(In)Equality in Elite Organizations

Elite organizations serve as role models and templates for other organizations. Their employees tend to be highly educated, and hired young in order to be further developed and adapted to fit the requirements of the organization. Yet, in spite of their acknowledged success and competence in their core business, many elite organizations have not achieved the same success and competence in their equality work. In this project, we study why that may be the case with a view to organizations in finance and higher education. In so doing, we analyse individual organizations as well as ‘supply chains of knowledge’.

Background and research questions:

One overarching research question is how the organization of the core business in elite organizations affects their equality work, and the practical outcomes thereof.
A related question is how systems and processes of merit- and performance assessment affects who makes a career in elite organizations.
Another question is how the procurement and processing of individuals with the ‘right’ knowledge in the ‘supply chain’ promotes, or hinders, gender equality in elite organizations.

Research approach:

The project is primarily based on interviews with individuals working in elite organizations, and with individuals in the corresponding ‘supply chains of knowledge’. Some sub-projects are document based. Others also include observation.

Key findings:

In this study, our results show how the formalization of merit assessments in the academy may hinder rather than promote gender equality.

Further information:

Handelsbankernas forskningsstiftelser contributes to the research on elite organizations in finance (Grant P18-0135; Principal Investigator Karin Svedberg Helgesson).

Researchers

Karin Svedberg Helgesson is an Associate Professor at the Department of Management and Organization at SSE. Her research concerns problems and issues cutting across levels, types of actors, and disciplinary boundaries. This includes questions on accountability and legitimacy, knowledge and regulation, compliance and resistance, and risk-management across the public-private divide.

Pernilla Bolander is Docent and Assistant Professor at the Department of Management and Organization at SSE. Her research interest revolves around talent management, performance management, promotion and employee selection; in particular how such HR-processes are carried out in practice, how employees are categorized and quantified through various HR-processes, and how HR-processes shape employees’ understandings of themselves, their work, their careers and the organizations they work for.

Ebba Sjögren is an Associate Professor at the Department of Accounting and an Affiliated Researcher of the Mistra Center for Sustainable Markets (MISUM) at SSE. Her research interests include the use of financial and management accounting information in experts' decision-making, and the role of accounting in control of professional work.