscious fears in societies for which the cool rationality of Fayol’s work offered a soothing balm. We discuss this in two different but relatively similar post-war settings—France in the 1920s, which saw the first major upsurge of interes…
On the Ethics of Psychometric Instruments Used in Leadership Development Programmes
The leadership development industry regularly claims to aid in developing effective, ethical leaders, using 360-degree psychometric assessments as key tools for so doing. This paper analyses the effects of such tools on those subjected to and subjectivised by them from a Foucauldian perspective. We argue that instead of encouraging ethical leadership such instruments inculcate practices and belief systems that perpetuate falsehoods, misrepresenta…
From female computers to male comput♂rs: Or why there are so few women writing algorithms and developing software
Software development is one of the few professions in Europe and the USA from which women are disappearing. Current explanations range from unproven assumptions that women cannot write algorithms to insights into the misogynistic culture of this profession. This article argues these explanations are inadequate, and illuminates how forms of masculinity constituted within software development put women in the ambivalent position of being either fem…
You Just Had to Get on with It: Exploring the Persistence of Gender Inequality through Women's Career Histories
This article examines the career histories of the first generation of UK women to enter professional employment in the 1970s and 1980s in comparatively large numbers. In so doing, it contributes to the sparse literature on older women's working life histories. Presenting empirical research on women's experiences in the legal and HR sectors, it reveals how women pioneers were often silenced by requirements to conform with male-dominated norms, val…
Writing Differently
Identity and Meaningful/Meaningless Work
This chapter draws on labor process theory to argue that the discourse of meaningfulness in the context of neoliberal capitalism may represent a means for organizations to control and manipulate individual identities. A “politics of meaningful work” is proposed that demonstrates how individuals move between abject alienation on the one hand and the proud identity associated with meaningful work on the other. Drawing on Marx’s notions of the alien…
Writing differently
This special issue of Management Learning on ‘Writing Differently’ builds on a groundswell of resistance to ‘scientific’ norms of academic writing. These norms are restrictive, inhibit the development of knowledge and excise much of what it is to be human from our learning, teaching and research. Contributors to the special issue explore how, released from these restrictions, it is possible to touch vulnerable flesh and invoke new political and e…
What Do We Mean by Performativity in Organizational and Management Theory? The Uses and Abuses of Performativity
John Austin introduced the formulation ‘performative utterance’ in his 1962 book How to Do Things with Words . This term and the related concept of performativity have subsequently been interpreted in numerous ways by social scientists and philosophers such as Lyotard, Butler, Callon and Barad, leading to the coexistence of several foundational perspectives on performativity. This paper reviews and evaluates critically how organization and manage…
Moving critical performativity forward
In this rejoinder, we draw attention to some of the possible performative effects of Spicer et al.’s (2016) commentary and reaffirm the importance, in our eyes, of the fundamentally political and material dimensions of performativity
Followers in leadership theory: Fiction, fantasy and illusion
This article introduces a critical approach to follower/ship studies through exploring the unarticulated but highly influential implicit academic theory of follower/ship that informs dominant paradigms of leadership. Research into follower/ship is developing apace but the field lacks a critical account. Such an absence of critical voice renders researchers unaware of the performative effect of their studies, that is, how their studies actively co…
Critical Essay: Reconsidering critical performativity
In recent years, we have witnessed the emergence of 'critical performativity', a concept designed to debate relationships between theory and practice and encourage practical interventions in organizational life. Notwithstanding its laudable ambition to stimulate discussion about engagement between critical management studies researchers and practitioners, we are concerned that critical performativity theory is flawed as it misreads foundational p…
The expectations and aspirations of a late-career professional woman
This article presents a powerful account of one late-career woman's lived experiences. Little is known about women who continue professional careers into their 50s and beyond. Here insights are offered into her aspirations and expectations, as she reflects upon a career fragmented by gendered caring responsibilities and the implications of ageism and sexism together with health and body for her late-career phase. The narrative enhances understand…
Reading leadership through Hegel’s master/slave dialectic: Towards a theory of the powerlessness of the powerful
This paper develops a theory of the subjectivity of the leader through the philosophical lens of Hegel’s master/slave dialectic and its recent interpretation by the philosopher Judith Butler. This is used to analyse the working life history of a man who rose from poverty to a leadership position in a large company and eventually to running his own successful business. Hegel’s dialectic is foundational to much Western thought, but in this paper, I…
Who is ‘the middle manager’
Middle managers occupy a central position in organizational hierarchies, where they are responsible for implementing senior management plans by ensuring junior staff fulfil their roles. However, explorations of the identity of the middle manager offer contradictory insights. This article develops a theory of the identity of the middle manager using a theoretical framework offered by the philosopher Judith Butler and empirical material from focus …
Writing materiality into management and organization studies through and with Luce Irigaray
There is increasing recognition in management and organization studies of the importance of materiality as an aspect of discourse, while the neglect of materiality in post-structuralist management and organization theory is currently the subject of much discussion. This article argues that this turn to materiality may further embed gender discrimination. We draw on Luce Irigaray's work to highlight the dangers inherent in masculine discourses of …
Is the ‘F’-word still dirty? A past, present and future of/for feminist and gender studies in Organization
This article looks back at 20 years of feminist/gender theory in Organization. In these years a very rich variety of articles has drawn on feminist and gender perspectives. This suggests that Organization is a welcome site for exploring feminist and gender theories and their contribution to critical analysis of organizations. However, the more theoretically sophisticated work that is to be found in feminist and gender studies has not yet been exp…
On Being At Work: The Social Construction of the Employee
Inspired by the work of the philosopher Judith Butler, influenced by Marx’s theory of alienation and intrigued by theories of death, this book develops an anti-methodological approach to studying working lives. Distinctions are drawn between labour (the tasks we do in our jobs) and work (self-making activities that are carried out at the workplace): between the less than human, zombie-like laborer and the working human self. Nancy Harding argues …
Lacan and sexual difference in organization and management theory: Towards a hysterical academy
The recent turn to Lacan's work in critically-oriented Organization and Management Theory signals a welcome focus on one of the 20th century's most influential thinkers. This article introduces Lacan's thesis on gender, making a case for its importance for understanding organizations. We discuss two contrasting receptions to Lacan's Seminar XX, from pro- and anti-Lacanian feminists, offer our own interpretation which can be summed up as a Lacania…
The impossibility of the ‘true self’ of authentic leadership
‘Authentic leadership’ is increasingly influential, with its promise to eliminate, and thus surpass, the weaknesses of previous models of leadership. This article uses object relations theory to argue, firstly, that authentic leadership as an indication of a leader’s true self is impossible and, secondly, that attempts at its implementation could lead to destructive dynamics within organizations. The authentic leadership model refuses to acknowle…
Leadership and charisma: A desire that cannot speak its name
Leadership has proved impossible to define, despite decades of research and a huge number of publications. This article explores managers’ accounts of leadership, and shows that they find it difficult to talk about the topic, offering brief definitions but very little narrative. That which was said/sayable provides insights into what was unsaid/ unsayable. Queer theory facilitates exploration of that which is difficult to talk about, and applying…
Writing materiality into management and organization studies through and with Luce Irigaray
There is increasing recognition in management and organization studies of the importance of materiality as an aspect of discourse, while the neglect of materiality in post-structuralist management and organization theory is currently the subject of much discussion. This article argues that this turn to materiality may further embed gender discrimination. We draw on Luce Irigaray's work to highlight the dangers inherent in masculine discourses of …
Critical Essay: Reconsidering critical performativity
In recent years, we have witnessed the emergence of 'critical performativity', a concept designed to debate relationships between theory and practice and encourage practical interventions in organizational life. Notwithstanding its laudable ambition to stimulate discussion about engagement between critical management studies researchers and practitioners, we are concerned that critical performativity theory is flawed as it misreads foundational p…
Who is ‘the middle manager’
Middle managers occupy a central position in organizational hierarchies, where they are responsible for implementing senior management plans by ensuring junior staff fulfil their roles. However, explorations of the identity of the middle manager offer contradictory insights. This article develops a theory of the identity of the middle manager using a theoretical framework offered by the philosopher Judith Butler and empirical material from focus …
Leadership and charisma: A desire that cannot speak its name
Leadership has proved impossible to define, despite decades of research and a huge number of publications. This article explores managers’ accounts of leadership, and shows that they find it difficult to talk about the topic, offering brief definitions but very little narrative. That which was said/sayable provides insights into what was unsaid/ unsayable. Queer theory facilitates exploration of that which is difficult to talk about, and applying…
Evidence‐based Management: The Very Idea
This essay critically evaluates the recent phenomenon of ‘evidence‐based management’ in public services that is especially prominent in health care. We suggest that the current approach, broadly informed by evidence‐based health care, is misguided given the deeply contested nature of ‘evidence’ within the discipline of management studies. We argue that its growing popularity in spite of the theoretical problems it faces can be understood primaril…
Lacan and sexual difference in organization and management theory: Towards a hysterical academy
The recent turn to Lacan's work in critically-oriented Organization and Management Theory signals a welcome focus on one of the 20th century's most influential thinkers. This article introduces Lacan's thesis on gender, making a case for its importance for understanding organizations. We discuss two contrasting receptions to Lacan's Seminar XX, from pro- and anti-Lacanian feminists, offer our own interpretation which can be summed up as a Lacania…
The impossibility of the ‘true self’ of authentic leadership
‘Authentic leadership’ is increasingly influential, with its promise to eliminate, and thus surpass, the weaknesses of previous models of leadership. This article uses object relations theory to argue, firstly, that authentic leadership as an indication of a leader’s true self is impossible and, secondly, that attempts at its implementation could lead to destructive dynamics within organizations. The authentic leadership model refuses to acknowle…
You Just Had to Get on with It: Exploring the Persistence of Gender Inequality through Women's Career Histories
This article examines the career histories of the first generation of UK women to enter professional employment in the 1970s and 1980s in comparatively large numbers. In so doing, it contributes to the sparse literature on older women's working life histories. Presenting empirical research on women's experiences in the legal and HR sectors, it reveals how women pioneers were often silenced by requirements to conform with male-dominated norms, val…
Followers in leadership theory: Fiction, fantasy and illusion
This article introduces a critical approach to follower/ship studies through exploring the unarticulated but highly influential implicit academic theory of follower/ship that informs dominant paradigms of leadership. Research into follower/ship is developing apace but the field lacks a critical account. Such an absence of critical voice renders researchers unaware of the performative effect of their studies, that is, how their studies actively co…
Queer(y)ing Public Administration
Queer theory, understood here as a set of political/politicized practices and positions which resist normative knowledge and identities, has emerged as a theoretical perspective having important emancipatory and explanatory power in the arts, humanities and social sciences. Queer theory resists definition ipso facto , residing as it does within a postructuralist paradigm. It has not hitherto featured within the discipline of public administration…
We Went Looking for an Organization but Could Find Only the Metaphysics of its Presence
This article explores the 'lifeworld theories' of organizations held by organizational actors, gathered from staff and managers of two 'organizations' as they went through a process of merger. Using Henri Lefebvre's theories of place and space read through a postmodernist lens to interrogate the data, we discovered amongst staff theories of the organization as place, arising out of the material territory in which they worked. Amongst managers and…
The expectations and aspirations of a late-career professional woman
This article presents a powerful account of one late-career woman's lived experiences. Little is known about women who continue professional careers into their 50s and beyond. Here insights are offered into her aspirations and expectations, as she reflects upon a career fragmented by gendered caring responsibilities and the implications of ageism and sexism together with health and body for her late-career phase. The narrative enhances understand…
Organizational socialization as kin-work: A psychoanalytic model of settling into a new job
Socialization, the transition from newcomer to embedded organizational citizen, is an inevitable feature of organizational life. It is often a painful and traumatic experience, but why this is so, and how its difficulties can be ameliorated, is not well understood. This article addresses this issue by developing a new person-centred model of socialization. We introduce the concept of kin-work, i.e. the replication of one’s first experiences of be…
From female computers to male comput♂rs: Or why there are so few women writing algorithms and developing software
Software development is one of the few professions in Europe and the USA from which women are disappearing. Current explanations range from unproven assumptions that women cannot write algorithms to insights into the misogynistic culture of this profession. This article argues these explanations are inadequate, and illuminates how forms of masculinity constituted within software development put women in the ambivalent position of being either fem…
Reading leadership through Hegel’s master/slave dialectic: Towards a theory of the powerlessness of the powerful
This paper develops a theory of the subjectivity of the leader through the philosophical lens of Hegel’s master/slave dialectic and its recent interpretation by the philosopher Judith Butler. This is used to analyse the working life history of a man who rose from poverty to a leadership position in a large company and eventually to running his own successful business. Hegel’s dialectic is foundational to much Western thought, but in this paper, I…
Moving critical performativity forward
In this rejoinder, we draw attention to some of the possible performative effects of Spicer et al.’s (2016) commentary and reaffirm the importance, in our eyes, of the fundamentally political and material dimensions of performativity
Re/searching leadership: A critique in two agonies and nine fits
Since the 19th century, much academic effort has been expended researching leadership. Bodies of theory have risen to dominance, proved unsatisfactory and been replaced by another generation of ultimately disappointing leadership thought. This repetitive pattern continues, so we ask what motivates this continuing, seemingly fruitless search? Focusing on researchers and not leadership per se, our analysis is inspired by two surprisingly complement…
Get Back into that Kitchen, Woman: Management Conferences and the Making of the Female Professional Worker
Conferences are a little studied aspect of working lives. In this article we explore how management conferences contribute to the continuing imbalance of power between men and women in management. We analyse data gathered from a reflexive ethnographic study of a management conference. We show that women arrive at conferences as knowing subjects, able easily to occupy the subject position of conference participant, but they are then subjected to p…
Equal Opportunities for Women in the NHS: The Prospects of Success
The position of women in the NHS suggests widespread latent discrimination. The prospects of developing equality of opportunity are not promising, as neither external agencies nor internal managers are capable of bringing about the necessary changes. However, changing demographic factors might result in enlightened personnel policies which will assist the development of equal opportunities
Strangers in conversation: Judith Butler with gender, work and organization
Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analyzed during the current study
If philosophers went on a leadership course: A (serious) farce in three Acts
Leadership development is big business, with business schools and private providers offering leadership development programmes claimed to help turn managers into wise, good and able leaders. Leadership development originated in philosophy and, in the Western tradition, dates back at least as far as Socrates. This article asks: how would philosophers qua wisdom-lovers [philo-sophes] respond to contemporary programmes? We use the dramatic licence o…
Fifty years of fighting sex discrimination: Undermining entrenched misogynies through recognition and everyday resistance
This article marks the 50th anniversary of the passing of the UK’s Sex Discrimination Act (1975). The UK offers an important historical case study of how such laws are, or are not, translated into practice. The success of the Act is mixed: there has been progress but much more needs to be done. In this study, we seek understanding of the mechanisms through which changes, albeit limited, have been made, with the aim of identifying strategies for c…
Equal Opportunities for Women in the NHS: The Prospects of Success
The position of women in the NHS suggests widespread latent discrimination. The prospects of developing equality of opportunity are not promising, as neither external agencies nor internal managers are capable of bringing about the necessary changes. However, changing demographic factors might result in enlightened personnel policies which will assist the development of equal opportunities
We Went Looking for an Organization but Could Find Only the Metaphysics of its Presence
This article explores the 'lifeworld theories' of organizations held by organizational actors, gathered from staff and managers of two 'organizations' as they went through a process of merger. Using Henri Lefebvre's theories of place and space read through a postmodernist lens to interrogate the data, we discovered amongst staff theories of the organization as place, arising out of the material territory in which they worked. Amongst managers and…
Evidence‐based Management: The Very Idea
This essay critically evaluates the recent phenomenon of ‘evidence‐based management’ in public services that is especially prominent in health care. We suggest that the current approach, broadly informed by evidence‐based health care, is misguided given the deeply contested nature of ‘evidence’ within the discipline of management studies. We argue that its growing popularity in spite of the theoretical problems it faces can be understood primaril…
Fear and loathing in Harrogate: Or an exploration of the mutual constitution of organisation and members
There have been no studies in organization research of conferences as part of the world of work. This paper describes a reflexive ethnographic study of one management conference. It finds that upon arrival at the places and spaces of the conference processes of self-making as conference attendee are set in train. Self-making subsequently takes place within processes of domination and subordination, achieved through fear, infantilization, disparag…
The “I”, the “me” and the “you know”: Identifying identities in organisations
Purpose “Identity” is of major interest in organisation studies, but as identity is concerned very much with subjectivity it is difficult to explore it empirically. The purpose of this paper is to offer a methodology for analysing interview transcripts designed to discover the ongoing processes of becoming of the self, or of identities, embedded in the data. This way of analysing qualitative data allows the development of theories of how others c…
Queer(y)ing Public Administration
Queer theory, understood here as a set of political/politicized practices and positions which resist normative knowledge and identities, has emerged as a theoretical perspective having important emancipatory and explanatory power in the arts, humanities and social sciences. Queer theory resists definition ipso facto , residing as it does within a postructuralist paradigm. It has not hitherto featured within the discipline of public administration…
Get Back into that Kitchen, Woman: Management Conferences and the Making of the Female Professional Worker
Conferences are a little studied aspect of working lives. In this article we explore how management conferences contribute to the continuing imbalance of power between men and women in management. We analyse data gathered from a reflexive ethnographic study of a management conference. We show that women arrive at conferences as knowing subjects, able easily to occupy the subject position of conference participant, but they are then subjected to p…
The impossibility of the ‘true self’ of authentic leadership
‘Authentic leadership’ is increasingly influential, with its promise to eliminate, and thus surpass, the weaknesses of previous models of leadership. This article uses object relations theory to argue, firstly, that authentic leadership as an indication of a leader’s true self is impossible and, secondly, that attempts at its implementation could lead to destructive dynamics within organizations. The authentic leadership model refuses to acknowle…
Leadership and charisma: A desire that cannot speak its name
Leadership has proved impossible to define, despite decades of research and a huge number of publications. This article explores managers’ accounts of leadership, and shows that they find it difficult to talk about the topic, offering brief definitions but very little narrative. That which was said/sayable provides insights into what was unsaid/ unsayable. Queer theory facilitates exploration of that which is difficult to talk about, and applying…
Lacan and sexual difference in organization and management theory: Towards a hysterical academy
The recent turn to Lacan's work in critically-oriented Organization and Management Theory signals a welcome focus on one of the 20th century's most influential thinkers. This article introduces Lacan's thesis on gender, making a case for its importance for understanding organizations. We discuss two contrasting receptions to Lacan's Seminar XX, from pro- and anti-Lacanian feminists, offer our own interpretation which can be summed up as a Lacania…
Is the ‘F’-word still dirty? A past, present and future of/for feminist and gender studies in Organization
This article looks back at 20 years of feminist/gender theory in Organization. In these years a very rich variety of articles has drawn on feminist and gender perspectives. This suggests that Organization is a welcome site for exploring feminist and gender theories and their contribution to critical analysis of organizations. However, the more theoretically sophisticated work that is to be found in feminist and gender studies has not yet been exp…
On Being At Work: The Social Construction of the Employee
Inspired by the work of the philosopher Judith Butler, influenced by Marx’s theory of alienation and intrigued by theories of death, this book develops an anti-methodological approach to studying working lives. Distinctions are drawn between labour (the tasks we do in our jobs) and work (self-making activities that are carried out at the workplace): between the less than human, zombie-like laborer and the working human self. Nancy Harding argues …
Reading leadership through Hegel’s master/slave dialectic: Towards a theory of the powerlessness of the powerful
This paper develops a theory of the subjectivity of the leader through the philosophical lens of Hegel’s master/slave dialectic and its recent interpretation by the philosopher Judith Butler. This is used to analyse the working life history of a man who rose from poverty to a leadership position in a large company and eventually to running his own successful business. Hegel’s dialectic is foundational to much Western thought, but in this paper, I…
Who is ‘the middle manager’
Middle managers occupy a central position in organizational hierarchies, where they are responsible for implementing senior management plans by ensuring junior staff fulfil their roles. However, explorations of the identity of the middle manager offer contradictory insights. This article develops a theory of the identity of the middle manager using a theoretical framework offered by the philosopher Judith Butler and empirical material from focus …
Writing materiality into management and organization studies through and with Luce Irigaray
There is increasing recognition in management and organization studies of the importance of materiality as an aspect of discourse, while the neglect of materiality in post-structuralist management and organization theory is currently the subject of much discussion. This article argues that this turn to materiality may further embed gender discrimination. We draw on Luce Irigaray's work to highlight the dangers inherent in masculine discourses of …
Followers in leadership theory: Fiction, fantasy and illusion
This article introduces a critical approach to follower/ship studies through exploring the unarticulated but highly influential implicit academic theory of follower/ship that informs dominant paradigms of leadership. Research into follower/ship is developing apace but the field lacks a critical account. Such an absence of critical voice renders researchers unaware of the performative effect of their studies, that is, how their studies actively co…
Critical Essay: Reconsidering critical performativity
In recent years, we have witnessed the emergence of 'critical performativity', a concept designed to debate relationships between theory and practice and encourage practical interventions in organizational life. Notwithstanding its laudable ambition to stimulate discussion about engagement between critical management studies researchers and practitioners, we are concerned that critical performativity theory is flawed as it misreads foundational p…
The expectations and aspirations of a late-career professional woman
This article presents a powerful account of one late-career woman's lived experiences. Little is known about women who continue professional careers into their 50s and beyond. Here insights are offered into her aspirations and expectations, as she reflects upon a career fragmented by gendered caring responsibilities and the implications of ageism and sexism together with health and body for her late-career phase. The narrative enhances understand…
What Do We Mean by Performativity in Organizational and Management Theory? The Uses and Abuses of Performativity
John Austin introduced the formulation ‘performative utterance’ in his 1962 book How to Do Things with Words . This term and the related concept of performativity have subsequently been interpreted in numerous ways by social scientists and philosophers such as Lyotard, Butler, Callon and Barad, leading to the coexistence of several foundational perspectives on performativity. This paper reviews and evaluates critically how organization and manage…
Moving critical performativity forward
In this rejoinder, we draw attention to some of the possible performative effects of Spicer et al.’s (2016) commentary and reaffirm the importance, in our eyes, of the fundamentally political and material dimensions of performativity
Identity and Meaningful/Meaningless Work
This chapter draws on labor process theory to argue that the discourse of meaningfulness in the context of neoliberal capitalism may represent a means for organizations to control and manipulate individual identities. A “politics of meaningful work” is proposed that demonstrates how individuals move between abject alienation on the one hand and the proud identity associated with meaningful work on the other. Drawing on Marx’s notions of the alien…
Writing differently
This special issue of Management Learning on ‘Writing Differently’ builds on a groundswell of resistance to ‘scientific’ norms of academic writing. These norms are restrictive, inhibit the development of knowledge and excise much of what it is to be human from our learning, teaching and research. Contributors to the special issue explore how, released from these restrictions, it is possible to touch vulnerable flesh and invoke new political and e…
Writing Differently
On the Ethics of Psychometric Instruments Used in Leadership Development Programmes
The leadership development industry regularly claims to aid in developing effective, ethical leaders, using 360-degree psychometric assessments as key tools for so doing. This paper analyses the effects of such tools on those subjected to and subjectivised by them from a Foucauldian perspective. We argue that instead of encouraging ethical leadership such instruments inculcate practices and belief systems that perpetuate falsehoods, misrepresenta…
From female computers to male comput♂rs: Or why there are so few women writing algorithms and developing software
Software development is one of the few professions in Europe and the USA from which women are disappearing. Current explanations range from unproven assumptions that women cannot write algorithms to insights into the misogynistic culture of this profession. This article argues these explanations are inadequate, and illuminates how forms of masculinity constituted within software development put women in the ambivalent position of being either fem…
Sociology (22 works) · Management and Organizational Studies (19 works) · Epistemology (16 works) · Political science (16 works) · Psychology (15 works) · Law (13 works) · Social Psychology (12 works) · Gender Diversity and Inequality (11 works) · Law (11 works) · Social Psychology (10 works)