Profitable Margins: Gender and Diversity Informing Management and Organizational Studies

Abstract

The commitment of senior management to change may be evident in the rhetoric, but the practical constraints of working with bureaucratic, hierarchical and time-poor organisations meant those involved with gender analyses were most commonly junior women. While the research suggests some cultural change is occurring in the organisations where women are taking on more senior roles, it also highlights how women's own gender identity in shaping career decisions intersects with the continued existence of structural impediments which shape pathways to senior management. The Journal of Management & Organization focuses on how gender and diversity scholarship can more generally inform our understanding of management and organizations. It highlights the complexity of the issues around gender and diversity, how these influence the daily practices within organizations and the performance of management, not just in Australia and New Zealand, but internationally. Some of the findings and insights included in this collection of papers are not commonly seen in mainstream management journals, where hypotheses are more likely to be the order of the day than self-reflection. The rich and innovative research contained in this special issue is invaluable reading for scholars, educators, students, practitioners, policy-makers and consultants, offering to enliven mainstream thinking and encourage transformational change and the inclusion of those outside the hegemony.