Gherardi, S and Murgia, A orcid.org/0000-0002-9740-4532 (2014) What makes a “good manager”? Positioning gender and management in students’ narratives. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, 33 (8). pp. 690-707. ISSN 2040-7149
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to address the relationships between gender and management in the narratives of students. More specifically, the authors discuss how the discourse on management is mobilized as a discursive practice able to make some form of that activity thinkable and practicable: who can be a CEO? What kind of managerial competencies are attributed to men/women CEOs? What kind of moral order is expressed in the stories told? Design/methodology/approach – Stimulus texts have been used to elicit narratives. Students were asked to complete a short story regarding a fictive managerial character, either female or male, whose performance and attitude they were asked to evaluate. Findings – The paper discusses how the collected stories as a whole expressed a conception of what counts as a “good manager” and how management is gendered. In the analysis, the authors discuss whether and how the relationships between gender and management are changing, or the basic assumptions about “think manager-think male” are still valid. The paper illustrates a traditional positioning of gendered management along the lines of rationality vs care, and a third positioning in which the ideal of the “good manager” has both competencies. Originality/value – The authors designed an alternative research strategy focused on how gender and management are discursively constructed within a context of economic crisis that affects management reputation. Particularly, the authors discuss the surprising results concerning how the written stories evaluating male CEOs distrusted the masculine way of managing and positioned the female managing style within a trustworthy context.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2014, Emerald Publishing. This is an author produced version of a paper published in Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal . Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | Gender, Positioning, Discursive practices, Management, Narratives |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Business (Leeds) > Work and Employment Relation Division (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 12 Oct 2017 11:46 |
Last Modified: | 18 Jan 2018 16:38 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Emerald |
Identification Number: | 10.1108/EDI-05-2013-0040 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:115581 |