Managing spoiled identities: dirty workers' struggles for a favourable sense of self

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore how a group of dirty workers, that is, exotic dancers employed in a gentlemen's club, engage in identity construction amidst various macro, meso and micro considerations. Design/methodology/approach – This study adopts a social constructivist approach in exploring the stories of a group of 21 dancers employed at a chain of exotic dancing clubs in the UK, For Your Eyes Only. Findings – Identity construction is a complex process whereby dancers struggle to secure a positive sense of self among the various resources they encounter. The findings focus upon the processes of distancing through projecting disgust upon clients, other dancers and other clubs. Dancers do this to minimize the stigma associated with their own identities and position themselves in a more favourable light to others. In doing this, dancers construct a variety of identity roles for themselves and “others.” This process of distancing also results in the construction of a hierarchy of stigmatization whereby dancers categorize motivations for dancing, type of dancing and type of clubs to rationalize the work they perform and manage their spoiled identities. Practical implications – The stories of these dancers illustrate the messy nature of identity construction for dirty workers. In turn, it also illuminates how a better understanding of the complexity of identity construction for exotic dancers can offer insights transferable to other dirty work occupations and organizations in general. Originality/value – The paper provides an indepth look at an occupational site that is relatively unexplored in organization studies and thus makes a unique empirical contribution. It also offers a more comprehensive theoretical lens for understanding identity construction and dirty workers

Young workers' experiences of abusive leadership

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to develop a model of abusive leadership as experienced by young workers. Abusive leadership is understood to be subjective and as such this research seeks to explore the experience of abusive leadership through a qualitative approach. Design/methodology/approach – Drawing on interviews with 30 young workers who identified themselves as having a “bad” boss, this study employs a constructivist grounded theory approach in order to identify behaviours, moderators and outcomes of abusive leadership. Findings – A definition and model of abusive leadership as experienced by young workers is proposed. The model details 11 behaviours, five moderators and six individual and two organizational outcomes of abusive leadership. Originality/value – The adoption of a constructivist grounded theory approach reveals several unique factors that moderate the relationship between behaviors and outcomes of abusive leadership in young workers. By grounding the model in the actual experiences of young workers, the paper offers possibilities for future research on abusive leadership and young workers and across demographic groups

Looking to the past to understand the present: organizational change in varsity sport

Purpose – This paper aims to explore how varsity football athletes and coaches negotiate meanings when faced with the unmet expectations of a new head coach brought into lead a turnaround process. It also aims to pay particular attention to the role of history in this meaning making process. Design/methodology/approach – This paper draws on semi-structured interviews with players and coaches at two points in time. To preserve the richness of their experiences and illuminate the historical aspects of change, it focuses on the stories of three players and one supporting coach. Findings – Numerous symbols of change emerge that have multiple and contradictory meanings. The meanings around success and failure are renegotiated over time as individuals struggle with the unmet expectations of change. Moreover, individuals are unable to shed the failures of the past and move forward. Practical implications – Change is a complex and messy process of managing multiple meanings. Understanding change entails more than a snapshot picture of an organization. New leaders have no control over the past, yet they need to be aware of how individuals experienced the past in order to increase the likelihood of success in the present. Originality/value – Success and failure are experienced as an ongoing process as athletes and coaches experience, reflect on and interact with others. In illuminating the role of history in how change is experienced in the present, the paper demonstrates that the past can serve as both an immobilizing force, as well as a comparative point enabling individuals to rationalize their emotions

Competitive advantage as a legitimacy-creating process

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore how small firms in the tattooing industry actively shape institutional expectations of value for consumers in a changing industry. Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws upon interviews with key actors in the firms under study to explore their experiences with consumers and other constituents in determining how competitive advantage is constructed in this environment. These data are complemented data with interviews with governmental representatives and material from secondary sources. Findings – The results reveal efforts of firms to construct and increase organizational legitimacy through the prominence of discourses of professionalism based on artistry and medicine/public health. These bases of competitive differentiation are not the clear result of exogenous pressure, rather they arise through the active efforts of the firm to construct value guidelines for consumers and other constituents. Practical implications – Strategic management in small firms is a complex and dynamic process that does not necessarily mirror that of large organizations. Constructing competitive advantage is an interacting process between key actors of small firms and various constituents. Originality/value – The paper extends the application of institutional theory in strategic management by illuminating the active role that firms play in creating industry norms, especially in industries where norms are not well established or no longer entrenched. Moreover, exploring an alternative site of study offers a means through which to see well-studied issues in new ways

Emotion management as struggle in dirty work: the experiences of exotic dancers

We further the research to date on ambiguity, ambivalence and contradiction in organisation studies by integrating the dirty work and emotion management literatures. Our intent is to better understand the complex cognitive processes underpinning everyday experiences of those working in what has been perceived to be a high-breadth high-depth stigmatised occupation, that is, exotic dancing. Dancers’ stories reveal they are acutely aware of social and moral taint associated with the work and in turn their self-identities. They adopt a number of strategies to manage their spoiled identities and we contribute by unpicking the cognitive processes that underpin these strategies. In extending strategies of emotional ambivalence at work and stigma management, we conclude that through a lens of emotion management as struggle, exotic dancers, and more broadly dirty workers, do not ‘resolve’ the ambivalence, contradiction and ambiguity they confront but can be seen to experience at best a type of contingent coherence in their everyday work

Theorizing identity at work : exotic dancing as a site for organizational and occupational research

There is a plethora of research in organization studies that explores identity at work. Most of this research, however, focuses upon one or two aspects of identity without exploring the intersections and interactions among these different aspects. Recently, it has also been argued that the literature fails to pay adequate attention to the role of agency in identity construction. Moreover, identity researchers are critiquing the notion of identity as stable and singular, contending identity is not about what one becomes, rather it is a process of becoming underpinned by multiplicity, flux and contradiction. Conceptualizing identity as a process of becoming this research explored how the subjective individual makes sense of her work-based identity. Adopting a social constructivist paradigm individual experience, that of researcher and 'participants', has been a central focus in doing this. This research offers a more complete picture of identity at work by capturing agency, as well as various (re)sources that the individual might draw upon. To illuminate new ways of 'seeing' identity at work, this research looked to an 'alternative site' of study, that is, exotic dancing, to explore work-based identity. For Your Eyes Only (FYEO), a chain of `gentlemen's' clubs located in the United Kingdom, was selected as the site of study. Through a one-year archival analysis of popular press and corporate documents a number of discourses circulating about exotic dancing surfaced, including, discourses of Public Dis(Order), Criminality, Deviance and Immorality, Surveillance, Growth and Art and Entertainment. Several of these discourses position sex work, specifically exotic dancing, as bad sex and thus 'dirty work'. This illuminates the historical, subjective and objective aspects of organizational life, as well as how occupational status plays a role in an individual's identity work. Coupled with this, through interviews with dancers and managers, as well as analysis of corporate documents and popular press accounts of the club, the extent to which the organization was a (re)source in the individual's identity construction became apparent. FYEO makes great efforts to position the club in a positive way in the industry and to various constituents, constructing an organizational identity based upon exclusivity and 'high quality' service. In drawing upon these macro (re)sources and relations with others dancers engage in a variety of processes to construct work-based identity roles as a means of 'ordering' or making sense of who they, and others, are. The meanings associated with these roles are constantly negotiated and dancers often perform several different, sometimes contradictory, roles in their process of becoming. This research offers another way to understand agency in identity at work. Through the individual's struggles to balance the multiplicity and contradictions with her desire for 'order', it is conceptualized that agency may be present even when we cannot 'see' it. The contradictions heard through individual's stories illustrate that agency exists, both as actions we can see, as well as in the 'internal' struggles an individual experiences. Emotion work is re-conceptualized to capture the agency seen, and heard, through the stories told by individuals. Furthermore, dirty work, identity regulation as a form of organizational control and social identity are fused with emotion work as a heuristic for identity at work researchers to illuminate various interacting and intersecting macro, meso and micro (re)sources the individual draws upon in her identity at work. Finally, in exploring the sameness and difference between 'dirty work', specifically exotic dancing in this case, and other forms of work this research makes space for, and calls for, alternative learning in organization studies

Stop looking at her shoes!

The pressure (not only on Theresa May) for 'respectable business femininity' isn't discussed enough, argue Sharon Mavin and Gina Grand

Negative Intra-gender Relations between Women: Friendships, Competition, and Female Misogyny

The following chapter explores the nature of women’s negative intra-gender social relations, offering new insights into gendered organizations and how gendered organizing processes impact upon social interactions and relationships between women. We theorize women’s negative intra-gender relations by fusing theory in the areas of doing gender well and differently (Mavin and Grandy 2011); gendered contexts; homophily (Lazarsfeld and Merton 1954) and homosociality (Gruenfeld and Tiedens 2005); women’s intra-gender competition (Campbell, 2004), and processes of female misogyny (Mavin, 2006a, b), as complex interlocking gendered practices and processes (Acker 2009). Our contribution is a conceptual framework of women’s intra-gender relations, which reveals under-researched, often hidden forms of gender in action. We extend the theoretical development of women’s negative relations by recognizing that they have the power to limit the potential for homosocial and homophilous relations between women and conclude by offering questions to guide future research agendas