Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Illusive inclusion – construction of leaders and employees based on nationality

Illusive inclusion – construction of leaders and employees based on nationality Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss and problematise how leadership and employees, or “employeeship”, are constructed within IKEA, a global firm often associated with national identity, and connected to distinct values and a leadership ideal. From a critical management perspective, the authors' intent was to study whether there were hierarchies and polarisations in constructions of leadership and, if so, how they were manifested. Design/methodology/approach – The empirical material consists of 17 interviews with Swedish and non‐Swedish managers at the senior management level and internal documents. Findings – The analysis of the empirical material supports the finding that employees are constructed in superior vs subordinate positions based on beliefs about nationality (ethnicity), wherein the construction of Swedishness is ranked above other nationalities. Based on these constructions, two different dimensions of a leader emerge. The first dimension is one of leading and supporting, which involves personal development and is regarded as something positive. The second dimension involves being a manager, which is perceived as conservative, dreary and unappealing. Originality/value – The study illustrates how leaders in a global firm construct hierarchies and polarisation in the daily work. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Cross Cultural Management Emerald Publishing

Illusive inclusion – construction of leaders and employees based on nationality

Loading next page...
 
/lp/emerald-publishing/illusive-inclusion-construction-of-leaders-and-employees-based-on-8nFUBalBnA

References (50)

Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
Copyright © 2014 Emerald Group Publishing Limited. All rights reserved.
ISSN
1352-7606
DOI
10.1108/CCM-06-2012-0047
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss and problematise how leadership and employees, or “employeeship”, are constructed within IKEA, a global firm often associated with national identity, and connected to distinct values and a leadership ideal. From a critical management perspective, the authors' intent was to study whether there were hierarchies and polarisations in constructions of leadership and, if so, how they were manifested. Design/methodology/approach – The empirical material consists of 17 interviews with Swedish and non‐Swedish managers at the senior management level and internal documents. Findings – The analysis of the empirical material supports the finding that employees are constructed in superior vs subordinate positions based on beliefs about nationality (ethnicity), wherein the construction of Swedishness is ranked above other nationalities. Based on these constructions, two different dimensions of a leader emerge. The first dimension is one of leading and supporting, which involves personal development and is regarded as something positive. The second dimension involves being a manager, which is perceived as conservative, dreary and unappealing. Originality/value – The study illustrates how leaders in a global firm construct hierarchies and polarisation in the daily work.

Journal

Cross Cultural ManagementEmerald Publishing

Published: Apr 29, 2014

Keywords: Leadership; Cross‐cultural study

There are no references for this article.