The dynamic complexities of culture(s) and organizations: Understanding diversity, race, gender and religion in context
Guest editors
- Jasmin Mahadevan, Pforzheim University, Germany, jasmin.mahadevan@hs-pforzheim.de
- Henriett Primecz, Corvinus University of Budapest, henriett.primecz@uni-corvinus.hu
- Laurence Romani, Stockholm School of Economics, Laurence.romani@hhs.se
Call for papers:
Migration and mobility are key features of a globalized world (Urry, 2000). Due to this development, management and organizations have become increasingly culturally diverse.When speaking of culture in this call, we refer to any processes of collective identity through which individuals construct relative difference between social self and other (Lawler, 2008). Such cultural diversity is never context-free. Rather, it evolves within a specific national, geographic, social, economic and cultural environment. Neither micro-level human interactions, nor meso-organizational and macro-societal boundary conditions are devoid of power. Rather, they are shaped by historical and neo-colonial imbalances of power which result in historically excluded or marginalized groups (Prasad, Pringle and Konrad, 2006). These boundary conditions might restrain individual agency, yet, they might also facilitate resistance.
This call addresses the question of how complex organizational diversity and related cultural dynamics can be understood in context. We understand context as referring to relations of power, to the specific nature of interactions, and to the socio-structural boundary conditions and their historical roots. If these are not reflected upon, specific configurations of cultures in organizations might result in marginalization, othering, sophisticated stereotyping (Osland et al, 2000) and exclusion (Zanoni et al., 2010).
With regard to context, we are particularly interested in how diversity, race, gender and religion intersect on multiple cultural levels and shape individual life experiences in today’s organizational world (e.g. Mahadevan, 2012). Our aim is to deliver a richer understanding of marginalized individuals’ life experiences at work and to assess diversity, race, gender and religion in context. We wish to base recommendations for Cross-Cultural Management on this neglected viewpoint.
This might mean to “follow the people, follow the thing, follow the metaphor, follow the plot, story, or allegory, follow the life or biography, or follow the conflict” (Marcus, 1995: 91-92). We assume that interpretative and ethnographic methods bear a high potential for delivering new insights into the complexities of culture(s) and organizations with regard to our specific focus points (cultural diversity, race, gender and religion), however, this call is not limited to a specific method nor research paradigm (see Primecz et al., 2009). Empirical articles as well as methodological or theoretical considerations are welcome.
Topics may include but are not limited to:
- Power-laden organizational phenomena such as Othering, marginalization, resistance, stereotyping and the making of cultural difference
- New methodologies or theories for studying diversity, gender, race and religion in context
- Studies that contextualize diversity, race, gender and religion in terms of habitus, agency, body techniques, performativity, ‘doing’ or other cultural lenses
- Postcolonial, postfeminist or critical approaches to cultural diversity
Submission and informal enquiries:
Papers should be submitted through the International Journal of Cross-Cultural Management ScholarOne site at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ijccm. Please ensure when you do submit that you select the relevant special issue to direct your submission appropriately. If you experience any problems please contact Jasmin Mahadevan at the e-mail address shown below.The deadline for manuscript submission is September 15, 2014.
Style and other instructions on manuscript preparation can be found on the journal’s website:http://www.sagepub.com/journals/Journal201498/manuscriptSubmission.Manuscript length should not exceed 8000 words, including appendices and supporting materials. Please also be aware that any images used in your submission must be your own, or where they are not you must already have permission to reproduce them in an academic journal. You should make this explicit in the submitted manuscript.
Please direct informal enquiries to Jasmin Mahadevan (jasmin.mahadevan@hs-pforzheim.de). The special issue is scheduled for publication in 2015.
References
- Lawler, S. (2008), Identity: Sociological perspectives, Polity, Cambridge / Malden.
- Mahadevan, J. (2012), Are engineers religious? An interpretative approach to cross-cultural conflict and collective identities, International Journal of Cross-Cultural Management 12(1), 133–149.
- Marcus, G.E. (1995), Ethnography through Thick and Thin, Princeton University Press, Princeton.
- Osland, J., Bird, A., Delano, J. and Jacob, M. (2000), Beyond Sophisticated Stereotyping: Cultural Sensemaking in Context, Academy of Management Executive, 14(1), 65-79.
- Prasad, P.; Pringle, J.K., Konrad, A.M. (2006): Examining the contours of workplace diversity – concepts, contexts and challenges, in: Konrad, A.M.; Prasad, P.; Pringle, J.K. (eds.), Handbook of Workplace Diversity. London: Sage, 1-22.
- Primecz, H.; Romani, L. and Sackmann, S. (2009), Multiple perspectives in Cross-Cultural Management, International Journal of Cross-Cultural Management, 9(3), 267-274.
- Urry, J. (2000), Sociology beyond societies: Mobilities for the twenty-first century, Routledge, London.
- Zanoni, P., Janssens, M. Benschop, Y. and Nkomo, S. (2010), Guest editorial: unpacking diversity, grasping inequality: rethinking difference through critical perspectives, Organization, 17(1), 9-29.
