Browsing by Author "Kelan, Elisabeth K."

Now showing 1 - 10 of 10
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    Discord in the gender harmony: Mobilising femininities at work
    (Critical Management Studies, 2017-05-26) Carr, Melissa; Kelan, Elisabeth K.
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    Diversity and inclusion branding: a five-country comparison of corporate websites
    (Academy of Management, 2017-11-30) Jonsen, Karsten; Point, Sebastien; Kelan, Elisabeth K.
    In the quest to attract talent, organizations must articulate the benefits of having a diverse workforce. By communicating the attractiveness of the workplace, a company increases its exposure to the environment as an employer of choice. In this paper, we conduct a comparative and thematic cross-cultural examination of corporate communication in form of diversity statements. We examine how organizations use diversity statements to attract talent, and discuss how the two strategic areas of diversity and employer branding can be linked in the concept of diversity branding. We examine the websites of 75 major companies in five different countries (France, Germany, Spain, the UK and the United States). Cross-cultural differences and similarities are discussed. We also conclude that the discourse of inclusion is gradually penetrating websites and that branding inclusion can be beneficial in the quest to be an employer of choice.
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    Femininities at work: How women support other women in the workplace
    (British Academy of Management, 2016-09-08) Kelan, Elisabeth K.; Carr, Melissa
    Recent research has highlighted the negative intra-gender relations that occur between women in organisations, focusing on aspects such as micro-violence, the queen bee syndrome, negative intra-gender relations, and competition and distance between women. Through a thematic analysis of interviews with 16 women, we draw on material where women were asked to consider their intra-gender relationships at work. We suggest that women are actively supporting each other and aligning themselves with each other; they are ‘mobilising femininities’ to help negotiate dominant hegemonic masculinity. However, the women also demonstrate contested femininities, creating distance from women who are not displaying an appropriate femininity. The article thereby examines the affiliated and contested femininities that women bring to bear in the workplace. It makes a contribution towards understanding mobilising femininities, the extent to which this is a conscious or liminal process for women and how, through mobilising femininities, gender as a social practice is demonstrated.
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    From biological clocks to unspeakable inequalities: the intersectional positioning of young professionals
    (John Wiley and Sons, 2014-07-21) Kelan, Elisabeth K.
    The article examines how gender and age influence the experience of being a professional by drawing on intersectionality as an act of positioning for which different discursive resources are employed. Through interviews with employees at two professional services firms, it is shown how younger men and women make sense of professional experiences. First, the biological clock is used to explain the divergence of career patterns of men and women while ignoring that all women, regardless of actual maternal status, suffer a maternity penalty. Second, individual strategies for overcoming being in a minority are suggested that indicate that the individual rather than societal structures shape chances of success. Finally, generational change is used to argue that gender inequality belongs to a previous generation, which indicates that inequality is becoming unspeakable. The article shows that young professionals position themselves in unique ways with regard to age and gender, which entails emphasizing individual agency over systemic inequalities.
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    Gendered identification: between idealization and admiration
    (Wiley, 2012-05-16) Kelan, Elisabeth K.; Mah, Alice
    While much of the literature on gender focuses on role models, this paper extends the understanding of gendered professional identification processes by exploring these processes through the lenses of idealization and admiration. Using the method of discourse analysis to analyse MBA students' accounts of people with whom they identify, this paper explores discourses of idealization, defined as aggrandizing a person, and of admiration, which means discussing positive as well as negative and neutral characteristics of a person. It is shown, first, that most male and female MBA students idealized the self-made ‘authentic’ CEO or founder of an organization and, second, that women mainly admired other women through naming their positive, neutral and negative attributes. The paper thereby adds to understanding of how gendered identification processes are structured by idealization and admiration.
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    Men doing and undoing gender at work: A review and research agenda
    (Wiley, 2017-05-30) Kelan, Elisabeth K.
    While research on gender in organizations has not only documented sustained gender inequality, it has also offered an understanding of how gender is enacted through doing and undoing gender. An underexplored aspect concerns how men can do and undo gender to support or hinder gender equality processes in organizations. Doing gender is then understood as creating gender difference while undoing gender would conversely mean to reduce gender difference. The former is supporting gender inequality while the latter means moving toward gender equality. This article therefore provides a systematic review of empirical articles that discuss how men are doing and undoing gender within an organizational context. It is shown that undoing gender practices of men in organizations are under researched and a research agenda of how men can undo gender at work is thus developed. This article makes a two-fold contribution: first it offers a refinement of doing and undoing gender approaches and second, it develops a research agenda for exploring how men can undo gender at work.
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    Post-heroic leadership, tempered radicalism and senior leaders as change agents for gender equality
    (Elsevier, 2017-04-20) Kelan, Elisabeth K.; Wratil, P.
    Micro change agents for gender equality in organisations are often considered to be tempered radicals who work within an existing structure for changing the status quo. However for gender equality to happen, it is often claimed that heroic leadership of top leaders, or macro change agents, is required. The aim of this article is to show how CEOs as macro change agents for gender equality can be conceptualised. Drawing on interviews with 20 global CEOs and a literature review, the article develops a framework to conceptualise how CEOs are fostering gender equality around accountability, building ownership, communicating, leading by example, initiating and driving culture change. The article questions the conceptualisation of change agents of gender equality as either tempered radicals, for micro change agents, or heroic leaders, for macro change agents, and argues instead that to be macro change agents for gender equality, CEOs need to display post-heroic leadership and tempered radicalism to foster change in regard to gender relations
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    The quality of equality: thinking differently about gender inclusion in organizations
    (Emerald, 2016-10-01) Adamson, M.; Kelan, Elisabeth K.; Lewis, P.; Rumens, N.; Śliwa, M.
    Purpose This paper aims to suggest a shift in thinking about how to improve gender inclusion in organizations, as well as offering a number of practical action points. - Design/methodology/approach This paper takes a perspective based on the authors’ own ongoing research, as well as synthesis of existing insights into gender inclusion in organizations. - Findings To retain top talent and improve organizational climate, the authors need to re-think how the authors measure the success of organizational inclusion policies. Specifically, the paper suggests moving from numbers and targets to looking at the quality of gender inclusion in the workplace. The paper explains why this shift in thinking is important and how to approach it in practice. - Practical implications The paper provides strategic insights into and practical thinking about ways in which progressive organizations can continue to improve gender equality. - Originality/value The paper makes a provocative call for a change of perspective on gender inclusion in organizations based on cutting-edge research and puts forward action points in an accessible format.
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    Splitting and blaming: the psychic life of neoliberal executive women
    (SAGE, 2018-05-28) Baker, Darren T.; Kelan, Elisabeth K.
    The aim of the article is to explore the psychic life of executive women under neoliberalism using psychosocial approaches. The article shows how, despite enduring unfair treatment and access to opportunities, many executive women remain emotionally invested in upholding the neoliberal ideal that if one perseveres, one shall be successful, regardless of gender. Drawing on psychosocial approaches, we explore how the accounts given by some executive women of repudiation, as denying gender inequality, and individualization, as subjects completely agentic, are underpinned by the unconscious, intertwined processes of splitting and blaming. Women sometimes split off undesirable aspects of the workplace, which repudiates gender inequality, or blame other women, which individualizes failure and responsibility for change. We explain that splitting and blaming enable some executive women to manage the anxiety evoked from threats to the neoliberal ideal of the workplace. This article thereby makes a contribution to existing postfeminist scholarship by integrating psychosocial approaches to the study of the psychic life of neoliberal executive women, by exploring why they appear unable to engage directly with and redress instances of gender discrimination in the workplace.
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    Towards a topology of 'Doing Gender': an analysis of empirical research and its challenges
    (Wiley, 2014-03-26) Nentwich, Julia C.; Kelan, Elisabeth K.
    ‘Doing gender’ is a much used term in research on gender, work and organizations. However, translating theoretical insight into empirical research is often a challenging endeavour. A lack of clarity with regard to the conceptualization and operationalization of key terms in turn often limits the theoretical and empirical purchase of a concept. The aim of this article is therefore to provide a systematization of empirical approaches to ‘doing gender’. This systematization leads to a topology of five themes that is derived from empirical research in the field. The five themes identified are structures, hierarchies, identity, flexibility and context specificity, and gradual relevance/subversion. Each theme explores a different facet of ‘doing gender’. This topology helps empirical researchers to be more specific about which aspects of ‘doing gender’ they are referring to. This in turn can help to unfold the theoretical potential of the concept of ‘doing gender’.