title: Media, politics and the Asianisation of a polarised immigration debate in New Zealand

authors: Munshi, Debashish

abstract: The immigration issue in New Zealand was presented by the country's media in the election year of 1996 as a debate on the pros and cons of Asian immigration. In a country where immigration legislation has had a history of institutionalised racism, and where politicians have periodically raised the issue for electoral gain, such racial labelling of the issue can be seen to lay the ground for social and political tension. Using the principles of discourse analysis charted by Fairclough (1995), this paper analyses the text and the context of print media reports on the immigration issue.

text: Media, politics and the Asianisation of a polarised immigration debate in New Zealand The immigration issue in New Zealand was presented by the country's media in the election year of 1996 as a debate on the pros and cons of Asian immigration. In a country where immigration legislation has had a history of institutionalised racism, and where politicians have periodically raised the issue for electoral gain, such racial labelling of the issue can be seen to lay the ground for social and political tension. Using the principles of discourse analysis charted by Fairclough (1995), this paper analyses the text and the context of print media reports on the immigration issue.

year: 1998

title: Are women more loyal customers than men? Gender differences in loyalty to Firms and individual service providers.

authors: Melnyk, Valentyna

subjects: customer loyalty

abstract: Prevailing wisdom assumes that female consumers are more loyal than male consumers. The authors report conditions under which the reverse is found, depending on the object of customer loyalty. For example, whereas female consumers tend to be more loyal than male consumers to individuals, such as individual service providers, this difference is reversed when the object of loyalty is a group of people. The authors find a similar crossover interaction effect for loyalty to individual employees versus loyalty to companies. This effect is mediated by self-construal in terms of relational versus collective interdependence. The authors discuss the managerial and theoretical implications of these gender differences.

text: Are women more loyal customers than men? Gender differences in loyalty to Firms and individual service providers. Prevailing wisdom assumes that female consumers are more loyal than male consumers. The authors report conditions under which the reverse is found, depending on the object of customer loyalty. For example, whereas female consumers tend to be more loyal than male consumers to individuals, such as individual service providers, this difference is reversed when the object of loyalty is a group of people. The authors find a similar crossover interaction effect for loyalty to individual employees versus loyalty to companies. This effect is mediated by self-construal in terms of relational versus collective interdependence. The authors discuss the managerial and theoretical implications of these gender differences.

year: 2009

title: Possibilities of transformation: discourses of difference in organisational communication

authors: Jones, Deborah Helen

abstract: 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.

text: Possibilities of transformation: discourses of difference in organisational communication 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.

year: 1998