Executive Search as Ethnosociality: A cross-cultural comparison

Charlotte Holgersson, Janne Tienari, Susan Carita Meriläinen, Regine Bendl

Tutkimustuotokset: Kirjoitus lehdessä tai erikoisnumeron toimittaminenArtikkeliTieteellinenvertaisarvioitu

14 Sitaatiot (Scopus)

Abstrakti

In this article, we explore how executive search consultants in Austria, Finland and Sweden address ethnicity. Our findings suggest that while consultants working in these different sociocultural settings may attribute different meanings to ethnicity, they share a tendency to evade questions of ethnicity with regard to the search process. We specify three discursive practices that serve to
eliminate questions of ethnicity from executive search: constructing whiteness as self-evident, constructing varieties of whiteness (articulating deficiency and lack for those not belonging to Us), and distancing responsibility for the current situation to clients and society. In view of these findings, we argue that executive search can be understood as an arena for ethnosociality that stops cultural diversity at the door of management suites and serves to undermine efforts to promote cross-cultural understanding in organizations. Our study indicates that sustaining whiteness as a privileged ethnicity takes multiple forms. While executive search consultants play an important role in these processes, it is suggested that they inherit a more fundamental problem in
society and they have few opportunities to change the ethnic status quo at the top.
Alkuperäiskielienglanti
Sivut153-169
Sivumäärä17
JulkaisuInternational Journal of Cross Cultural Management
Vuosikerta16
Numero2
TilaJulkaistu - 2016
OKM-julkaisutyyppiA1 Vertaisarvioitu alkuperäisartikkeli

Hakusanat

  • DIVERSITY
  • ETHNICITY
  • ETHNOSOCIALITY
  • EXECUTIVE SEARCH
  • MANAGEMENT
  • WHITENESS

Tieteenala

  • Liiketaloustiede

Viite tähän julkaisuun