Michal Frenkel
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Sociology & Anthropology, Faculty Member
- I'm an Associate Professor and the Chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the Hebrew University of ... moreI'm an Associate Professor and the Chair of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. I study gender, race, nationality and religiosity within and around organizationsedit
This paper examines the creation of women-only organizational spaces as a diversity practice and assesses their potential to facilitate the workforce inclusion of religious women from gender-conservative groups. Based on longitudinal... more
This paper examines the creation of women-only organizational spaces as a diversity practice and assesses their potential to facilitate the workforce inclusion of religious women from gender-conservative groups. Based on longitudinal fieldwork in two ultra-Orthodox-Jewish women-only colleges in Israel and interviews with students and staff, we demonstrate how this practice constitutes three types of liminality-spatial, social, and epistemic-that enable ultra-Orthodox women to move unimpeded between a familiar, religious environment and a secular one. In this protected and carefully curated environment, they feel safe and are able to develop new identities relevant to the secular labor market while maintaining or even enhancing their traditional, religious sense of self. The liminal space of the college reinforces their sense of belonging to a space of their own and serves as a bridge that helps them cope with the secular world.
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This study analyses how the mutual imbrication of organizational and postcolonial power along with the micro-embedding of actors’ shape and structure power struggles in multinational corporations. Drawing on the case of news agency... more
This study analyses how the mutual imbrication of organizational and postcolonial power along with the micro-embedding of actors’ shape and structure power struggles in multinational corporations. Drawing on the case of news agency Reuters’ internationalization and centralization approach at its Indian subsidiaries in Mumbai and Bangalore, our research explores how subsidiaries mobilize resources to pursue their interests in a landscape shaped by clashing professional institutional logics and organizational control systems reflected in quality control and performance assessment. Our findings shows that the power struggle and (professional) identity position of both subsidiary staff differs as they face different organizational, institutional and (neo)colonial pressures and are othered in different ways. We argue that as a site of “value production,” both subsidiaries are qualified and disadvantaged in distinct ways. Our study emphasizes the importance of understanding diverse coloni...
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Studies of gender in entrepreneurship acknowledge that gender norms are at the root of women’s disadvantage in resource‐acquisition but provide limited guidance on how societal (macro‐level) norms and their gendering influence... more
Studies of gender in entrepreneurship acknowledge that gender norms are at the root of women’s disadvantage in resource‐acquisition but provide limited guidance on how societal (macro‐level) norms and their gendering influence entrepreneurs’ micro‐level behaviours and stakeholders’ decisions within local contexts. To address this lacuna, we draw on gender theory and French Pragmatist Sociology (FPS) to offer G‐FPS: an analytical and methodological framework of resource‐claiming as a process of justifying, engaging and testing, embedded in normative context that constructs gender roles and social worth. Through analysis of a historical case of business resource‐acquisition in pre‐state Israel, we theorize and demonstrate how local gendered norms steered men and women to diverge in their justifications and self‐presentation when making their claims, and how stakeholders evaluated those claims according to their fit with situated gender expectations. We thus illustrate how macro‐level ...
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The formation of global public policy takes place in diverse fields, populated by a range of different actors. One important, but neglected group is large management consultancy firms. This chapter examines why and how such firms have... more
The formation of global public policy takes place in diverse fields, populated by a range of different actors. One important, but neglected group is large management consultancy firms. This chapter examines why and how such firms have been able to exercise influence over global public policy. Emphasis is placed on their reputational power, the organizational structures which enable them to use and develop expertise, and the importance of their social networks amongst other elite actors. The chapter illustrates these themes through a case study of the REDD Initiative sponsored by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. It concludes by outlining a research agenda which focuses on the power of consultancies in this arena, but also recognizes the limits to this power.
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Drawing on recent theoretical developments in postcolonial research, we examine the effect of the colonial encounter on the canonization of management and organization studies (MOS) as well as the field’s epistemological boundaries. In... more
Drawing on recent theoretical developments in postcolonial research, we examine the effect of the colonial encounter on the canonization of management and organization studies (MOS) as well as the field’s epistemological boundaries. In contrast to Orientalism, which is founded on a neat, binary, division between West and East, we offer (following Latour) a hybrid epistemology, which recognizes that the history of management and organizations should include the fusion between the colonizer and the colonized and their mutual effects on each other. Thus, while we discern the Orientalist assumptions embedded in the writing of management scholars, we also show that certain texts and practices that emerged during the colonial, as well as neo-colonial, encounter were excluded from the field, resulting in a ‘purified canon’. We conclude by arguing that hybridization between the metropole and colonies, and between western and non-western organizational entities, needs to be acknowledged by s...
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... For instance, critical students of postcolonialism and management studies have argued that modern colonial knowledge (often ... This critique may explain why the periphery's knowledge concerning the produc-tion process and the... more
... For instance, critical students of postcolonialism and management studies have argued that modern colonial knowledge (often ... This critique may explain why the periphery's knowledge concerning the produc-tion process and the organization of labor is often treated as ...
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... ing of power/knowledge and in keeping with other streams in postcolonial studies (especially that ... Bhabha conceptualizes the term hy-bridity differently from other colonial and post-colonial theorists (see ... The first aim of a... more
... ing of power/knowledge and in keeping with other streams in postcolonial studies (especially that ... Bhabha conceptualizes the term hy-bridity differently from other colonial and post-colonial theorists (see ... The first aim of a Bhabhaian critique is to critically understand the transfer ...
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... of the Quality Management Approach in Germany 145 Peter Walgenbach and Nikolaus Beck Introduction 145/Resource Mobilization Theory 148 ... Dispositions of Institutions and Interest Groups 187/Some Conclusions 191 PART IV Sources of... more
... of the Quality Management Approach in Germany 145 Peter Walgenbach and Nikolaus Beck Introduction 145/Resource Mobilization Theory 148 ... Dispositions of Institutions and Interest Groups 187/Some Conclusions 191 PART IV Sources of Management Knowledge 9 From ...
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This study explores the relations between organizational spatiality, gender, and class. It examines the work performed by managers and architects on the one hand, and by various groups of female employees on the other, in constructing,... more
This study explores the relations between organizational spatiality, gender, and class. It examines the work performed by managers and architects on the one hand, and by various groups of female employees on the other, in constructing, reproducing, and challenging gender-class identities through space-related means. Three types of gender-class spatial work are identified―discursive, material, and interpretive-emotional―to highlight the role of space in constructing and reconstructing inequality regimes within organizations. Applying insights from Lefebvre’s spatial theory, we analyze the case of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ new headquarters, demonstrating how the spatial work of various actors is both gendered and gendering. We also show how space is enacted by women from different social groups in accordance with their habitus and with the aim of distinguishing themselves from others.
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Applying insights from Lefebvre's spatial theory [Lefebvre, H. 1991. The Production of Space. Blackwell, Oxford, UK] to an analysis of Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs—recently relocated to its new award-winning building—the... more
Applying insights from Lefebvre's spatial theory [Lefebvre, H. 1991. The Production of Space. Blackwell, Oxford, UK] to an analysis of Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs—recently relocated to its new award-winning building—the present study seeks to offer a more comprehensive model of the role of organizational aesthetics (OA) in identity regulation and culture jamming. Our contribution is threefold. (1) At the empirical/methodological level, this study attempts to simultaneously analyze the three Lefebvrian spaces in a single organization, demonstrating negotiations and struggles over interpretations of OA. (2) We analyze aesthetic jamming as a form of intentional and unintentional efforts at collective resistance that not only reveals the aesthetic mechanisms of regulation, but actually uses them as a method of counter-regulation. (3) Whereas most studies in this emerging body of literature focus on the regulation of organization-based identities (bureaucratic and profes...
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In this paper, we develop a material–relational approach to understanding organizational memory. We focus on the inherent materiality of mnemonic devices—material artifacts that anchor shared memories of the past. Mnemonic devices work to... more
In this paper, we develop a material–relational approach to understanding organizational memory. We focus on the inherent materiality of mnemonic devices—material artifacts that anchor shared memories of the past. Mnemonic devices work to constitute social groups of organizational stakeholders bound together by mutual affinities to these devices, known as mnemonic communities. While we know that the materiality of mnemonic devices represents information about the past that is interpreted by members of the mnemonic community as a narrative that is important in the present, our approach focuses on how engagement with the material aspects of mnemonic devices can create relationships of affinity among people remembering together. To develop our conceptualization, we first apply insights from the literature on materiality and its emphasis on how materiality is the basis for non-verbal and relational communication. From this, we theorize four material attributes that affect how mnemonic d...
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Abstract. The paper brings together insights from the neo-institutional approach and that of ‘translation ’ to analyse the politics of management glocalization. Based on the cases of the translation of two manage-ment models—Scientific... more
Abstract. The paper brings together insights from the neo-institutional approach and that of ‘translation ’ to analyse the politics of management glocalization. Based on the cases of the translation of two manage-ment models—Scientific Management (SM) and Human Relations (HR) in Israel—the paper argues that the state-level institutional power struc-tures that participated in the importing of the SM and HR models as an answer to their political needs also took part in the negotiations and struggles that formed their social meanings, the way in which they changed during the move from one context to another, the way in which they are justified in the new social context, and the fundamental social assumptions that become institutionalized as part of the process of the models ’ institutionalization. Key words. glocalization; human relations; Israel; neo-institutionalism; politics; scientific management; translation In recent years there has been a sharp increase in research into the broa...
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Applying insights from Lefebvre’s spatial theory [Lefebvre, H. 1991. The Production of Space. Blackwell, Oxford, UK] to an analysis of Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs—recently relocated to its new award-winning building— the present... more
Applying insights from Lefebvre’s spatial theory [Lefebvre, H. 1991. The Production of Space. Blackwell, Oxford, UK] to an analysis of Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs—recently relocated to its new award-winning building— the present study seeks to offer a more comprehensive model of the role of organizational aesthetics (OA) in identity regulation and culture jamming. Our contribution is threefold. (1) At the empirical/methodological level, this study attempts to simultaneously analyze the three Lefebvrian spaces in a single organization, demonstrating negotiations and struggles over interpretations of OA. (2) We analyze aesthetic jamming as a form of intentional and unintentional efforts at collective resistance that not only reveals the aesthetic mechanisms of regulation, but actually uses them as a method of counterregulation. (3) Whereas most studies in this emerging body of literature focus on the regulation of organization-based identities (bureaucratic and professional),...
This paper focuses on aesthetic communication-communication based on aesthetic attributes-color, size, shape, ornamentation, or texture, for example -in the context of organizational communication. We argue that aesthetic communication is... more
This paper focuses on aesthetic communication-communication based on aesthetic attributes-color, size, shape, ornamentation, or texture, for example -in the context of organizational communication. We argue that aesthetic communication is potent because, when done effectively, it leads message receivers, such as the organization’s various stakeholders, employees, customers, etc., to accept an organization’s message as natural and obvious. Our paper theorizes the conditions that render aesthetic communication effective in this regard. To develop our theory, we highlight that aesthetic communication consists of three distinct modes: one linked to the associations the aesthetic attributes evoke, one linked to the habitual bodily responses the attributes form, and one linked to the linguistic communication articulating the effect of the aesthetic attributes. We suggest that aesthetic communication is more effective when there is a high degree of internal consistency among these modes. A...
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בשנים האחרונות, שני תהליכים גלובליים באופיים מעמידים אתגרים חדשים ומורכבים הן לפני משפחות עובדות בישראל והן לפני מוסדות המשפט, המנסים לאפשר למשפחות בישראל להתמודד בו זמנית עם צורכי העבודה ועם צורכי המשפחה. שני התהליכים הגלובליים האלה הם... more
בשנים האחרונות, שני תהליכים גלובליים באופיים מעמידים אתגרים חדשים ומורכבים הן לפני משפחות עובדות בישראל והן לפני מוסדות המשפט, המנסים לאפשר למשפחות בישראל להתמודד בו זמנית עם צורכי העבודה ועם צורכי המשפחה. שני התהליכים הגלובליים האלה הם השינויים במעמד האישה ובשיח זכויותיהן הלגיטימיות של נשים מצד אחד והשינויים בשוק העבודה והתחזקותה של כלכלת השוק הנאו־ליברלית מצד אחר.
בחלקו הראשון של המאמר נציג בהרחבה את בג"ץ טננבאום ונעסוק בהשלכות המגדריות של הימנעותו של בית-המשפט העליון מלדון בעתירה. בחלק השני נטען כי יש צורך להרחיב את הזכות להורות מעבר לזכות להולדה, וכי מרכזיותה וחשיבותה שלחוויית ההורות כיום... more
בחלקו הראשון של המאמר נציג בהרחבה את בג"ץ טננבאום ונעסוק בהשלכות המגדריות של הימנעותו של בית-המשפט העליון מלדון בעתירה. בחלק השני נטען כי יש צורך להרחיב את הזכות להורות מעבר לזכות להולדה, וכי מרכזיותה וחשיבותה שלחוויית ההורות כיום מחייבות הכרה בזכותם העצמאית של הורים להורות פעילה. בחלק השלישי נבחן את הדינים הישראליים שעוסקים בעבודה בשכר ובהורות ואשר משליכים על היכולת לשלב בין השתיים, ונשווה אותם עם הנעשה במדינות אחרות בתחום זה. בחלקו האחרון של המאמר נציע שינויים במשפט הישראלי המצוי, שיקדמו את היכולת להיות עובדים והורים פעילים בו-זמנית.
We advance current understandings about the nature of interpretative processes unique to design-based cues—elements in the organizational environment, such as colors or textures—that affect institutional processes by shaping behaviors and... more
We advance current understandings about the nature of interpretative processes unique to design-based cues—elements in the organizational environment, such as colors or textures—that affect institutional processes by shaping behaviors and emotions. The implicit assumption in extant work is that because these cues are salient, they are tightly coupled with distinct meanings. We argue, however, that interpretation in the context of these cues is processual rather than linear or finite. We explain this argument by exploring the interpretation of design-based cues given tensions along three planes: tensions between individual and intersubjective levels of interpretations; tensions among the multiple cues that co-exist in organizational workspaces, whose interpretations may reinforce or contradict each other; and tensions emanating from the ways the design-based cues themselves transform over time due to deliberate and natural change. On the basis of these arguments, we reveal the inhere...
Abstract The article builds upon recent developments in feminist theories as they were adopted in organization studies to review the state of research into women in MNCs and to offer new directions for the study of MNCs as “gendering... more
Abstract The article builds upon recent developments in feminist theories as they were adopted in organization studies to review the state of research into women in MNCs and to offer new directions for the study of MNCs as “gendering organizations,” both as they are shaped by gender relations and are active agents in constructing gender categories, division of labor, images, and inequalities. Juxtaposing insights from gender studies and International Business and Management, the article offers a new agenda for the studies of corporate internationalization and its social consequences.
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... I thank Marta B. Calás, Linda Smircich, Janne Tienari, Camilla Ellehave, Mary Blair Loy, Judith Lorber, Aziza Khazzoom, Alexandra Kalev, Ronit Kark, the participants of the 'gender and ethnicity' sub-theme at the... more
... I thank Marta B. Calás, Linda Smircich, Janne Tienari, Camilla Ellehave, Mary Blair Loy, Judith Lorber, Aziza Khazzoom, Alexandra Kalev, Ronit Kark, the participants of the 'gender and ethnicity' sub-theme at the 2004 European Group for Organizational Studies' meeting in ...
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In this article, we take a postcolonial management approach to exploring the lingering significance of postcolonial imagery in shaping legal disputes between host country and foreign multinational corporations. We apply a critical... more
In this article, we take a postcolonial management approach to exploring the lingering significance of postcolonial imagery in shaping legal disputes between host country and foreign multinational corporations. We apply a critical discourse analysis to the Korea versus Orbotech industrial espionage lawsuit, in which the Korean government accused a foreign multinational corporation of leaking its ‘national core technology’. Through this analysis we demonstrate how industrial espionage discourse was used to fight Korea’s negative reputation as a technological imitator, associate Korea with global technological leaders, and disassociate itself from other ‘imitators’. In response, Orbotech’s industrial espionage discourse has aimed to reproduce Korea’s imitator stigma. Our findings highlight the continual role of the imagined North/South and West/rest symbolic boundaries in constructing global business hierarchies even when the marginalized party—Korea—has already moved to the elite eco...
Research Interests: Intellectual Property, International Business, Israel Studies, Postcolonial Studies, Korean Studies, and 15 moreSouth Korea, Management of Innovation, International Business Management, Korea, Organization, Philosophy and Religious Studies, Espionage, Othering, Legal Affairs and Dispute Resolution, Scandals, Industrial Espionage, International Bussiness, Postcolonial Thought, Concept of Othering, and Corporate Espionage
On the basis of a case study of the integration of Haredi Jewish women into the Israeli high-tech industry, we explore how gender–religiosity intersectionality affects ultra-conservative women’s participation in the labor market and their... more
On the basis of a case study of the integration of Haredi Jewish women into the Israeli high-tech industry, we explore how gender–religiosity intersectionality affects ultra-conservative women’s participation in the labor market and their ability to negotiate with employers for corporate work–family practices that address their idiosyncratic requirements. We highlight the importance of pious women’s affiliation to their highly organized religious communities while taking a process-centered approach to intersectionality and focusing on the matrix of domination formed by the Israeli state, employers, and the organized ultra-orthodox community. We dub this set of actors “the unholy-trinity” and argue that it constructs a specific, religion-centric inequality regime that restrains women’s job and earning opportunities. At the same time, the “unholy trinity” also empowers women in their struggle to create a working environment that is receptive to their religiosity and what that commitme...
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How does the multiplicity of surveilling gazes affect the experience of employees subjected to a matrix of domination in organisations? Building on a case study of ultra-religious Jewish women in Israeli high-tech organisations, the... more
How does the multiplicity of surveilling gazes affect the experience of employees subjected to a matrix of domination in organisations? Building on a case study of ultra-religious Jewish women in Israeli high-tech organisations, the article demonstrates how the intersectionality of gender and religiosity exposed them to a matrix of contradicting visibility regimes – managerial, peers, and religious community. By displaying their compliance with each visibility regime, they were constructed as hyper-subjugated employees, but simultaneously were able to use (in)visibility as a resource. Specifically, by manoeuvring between the various gazes and playing one visibility regime against the other, they challenged some of the organisational and religious norms that served to marginalise them, yet upheld their status as worthy members of both institutions. Juxtaposing theoretical insights from organisational surveillance and gender studies, the article reveals the role of multiple surveillin...
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... Halutz) became legendary in the mythology of the nation, in literary forms, and in school curriculum. ... to their advantages is based on the assumption that nationalism is an ideology which constructs ... the realities of different... more
... Halutz) became legendary in the mythology of the nation, in literary forms, and in school curriculum. ... to their advantages is based on the assumption that nationalism is an ideology which constructs ... the realities of different groups who competed in the political and cultural fields of ...
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... ORIENTALISM OCCIDENTALISM ... anthropology, he called on his West African experience to illustrate similarities between the primitive mind of natives, the mental ... Like the bureaucracy in Weber's work, the patrimonial leader... more
... ORIENTALISM OCCIDENTALISM ... anthropology, he called on his West African experience to illustrate similarities between the primitive mind of natives, the mental ... Like the bureaucracy in Weber's work, the patrimonial leader is also an ideal type devoid of cultural and historical ...
ABSTRACT
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This research will focus on the domestication process of communication technologies amongst families in Israel, with the purpose of exploring the characteristics of families who use communication technologies in a family context. This... more
This research will focus on the domestication process of communication technologies amongst families in Israel, with the purpose of exploring the characteristics of families who use communication technologies in a family context. This issue will be dealt with an inner-culture perspective with an objective to shed light on the possibilities of weakened groups in Israel to deal with dilemmas that characterize the information society of today (Daly, 2001). This research draws from the "netted household" approach, which assumes that individuals with different agendas try to sustain family relations by the usage of communication technologies. According to this approach, in order to understand inner-family relations we must examine the technologies which the member of the household use, since it has a clear impact of inner-family communication (Kennedy & Wellman, 2007). Academic literature has dealt with the increase usage of communication technologies in a family context, and w...
Frenkel, M. (2013). “Toward a Multi-layered Glocalization Approach: States, Multinational Corporations and the Transformation of Gender Contracts.”. Pp. 133-145 in Drori, G. M. Hollerer and P. Walgenbach (Eds.) Themes and Local Variations in Organization and Management: Perspectives on Glocalizat...more
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in Westwood, R.I., Jack, G., Kahn, F. & Frenkel, M. (eds) Core-Periphery Relations In Organisation Studies. Pp. 1-32, Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2014.