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Helen Woodruffe‐Burton and Sam Bairstow
The purpose of this paper is to examine the ways in which butch lesbians manage and negotiate their sexual identity in the workplace.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the ways in which butch lesbians manage and negotiate their sexual identity in the workplace.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative study using online ethnographical enquiry to explore lesbians' experiences of performing butch identity in the workplace. Ethical and other issues relating to online ethnographic research are also explored and discussed.
Findings
Identity negotiation is a key issue and lesbians face the constant pressure of identity management. This is not simply a personal perspective but a defence mechanism to counter the heteronormative culture within organisations. Strategies for dealing with these tensions evident in the literature and reflected in this study range from “passing” (passing as a heterosexual) to defying expectations of heteronormativity and remaining constant to individual butch identity.
Practical implications
The paper can assist HRD professionals and leaders in developing organisation cultures which embrace and include difference and help obviate oppression. It may also be of interest to researchers and policy makers in the fields of diversity and equality and LGB issues.
Social implications
The findings here will be of interest to social audiences including LGBT individuals, activist groups and support groups. Wider understanding of female masculinity and butch identity may help leverage greater tolerance and acceptance.
Originality/value
This study responds to calls for more LGBT research in the workplace and organisational context. The findings develop the understanding of identity negotiation in conditions of heteronormativity. It is also argued that this study of the experiences of lesbians in the workplace is positioned as an alternative site of understanding organisations, with learning to offer gendered leadership.
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Sam Bairstow and Heather Skinner
The purpose of this paper is to explore issues surrounding the enactment of a lesbian, gay or bisexual person's sexual identity and their role as an internal customer of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore issues surrounding the enactment of a lesbian, gay or bisexual person's sexual identity and their role as an internal customer of mainstream service organisations.
Design/methodology/approach
This article is written from a critical marketing perspective, the prefix “critical” signifying adoption of what may be considered somewhat radical philosophies and theories, allowing questioning of not only generally accepted theories of marketing, but also the assumptions upon which they rest. The “radical” approaches, i.e. the lenses through which the critique is offered, are postmodernism and queer theory. The theoretical perspectives critiqued in this article are internal marketing and emotional labour, and the assumptions questioned are those surrounding the importance of the role of the internal customer's identity in consumption of the work role.
Findings
The findings suggest a link that needs to be made between an individual's status as an internal customer (particularly in a front‐line service job), their identity (as defined by the individual themselves), and its impact upon their consumption of work (which viewed through a postmodern lens can be seen to help create, maintain and communicate such identity).
Practical implications
For those charged with the management of people in organisations, this paper offers critical insights into the complex practical regulation of organisational diversity in service industries.
Originality/value
The paper has drawn together various perspectives in the literature that have not previously been linked. If an external customer consumes products and services in order to create or display an identity, and if we accept the argument that employees should be treated as internal customers then the logical conclusion of this perspective is that these internal customers also create their identity through the consumption of work, and not just through their consumption of goods and services. The complexities of this proposition have been considered, using sexual identity management as one example, but the principle could equally apply to other areas of diversity among internal customers within the workplace.
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Under this heading are published regularly abstracts of all Reports and Memoranda of the Aeronautical Researeh Council, Technical Reports and Memoranda of the United States…
Abstract
Under this heading are published regularly abstracts of all Reports and Memoranda of the Aeronautical Researeh Council, Technical Reports and Memoranda of the United States National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics and publications of other similar Researeh Bodies as issued
The amnesty, reconciliation, and reintegration (AR2) process in a fractured and fragmented society may require assistance from the security sector to become fully operational…
Abstract
The amnesty, reconciliation, and reintegration (AR2) process in a fractured and fragmented society may require assistance from the security sector to become fully operational. This article develops a framework for how such assistance may be implemented, based on current and developing US military operational doctrines and national security documents. It considers briefly the implementation of such principles via a discussion of the AR2 process in Northern Ireland.
IT is not proposed this year to write a full review of the Annual Meeting but rather to set down, informally, those developments, trends, analyses, or predictions which appeared…
Abstract
IT is not proposed this year to write a full review of the Annual Meeting but rather to set down, informally, those developments, trends, analyses, or predictions which appeared most significant.
Michael Preston-Shoot, Fiona O’Donoghue and John Binding
The first purpose of this paper is to update the core data set of self-neglect safeguarding adult reviews (SAR) and accompanying thematic analysis. A second purpose is to…
Abstract
Purpose
The first purpose of this paper is to update the core data set of self-neglect safeguarding adult reviews (SAR) and accompanying thematic analysis. A second purpose is to rebalance the narrative about adult safeguarding and self-neglect by highlighting two case studies where the practice was informed by SAR and the evidence-base of best practice.
Design/methodology/approach
Further published reviews are added to the core data set, drawn from the websites of Safeguarding Adults Boards (SAB). Thematic analysis is updated using the four domains used previously. Two case studies are presented, using the four domains of direct practice, team around the person, organisational support and governance, to demonstrate that positive outcomes can be achieved when practice and support for practitioners align with the evidence-base.
Findings
Familiar findings emerge from the thematic analysis and reinforce the evidence-base of good practice with individuals who self-neglect and for policies and procedures with which to support those practitioners working with such cases. The case studies are illustrative examples of what can be achieved and signpost SABs and SAR authors to question what enables and what obstructs best practice.
Research limitations/implications
A national database of reviews completed by SABs has been established (https://nationalnetwork.org.uk) with the expectation that, in time, this will become a comprehensive resource. It is possible, however, that this data set is incomplete. Drawing together the findings from the reviews nonetheless builds on what is known about the components of effective practice, and effective policy and organisational arrangements for practice. Although individual reviews might comment on good practice alongside shortfalls, no published SARs have been found that were commissioned specifically to learn lessons from what had worked out well. More emphasis could be given to what might be learned from such cases.
Practical implications
Answering the question “why” remains a significant challenge for SAR not only where concerns about how agencies worked together prompted review but also where positive outcomes have been achieved. The findings confirm the relevance of the evidence-base for effective practice, but SARs are limited in their analysis of what enables and what obstructs the components of best practice. Greater explicit use of case studies with positive outcomes might enable learning about what enables positive system change.
Originality/value
The paper extends the thematic analysis of available reviews that focus on work with adults who self-neglect, further reinforcing the evidence base for practice. The paper presents two case studies where practice and the context within which practitioners were working closely aligned to the evidence-base for best practice. The paper suggests that SABs and SAR authors should focus explicitly on what enables and what obstructs the realisation of best practices.
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