Katri Otonkorpi-Lehtoranta, Minna Leinonen, Risto Nikkanen and Tuula Heiskanen
Addressing the challenges expressed by organization researchers and Leslie McCall with her conceptual framework of intercategorical analysis, this paper contributes to the…
Abstract
Purpose
Addressing the challenges expressed by organization researchers and Leslie McCall with her conceptual framework of intercategorical analysis, this paper contributes to the methodological debate on intersectionality. The purpose of this paper is to explore intersectionality on the organizational level in the Finnish defence forces (FDF). In the paper, the authors explore how the interactions between categories of gender, age, and position in the organization explain the concerns of employees in the changing military organization. Furthermore, the authors also investigate the types of intersectional mechanisms behind the empirical observations.
Design/methodology/approach
The logistic regression analysis is based on a survey addressed to the whole salaried personnel in the FDF in 2011 (n=8,093, response rate being 54 per cent).
Findings
In line with McCall’s (2005) intercategorical approach, the analysis shows that the plain examination of main effects of the variables will not suffice, but the interaction effects of the variables must also be examined. The analysis indicates that even though women in general experienced more concerns, gender does not alone explain the concerns expressed by the members of the FDF, but age and especially personnel group are significant in understanding configurations of positions in relation to the organizational change process.
Research limitations/implications
The methodological limitation of the study is that although the data were large, it was not possible to conduct three-ways analysis, because of the size of some groups.
Originality/value
The study offers a noteworthy addition to the rare research of practising intersectionality in the conceptual framework using quantitative methods.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this paper is to analyse management and employee experiences of gender divisions at work and to reflect on gender boundaries using the method of democratic…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyse management and employee experiences of gender divisions at work and to reflect on gender boundaries using the method of democratic dialogue. It also considers the use of experiences in efforts supporting workplace democracy.
Design/methodology/approach
Finnish action research project sought to promote both gender equality and democratic dialogue. Content analysis is applied on group discussions on promoting gender equality at work.
Findings
Gender divisions in organizations were widely recognized. Challenges arose from the incompatibility of images of gender and gendered images of work. Participants’ perspectives varied depending on their hierarchical position.
Research limitations/implications
Democratic dialogue provides tools to approach sensitive topics that need special attention in promoting gender equality.
Practical implications
Work organizations need to use forums that bring together management and employee perspectives with a gender‐sensitive approach to support workplace democracy.
Originality/value
The paper shows that, to enable change, the understandings of gender and gender equality have to be negotiated on the local level and in a way that connects to participants’ realities and experiences.
Details
Keywords
Minna Säävälä, Elina Turjanmaa and Anne Alitolppa-Niitamo
School is an institution that provides an opportunity to improve children’s equity and wellbeing and to bridge the potential disadvantage related to ethnic- or language-minority…
Abstract
Purpose
School is an institution that provides an opportunity to improve children’s equity and wellbeing and to bridge the potential disadvantage related to ethnic- or language-minority backgrounds. Information sharing between immigrant homes and school can enhance school achievement, support positive identity formation and provide early support when needed. In this paper, the perspectives of immigrant parents, school welfare personnel and school-going adolescents are analysed in order to understand how they see their respective roles in information flows between home and school. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
The data consist of qualitative group and individual interviews of 34 representatives of school personnel, 13 immigrant parents and 81 young people who have experienced immigration, in the metropolitan area of Helsinki, Finland.
Findings
Despite general goodwill, school personnel may fail to secure the flow of information. Due to structural power imbalance, school personnel are often incapable of engaging the parents in dialogical discourse. Young people of immigrant background in turn try to manipulate the information flow in order to protect their family and ethnic group and to cope with pressures from parents. The patterns of information flows in school as a social field reproduce immigrant homes as subaltern. Adolescents act in a strategically important juncture of information flows between immigrant home and school, which indicates that home-school interaction is actually a triad.
Social implications
Awareness building among school personnel is vital for equity and wellbeing of children of immigrant families.
Originality/value
This triangulated analysis of patterned information flows in school as a social field provides a fresh perspective to those working with children of immigrant families.