Deconstructing the Dominant

Making the One(s) the Other(s)

Bibliographic Data

ID5771808
AuthorsJ Hearn (0000-0002-9808-1413, University of Manchester, corresponding author)
Year1996
Volume3
Issue4
Pages611-626
Publication date1996-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueOrganization (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1350-5084 • E-ISSN: 1461-7323
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/135050849634017
OpenAlexW2137435844
LanguageEN
Citations received43
References cited21

When Organization was launched -upwards, sideways or downwards -the feature 'Connexions' was described as addressing the links between 'theory and practice, between the international political and economic order and organizational analysis, between action and disinterested observation' -a modest task!So what am I to say?What 'connexions' or 'connections' are to be drawn?And does the 'x' have a special significant standing for mystery, multiplicity and cross-cutting meanings that go far beyond the mere 'ct'?So much could be said, in so many ways, there are too many connexions -all is relevant, one of the routes to madness.And because of this, writing may become more difficult, liable to be frozen in anomie, depressed in infinitude.To begin needs some grounds, and some obvious ones are provided by the themes of the special issue -questions of class, colour, culture, ethnicity, gender, race, sex, sexuality are themselves doorways to multiplicity.Furthermore, re-viewing organizations in this way, a way that highlights multiple social divisions across race, sex and class, necessarily directs concern to the international and the global.The intersections of race, sex and class are more fully understandable through developing a broader view, for both practice and theory.Whose Voice?Whose Practice?Reflecting on the special issue 'topics' may of course seem to invite greater attention to those social groups and categories whose voices are often absent, under-represented or unheard, and whose practices are often excluded, oppressed or unnoticed.These would include women, black women and men, women and men of colour, minority ethnic women and men, lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and those who identify as 'queer' -those who are made 'other'.Changing organizations so that such othered voices are heard and these othered practices are powerfully present is essential.This applies in individual organizations and types of organization, in the process of organization itself, and in organizational analysis and theory.It is equally urgent in practice in organizations and theorizing on organizations.I know from my own teaching and research, and indeed being in organizations, that it is often worth asking what if this student or this seminar class or these lecturers were members of a different social category to the one they appear to belong to -and how would that change what I would do/say/write/think/theorize?In the worst cases, silencing and exclusion involves violence and death -the destruction of the 'missing', 'the invisible ones', that are no longer even present, alive, in organizations to practice, to respond to, to theorize on.In the worst organizations, the process and practice of organization is explicitly and purposefully directed to the mass destruction of people, whether in the former Yugoslavia, China, Ruranda, Sri Lanka, or the many authoritarian regimes that negate human rights.At Auschwitz-Birkenau over four million people were killed -over four million less voices to give an account of that organization.Silence, and indeed din, are fundamental processes of power and domination in organization (Harlow, Hearn and Parkin, 1995).And while it is a mistake to demonize all organizations or

Gender Diversity and Inequality

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