Personalpolitik

Despite extensive legal and organizational measures to promote diversity, inequalities in organizations, e.g. based on gender, class, or sexual orientation, persist or are (re)produced. This cumulative dissertation comprises six manuscripts that examine issues of diversity and inequality in organizations from a critical perspective. What are differences and inequalities and how are they maintained and (re)produced in daily work practices? The focus is on different aspects of doing difference and diversity as well as on specific contexts of work, management and organization, such as equal participation through e-voice in a digital alternative organization, intersections of gender and class in service work in the luxury segment, barriers and success factors for women’s entrepreneurship in the hospitality and tourism industry, and gay leaders in management. In the dissertation’s frame, the studies’ research perspectives and their critical, politicizing aim are reflected in order to position them within the research field of Critical Management Studies with a focus on diversity and (in)equality as well as in the field of Critical Diversity Studies with a focus on management and organizations.

Research often portrays women as weaker entrepreneurs in the hospitality and tourism (H&T) industry. Our systematic literature review sheds light on women's entrepreneurial success in H&T by examining four determining factors to success (or failure) for women's entrepreneurship: (1) motivations that lead women to become entrepreneurs, (2) barriers they face, (3) non-government strategies, and (4) governmental policies. Our findings suggest that financial and legal support, training, political, social, and cultural backing are among the consistent success factors examined in previous studies. However, scholarship is silent on how the four key themes can be aligned to support women to succeed in H&T entrepreneurship. As a key contribution, this systematic literature review provides a template for future research that starts from the identifiable success factors. In addition, this work provides practitioners such as policymakers and industry leaders with a better understanding of how to reduce barriers to women's entrepreneurship.

Purpose: With a focus on service encounters in the luxury segment of hospitality and tourism, the authors analyse how inherent social class distinctions and status differences are (re-)produced and which role gender plays in this process of “doing class”. Design/methodology/approach: The authors combine concepts of class work and inequality regimes with a focus on intersections of class and gender. The empirical study is based on interviews in Germany with first-class flight attendants, five-star hotel employees, and luxury customers on how they perceive and legitimize luxury services, working conditions and status differences. Findings: The authors identify perceptions and practices of status enhancement and status dissonance among luxury service workers, as well as gender practices and meanings such as specific feminized roles service workers take on. The authors also conceptualize these intersecting patterns of inequality reproduction as “gendered class work”. Originality/value: The study broadens empirical accounts of labour relations in the service industries. The concept of organizational class work is extended towards worker–customer interactions. With the concept of gendered class work, the authors contribute to research on the intersectionality of class and gender and the reproduction of inequalities.

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to provide insights on Albert J. Mills' and Jean Helms Mills' lifelong methodological journey in the airline culture. The interview offers a retrospective and reflective insight of their research into organizational culture and the airline industry, reasons for this research, their methodological journey, challenges they faced and ways forward. Design/methodology/approach: This article is based on an interview with Albert J. Mills and Jean Helms Mills, which was virtually conducted for a professional development workshop (PDW) at the 2020 Academy of Management Meeting. Findings: Albert J. Mills and Jean Helms Mills provide insights and reflections on their lifelong methodological journey, focusing organizational culture, discriminatory practices, and the impact of this on what constitutes men and women's work. Originality/value: This paper draws from Albert J. Mills' and Jean Helms Mills' lifelong experience in studying gender, intersectionality and historiography in airline cultures. Scholars will be encouraged by their insights on how to start a long-term study, potential challenges, impacts of current trends and how to deal with them.

Finding formal and stable employment in the local economy is a crucial step in the integration of refugees. In highly regulated high-income countries, multiple actors are involved in managing refugee employment and offer support to overcome its various barriers. Our research breaks new ground by focusing on the dynamics between these actors. We conducted 80 interviews with refugees, employers, governments, employer associations, refugee support organizations, and public employment services in three Western European countries. We conceive of the field as a refugee employment ecosystem in which complementarity is the key mechanism that aligns the various actors’ activities to achieve the goal of refugee employment. Complementarity means that actors not only fulfill their different roles but also step in, fill gaps, and add to others’ activities. Three microfoundations undergird this complementarity: individuals’ motives, responsiveness, and perseverance. By showing how refugee employment ecosystems are inhabited and sustained by individuals whose activities go beyond their assigned actor roles, we contribute to theory development in research on refugee employment and help to humanize theorizing about ecosystems at large. We also offer practical guidance on how to increase the resilience of refugee employment ecosystems.