Suchergebnisse

Despite prohibitive legislation and organizational policies and training, high rates of sexual harassment persist in the hospitality industry, a situation that is concerning to organizations and researchers alike. As management educators, we embedded a sexual harassment lecture within the context of a human resource management degree, with the aim of developing the capacity of the future human resource practitioner workforce to address sexual harassment. The reflective journals of these students, collected over a three-year period, reveal that while participants found the session improved their understanding of sexual harassment myths and remedies, many still questioned their ability to act within the context of wider organizational dynamics. Our analysis leads us to conclude that sexual harassment training sessions are a valuable and necessary starting point for developing intolerance. However, if we are truly committed to eradicating sexual harassment, then a much broader and integrated approach is required that includes redressing the limitations of the current legal systems, broadening the scope of education within the wider community and developing intolerant organizational climates.

Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the potential to develop a shared understanding of systemic discrimination and the complexity of equality and an appreciation for the range of interventions designed to redress inequality within the context of business school curricula.


Design/methodology/approach
Qualitative material was gathered over a four-year period through written reflections of student interpretations of equality. Participants were enroled in a human resource management (HRM) course critically examining systemic gender discrimination, women's organisational experiences, gendered employment outcomes and the range of interventions designed to redress gendered employment outcomes. Threshold concepts framed the analysis of participant reflections.


Findings
The paper shows that while the participants developed a shared understanding of systemic gender discrimination, their interpretations of equality and appreciation for the range of interventions available to redress inequality differed. These differences were shaped by the extent to which participants integrated their understanding of systemic discrimination with their interpretations of equality, and the extent to which the interventions to inequality transformed, upheld or challenged participant agendic self-identity and world view.


Research limitations/implications
The study provides support for continued use of equality as a construct in both research and teaching settings. The study highlights that unequal outcomes are an enduring phenomena, and that introducing the notion of equality to the classroom helps develop student's ability to understand dynamics of discrimination in the workplace. The limitations of the study relate to the sample size, and dependence on a single specialist HRM course, in addition to the specific New Zealand context.


Practical implications
The differences in interpretations have implications for the way educators introduce discussions of equality within the business school classroom.


Originality/value
The paper demonstrates that developing a shared understanding of systemic discrimination does not always lead to developing a shared understanding of the complexity of equality or appreciation for the many forms of interventions available.

Purpose
Communities of work are a phenomenon closely associated with government social and industrial policy, and can be tracked in contemporary examples globally alongside industrial development. The purpose of this paper is to explore community identity within a town which was previously single industry, but has since experienced workforce reduction and to a large degree, industry withdrawal.


Design/methodology/approach
Using an inductive approach, the researchers interviewed 32 participants who had resided (past or present) within the instrumental case study town. A thematic analytical framework, drawing on the work of Boje (2007) was employed.


Findings
A significant theme to emerge from the participants was the public assertion of social cohesion and belonging. However, what was interesting, was that beneath this unified exterior, lay accounts of multiple forms of demarcation. Drawing on Benedict Anderson's (1983) notion of the imagined community, and Bauman's (2001) identity in globalisation, this contradiction is conceptualised as boundary-making moments of identification and disidentification.


Research limitations/implications
This research is specific to the New Zealand context, although holds many points of interest for the wider international audience. The research provides a broad example of the layering of the collective and individual levels of identity.


Social implications
This research provides a voice to the wider individual, community and societal implications of managerial practices entwined with political decisions. This research encourages managers and educators in our business schools to seek to understand the relationship between the political, corporate, community and individual realms.


Originality/value
This research makes a significant contribution to understandings of the interconnectedness of social policy, industry, and the lived experiences of individuals. Moreover, it contributes to the broader single industry town literature, which previously has focussed on stories of decline from a North American context.

Purpose
This study aims to explore the experience of performing androgynous leadership approaches by New Zealand women leaders within the context of everyday conflict situations.


Design/methodology/approach
The research question "How do women leaders experience gender in conflict situations?" was explored through the facilitation of 4 focus groups with 19 senior female leaders in New Zealand. Poststructural discourse analysis was used to explore how participants negotiated positions of power within their environments and in accordance with competing gendered discourses.


Findings
Participants described taking a flexible, balanced, androgynous leadership approach to managing conflict situations. While the expectations to be "empathetic", "sympathetic", "gentle", "nurturing" and "caring" resonated with the participants preferred approach, they remained firm that if conflict persisted, they would "cross the line" and adopt stereotypically masculine behaviours to resolve the situation. However, participants describe that when perceived to be crossing the line from feminine to masculine approaches, they experienced significant backlash. This demonstrates the tensions between the approaches women leaders would like to take in managing conflict and the experiences of doing so within a prescriptively gendered organisational context.


Originality/value
This research contributes to a gap which exists in understanding how gender is experienced from the viewpoint of the woman leader. This research presents a nuanced view of gendered leadership as a contested ground, rather than a series of strategic choices. Despite an increase in the acceptance of women into leadership positions, the authors seemingly remain bound by what is considered a "feminine" leader.

We argue that the current environment in higher education is one of the primary drivers for the widespread adoption of concealment tactics with the aim of enhancing wellbeing. To explore the relationship between concealment and wellbeing, we draw upon Scott's conceptualization of "hidden transcripts" and Keyes's five dimensions of social wellbeing. Using a collaborative ethnographic approach, we examine a 2-year period of individual and collective inquiry by an eclectic multidisciplinary, international group of academics. Our empirical and theoretical contributions expose a complex and, at times, seemingly contradictory relationship between tactical concealments and relational wellbeing, with variously generative and destructive pathways between them. Our research offers a lens through which we can critically explore and extend our understanding of alternative pathways to wellbeing in organizational life.