| This qualitative, social constructionist, critical, feminist study explored the intersections between gender, power, discourse, and strategic processes in organizations as experienced and described by individual women. The research question, How do women experience and describe organizational discourse? formed the basis of inquiry into women's perceptions of how their discourse is accepted, valued, and acted upon within organizations and whether prevalent discourse patterns prevent women from engaging in strategic conversations and processes, which may affect women's professional development. Eleven female, midlevel or executive level managers in various organizations were interviewed individually. The overarching research method was narrative analysis supported through hermeneutics/interpretive analysis, content analysis, and thematic analysis. The study's purpose was to explore how implicit gendering of organizational discourse creates, maintains, and perpetuates male-gendered organizations and the glass-ceiling and to uncover implications for organization strategy. Findings showed women's discourse of helping, comradeship, and personal attributes including ability and expertise as undervalued, disregarded, and unrecognized within hegemonic, hierarchical organizations. Additionally, women's agental discourse, based in values of collaboration, shared power/knowledge, and human capital concerns, is in tension with and outside of the dominant organizational power triad of strategy, structure and culture. Therefore, educated, expert, skilled women leave organizations. Moreover, women bring leadership and strategic political discourses of sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) to strategic organizational praxis. Thus, women's presence and participation at strategy-making levels and in strategic processes have far-reaching import for organizational performance. |
