Organizational Behaviour Reassessed, The Impact of Gender

Citation

Tremaine, M. (2002), "Organizational Behaviour Reassessed, The Impact of Gender", Women in Management Review, Vol. 17 No. 2, pp. 89-91. https://doi.org/10.1108/wimr.2002.17.2.89.1

Elisabeth Wilson explains the background to editing this book in an engaging way that will strike a chord for many other women. She writes in her preface that she came to realise something had been missing from her studies of organisational behaviour as an MBA student. Initially, after 20 years of working in organisations, she found it fascinating as a student to be able to link theory to experience and find explanations. As a manager she could use the new knowledge both to understand and to influence the way an organisation worked. But the explanations were only partial and there were aspects of organisational reality that she still felt powerless to change. She did not become fully aware of the reasons why she felt dissatisfied with her course texts and material until much later as a lecturer reading about gender and organisations.

Suddenly, when gender was added to the mix of factors that affect organisational life, a cluster of unexplained incidents began to make sense to her:

… the deference of women to men; the avuncular boss who put his arm round me; the sarcastic manager who ridiculed my inexperience; the pressure on men to conform; the difficult promotion path (p. vii).

This realisation prompted the desire to produce an organisational behaviour text that included gender and gave a more rounded view than the typical “male, managerialist and often ethnocentric” perspective. Elisabeth Wilson has persisted through the usual trials and setbacks that beset a long‐term project involving several other people, including 14 other contributors writing about their area of specialisation in the field of organisational behaviour and writing in a way that highlights and explains the importance of gender.

Having different people as the writers of each chapter always confronts an editor with difficult choices and this book is subject to similar problems that beset any publication combining the work of multiple authors. The editor has to decide how much to encourage a uniform approach and how much to accept differences between writers. Elisabeth Wilson has dealt with this tension in a way that is both reader‐friendly and writer‐friendly. She has made sure that writers have had an opportunity to read the other relevant chapters that link in to their topics so that they can refer to points made by the other authors. This cross‐referencing gives a sense of unity that is often completely lacking in books with multiple authors. At no stage do you feel that any of the chapters have become “independent republics” branching out on their own without any concern for their relationship to the rest of the book.

On the other hand, writers have clearly been encouraged to balance their theoretical treatment of areas such as personality, leadership and organisational culture with illustrative case studies, without an insistence on a rigidly prescriptive format. To me, the linking without a prescribed template allows each chapter to develop in its own way while still remaining focussed on the main purpose of the book, making gender’s role within organisational behaviour visible and accessible. On the accessibility front, the editor’s introduction is particularly valuable. Not only does she give an overview of the book and the contents of each chapter, but she also outlines the underpinning insights of gender studies and feminist theory which inform much of the book. She introduces relevant perspectives from gender research with such clarity and with such a wonderful economy of words that I recommend reading the introduction first, before choosing the chapters you want to explore.

Readers should also enjoy the liberating experience of reading whichever chapters in the book interest them most, without worrying about any specific order. I began in the middle with the chapter on leadership (my current research interest), then went back to the beginning and read three chapters and then went to the end and read three chapters, then finished the rest of the book. Because of the care that has been taken with cross‐referencing, there is no need to read the chapters in a particular order. Each stands alone and at the same time illuminates and supports points made in other chapters.

There is one warning I need to give, however. From time to time in some chapters, the references to supporting literature make for a density that can get in the way of the reader’s bonding with the voice of the author(s). The number of references in each sentence can be an obstacle to holding the main ideas in your head. Those chapters which include case studies give a way of balancing the need to acknowledge the scholarly genealogy of ideas, with an example which illustrates the points in the logic without the encumbrance of lists of names attached to each point. Yet paradoxically, the seeming drawback of being reference‐laden is also one of this book’s main assets.

For anyone who wishes to explore what others have written in a particular area, this book gives a very comprehensive treatment of other writers’ contributions in each field. Better still, the chapter writers are often very specific about the relevant points made by the authors who are referenced. This pinpointing of particular related ideas is not merely helpful and scholarly good practice, it is also intensely motivating in encouraging wider reading. Several writers who were previously just names to me are now on my list to follow up in the library because I have been enticed by the insight I have gained into their work.

The areas covered in the chapters are:

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  personality;

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  perception and stereotyping;

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  communication;

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  motivation;

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  leadership;

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  teamworking;

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  organisational design;

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  organisational culture;

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  organisational change; and

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  power.

The authors lead the reader through the previous research and the conventional wisdom expressed in the literature on the topic and also take issue with aspects such as the pretence of gender neutrality or the use of terms or language that hide the privileging of male interpretations, for example the use of “diversity” which presupposes a male construction of work and working life as the norm.

This book is also a valuable introduction to areas that are unfamiliar. For me, organisational design and motivation were mere words until I read the relevant chapters. Gaining one’s first insights into the work that has been done in these fields through a discussion which does not just acknowledge, but actually highlights gender is a refreshing experience. Many of the authors are skilled at explaining complicated issues such as essentialism, the notion that there is a distinctive essence that makes any man or any woman different kinds of beings from each other by virtue of being a man or a woman. Although it has become commonplace to dismiss essentialism, one of the authors presents a strong case for at least wishing to say that there are some distinctive differences between men and women.

Making complicated ideas comprehensible is an agenda that all the chapter writers seem to have embraced. The case studies and the examples given throughout the book make it much easier to link abstract concepts to real working life. Nevertheless, at the end of the book there seemed to be a need for some kind of farewell from the editor that was lacking. A brief integrative postscript pointing the way towards future questions for exploration might have enhanced the book. On reflection, however, each chapter can be seen as an entity in its own right and to prescribe the ways of making links between them might detract from the reader’s personal interpretations. Possibly too, this is the kind of book that should not be seen as “finished” after the first reading. The first reading leaves several mental signposts for further thinking and re‐reading. Perhaps the work of linking should be carried out by each reader according to personal, individual interests. Because women are the central part of the discussion of each topic, it is a stimulating, absorbing book to use for understanding one’s personal experience at work as well as for learning about organisational behaviour. Having one’s own experience included and acknowledged is very powerful and gives a much deeper level of involvement with the book than would be typical for a textbook.

Elisabeth Wilson herself demonstrates the way that immersion in this book makes one alert to the gender implications of incidents that would ordinarily be dismissed as banal without any deeper analysis. She was reviewing the chapter on perception and stereotyping in a workmen’s café. Some of the men were indulging in ritual banter until reminded by the female assistant to mind their language as a lady was present. Elisabeth writes:

Neatly stereotyped by class and gender I smiled and enjoyed my egg sandwich (p. 53).

Overall, this is a book which combines intellectual depth and rigour with clear, accessible writing which is an impressive, seldom‐accomplished feat. The logic of the book’s central premise is persuasive. Once having read the book, it would be difficult to maintain the position that organisational behaviour could be discussed adequately without any reference to gender. If only organisations could read, I can imagine some women thinking. Use this book to begin a discussion group in your organisation and then, to paraphrase Elisabeth Wilson, “may the debates continue”.