Joan Acker's influence on Management and Organization Studies: Review, analysis and directions for the future

Nkomo, Stella M.; Rodríguez, Jenny K.

doi:10.1111/gwao.12237

Cited by 44 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 131 publications

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“…As noted above, Acker (, ) argues organizations are gendered (see also Britton & Logan, ; Nkomo & Rodriguez, ; Palmer & Eveline, ; Williams et al, ). Like feminist political economists (Armstrong & Armstrong ; Vosko, ), for Acker even the concept of job pivots on the notion of non‐jobs (Acker, ), which is ‘work’ performed outside of the workplace though it may involve similar skills, time and energy.…”

Section: Theoretical Framementioning

confidence: 96%

“…Classic industrial relations theory identifies three industrial relations (IR) institutions — state, management and unions (Edwards, ). These institutions have been exposed as gendered organizationally (Acker, ; Adib & Guerrier, ; Britton & Logan, ; Nkomo & Rodriguez, ) and in the social processes of power and injustice they reproduce and legitimize (Simms, ; Wajcman, ). To remedy this limitation, Forrest (, p. 417) suggests that the solution lies in understanding IR and the work women find themselves in ‘from within’ the experience of women.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This article makes a contribution to IR theory by engaging with the three classic pillars of IR theory and arguing that in LTRC gendering operates at the level of: The state as the main funder of the facilities studied and through the details of funding contracts and required reporting mechanisms which act as an additional force of control within the care work place, as well as the body legislating and enforcing IR policy Management as those directing gendered care organizations and leading organizational cultures in the context of late neoliberalism Unions in the sector as gendered organizations struggling to represent the priorities and experience of care workers that often lie outside of the parameters of state‐defined collective bargaining and representation The needs and gendered expectations of families and residents, and the gendered expectations workers have of each other and themselves The article also makes a contribution to feminist political economy (FPE) by starting from the experience of women and threading this experience through other layers of social organization such as: global and local policy directions including austerity, New Public Management (NPM), and social and healthcare funding; IR mechanisms and policy; and workers’ formal [union] and informal efforts to represent their interests in the workplace. Recognizing that power and gender operate at multiple levels, FPE complements the theory of gendered organizations (Acker, , ; Benschop, Mills, Mills, & Tienari, ; Nkomo & Rodriguez, ) through the exploration of LTRC at the organizational level. Acker (, ) argues that it is not just individuals who are gendered, it is organizations and even widely accepted concepts such as a job and work, both of which imply that non‐jobs and non‐work also exist (see also Benschop et al, ; Britton & Logan, ; Palmer & Eveline, ; Williams, Muller, & Kilanski, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Non‐job work/unpaid caring: Gendered industrial relations in long‐term care

Baines

Armstrong

2018

Gender Work & Organization

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This article explores the operation of gender and industrial relations in long-term care work or nursing home work, 'from within' the experience of the predominantly female workforce in seven unionized facilities in Canada. Drawing on qualitative case study data in non-profit facilities, the article argues that the main industrial relations challenges facing long-term care workers are that their workplace priorities do not fit within existing, gendered, industrial relations processes and institutions. This article starts from the experience of women and threads this experience through other layers of social organization such as: global and local policy directions including austerity, New Public Management, and social and healthcare funding; industrial relations mechanisms and policy; and workers' formal [union] and informal efforts to represent their interests in the workplace. The strongest themes in the reported experience of the women include: manufacturing conditions for unpaid work; increasing management and state dependence on unpaid care work; fostering loose boundaries; and limiting respect and autonomy as aspects of care work. The article extends the feminist political economy by analysing the links between the policies noted above and frontline care work. Building on gendered organizational theory the article also introduces the concept of non-job work and suggests a fourth industrial relations institution, namely the needs and gendered expectations of residents, families and workers themselves, operating within the liminal spaces in care work.KEYWORDS industrial relations institutions, gender, managerialism, long-term care work, unpaid work ) and in the social processes of power and injustice they reproduce and legitimize (Simms, 2007;Wajcman, 2000). To remedy this limitation, Forrest (1993, p. 417) suggests that the solution lies in understanding IR and the work women find themselves in 'from within' the experience of women.This article explores the operation of gender and IR in a highly gendered sector of work 'from within' the experience of women, namely work in long-term residential care (LTRC) or what are often called nursing homes. Like other wealthy, industrial countries, since the 1980s Canadian governments have adopted neoliberal policies that cut back entitlements, privatized services and valorized the private market as the solution to all social and individual problems (Cohen, 2013). Similar to many industrialized countries, LTRC is a mix of private, non-profit and public provision. The LTRC work explored in this article is undertaken by an overwhelmingly female labour force (over 80 per cent) where the majority of the labour force is unionized (around 65 per cent; Laxer, 2015) and operates within the increasingly constrained conditions of state-led austerity and late neoliberalism. Overall, Canadian union density hovers around 30 per cent in contrast to~18 per cent in the UK or Australia (OECD, 2017). The higher density is thought to reflect a larger and significantly female public sector...

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Section: Theoretical Framementioning

confidence: 96%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Non‐job work/unpaid caring: Gendered industrial relations in long‐term care

Baines

Armstrong

2018

Gender Work & Organization

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“…Scholars who have applied Acker's theory in empirical work have focused on three general areas: (i) how gender pervades organizational structures, dynamics and processes, mostly in the context of bureaucracies; (ii) how institutional factors affect particular groups' career development and progression; and (iii) how individual people do or do not embody the 'ideal worker' (Nkomo & Rodriguez, 2017). However, as work arrangements rapidly change, a reimagining of how gender permeates organizational structure is warranted.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hollywood power brokers: Gender and racial inequality in talent agencies

Simon

2019

Gender Work & Organization

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As the US labour market shifts towards project‐based, contractual and contingent work, the importance of intermediary brokerage organizations will continue to grow. In this article, I use Joan Acker's theory of gendered organizations to examine Hollywood talent agencies as one case of these powerful intermediary organizations. The power structures, promotion process, mentoring networks and discourses described by the talent agents I interviewed privilege white men. The agents interviewed for this study described their top management as being overwhelmingly composed of men, they discussed the patrimonial systems of mentorship and exclusive male networks that advantage white men, and talked about colleagues and clients in ways that valorized elite masculinity and disparaged femininity. Thus, the organizational structures and culture of these talent agencies collectively create an environment that reproduces itself, encouraging white men to join and persist, and presenting barriers to women and racial minority men. Although the focus of this article is on Hollywood talent agencies, the findings from this research help explain how inequality is reproduced in the non‐traditional work arrangements that characterize the new economy.

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“…Inside work organizations, inequalities are embedded within organizational norms and cultures as well as maintained by vested interests, in line with Joan Acker's (2009) concept of 'inequality regimes' (see also Nkomo & Rodriguez, 2018). Inequalities are created and maintained by institutional features such as the shape of the hierarchy, wage-setting mechanisms and wage distribution, but also by the visibility and legitimacy of inequalities, which vary across organizations.…”

mentioning

confidence: 86%