The purpose of this paper is to examine the silences and silencing in the workplace and elsewhere related to women's experiences of perinatal loss.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the silences and silencing in the workplace and elsewhere related to women's experiences of perinatal loss.
Design/methodology/approach
Qualitative data from in‐depth interviews with 13 women who experienced perinatal losses between 1965 and 1999 are interpreted using Foucault's concepts of power/knowledge as pervasive in social relationships.
Findings
Women who experienced perinatal loss were physically divided from others in hospitals. Hospital practices changed over time. Knowledge about perinatal loss has been scientifically classified in medicine, psychology, and related fields. This knowledge has changed between 1965 and 1999. Perinatal loss is rarely mentioned in organizational and professional literatures outside of health care. In addition to experiencing silencing from others, women silenced themselves about their perinatal losses.
Research limitations/implications
Data were collected from interviews with women from the Great Lakes region of the USA. Further research should include a greater number of parents from a wider geographic area.
Practical implications
Dividing practices and silences collect a toll in depression, severed relationships, derailed careers, and missed opportunities for development. As people begin to speak with one another about perinatal loss, their voices contribute to a fully human work community and polyphonic organizations.
Originality/value
This paper makes a contribution to knowledge about perinatal loss and its impact on women's careers and grief in the workplace from a postmodern perspective.
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The concept of polyphony, taken from music and extended by literarycritic Bakhtin to describe the world of Dostoevsky′s novels, provides ametaphor for understanding patterns of…
Abstract
The concept of polyphony, taken from music and extended by literary critic Bakhtin to describe the world of Dostoevsky′s novels, provides a metaphor for understanding patterns of organizing among those who hold beliefs and values from a variety of backgrounds. Addresses organization as multiple discourses. Describes Bakhtin′s work and uses it to generate ideas about how people organize to perform complex tasks and change their patterns of interaction.
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We can meet the challenge to perceive, appreciate and cherish diversityin the postmodern organization by recognizing that a multitude ofpersons exist in every organization and in…
Abstract
We can meet the challenge to perceive, appreciate and cherish diversity in the postmodern organization by recognizing that a multitude of persons exist in every organization and in each person. Concepts and practices from Gestalt therapy and archetypal psychology help us to become aware of and learn from our many voices and perspectives. As we accept our own multiplicity we initiate, maintain and appropriately bring to closure contact with others. This changes our socially enacted environment. As change agents we can facilitate others to do the same.
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Kenneth Gergen and Mary Gergen
Mary: To begin, I think it is important that we take into account some milestones in the development of multivoiced organizing. This will also set the stage for our extension into…
Abstract
Mary: To begin, I think it is important that we take into account some milestones in the development of multivoiced organizing. This will also set the stage for our extension into the realm of polyvocality. For example, we owe a debt here to work that René Bouwen did with Chris Steyaert (1999) on global organizing. They were among the first to promote multivoicedness in describing how an organization might be affected through the inclusion of many voices. They distinguished four metaphors that were useful in exploring how multivoicedness could influence global organizing: “building the Tower of Babel,” “dialogical imagination,” “polyphonic chorus,” and “strangers’ meeting.”
Confidentiality in adoption has been the norm in this country since the 1930s. Traditionally, it has been perceived as beneficial to all sides of the adoption triangle: the…
Abstract
Confidentiality in adoption has been the norm in this country since the 1930s. Traditionally, it has been perceived as beneficial to all sides of the adoption triangle: the adoptive parents, the adoptee, and the birth parents. Adoption agencies have supported the policy of confidentiality, and as a result the practice of concealment is almost universal in the United States. Alaska, Hawaii, and Kansas are the only states that allow adult adoptees access to their birth and adoption information.
Here is the long‐awaited fourth edition of Ralph De Sola's classic Abbreviations Dictionary. This updated edition of a work first published in 1958 is the largest, most complete…
Abstract
Here is the long‐awaited fourth edition of Ralph De Sola's classic Abbreviations Dictionary. This updated edition of a work first published in 1958 is the largest, most complete compilation of its kind — a reference book far surpassing all others in the field. Mr. De Sola has expanded his work to include more than 130,000 definitions and entries — over 77,000 definitions, over 54,000 entries. The current edition offers abbreviations, acronyms, anonyms, contradictions, initials and nicknames, short forms and slang shortcuts, and signs and symbols covering disciplines which range from the arts to the advanced sciences and embrace all areas of human knowledge and activity.