Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
Organization
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Right arrow Citing Articles via Scopus
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Knights, D.
Right arrow Articles by McCabe, D.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
 Add to CiteULike   Add to Complore   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati   Add to Twitter  
What's this?

`A Different World': Shifting Masculinities in the Transition to Call Centres

David Knights

Keele University, UK, mna22{at}mngt.keele.ac.uk

Darren McCabe

Keele University, UK, mnal9{at}mngt.keele.ac.uk

This article explores how business process reengineering (BPR) is informed by a masculine discourse that emphasizes competition, control and conquest while simultaneously appealing to care, trust, nurturing, creativity and teamwork. We explore how this contradiction is reflected in the language and practice of management. We demonstrate some of the ways in which this contradiction infuses with, subverts and may ultimately undermine BPR. We locate the debate within a contextual consideration of how reengineering is displacing an earlier form of masculinity within financial services which we understand and describe as paternalism. It is apparent that the pre-eminence of masculinity was never questioned. Indeed, both paternalism and reengineering simply fought over which masculinity would predominate.

Key Words: business reengineering • empowerment • gender • identity • power

Organization, Vol. 8, No. 4, 619-645 (2001)
DOI: 10.1177/135050840184004


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati   Add to Twitter Twitter    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
Human RelationsHome page
A. Mangan
`We're not banks': Exploring self-discipline, subjectivity and co-operative work
Human Relations, January 1, 2009; 62(1): 93 - 117.
[Abstract] [PDF]


Home page
SociologyHome page
B. Hawkins
Double Agents: Gendered Organizational Culture, Control and Resistance
Sociology, June 1, 2008; 42(3): 418 - 435.
[Abstract] [PDF]


Home page
Management LearningHome page
R. Chia and R. Holt
On Managerial Knowledge
Management Learning, April 1, 2008; 39(2): 141 - 158.
[Abstract] [PDF]


Home page
OrganizationHome page
D. Fletcher and T. Watson
Voice, Silence and the Business of Construction: Loud and Quiet Voices in the Construction of Personal, Organizational and Social Realities
Organization, March 1, 2007; 14(2): 155 - 174.
[Abstract] [PDF]


Home page
Human RelationsHome page
P. Fleming and A. Spicer
'You Can Checkout Anytime, but You Can Never Leave': Spatial Boundaries in a High Commitment Organization
Human Relations, January 1, 2004; 57(1): 75 - 94.
[Abstract] [PDF]


Home page
OrganizationHome page
N. C. Townsley
Review Article: Looking Back, Looking Forward. Mapping the Gendered Theories, Voices, and Politics of Organization
Organization, August 1, 2003; 10(3): 617 - 639.
[PDF]


Home page
Human RelationsHome page
M. O'Leary
From Paternalism to Cynicism: Narratives of a Newspaper Company
Human Relations, June 1, 2003; 56(6): 685 - 704.
[Abstract] [PDF]