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To consider Simone De Beauvoir's account of woman as Other, and particularly the appropriation of sexual difference, with reference to the gendered bifurcation and hierarchical organization of change management.

Through a review of relevant managerial texts, as well as a discussion of De Beauvoir's The Second Sex and related scholarship, the paper explores some of the ways in which men and women are “situated” within change management discourse.

Argues that within managerial discourse men are constructed as “effective” managers of change, whereas women are relegated to an “affective” support function, and that this can be understood as an appropriation of women's ascribed Otherness.

The paper contributes to the ongoing development of a critical, feminist approach to the study of management. While acknowledging the many limitations of her work, it makes the case for a reappraisal of De Beauvoir's thinking in this respect.

This paper aims to examine the use of benchmarking as a management technique in the Australian non‐profit sector. Benchmarking has great potential benefit for the non‐profit sector, particularly given the reliance of non‐profit enterprises on effectively utilizing human capital; thus it might be expected that they would be enthusiastic about techniques such as benchmarking that can assist them in improving their performance. The non‐profit sector is a large and important part of the economy in the developed world.

To determine the use of benchmarking in the Australian non‐profit sector, the following methods were used: a review of published industry surveys and case studies; interviews with 15 non‐profit sector experts; and a review of more than 50 works on non‐profit management.

Research showed that benchmarking has been little used by non‐profit organizations in Australia to date. This seems to mirror the experience of non‐profits in other countries.

The paper argues that the limited use of benchmarking in the non‐profit sector can be explained by: non‐profit management culture; lack of industry and funder pressure; and a lack of targeted information on benchmarking for the non‐profit sector. Any efforts to increase the use of benchmarking in the sector would need to ensure that these issues are overcome.

A plan of action is suggested for promoting benchmarking to non‐profit organizations.

The paper assesses the use of a standard management technique in the emerging area of non‐profit management. It should be of interest to those researching or managing in the Australian non‐profit sector. The paper may also be of interest to the non‐profit sector or human capital sector in other countries.