For Prof. Kim: Organizational Theory

Organisational Theory Inequality in Organisations RMIT University Slide 2 Issues to discuss:

• What do we mean by inequality? • Class • Race/ Ethnicity • Gender • Disability • Intersectionality • Discuss how these concepts relate to organisations. • Distinguish between contemporary theoretical approaches to inequality in organisations • Modern • Critical • Postmodern Questions to consider • To what extent is management prepared to share power with employees and to develop responsibility and authority for decision making? • Which perspective addresses inequality? • What is the role of leadership in creating more equitable organisations? • How far are equal opportunities for participation available to all workers? • What benefits does equitable participation have for employers and employees? RMIT University Slide 3 Inequality in organisations Acker (2006): “ the systematic disparities between participants in power and control over goals, resources, outcomes, workplace decisions, opportunities for promotion, interesting work, security in employment, benefits, pay, rewards, respect and pleasure in work and workplace relations ” RMIT University Slide 4 Which Organisational Theory Perspective would this type of assertion come from?

Does the word “systematic” indicate a modernist perspective? Inequality in Organisations “ Much of the social and economic inequality in the United States and other industrial countries is created in organisations, in the daily activities of working and organizing the work ” Acker (2006) RMIT University Slide 5 Where does inequality occur? Class Marxist perspective Class structure derives from the relationship of social groups to means of production • Bourgeoisie : owners of the means of production • Proletariat : working class, own only their own labour power • Classes inherently unequal in power and wealth • Class struggle the driving force for social change RMIT University Slide 6 Gender Sex ≠ Gender Sex : the biological basis of human sexual identity. Gender : The social organisation of the facts of biological sex into the recognisable categories of masculinity and femininity. RMIT University Slide 7 Is our concept of “Gender” being re -invented? Disability The definition of 'disability ’ is broad. Around one in five Australians has a disability.

• It includes physical, intellectual, psychiatric, sensory, neurological and learning disabilities. It also includes physical disfigurement and the presence in the body of disease -causing organisms, such as the HIV virus. (Australian Human Rights Commission) Is our concept of “Disability” being re -invented? Race/Ethnicity Socially Constructed Concept • Race is a socially constructed category based on the idea that there are biological differences between groups of people – Eurasian, African, Asian. • 20 th Century science rejected the existence of any biological differences between such groups. • Racism: mobilisation of racial prejudices and stereotypes to justify discrimination, denial of rights and benefits. RMIT University Slide 9 Race/Ethnicity Ethnicity : The way that groups of people can be defined, or define themselves, in terms of linguistic, cultural and lifestyle characteristics.

• Race understood as having a biological basis • Ethnicity understood as a social and cultural basis RMIT University Slide 10 Are our concepts of Race/Ethnicity embedded in discourse? Implications What does this mean for organisations?

• Organisations are social institutions. • All forms of inequality are present in organisations. • Organisations are critical locations for the investigation of inequalities because much societal inequality originates in them. • Organisations are also the target for many attempts to alter patterns of inequality. • The study of organisations provides an opportunity to observe aspects of the reproduction of inequalities. RMIT University Slide 11 Modernist Conceptions of Inequality Theoretical “Ontological” position:

• Inequality is real and may be treated instrumentally as a variable (reductionist approach) • Growing social awareness of gender and ethnicity led to ‘adding in ’: – Gender as a variable – Ethnicity as a variable • Early modernists aware of class conflict, but tended to assume all workers were ethnically homogonous and male. RMIT University Slide 12 Modernist Conceptions of Inequality Focus : • How inequality is distributed within organisations . • Measuring the impact of inequality on organisational effectiveness. Goal : • Improve organisational efficiency and effectiveness. • Utilise a full range of human resources by ensuring that there is less discrimination in the workplace. • The ‘Business Case’ approach to promoting equality RMIT University Slide 13 Inequality as a variable Analytical Approach:

 Social inequalities influence the research process through racial and gender stereotypes and assumptions hidden in research design or ways of reasoning.  Therefore researchers need to make research more scientific – more objective, neutral and exact by eliminating these irrational and prejudicial elements. RMIT University Slide 14 Measuring Inequality Analytical Approach:

• The presence/absence of inequality groups – e.g. Women in Management • The incidence of discrimination in the workplace • The incidence of harassment or bullying in the workplace • Equal pay for equal work – wage discrimination • Associated with feminist empricism RMIT University Slide 15 Measuring Inequality Knowledge that is produced or articulated : Rosabeth Moss Kanter, (1977) Men and Women of the Corporation • Examined differences between men and women in the corporation. • Found differences in attitudes can be explained by differences in work tasks and job situations for men and women rather than by sex per se. RMIT University Slide 16 Critical Conceptions of Inequality Theoretical “Ontological” position:

• Gender and ethnicity are fundamental (but separate) organising principles of a patriarchal and racist society. • Too simplistic to assume a universal experience of ethnicity or gender. • Cannot simply add in gender and ethnicity to scientific process as the predominant principles and rules of science are part of a patriarchal and racist dominance. RMIT University Slide 17 Critical Conceptions of Inequality Analytical Approach:

 Focus : To move beyond inequality as a variable. To view these groups not as victims, but active participants in the organisation.  Goal : To contribute to emancipation from oppressive social conditions RMIT University Slide 18 Critical Methods for Studying Inequality Analytical Approach:

• An excluded and exploited group can provide researchers with critical descriptions and interpretations. • Rejection of Marxist idea of false consciousness – Excluded groups have knowledge of the dominant culture as well as their own. RMIT University Slide 19 Critical Conceptions of Inequality Knowledge that is produced or articulated : • Class is not the only force structuring society. • Patriarchy and racism also create social structures. Patriarchy: an abstract system or political structure that “ seeks to control and subjugate women so that their sexuality, childrearing, mothering, loving and labouring are curtailed ” (Eisenstein 1981). • Associated with radical or socialist feminism. RMIT University Slide 20 Inequality Examine these two statements: “Different groups within society possess differing amounts of power, prestige and wealth.” “Inequality permeates access to education, the labour market and all forms of citizenship – including workplace citizenship” RMIT University Slide 21 Critical Studies of Inequality Knowledge that is produced or articulated : • Identifies how skilled male workers use their labour power and control of technology, not only to resist employers’ strength, but also to exclude women from skilled work. • Adds gender to the labour process approach. Cynthia Cockburn (1983) Brothers; Male dominance and technological change. _____ (1985) Machinery of Dominance.

RMIT University Slide 22 C ritical Studies of Inequality Knowledge that is produced or articulated : Raewyn Connell (1987) Gender and Power • Identifies the existence of ‘ gender regimes ’ in organisations. • "the state of play in gender relations in a given institution" • Internal structures • Processes • Culture • Values and beliefs RMIT University Slide 23 Symbolic Interpretivist Approach Theoretical “Ontological” position:

• Organisations are socially constructed • Variables of inequality are socially constructed • People in organisations create and recreate inequality in daily processes Slide 24 Critical Theorist Post - modernist Modernist Symbolic Interpretivist Symbolic interpretivist studies of inequality in organisations Analytical Approach:

Asks if there are ways that we can do leadership within organisations that could lead to less inequality over time? Amanda Sinclair (1998) Doing Leadership Differently Slide 25 Critical Theorist Post - modernist Modernist Symbolic Interpretivist Postmodern Conceptions of Inequality Theoretical “Ontological” position:

• Gender, race or ethnicity and class are not fundamental categories, but are unstable and ambiguous classifications. • Using such terms suggests a false unity amongst social groups. • Identities are social performances of the intersection between gender, ethnicity, class and disability. • Meanings vary with discursive context. RMIT University Slide 26 Postmodern Conceptions of Inequality Analytical Approach: • What, in the local situation, is defined as masculine or feminine? • What is defined as ethnicity or ‘ the other ’ ? • What does such labelling obscure? • What are the effects of language in the organisation? • What are the dynamics of gender, race, class and disability relations? RMIT University Slide 27 Postmodern Conceptions of Inequality Analytical Approach: • To show the contradictions and problematic claims of ‘ truth ’ • To open up and destabilise cultural meanings and beliefs that appear to be unproblematic RMIT University Slide 28 Postmodern Methods for Studying Inequality Knowledge that is produced or articulated : • All accounts – interviews, conversations, organisational documents are seen as texts to be analysed in terms of structure, use of rhetoric, contradictions, repressed meanings, alternative representations. • This analysis or deconstructions reveals the gendered, racist and class -based assumptions that underpin organisations . RMIT University Slide 29 Postmodern Studies of Inequality Knowledge that is produced or articulated : • Argue that the use of militaristic language in ‘corporate strategies ’ and other organisational documents reinforces a hegemonic masculinity within organisations . Knights, D. and Morgan, G. (1991) “ Corporate Strategy, organizations, and subjectivity: a critique ”, Organization Studies. RMIT University Slide 30 Postmodern Studies of Inequality Knowledge that is produced or articulated : The way that language is used to describe skills fails to acknowledge and value the full range of women ’ s skills. Women ’ s skills are undervalued simply because they are skills that have traditionally been held by women.

This results in a systematic undervaluation of women ’ s skills and contributes to gender pay inequity.

Cate Poynton (1993) ‘Naming women's workplace skills: linguistics and power ’in Pink Collar Blues Probert and Wilson ( eds ) RMIT University Slide 31 Intersectionality Intersectionality has been adopted as the preferred term to refer to and to analyze multiple axes of oppression.

Kimberle Williams Crenshaw first developed the term Individuals’ lives cannot be explained by adding up theories of oppression (racism and patriarchy, for example), but rather need to be explained through an intersectional perspective. Kosut (2012) Slide 32 Is intersectionality an approach of Critical Theory or Postmodern? References Acker, J. (2006). Inequality regimes gender, class, and race in organizations. Gender & society, 20(4), 441 -464. Cockburn, C. (1983). Brothers. Westview Press, Inc..

Cockburn, C. (1985). Machinery of dominance: Women, men and technical know -how (pp. 185 -86). London: Pluto Press. Connell, R. (1987). Gender and power. Polity Press.

Eisenstein, Z. R. (1981). The radical future of liberal feminism.

Hatch, M. J., & Cunliffe, A. L. (2012). Organization theory: modern, symbolic and postmodern perspectives. Oxford university press.

Kanter, R. M. (1977). Men and Women of the Corporation (Vol. 5049). Basic books.

Knights, D. and Morgan, G. (1991) “Corporate Strategy, organizations, and subjectivity:

a critique”, Organization Studies Kosut, M. (2012). Encyclopedia of gender in media. Sage. Slide 33