Dr. Doyin Atwolugun, Queen Mary University London: “Negotiating Privilege and Disadvantage in Elite Professional Identity Construction.” (Presentation and discussion in English language)
Wednesday, December 16, 16:30-18:30, D4.0.144.

Abstract: This paper examines how senior executives negotiate gender, ethnic and class-related markers of disadvantage and privilege as members of elite professions, by drawing on in-depth career narratives of a diverse group of 101 women and men in senior management roles. Careers in professional services firms (PSFs) (typically, accountancy, consultancy and law) are often construed as ‘elite’ – allegedly providing the means for the ‘best and brightest’ management and engineering graduates to establish rewarding and economically successful careers.  Despite this, current critical perspectives on professions (e.g. Fearfull & Kamenou 2006; Hammond, 1997) attest to the fact that issues of social inequity still prevail, sustained by a myth of meritocracy to maintain class, gender and ethnic hierarchies. We examine individuals’ simultaneous position of disadvantage with privilege, focusing on how women and men from different ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds deal with this relative positioning when constructing elite careers. Our data set comprises 52 men and 49 women in senior manager, director and partner roles (including 26 minority ethnic elite professionals) across 8 PSFs (including all the ‘Big 4’ accountancy firms) from the UK, US and France. We adopted a broad career/life history approach, exploring participants’ experiences, including childhood, education, early and current career aspirations, significant learning experiences and key relationships in their careers. Analysis is underway. Through micro-level analyses we will elucidate identity strategies and practices diverse professionals engage in to support elite identity construction, contributing to advancing theorising on intersectionality and elite identity construction.

Speaker: Dr. Doyin Atewologun is a Lecturer in Organisational Leadership & Learning at the School of Business & Management, Queen Mary University of London, a Chartered Organisational Psychologist, and Visiting Fellow at Cranfield School of Management, UK and the Lagos Business School, Nigeria.  Doyin obtained her PhD on the identity work of senior Black, Asian & minority ethnic women and men from the International Centre for Women Leaders, Cranfield School of Management. Her areas of expertise are leadership, identity and diversity, with a particular focus on multiple identities and professional services. Her research has gained several international awards, from the American Academy of Management (2011), the British Academy of Management (2011), the Equality, Diversity & Inclusion conference (2012) and the Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence (2015). She regularly speaks to multi-national audiences about how organisations can leverage performance based on insights from the psychology of ‘difference’.

Dr. Mustafa Bilgehan Ozturk, Middlesex University Business School, London, UK: “Broadening LGBT research through an emic diversity approach: The case of transgender employees in the UK and Turkey” (Presentation and discussion in English language) 
Wednesday, December 2, 16:00-17:30, D2.0.326 (D2, Entrance E)

Abstract: Despite a promising surge in scholarship focused on the workplace experiences and career courses of LGBT individuals over the past two decades, transgender employees have received scant academic attention in their own right. The literature has often focused mainly on the issues and challenges of lesbian, gay, and bisexual employees in management and organizations, studying transgender employees either in an ad hoc manner or not at all. This neglect is of particular concern, as gender identity minorities may have distinctive employment experiences that may not be shared by l, g and b workers. Based on qualitative research conducted in the UK (14 in-depth interviews) and Turkey (18 in-depth interviews), Ahu Tatli and Mustafa Bilgehan Ozturk aim to fill this gap by mapping out the unique workplace experiences of transgender employees cross-nationally, and by exploring how transgender employees perceive the management of gender identity diversity in organizations.  

Speaker: Dr. Mustafa Bilgehan Ozturk is Senior Lecturer in Management at Middlesex University Business School in London, UK. He received his BA from New York University, and his MA and PhD from University of Chicago. His academic research interests include diversity management and issues of gender, gender identity and sexual orientation in management and organizations. Dr. Ozturk’s research is multifarious in geographic foci as well as sectoral and organizational setting. Using a variety of theoretical and empirical approaches in his research, Dr. Ozturk has authored or co-authored academic journal articles and book chapters in a range of topic areas including marginalization experienced by gay male academics in UK business and management schools, the employment experiences of LGB employees in Turkey, the career advancement barriers faced by female managers in China, the workplace issues of transgender workers in the UK as well as more theoretical pieces on global diversity management and cross-cultural management. This research has appeared in journals such as British Journal of Management, International Journal of Human Resource Management and Human Relations as well as distinguished edited volumes published by Cambridge University Press and Oxford University Press, among others.

Prof. Dr. Marja-Liisa Kakkuri-Knuuttila, Aalto University, School of Business, Helsinki, Finland: “Learning to listen: From an Aristotelian to a dialogical perspective on diversity management” (Presentation in English language, discussion is also possible in German)
Wednesday, November 11, 16:30-18:00, TC.5.12 (TC, 5.floor)

Abstract: The necessity of dialogue for an improved  understanding of diverse meanings systems in diversity management (DM) is often mentioned without, however, specifying the particular nature of dialogue. My claim is that the Bohmian dialogue, developed by the quantum physicist David Bohm (1917-1992), suits well for DM. It is better known through Peter Senge’s work The Fifth Discipline (1990/2006) and William Isaacs’s Dialogue: The Art of Thinking together (1999). To expose the radical nature of the Bohmian dialogue, I’ll compare it with three traditional argumentative social practices (dialectic, rhetoric, and scientific methodology) codified by Aristotle. The aims of the Bohmian dialogue are learning, improved understanding of diverse meaning systems and causal systems. It is, by definition, open communication based on mutual trust, equality and respect. The Aristotelian communication practices are insufficient for DM because they lack means to cope with diverse meaning systems and to create innovative ideas. Further, the fixed roles put the participants in opposite positions.  A wider implication is that the ancient model of rhetoric in decision making, still valid in Western democratic ideals, is insufficient for solving complex global issues we are plagued by today. However, the Aristotelian notion of character development as combining both intellectual and emotional components describes well what it takes to learn to become a capable participant in the Bohmian dialogue.  

Speaker: Marja-Liisa Kakkuri-Knuuttila has worked as lecturer and professor in Philosophy of Management at Aalto University School of Business (formerly Helsinki School of Economics). She has studied issues in philosophy of social science, such as, the role of interpretation in causal explanation, rhetoric of scientific texts, and reconciliation of paradigms in philosophy of social science. Her work in ancient philosophy focuses on dialectic, rhetoric, and philosophical inquiry in Aristotle and Plato, as well as their relevance to contemporary philosophy of social science and methodology of ethics. She has edited a critical thinking textbook, co-edited a textbook in philosophy of applied social science, and co-written an introduction to philosophy of science. Recently she has done consulting work to the City of Helsinki Youth Department and the Helsinki Deaconess Institute.