Disappearing Acts Gender, Poer, and Relational Practice at Work [Paperback]

Joyce Fletcher's research shows that emotional intelligence and relational behavior are often viewed as inappropriate because they collide with powerful, gender-linked images.

This study of female design engineers has profound implications for attempts to change organizational culture. Joyce Fletcher's research shows that emotional intelligence and relational behavior are often viewed as inappropriate because they collide with powerful, gender-linked images. Fletcher describes how organizations say they need such behavior and yet ignore it, thus undermining the possibility of radical change. She shows why the female advantage does not seem to be benefit women employees or organizations. She offers ways that individuals and organizations can make visible the invisible work.

In this extraordinary book, Joyce Fletcher opens up a completely new way of thinking about competence, skills, and organizational effectiveness. By bringing gender dynamics into the analysis, she surfaces deep-seated norms that are unexpectedly counterproductive, and suggests ways that organizations and the women and men who work in them can challenge the status quo to ensure a better future for all.

Perhaps, as Joyce Fletcher suggests in Disappearing Acts, it is because people who actually behave in the ways needed by such organizations are likely to be ignored and dscounted. They will be seen as 'nice,' 'helpful,' and 'concerned;' hardly the descriptors for the tough, decisive, 'hero leaders' organizations actually reward and promote. Fletcher puts her finger on the what remains a largely undiscussable subject in contemporary management: the types of organizations we seek to build violate the norms, behaviors, and power arrangements we continue to reinforce. Without polemicizing, she shows clearly why women cannot realize their full leadership capabilities in today's organizations.