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Open Access
Article
Publication date: 30 March 2021

Kristin S. Williams

Ficto-feminism is offered here as a creative method for feminist historical inquiry in management and organizational studies (MOSs).

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Abstract

Purpose

Ficto-feminism is offered here as a creative method for feminist historical inquiry in management and organizational studies (MOSs).

Design/methodology/approach

This paper introduces a new method called ficto-feminism. Using feminist polemics as a starting point, ficto-feminism fuses aspects of collective biography with the emic potential of autoethnography and rhizomatic capacity of fictocriticism to advance not only a new account of history in subject but also in style of writing.

Findings

The aim of ficto-feminism is to create a plausible, powerful and persuasive account of an overlooked female figure which not only challenges convention but also surfaces her lost lessons and accomplishments to benefit today's development of theory and practice.

Research limitations/implications

The paper reviews the methodological components of ficto-feminism and speaks to the merit of writing differently and incorporating fictional techniques.

Originality/value

To illustrate the method in action, the paper features a non-fiction, fictitious conversation with Hallie Flanagan (1890–1969) and investigates her role as national director of the Federal Theatre Project (FTP) (1935–1939). The FTP was part of the most elaborate relief programs ever conceived as part of the New Deal (a series of public works projects and financial reforms enacted in the 1930s in the USA).

Details

Qualitative Research Journal, vol. 21 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1443-9883

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 4 December 2019

Kristin S. Williams

Cyber incivility is a form of unsociable speech and a common daily workplace stressor. The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of cyber incivility on non-profit leaders…

Abstract

Purpose

Cyber incivility is a form of unsociable speech and a common daily workplace stressor. The purpose of this paper is to explore the impact of cyber incivility on non-profit leaders in Canada and share an intimate portrait of their personal experiences and perceptions.

Design/methodology/approach

The study advances our understanding of how qualitative methods can be introduced into the study of a phenomenon which has been broadly examined in a positivist tradition. The paper draws epistemologically and methodologically on a fusion of critical discourse analysis and auto-ethnography to present emic and experiential insights.

Findings

The findings offer three conceptual contributions: to introduce a novel qualitative method to a dynamic field of study; to advance a critical dimension to our understanding of cyber incivility; and to explore the challenges which emerge when qualitative research must draw largely on positivist, quantitative literature. Additionally, this paper makes three contributions to our understanding of cyber incivility: by introducing organizational context conditions which encourage incivility; by identifying commonalities between incivility and bullying, by challenging the existing taxonomy; and by examining the personal experiences of non-profit leaders in Canada (in operationalized settings).

Originality/value

Quantitative analysis has been limited to the relationship between supervisor and employee and consisted mostly of cross-sectional self-report designs, online surveys and experimental manipulation in simulated workplace environments. This study serves up a deeper analysis from within organizational environments.

Details

Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management: An International Journal, vol. 15 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-5648

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 June 2018

Kristin S. Williams and Albert J. Mills

This paper aims to accomplish two things: to build on current research which interrogates the role of management history in the neglect of women leaders and labor programs and to…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to accomplish two things: to build on current research which interrogates the role of management history in the neglect of women leaders and labor programs and to draw attention to Hallie Flanagan and the Federal Theater Project and their lost contributions to management and organizational studies.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper adopts a feminist poststructural lens fused with critical discourse analysis to capture the role of discourses in concealing a more fragmented view of history.

Findings

The findings are openly discursive and aim to disrupt current knowledge and thinking in the practice of making history. The paper calls for an undoing of history and an examination of the powerful forces, which result in a gendered and limited understanding of the past.

Originality/value

The objective of this paper is to help scholarship continue to transform management and organizational studies and management history and to raise the profile of remarkable leaders, like Flanagan and similarly remarkable programs like the Federal Theater Project. Flanagan managed arguably the most ambitious and novel labor program under the New Deal, which resulted in an average of 10,000 workers in the arts being employed over four years, in a project which engaged audiences of over 30,000,000 Americans.

Details

Journal of Management History, vol. 24 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1751-1348

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 9 January 2023

Kristin S. Williams, Heidi Weigand, Sophia Okoroafor, Giuseppe Liuzzo and Erica Ganuelas Weigand

This paper explores intergenerational perceptions of kindness in the context of Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and the COVID-19 global pandemic. The purpose of this exploratory…

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Abstract

Purpose

This paper explores intergenerational perceptions of kindness in the context of Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and the COVID-19 global pandemic. The purpose of this exploratory study is to investigate perceptions of kindness in the context of traumatic events and its potential value in authentic allyship in organizational environments.

Design/methodology/approach

Authors interviewed 65 individuals (31 self-identifying as non-racialized and 34 self-identifying as Black, Indigenous and People of Colour aka BIPOC). Participants included Generation Z (Gen Z; born between 1997–2012/5) and Generation Y (Gen Y; also referred to as Millennials, born between 1981 and 1994/6) across North American, Europe and Africa. Millennials currently represent the largest generation in the workplace and are taking on leadership roles, whereas Gen Z are emerging entrants into the workplace and new organizational actors.

Findings

The paper offers insights into how to talk about BLM in organizations, how to engage in authentic vs performative allyship and how to support BIPOC in the workplace. The study also reveals the durability of systemic racism in generations that may be otherwise considered more enlightened and progressive.

Research limitations/implications

The authors expand on kindness literature and contribute theoretically and methodologically to critical race theory and intertextual analysis in race scholarship.

Practical implications

The study contributes to the understanding of how pro-social behaviours like kindness (with intention) can contribute to a more inclusive discourse on racism and authentic allyship.

Originality/value

Authors reveal the potential for kindness as a pro-social behaviour in organizational environments to inform authentic allyship praxis.

Details

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, vol. 42 no. 9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2040-7149

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 21 September 2023

Nina Winham, Kristin S. Williams, Liela A. Jamjoom, Kerry Watson, Heidi Weigand and Nicholous M. Deal

The purpose of this paper is to explore a novel storytelling approach that investigates lived experience at the intersection of motherhood/caregiving and Ph.D. pursuits. The paper…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore a novel storytelling approach that investigates lived experience at the intersection of motherhood/caregiving and Ph.D. pursuits. The paper contributes to the feminist tradition of writing differently through the process of care that emerges from shared stories.

Design/methodology/approach

Using a process called heartful-communal storytelling, the authors evoke personal and embodied stories and transgressive narratives. The authors present a composite process drawing on heartful-autoethnography, dialogic writing and communal storytelling.

Findings

The paper makes two key contributions: (1) the paper illustrates a novel feminist process in action and (2) the paper contributes six discrete stories of lived experience at the intersection of parenthood and Ph.D. studies. The paper also contributes to the development of the feminist tradition of writing differently. Three themes emerged through the storytelling experience, and these include (1) creating boundaries and transgressing boundaries, (2) giving and receiving care and (3) neoliberal conformity and resistance. These themes, like the stories, also became entangled.

Originality/value

The paper demonstrates how heartful-communal storytelling can lead to individual and collective meaning making. While the Ph.D. is a solitary path, the authors' heartful-communal storytelling experience teaches that holding it separate from other relationships can impoverish what is learnt and constrain the production of good knowledge; the epistemic properties of care became self-evident.

Details

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, vol. 43 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2040-7149

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 9 January 2017

Kristin S. Williams and Albert J. Mills

This paper aims to achieve four things: to build on recent discussion on the neglect of Frances Perkins’ contribution to the understandings of management and organization (MOS);…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to achieve four things: to build on recent discussion on the neglect of Frances Perkins’ contribution to the understandings of management and organization (MOS); to surface selected insights by Perkins to reveal her potential as an important MOS scholar and practitioner; to explain some of the reasons for the neglect of Perkins, particularly by MOS scholars; and to interrogate the role of management history in the neglect of Perkins and her management and organizational insights.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper adopts a feminist post-structural lens through which the authors focus on major discourses (dominant interrelated practices and ideas) that influence how people come to define themselves, others and the character of a particular phenomenon (e.g. management history). To that end, the authors have undertaken Foucauldian discourse analysis, where they examine various sources that collectively work to present a dominant idea of a given set of practices (in this case, management and organization studies and associated histories of the field). In Foucauldian terms, these interrelated practices constitute an archive that consists of various selected materials (e.g. the Roosevelt Library and the Columbia University Oral History Collection) and, in this case, works on and by Francis Perkins. Thus, the authors analyzed various materials for their discursive value (viz. the extent to which they produced and reinforced a particular notion that excluded, neglected or ignored women from any privileged role in MOS and management history).

Findings

The findings are discursive, which means that the purpose is to disrupt current knowledge of MOS and management history by revealing how its practices as a field of study serve to leave certain people (i.e. Frances Perkins), influences (i.e. the impact of the “settlement ethos” on the New Deal), and social phenomena (i.e. the New Deal) out of account.

Originality/value

The objective is to ask for a rethink of the field definition of MOS and management history, to include broader levels of social endeavour (e.g. labour, social welfare and politics) and a range of hitherto neglected theorists, in particular Frances Perkins. Achievements in labour, industry and management of organizations, credited to the New Deal, are overlooked in MOS and management and organizational history. As Secretary of Labour, Perkins researched, lobbied and ushered in critical New Deal measures which transformed working environments for men, women and children with social welfare and labour policies that contributed to the understanding of managing and organizing in the modern world.

Content available

Abstract

Details

Journal of Management History, vol. 30 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1751-1348

Content available

Abstract

Details

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, vol. 43 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2040-7149

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 18 June 2024

Kristin Samantha Williams

The aim of this study is two-fold: (1) to promote a model of youth participatory research and offer a window of understanding into how it can be enacted and (2) to understand…

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this study is two-fold: (1) to promote a model of youth participatory research and offer a window of understanding into how it can be enacted and (2) to understand youth perspectives on youth empowerment. This study asks: “how can youth help us understand youth empowerment?”

Design/methodology/approach

The study applies youth participatory action research (YPAR) and interpretative phenomenological analysis. The study illustrates how to enact a model of YPAR by engaging youth in the process of research in a youth-serving community non-profit organization.

Findings

This study sets out to make two important contributions, one methodological and one theoretical: First, the study contributes to our understanding of the opportunities and benefits of youth-engaged, peer-to-peer research. Specifically, this study promotes a model of youth participatory action research and knowledge making processes, and the associated social and formal benefits for youth. By extension, this study illustrates an approach to engage youth in formal contexts which has implications for both management and organizational studies and education. Finally, the study extends our understanding and conceptualization of the phenomenon of youth empowerment (as informed by youth perspectives).

Originality/value

The study offers insight into how to conduct youth participatory action research and specifically how to address two limitations cited in the literature: (1) how to authentically engage youth including how to share power, and (2) how to perform youth participatory action research, often critiqued as a black box methodology.

Details

Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management: An International Journal, vol. 19 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-5648

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 21 July 2023

Ilaria Boncori and Kristin Samantha Williams

This article explores memory work and storytelling as an organising tool through family histories, offering theoretical and methodological implications and extending existing…

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Abstract

Purpose

This article explores memory work and storytelling as an organising tool through family histories, offering theoretical and methodological implications and extending existing conceptualisations of memory work as a feminist method. This approach is termed as impressionist memory work.

Design/methodology/approach

To illustrate impressionistic memory work in action, the article presents two family histories set during Second World War and invite the reader to engage in the “undoing” of these stories and dominant ways of knowing through storytelling. This method challenges the taken-for-granted roles, plots and detail of family histories to uncover the obscured or silenced stories within, together with feminine, affective and embodied subjectivities, marginalisation and social inequalities.

Findings

This study argues that impressionistic memory work as a feminist method can challenge the silencing and gendering of experiences in co-constructed and co-interpreted narratives (both formal and informal ones).

Originality/value

This study shows that engagement with impressionistic memory work can challenge taken-for-granted stories with prominent male actors and masculine narratives to reveal the female actors and feminine narratives within. This approach will offer a more inclusive perspective on family histories and deeper engagement with the marginalised or neglected actors and aspects of our histories.

Details

Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management: An International Journal, vol. 18 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-5648

Keywords

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