Gendered Work-life Ideologies among IT Professionals

The study investigates the discourses IT professionals use to produce work–life relations. We focus on work–life ideologies and explore the agencies produced, as well as whether and how they are gendered. Our data were collected in interviews with 24 women and men working in the IT industry in Finland. Our results show, first, that work–life relations were constructed discursively through two different work–life ideologies, and second, that these ideologies produced different gendered agencies in reconciling work with life. In our study, work–life talk produced different positions for women and men, which were influenced by gendered norms and social expectations. We conclude that gendered a…

Learning teamwork through a computer game: for the sake of performance or collaborative learning?

AbstractOur study examined using a computer-based learning game as a tool to facilitate teaching and learning teamwork skills. The game was applied to an undergraduate level human resource management course at a business school in Finland. We focused on students’ experiences and key learning outcomes of collaborative learning of teamwork skills through the game, and our analysis highlighted two key features of learning outcomes. First, the computer-based learning game promoted students’ self-reflection and evaluation of their individual team roles. Second, although the game taught students the importance of continuous information sharing in teamwork, their evaluation of team outcomes was pe…

“Stop whining and be a badass”: a postfeminist analysis of university students' responses to gender themes

PurposeThis paper critically examines how female students at a Finnish business school understand gender in management.Design/methodology/approachThe analysis is based on female students' learning diaries from a basic management course.FindingsThe findings show how students respond to the topic of gender inequality through a neoliberal postfeminist discourse. The students' discourse is structured around three discursive moves: (1) rejecting “excessive” feminism, (2) articulating self-reliant professional futures and (3) producing idealized role models through successfully integrating masculinity and femininity.Originality/valueThis article contributes to current understanding of the role of…

Shedding Light on Early Stage Academic Entrepreneurship : Finnish University Researchers' View on Key Stakeholder Relations and Their Influence on the Research Commercialization Process

Since the mid-1980s, along with the opening up of the Finnish economy, the pressure to commercialize university research has steadily increased in Finland. This is in line with the growing importance of innovations in an ever-globalizing world in which purely production- cost-based strategies are about to become obsolete. However, in comparison to other Nordic countries and Western European industrial countries, Finnish investments in research have fallen short in their ability to increase high-technology export levels (Kotiranta and Tahvanainen 2018). Moreover, Finnish academia faces challenges in creating university-based economic activity (Nikulainen and Tahvanainen 2013). In order to he…

Performing Pan American Airways through coloniality : an ANTi-History approach to narratives and business history

This paper centers on the role of narratives in business history from an ANTi-History perspective. We focus on the networked processes through which narratives are told of, for, and by multi-national companies embed the development of ‘new imperialism’ and coloniality. We set out to achieve this through a discussion and application of ANTi-History to a study of Pan American Airways and particularly its performance as a maturing multi-national company and its relationship to postcoloniality. In the process, we also hope to contribute to recent calls in business history for more explicit accounts of the methods used in the development of historical accounts. We are concerned to encourage ‘a n…

The stigma of feminism: disclosures and silences regarding female disadvantage in the video game industry in US and Finnish media stories

This article examines how the issue of gender, particularly women’s (under)representation in the video game industry, is framed in US and Finnish media. Building on the notion of stigma surrounding feminism, the article examines discourse practices as acts of managing the image of feminism. The findings illustrate five stigma management strategies that offer the possibility of maintaining socially accepted ways of discussing gender inequality and portraying women in mainstream media. Using critical discourse analysis, the paper addresses how the use of these stigma management strategies connects with different contemporary feminisms. The strategies used and their ideological backgrounds var…

Challenges in academic commercialisation: a case study of the scientists' experiences

This paper introduces findings from a 2-year commercialisation project, KnoPro, where a Finnish university and few life science companies together with a number of intermediary organisations searched for business opportunities for academic research. The data of this intensive case study are organised in narrative episodes in which the actors attached versatile meanings to commercialisation. The episodes illustrate how academics approach commercialisation from the research perspective without true commercial efforts. They prioritise research and teaching ahead of commercialisation which constitutes a challenge for commercialisation. According to this study, successful commercialisation neces…

‘World-class’ fantasies : A neocolonial analysis of international branch campuses

In this article, we build on postcolonial studies and discourse analytical research exploring how the ‘world-class’ discourse as an ideology and a fantasy structures neocolonial relations in international branch campuses. We empirically examine how international branch campuses reproduce the fantasy of being so-called world-class operators and how the onsite faculty members identify with or resist this world-class fantasy through mimicry. Our research material originates from fieldwork conducted in business-school international branch campuses operating in the United Arab Emirates. Our findings show the ambivalent nature of mimicry towards the world-class fantasy to include both compliance …

(De)Stigmatization of Political Leadership : The Case of a Right-Wing Populist Presidential Candidate in the Finnish Media

In this article, we examine the discursive practices of (de)stigmatizing right-wing populist party leaders. We draw on a recent example from Finland by examining how the female presidential candidate of a right-wing populist party was portrayed in the Finnish media during the 2018 presidential campaign season. We examine the stigmatization by the press media and the stigma-management tactics used by the presidential candidate to resist stigmatization. The media representation of the right-wing party leader is highly tensioned, and the media positions her political leadership within the duality of charisma and stigma. In our analysis, we extend earlier literature by unveiling the emotional t…

Tasa-arvotyö perustaksi organisaatioiden vastuullisuuteen

Conforming to and resisting imposed identities : An autoethnography on academic motherhood

Purpose This research attempts to make sense of the experiences of two academic women who become mothers. Design/methodology/approach This paper is an autoethnography. Applying the autoethnographic method allows us to discuss cultural phenomena through personal reflections and experiences. Our autoethnographic reflections illustrate our struggles and attempts of resistance within discursive spaces where motherhood and our identity as academics intersect. Findings Our personal experiences combined with theoretical elaborations illuminate how the role of the mother continues to be dominated by such gendered discursive practices that conflict with the work role. Once women become mothers, they…

Becoming a Gamer: Performative Construction of Gendered Gamer Identities

This article examines how women construct their gameplay identities in relation to the hegemonic “gamer” discourse. The article is based on semi-structured in-depth interviews with women who occupy central roles in the Finnish gaming industry. We deploy Judith Butler’s theorization of performative identity construction to examine how the women negotiate their identity in relation to the hegemonic gamer discourse, focusing on how they both embrace and resist the hegemonic, masculine constructions of gameplay. The study shows the dynamics surrounding the gamer identity. While women submit to the hegemonic gamer discourse, reproducing the masculine gamer notions to gain recognition as a viabl…

Historic constructions of the early multinational: on power, politics and culture in Pan Am narratives

This paper examines how Pan American World Airways (Pan Am) - an early incarnation of a multinational enterprise (MNE) - developed its image as an international company. In particular, we examine how the company developed and managed potentially conflicting narratives, including the modernising US company and the airline of 'the Americas' (specifically South America); the carrier of US national interests and the politically neutral actor serving to unify cultures; the purveyor of exotic experiences and the pioneer of modernism. Through a focus on organisational narratives, we reveal the powerful influence of such story telling (through design and serendipity) on images of the peoples and co…