Gender-Diversity in the workplace

Gender-Diversity in the workplace

Main points

Overall topic is on “diversity in the workplace “ with respect to the given topic.

The implications of gendering men and masculinities for the analysis of both diversity in organizations and management, and diversity management.

Diverse genderings of men in workplaces and other organizations.

Men and diversity management .

Introduction

Theories and practices of diversity, diversity in organizations and diversity management are ways of connecting different social relations with each other. Following the diverse social movements of the 1960s and 1970s, there has been a host of initiatives in diversity management in workplaces, many of them practical and policy in orientation (Brooke,1998). These have often addressed how to 'manage' diversity rather than the impact of social movements on organizations. However, it remains an open question to what extent a focus on 'diversity', in its various forms, necessarily and specifically addresses gender relations in general and in particular, the gendering of men.

In this chapter we discuss the implications of gendering men and masculinities for the analysis of both diversity in organizations and management, and diversity management. The chapter approaches this task by way of the following main sections: 'diversity' in vital analyses on masculinities and men; men, diversity and power; diverse genderings of men in workplaces and other organizations; men and diversity management; and concluding remarks(steigen,2000).

Men, Power And Diversity In Workplaces

These general issues of men, power and diversity are relevant in analysing men and masculinities in workplaces, and diversity and diversity management. Diverse men and masculinities inhabit and are located in diverse organizations, from large corporates to small enterprises. Studies of masculinity have often underestimated the significance of organizations as sites for the production and reproduction of men's masculinities and power, even though workplace issues such as organizational control, decision making, remuneration and culture crucially reflect and reinforce masculine material discursive practices. Men and masculinities are formed and constructed in work processes of control, collaboration, innovation, competition, conformity, resistance and contradiction. As entrepreneurs, innovators, owners, board members, managers, supervisors, team leaders, administrators, trade unionists, service providers, manual workers and unemployed workers, men have been prominent in the formation, development and change of organizations.

Many studies have made explicit the gendering of men and masculinities in workplaces. Emphasizing paid work as a central source of men's identity, status and power, feminist organizational studies have demonstrated how 'most organizations are saturated with masculine values' (Arbeit,2000).

They have critically analysed the centrality of masculine models of lifetime, full-time, continuous employment and shown how masculine assumptions are embedded in organizational structures, cultures and practices. For many men, employment provides resources and symbolic benefits that mutually reinforce their power and authority at 'work' and 'home'. Men have been shown to exercise control over women, through job segregation, discrimination, pay inequities and harassment(steigen,2000).

Organizational studies focusing on men include those on relations of bureaucracy, men and masculinities (Bologh, 1990; Morgan, 1996); transformations in managerial masculinities (Walck,1995)the continuing numerical dominance of men, especially at the highest levels (Tatli,2008); managerial identity formation processes (Kerfoot & Knights, 1993); ...