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A fairy tale with an unhappy ending: the organizational regulation of “Latina accountant identity” in Spain

Susana Gago-Rodríguez (Department of Financial Management, Universidad Pontificia Comillas, Madrid, Spain)
Laura Lazcano (Department of Financial Management, Universidad Pontificia Comillas, Madrid, Spain)
Carmen Bada (Department of Financial Management, Universidad Pontificia Comillas, Madrid, Spain)

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal

ISSN: 0951-3574

Article publication date: 30 April 2024

Issue publication date: 1 October 2024

121

Abstract

Purpose

Identity regulation is part of a management control package. Organizations regulate employees’ self-identity to influence their behaviors. The success of this regulation depends on its trade-off with employees’ work identities and personalities. Organizational discourse nurtures this dynamic and interactive process. We focus on the regulation of an (undesired) organizational identity that is born at the intersection of race/ethnicity, gender, sex and migrant discrimination in accounting-related positions. We aim to analyze how Latina accountants who migrate to Spain perceive that their triple status as Latina, women and migrants affects their careers as accountants and interpret whether this triple intersectional discrimination aims to create a Latina accountant’s self-identity.

Design/methodology/approach

This critical study follows a phenomenological approach to analyze the experiences of women born in Latin America who migrated to Spain to occupy accounting-related positions. A thematic analysis of their semi-structured interviews allowed us to examine the challenges faced by Latina accountants in their accounting careers in Spain.

Findings

Our interviewees' narratives display an internalization of, even resignation to, a self-identity that we label “Latina accountant identity.” This identity is based on explicit discrimination discourses that cause them to suffer from the intersection of racism, sexism and migrant conditions and is nurtured by the discourses of their senior managers, co-workers and subordinates.

Originality/value

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to frame the regulation of an intersectional discriminatory identity that is used to control Latina accountants from the inside, acting on the triple condition of Latinas, women and foreigners, influencing their self-perceptions regarding work and personal lives.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

Funding: We thank the financial support to PP2022_11 from Universidad Pontificia Comillas, and to PID2022-140026NB-I00 from Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación.

Citation

Gago-Rodríguez, S., Lazcano, L. and Bada, C. (2024), "A fairy tale with an unhappy ending: the organizational regulation of “Latina accountant identity” in Spain", Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 37 No. 7/8, pp. 1695-1725. https://doi.org/10.1108/AAAJ-03-2023-6318

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2024, Emerald Publishing Limited

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