Man/Aging Subjectivity, Silencing Diversity: Organizational Imagery in the Airline Industry. The Case of British Airways^☆

Abstract

This chapter examines the role of corporate image-making in the everyday life of organizations and its contribution to the mundane reproduction of discrimination. With British Airways as an example, it is argued that images found in corporate materials reflect the organization’s construction of “male” and “female,” “white” and “non-white,” in distinct ways. Further, these images have profound consequences for the ways in which employees visualize themselves, their colleagues and their subordinates. This chapter also shows how organizational images can restrict diversity by identifying certain organizational roles and positions with specific demographic characteristics. It is suggested that (a) these various images have sanctioned and encouraged certain types of “male”/female,” “white”/“nonwhite” behavior, and implicitly prohibited others and (b) these images can be linked to the exclusion of women and people of color from positions of power, authority, and prestige within the airline industry.

Citation

Mills, A.J. (2017), "Man/Aging Subjectivity, Silencing Diversity: Organizational Imagery in the Airline Industry. The Case of British Airways^☆", Mills, A.J. (Ed.) Insights and Research on the Study of Gender and Intersectionality in International Airline Cultures, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 367-392. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-78714-545-020171020