Horseplay, care and hands on hard work: gendered strategies of a project manager on a construction site

Abstract

The discourse of managerial expertise favours rational analysis and masculine ideals but contemporary management literature also recognises the value of well-being and employee voice in the workplace. Drawing upon narrative analysis of interview data, we share unique insights into the lived experiences of Laura, one female project manager who recently managed a construction site in the Midlands in the UK. In contrast to previous research which indicates that female managers tend to conform to quite a traditional set of gender behaviours, Laura embraces a range of workplace appropriate gendered strategies, such as hard work and horseplay, together with sensitivity and caring. She draws from this mix of gendered strategies in negotiating between two different discourses of construction: one professional and one tough and practical. Her behaviour both reproduces the masculine ideals (through horseplay and heroic management) and opens up possibilities for modernizing construction management (by caring). It is this combination of strategies that is at the heart of tacit expertise for Laura. Theoretically, the discussion adds to the development of a more nuanced understanding of management expertise as situated and person-specific knowledge that draws on both the explicit and tacit. Specifically, the centrality of gendered strategies beyond the masculine ideals to success on site is highlighted.

Keywords:

• Care,
• gendered strategies,
• horseplay,
• management expertise,
• project manager

Acknowledgement

The development of the conceptual framing regarding gendered strategies is thanks to Hannele Harjunen, University of Jyväskylä, Finland.

Notes

1. A fictional name created to protect the research participant’s identity.

2. The embedded view draws on macro-structural and institutional perspectives and relates gender to large-scale patterns such as the welfare state (Wharton, 2012, p. 17). Such considerations are beyond the scope of this project.

3. Often ‘leadership styles’ is used as a synonym to ‘management styles’ although an extensive body of the literature in this field discusses the differences between management and leadership. The use of ‘management’ is intentional in this paper given the fit in the discussion of the empirical material.

4. The research was conducted as part of a larger research project on people resourcing and human resource management in construction (see Raiden et al., 2009).