IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/epplan/v79y2020ics0149718919300928.html

Exploring linkages between organisational culture and gender equality work—An ethnography of a multinational engineering company

Author

Listed:
  • Utoft, Ea Høg

Abstract

This article explores linkages between organisation-specific cultural narratives and gender-equality programme planning through the lens of the ‘historicity’ concept. The article argues that to fully understand problem definitions, programme design and organisational change processes related to gender equality, scholars and practitioners cannot focus one-sidedly on expected outcomes and effects; we must also factor in cultural narratives, because gender equality actors never arrive at their work as ‘tabulae rasae’. A community of actors always draws on shared dispositions that give sense, direction and shape to their anticipations of the future hereby guiding their actions in the present. Based on an ethnography of a multinational engineering company, the article shows how cultural narratives may serve in different ways as support factors for gender equality programme planning and implementation, if they are actively but mindfully engaged. This mindfulness is important as positive cultural narratives may entail problematic gender dimensions. On the other hand, negative cultural narratives may entail important learning outcomes that may benefit future gender equality initiatives. The analysis further points to the centrality of strategic communication, leadership commitment and comprehensive evaluation in order to mobilise the potential of cultural narratives as support factors to gender equality work. Finally, this article offers a rich example to scholars and practitioners of how to employ cultural analysis in relation to gender equality activities, and demonstrates the value of the insights produced by this analysis for the case company and its gender equality programme.

Suggested Citation

  • Utoft, Ea Høg, 2020. "Exploring linkages between organisational culture and gender equality work—An ethnography of a multinational engineering company," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:epplan:v:79:y:2020:i:c:s0149718919300928
    DOI: 10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2020.101791
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0149718919300928
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2020.101791?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Marieke Brink & Yvonne Benschop, 2014. "Gender in Academic Networking: The Role of Gatekeepers in Professorial Recruitment," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(3), pages 460-492, May.
    2. Adams, Renée B. & Ferreira, Daniel, 2009. "Women in the boardroom and their impact on governance and performance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(2), pages 291-309, November.
    3. Nancy Staudenmayer & Marcie Tyre & Leslie Perlow, 2002. "Time to Change: Temporal Shifts as Enablers of Organizational Change," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 13(5), pages 583-597, October.
    4. Grosser, Kate & Moon, Jeremy, 2008. "Developments in company reporting on workplace gender equality?," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 179-198.
    5. Evanthia Kalpazidou Schmidt & Marina Cacace, 2019. "Setting up a dynamic framework to activate gender equality structural transformation in research organizations," Science and Public Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 46(1), pages 159-159.
    6. Kate Grosser & Jeremy Moon, 2008. "Developments in company reporting on workplace gender equality?," Accounting Forum, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(3), pages 179-198, September.
    7. Kalpazidou Schmidt, Evanthia & Graversen, Ebbe Krogh, 2020. "Developing a conceptual evaluation framework for gender equality interventions in research and innovation," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    8. Gabriel, Yiannis, 2000. "Storytelling in Organizations: Facts, Fictions, and Fantasies," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198297062.
    9. Welch, Catherine & Piekkari, Rebecca, 2017. "How should we (not) judge the ‘quality’ of qualitative research? A re-assessment of current evaluative criteria in International Business," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 52(5), pages 714-725.
    10. Claude Francoeur & Réal Labelle & Bernard Sinclair-Desgagné, 2008. "Gender Diversity in Corporate Governance and Top Management," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 81(1), pages 83-95, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Anastasia Zabaniotou, 2020. "New Forms of Social Learning in Mediterranean Higher Engineering Education: Change Lab for Gender Equality Transformation, Methodology, Design Principles," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(16), pages 1-18, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Carmen‐Pilar Martí‐Ballester, 2023. "Mutual funds and gender equality in portfolio firms: Toward the sustainable development goals," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(2), pages 905-926, March.
    2. Rebérioux, Antoine & Roudaut, Gwenael, 2016. "Gender Quota inside the Boardroom: Female Directors as New Key Players?," CEPREMAP Working Papers (Docweb) 1603, CEPREMAP.
    3. Daniel Ofori-Sasu & Maame Ofewah Sarpong & Vivian Tetteh & Baah Aye Kusi, 2022. "Banking disclosure and banking crises in Africa: does board gender diversity play a role?," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-10, December.
    4. Sarkar, Jayati & Selarka, Ekta, 2021. "Women on board and performance of family firms: Evidence from India," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(C).
    5. Matthew Imes & Jessica West & Mark West & Shan Yan, 2026. "Board Gender Diversity, CEO Turnover, and Subsequent Firm Performance," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 17(1), pages 2818-2844, February.
    6. Kirsten Burkhardt & Pascal Nguyen & Evelyne Poincelot, 2020. "Agents of change: Women in top management and corporate environmental performance," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(4), pages 1591-1604, July.
    7. Carlos Fernández-Méndez & Rubén Arrondo-García & Ana Rosa Fonseca-Díaz, 2025. "Sustainability practices, board’s gender diversity and quota regulations in European markets," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 19(10), pages 3177-3227, October.
    8. Katia Furlotti & Tatiana Mazza & Veronica Tibiletti & Silvia Triani, 2019. "Women in top positions on boards of directors: Gender policies disclosed in Italian sustainability reporting," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(1), pages 57-70, January.
    9. John Thornton & Chrysovalantis Vasilakis, 2024. "Do female CEOs handle crisis better? Evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic," Economics and Business Letters, Oviedo University Press, vol. 13(3), pages 158-171.
    10. Adeel Mustafa & Abubakr Saeed & Muhammad Awais & Shahab Aziz, 2020. "Board-Gender Diversity, Family Ownership, and Dividend Announcement: Evidence from Asian Emerging Economies," JRFM, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-20, March.
    11. Lai Van Vo & Hazel Thu‐Hien Nguyen & Huong Thi Thu Le, 2021. "Do female CEOs make a difference in firm operations? Evidence from Vietnam," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(S1), pages 1489-1516, April.
    12. María del Rocío Moreno-Enguix & Ester Gras-Gil & Nuria Nevers Esteban Lloret, 2026. "Critical Mass of Women on Boards and Firm Performance: Insights from Spanish State-Owned Enterprises," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 17(1), pages 2707-2728, February.
    13. Al-Shaer, Habiba & Zaman, Mahbub, 2016. "Board gender diversity and sustainability reporting quality," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(3), pages 210-222.
    14. Ahmad Yuosef Alodat & Yunhong Hao, 2025. "Environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosure and firm performance: Moderating role of board gender diversity and sustainability committee," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(1), pages 636-651, February.
    15. Alaa Mansour Zalata & Collins Ntim & Ahmed Aboud & Ernest Gyapong, 2019. "Female CEOs and Core Earnings Quality: New Evidence on the Ethics Versus Risk-Aversion Puzzle," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 160(2), pages 515-534, December.
    16. Ayman Issa & Mohammad A. A. Zaid & Jalal Rajeh Hanaysha, 2022. "Exploring the relationship between female director's profile and sustainability performance: Evidence from the Middle East," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(6), pages 1980-2002, September.
    17. Ines Maraghni & Mehdi Nekhili & Tawhid Chtioui, 2016. "Caractéristiques du comité d'audit et étendue du reporting sur le contrôle interne : cas des entreprises françaises," Post-Print hal-01901185, HAL.
    18. Réal Labelle & Rim Makni Gargouri & Claude Francoeur, 2010. "Ethics, Diversity Management, and Financial Reporting Quality," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 93(2), pages 335-353, May.
    19. Francisco Díez-Martín & Giorgia Miotto & Cristina Del-Castillo-Feito, 2024. "The intellectual structure of gender equality research in the business economics literature," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 18(6), pages 1649-1680, June.
    20. Abinzano, Isabel & Martinez, Beatriz & Poletti-Hughes, Jannine, 2023. "Women in power with power: The influence of meaningful board representation on default risk," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:epplan:v:79:y:2020:i:c:s0149718919300928. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/evalprogplan .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.