Man/aging Subjectivity, Silencing Diversity: Organizational Imagery in the Airline Industry. The Case of British Airways

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Abstract
This paper examines the role of corporate image-making in the everyday life of organizations and its contribution to the mundane reproduction of discrimination. With British Airways as an example, it is argued that images found in corporate materials reflect the organization's construction of `male' and `female', `white' and `non-white', in distinct ways. Further, these images have profound consequences for the ways in which employees visualize themselves, their colleagues and their subordinates. This paper also shows how organizational images can restrict diversity by identifying certain organizational roles and positions with specific demographic characteristics. It is suggested that: (a) these various images have sanctioned and encouraged certain types of `male'/'female', `white'/'non-white' behavior, and implicitly prohibited others; and (b) these images can be linked to the exclusion of women and people of colour from positions of power, authority and prestige within the airline industry.

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