2026-09-26T11:49:45Zhttps://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/server/oai/request

oai:researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz:10289/153462022-11-17T03:25:16Zcom_10289_2222col_10289_2223

Possibilities of transformation: discourses of difference in organisational communication Jones, Deborah Helen Hooper, Keith Leitch, Shirley In this thesis I set out to create an interdisciplinary location from which to address the relationship between gender and communication in an organisational context. I draw on feminist and post-structuralist theory to ask the question: How is ‘difference’ constructed in organisational communication? I use the term ‘difference’ here to indicate that I am interested in how ‘gender’ works in relationship with other kinds of difference, especially in relation to ethnic difference. My thesis is intended as a contribution to feminist communication theory, and specifically, to the emerging field of feminist organisational communication. Because of the approach I take to ‘communication’, this project addresses broad issues of identity, agency and discourse in organisations. In this sense, I also see the thesis as a contribution to organisational studies, and particularly to the study of organisational discourse, which opens up new relationships between ‘organisation’ and ‘communication’. Interdisciplinarity itself is a key issue in my thesis, as I set out to create connections between disciplinary fields in the service of contesting them, rather than seeking to create new boundaries. A second key focus is the development of theoretical sophistication in the field of gender and communication. I draw on feminist/post-structuralist theory, especially feminist readings of Michel Foucault’s work to generate this development. My third key focus is the issue of agency, which I see as central to theorising organisational transformation, and also as central to re-thinking communication theory. My writing strategies demonstrate my commitments to reflexivity in developing feminist/post-structuralist research epistemologies, and I experiment with ways of paying attention to issues of authority throughout the thesis. This thesis is divided into two main parts. In Chapters 2 to 6, I set up a theoretical framework for feminist/post-structuralist accounts of gender and ethnicity, and weave this theory through the literatures of ‘gender and communication’, ‘cross-cultural communication’, and ‘organisational communication’. I set out to produce an ‘autocritique’, an opportunity to draw on developments in post-structuralist theory to think differently about feminist ‘organisational communication’, putting it within a broader framework of ‘difference’. In the second part of the thesis, Chapters 7 to 12, I put issues generated by this theoretical framework in a specific organisational context, asking: How are gender and ethnic differences constructed in the discourses of Equal Employment Opportunities (EEO) and Biculturalism in New Zealand government organisations? Chapters 7 and 8 introduce my field studies methodology and research subjects, and provide background narratives which frame the historical and cultural context in which they were carried out. In Chapters 9 to 12 I carry out a discourse analysis of interviews with EEO and Biculturalism practitioners, and also analyse published and unpublished documents associated with ‘difference’ in employment policies. These accounts of field studies are intended as a series of experiments with theorising ‘organisational communication’ in different ways. I complete the thesis with a ‘Review’ (Chapter 13) in which I reflect on key theoretical threads, and on further questions that emerged during the project. The University of Waikato 1998 Thesis en https://hdl.handle.net/10289/15346 https://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/bitstreams/0aabefe1-7cb1-43d1-b6b0-92e6252e88b4/download 62f613e30a28010d6f82d9509bbcdb8e https://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/bitstreams/c9cddfaf-8580-4f55-8449-fac24e93d446/download e14202ab27e47ddb00d33097327ba050 https://researchcommons.waikato.ac.nz/bitstreams/993ee17f-1a03-4a33-b23e-66148a5d1abc/download fcb9ac076aa71c157ec663237ba33aad All items in Research Commons are provided for private study and research purposes and are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated.