Family Matters: an Arendtian Critique of Organizational Structures

Rita A. Gardiner and Katy Fulfer

Gender, Work and Organization, 2017, vol. 24, issue 5, 506-518

Abstract: In this paper, we use Hannah Arendt's conception of praxis and her critique of family to diagnose how praxis and diversity initiatives may suffer when family is used as an organizing principle. As an organizing principle, notions of family function to promote hierarchical sameness within organizations, thereby suppressing diversity. In response to hierarchical sameness, Arendtian praxis can destabilize homogenizing tendencies, and effect social change by challenging ‘business as usual’. Further, because praxis is situated within a diverse, plural community of actors, it is able to appreciate diversity within organizations. Hence, we suggest that organizations can ‘do’ diversity better with a structure that enables praxis to emerge. In addition, we point to ways in which family as an organizational principle privileges a narrow conception of family that obscures gender, racial, sexual and class‐based inequities. This project contributes to the feminist scholarship on diversity and organizational inequities.

Date: 2017
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