The Politics of Gender in the NHS: Impression Management and ‘Getting Things Done’

Greener, Ian

doi:10.1111/j.1468-0432.2007.00343.x

Cited by 13 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…The effect of such behaviour may directly impact on material outcomes; for example, giving the impression one is competent can lead to material benefits such as a salary increase, better working conditions (Leary and Kowalski, 1990) and access to promotional opportunities. Impression management is a managerialist interpretation of Goffman's (1959) work (Greener, 2007). Gardner and Martinko (1988) explicitly advocates its use as a series of strategies for achieving managerial success.…”

Section: Impression Management and Career Successmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impressing for Success: A Gendered Analysis of a Key Social Capital Accumulation Strategy

Kumra

Vinnicombe

2010

Gender Work & Organization

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Social capital theory assesses the career benefits that accrue to individuals from the stock of relationships they have. Such benefits can be in the form of guidance and advice, access to key projects and assignments and help with setting up business deals. However, when assessing whether such career-enhancing resources are available equally to men and women, we find that gender impacts on the access to and accumulation of social capital. The article seeks to address two key research questions. The first is whether women are aware of the need to accumulate social capital to advance their careers and the second is whether they use impression management techniques in order to assist them in doing this. Findings are reported from a study in an international consulting firm with 19 female consultants. In respect of research question one the findings indicate that women in the sample are aware of the need to accumulate social capital to advance their careers; with particular emphasis being placed on the importance of gaining access to influential sponsors. In respect of research question two, the findings confirm that women in the sample do perceive the necessity to utilise impression management techniques to help them to accumulate social capital. This is done in a defensive way and is linked to ensuring that one is seen as ambitious, likable and available. It is argued that these are key organizational norms, and it is perceived that in order to accumulate social capital, women need to actively work to dispel the negative stereotypes that attach to them because of their gender. The article calls for greater recognition of the impact that masculine organizational cultures have on the career development of women, who not only have to perform at a high level but are also required to expend additional energy conforming to masculine organizational cultures they have had little say in creating.

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Section: Impression Management and Career Successmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impressing for Success: A Gendered Analysis of a Key Social Capital Accumulation Strategy

Kumra

Vinnicombe

2010

Gender Work & Organization

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“…This conclusion contradicts Goffman's original theorizing, which emphasized that all social interactions include dramaturgy and performances. And while Tseelon's (1992) critique was published twenty years ago, studies of impression management have either (1) focused exclusively on front region presentations of self, emphasizing how particular performances work to advantage some actors while sidestepping the issue of back region behaviors (Collett 2005;Greener 2007), or (2) implied that workers exhibit their true selves in the backstage and that their front stage activities include only performance (Huppatz 2010;Kumra and Vinnicombe 2010).…”

Section: Front-and Backstagesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrating Dark Humor and Compassion

Cain

2012

Journal of Contemporary Ethnography

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In The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life, Goffman drew attention to the various ways that individuals present themselves across settings. One aspect of his discussion was the division of space into front and back regions. In this article, I use data from two years participant observation and forty-one interviews with hospice workers to examine the ways that workers identify as well as how they use those identities to account for discrepancies between front and back region behaviors. Front stage behaviors emphasize compassion, while backstage behaviors include dark humor, strategizing, and detachment. This article argues that workers create a hospice identity that emphasizes authentic emotional expression and enlightenment about death as a way to explain away discrepancies in behavior. This work challenges assumptions that fronts are only performances and that back regions are more authentic by showing how workers integrate the two into a professional sense of self.

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“…As our analysis suggests, multiple scripts can exist at the same time, especially as professionals have only recently started using new technology and need to adjust to the eyes of a heterogeneous audience. Being accountable in front of a heterogeneous audience requires improvising and changing existing scripts, which is not easily done (Greener, ; Ramirez, ). Dealing with conflicting scripts plays a larger role in surveillance and impression management than hitherto acknowledged, and shows the complexity of enacting surveillance that goes beyond compliance or resistance.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One‐on‐one conversations (a former backstage) are no longer possible when communicating through the technology. Previous studies have used Goffman to demonstrate the importance of backstages for the medical profession, showing that professionals sometimes discuss medical issues and prognoses with fellow professionals hidden from the view of patients (Greener, ; Lewin and Reeves, ). We build on this work to understand when professionals feel the need to move conversations to a backstage and how that connects with the watching eyes of the heterogeneous audience on the POHCs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prying Eyes: A Dramaturgical Approach to Professional Surveillance

Visser¹,

Bleijenbergh²,

Riel³

2017

J Management Studies

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This study examines how professionals engage with the increased surveillance of their daily work. We develop an understanding of professional surveillance at the micro-level of interaction by drawing on dramaturgical literature. Based on qualitative interviews and observational data of healthcare professionals using a new technology to communicate simultaneously with each other and individual patients, we analyse how professionals use different elements of the theatre (e.g., stages and scripts) to enact surveillance. The significance of our contribution lies especially in the dramaturgical reconceptualization of surveillance as enacted, making it an integral part of displaying one's professionalism.

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The Politics of Gender in the NHS: Impression Management and ‘Getting Things Done’

Cited by 13 publications

References 44 publications

Impressing for Success: A Gendered Analysis of a Key Social Capital Accumulation Strategy

Impressing for Success: A Gendered Analysis of a Key Social Capital Accumulation Strategy

Integrating Dark Humor and Compassion

Prying Eyes: A Dramaturgical Approach to Professional Surveillance

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