9 research outputs found
Understanding the Agency of Diversity Managers: A Relational and Multilevel Investigation.
PhDThis thesis aims to provide a critical realist account of diversity managers' agency,
incorporating a critique of the existing diversity management research. A multilevel and
relational analytical framework is offered in order to understand diversity managers'
agency. The framework interpreted and operationalised Bourdieu's key concepts,
`field', `habitus', `capitals' and `strategies' in the organisational context, for exploring
and explaining macro, meso and micro level influences on the agency of diversity
managers.
The macro-social field of diversity management is mapped out by analysing data from
an online national survey completed by diversity managers in the UK, and in-depth
interviews with diversity managers of large public and private sector organisations.
Then, findings of an extensive case study of Ford Motor Company, which includes
company documentation and interviews with the company's diversity managers, are
introduced to examine meso-organisational and micro-individual dynamics of diversity
managers' agency.
The analysis of the findings revealed that the agency of diversity managers is
multilayered and complex. Whilst the boundaries of this agency are drawn by the deeply
seated structures and mechanisms which are embedded in the fabric of social and
organisational lives, diversity managers own varying degrees of social, cultural and
symbolic capitals which are potential sources of power and influence, and they utilise
strategies in order to activate this potential and widen the scope of their agency.
The thesis addresses the limitations in diversity management literature, which are
associated with dualisms of agency and structure, and qualitative and quantitative
methods. It makes theoretical and methodological contribution by offering original
empirical evidence generated through a multi-method strategy and analysing diversity
managers' agency at the interplay of agentic and structural dynamics. It also offers
policy makers at organisational and national levels a realistic understanding of diversity
management processes that may inform design of more effective and progressive
policies and initiatives.School of Business and Management Queen Mary University
Prize the doubt : the life and work of Francis William Newman.
Available from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:DX180157 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo
Maritime expressions:a corpus based exploration of maritime metaphors
This study uses a purpose-built corpus to explore the linguistic legacy of Britain’s maritime history found in the form of hundreds of specialised ‘Maritime Expressions’ (MEs), such as TAKEN ABACK, ANCHOR and ALOOF, that permeate modern English. Selecting just those expressions commencing with ’A’, it analyses 61 MEs in detail and describes the processes by which these technical expressions, from a highly specialised occupational discourse community, have made their way into modern English. The Maritime Text Corpus (MTC) comprises 8.8 million words, encompassing a range of text types and registers, selected to provide a cross-section of ‘maritime’ writing. It is analysed using WordSmith analytical software (Scott, 2010), with the 100 million-word British National Corpus (BNC) as a reference corpus. Using the MTC, a list of keywords of specific salience within the maritime discourse has been compiled and, using frequency data, concordances and collocations, these MEs are described in detail and their use and form in the MTC and the BNC is compared. The study examines the transformation from ME to figurative use in the general discourse, in terms of form and metaphoricity. MEs are classified according to their metaphorical strength and their transference from maritime usage into new registers and domains such as those of business, politics, sports and reportage etc. A revised model of metaphoricity is developed and a new category of figurative expression, the ‘resonator’, is proposed. Additionally, developing the work of Lakov and Johnson, Kovesces and others on Conceptual Metaphor Theory (CMT), a number of Maritime Conceptual Metaphors are identified and their cultural significance is discussed