Gender-determined Jobs and Job-rotation - Problems and Possibilities

• The aim of the article is to discuss and analyse the strategy for quality introduced by a Swedish daily-ware retailer and especially what role organisational rationality, irrationality and gender plays for some aspects of this strategy. The strategy was motivated by the intense competition. One of its key components was work rotation in the stores. Six out of 90 stores were studied. In five of these work rotation was selective: the most female-labelled duty, cashier work, and the most male-labelled, butchering, were excluded. In the sixth store the work rotation was total. Before analysing the results, the national, sector and company contexts are presented. The analytical tools and concepts are drawn from different feminist organisational researchers. The main conclusions are that decisions made by top managers are necessary but not sufficient to create changes in organisations. The importance of middle management is emphasised although it is obvious that power is present everywhere. These findings indicate that there is not one all-embracing decision behind the outcomes but rather many small decisions made by both women and men on all hierarchical levels. The outcome also suggests that economic rationalities are weaker than gender rationalities, an outcome which ought to influence organisational theories.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Ekonomi och näringsliv -- Företagsekonomi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Economics and Business -- Business Administration (hsv//eng)

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)