Digital Document (pdf, doc, ppt, txt, etc.)

About (English version): 

Purpose

Translating the well-established theory of the gendered organization into strategic interventions that build more gender equitable organizations has proven to be difficult. The authors introduce the emergence of the “bifocal approach” and its subsequent development and examine the potential of the “bifocal approach” as a feminist intervention strategy and an alternative means of countering gender inequalities in organizations. While pre-existing transformative interventions focus on more immediately apparent structural change, the focus begins with the development of individuals. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

Developed through iterative cycling between theory and practice, the “bifocal approach” links the existing focus on women’s development with a focus on transformative organizational change. The bifocal approach deliberately begins with the organization’s current way of understanding gender in order to build towards frame-breaking transformative change.

Findings

The authors show how the bifocal is able to overcome some of the main difficulties of earlier transformative approaches, maintaining organizational access, partnership building, sustaining a gender focus and ultimately sustaining the change effort itself. The bifocal approach seeks structural change, however, the change effort rests with individuals. The development of individuals, as conceived within the bifocal approach was designed to create a “small wins” ripple effect, linking individual (agency) and organizational change (structure).

Practical implications

The bifocal approach offers a comprehensive re-modelling of traditional interventions for other scholars and practitioners to build on. Organizational interventions previously categorized as “fixing women” could be re-examined for their capacity to provide the foundation for transformative change.

Originality/value

The contribution of this paper lies in proposing and examining the bifocal approach as a feminist intervention strategy that overcomes the dualism between the existing frames of organizations and the transformative frame of scholars, in order to move practice and theory forward.

 

Authors: Jennifer Anne de Vries and Marieke van den Brink

Public identifier: 
https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-05-2016-0041
Type of resource: 
Media Type: 
Digital Document (pdf, doc, ppt, txt, etc.)
Language(s): 
English
Date created: 
2016
Total energy: 
50

Share the resource

About (English version): 

Based on the model of transcendent leadership, we suggest that subordinates need to display competences that mirror those of their leaders and propose transcendent followership as a framework for the responsibilities of followers in contemporary organizational environments. A transcendent follower is someone who expresses competence in terms of their management of relations with self, others and organization. Competence in the domain of self refers to being self-aware and proactive in developing individual strengths. Competence in the domain of others refers to the processes of interpersonal impact, in relation to leaders and peers. Competence in the domain of organization refers to collective maintenance and change. The article offers an integrated view of the roles and responsibilities of followers in dynamic organizational environments, presenting them as fellows rather than subordinates.

Authors: Miguel Pina e Cunha, Arménio Rego, Stewart Clegg, Pedro Neves

Public identifier: 
https://doi.org/10.1177/1742715012447006
Type of resource: 
Keywords: 
Media Type: 
Digital Document (pdf, doc, ppt, txt, etc.)
Language(s): 
English
Date created: 
2013
Total energy: 
50

Share the resource

About (English version): 

This article is concerned with the source of men’s invisible advantage in the male-dominated disciplines of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). It is suggested that this advantage has been obscured by combining sponsorship and mentoring. The research asks: Are men or women most likely to be mentored? Is it possible to distinguish between mentoring and sponsorship? Is there gender variation in either or both of these depending on the source – whether from the academic supervisor, line manager or other senior academics? This qualitative study draws on interview data from 106 respondents (57 men and 48 women) at high, mid and early levels, in four universities: one each in Bulgaria, Denmark, Ireland, and Turkey. It shows that both men and women received mentoring from their PhD supervisor, albeit with slightly different reported nuances. Men were more likely than women to receive sponsorship in that relationship. Both men and women received sponsorship from the Head of Department, whose wider responsibilities may have reduced homophily. Men were more likely than women to receive sponsorship and mentoring from senior men, with most women indicating a lack of access to such senior academics. By distinguishing between mentoring and sponsorship, this article contributes to our understanding of the way male dominance in STEM is perpetuated and suggests the source of men’s invisible advantage in STEM.

Authors: O’Connor, Pat, O’Hagan, Clare, Myers, Eva Sophia, Baisner, Liv, Apostolov, Georgi, Topuzova, Irina, Saglamar, Gulsun, Tan, Mine and Caglayan, Hulya.

Public identifier: 
https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2019.1686468
Type of resource: 
Keywords: 
Media Type: 
Digital Document (pdf, doc, ppt, txt, etc.)
Language(s): 
English
Date created: 
2019
Total energy: 
50

Share the resource

About (English version): 

Using the concept of stealth power and a critical realist perspective, this article identifies leadership practices that obscure the centralisation of power, drawing on data from interviews with 25 academic decision-makers in formal leadership positions in HERIs in Ireland, Italy and Turkey. Its key contribution is the innovative operationalisation of stealth power and the inductive identification of four practices which obscure that centralised power, i.e. rhetorical collegiality, agenda control, in-group loyalty and (at a deeper level) the invisibility of gendered power. The purpose of the article is emancipatory: by creating an awareness of these leadership practices, it challenges their persistence.

Authors: O’Connor, Pat, Martin, Patricia Y, Carvalho, Teresa., O’Hagen, Clare., Veronesi, Liria, Mich, Ornella, Saglamar, Gulsun, Tan, Mine G, and Caglayan, Hulya.

Public identifier: 
https://doi.org/10.1177/1742715019853200
Type of resource: 
Keywords: 
Media Type: 
Digital Document (pdf, doc, ppt, txt, etc.)
Language(s): 
English
Date created: 
2019
Total energy: 
50

Share the resource