The diary project: revealing the gendered organisation

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to show how an application of the qualitative diary method reveals the gendered organisation.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper draws on the author's experience of her own design and implementation of the diary method, using qualitative diaries, dialogues and interviews. The application is known as the “diary project” and is carried out in a case‐study organisation in which the researcher is addressing wider questions about gender, change and organisation.

Findings

The outcomes show how the diary project methodology is effective for learning about gender norms and practices embedded in organisational culture. Reflections on the interface between the personal and the professional, the formal and the informal, emotion, sexuality and power, hierarchies and difference, draw out significant organisational phenomena which shape advantage and disadvantage and unequal access and control.

Research limitations/implications

The diary project methodology is about the organisation in the present. To study gender embedded in the organisation requires the organisational researcher to also work with other research methods, to achieve a deep understanding.

Practical implications

The experience of the diary project is that it offers organisational researchers and change practitioners a methodology for study and intervention.

Originality/value

The paper is of use to readers looking for a participatory organisational research methodology to examine the gendered organisation. Findings highlight the value of the diary project methodology for a deep analysis of organisation.

Citation

Plowman, P.J. (2010), "The diary project: revealing the gendered organisation", Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management, Vol. 5 No. 1, pp. 28-46. https://doi.org/10.1108/17465641011042017