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Challenging cisnormativity, gender binarism and sex binarism in management research: foregrounding the workplace experiences of trans* and intersex people

Thomas Köllen (Institute of Organization and Human Resource Management (IOP), University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland)
Nick Rumens (Oxford Brookes Business School, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, UK)

Gender in Management

ISSN: 1754-2413

Article publication date: 11 August 2022

Issue publication date: 16 August 2022

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Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to challenge the cisnormative and binary assumptions that underpin the management and gender scholarship. Introducing and contextualising the contributions that comprise this special issue, this paper critically reflects on some of the principal developments in management research on trans* and intersex people in the workplace and anticipates what future scholarship in this area might entail.

Design/methodology/approach

A critical approach is adopted to interrogate the prevailing cisnormative and binary approach adopted by management and gender scholars.

Findings

The key finding is the persistence of cisnormativity and normative gender and sex binarism in academic knowledge production and in society more widely, which appear to have hindered how management and gender scholars have routinely failed to conceptualise and foreground the array of diverse genders and sexes.

Originality/value

This paper foregrounds the workplace experiences of trans* and intersex people, which have been neglected by management researchers. By positioning intersexuality as an important topic of management research, this paper breaks the silence that has enwrapped intersex issues in gender and management scholarship. There are still unanswered questions and issues that demand future research from academics who are interested in addressing cisnormativity in the workplace and problematising the sex and gender binaries that sustain it.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

Disclaimer: As this is an analytical editorial authored by the Guest Editors of this special issue, it has not been subject to the same double blind anonymous peer review process that the rest of the articles in this issue were.

Citation

Köllen, T. and Rumens, N. (2022), "Challenging cisnormativity, gender binarism and sex binarism in management research: foregrounding the workplace experiences of trans* and intersex people", Gender in Management, Vol. 37 No. 6, pp. 701-715. https://doi.org/10.1108/GM-01-2022-0022

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited

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