Wedding intersectionality theory and identity work in organizations : South African Indian women negotiating managerial identity

Abstract

This paper addresses the continuing tension between focusing on identities and categories rather than processes and systems in intersectionality research based on a study of the identity work of South African Indian women managers. We wed intersectionality theory with extant understandings of managerial identity work in organisations to demonstrate the dynamic interaction between both identities and categories and the institutionalised processes and systems by which they are formed, shaped and reshaped over time. Specifically, we demonstrate through life story interviews of thirteen South African women managers how an individual’s managerial identity is not formed solely by personal and social identities in the workplace but by the socio-historical political and cultural contexts within which individuals and groups are embedded. These contexts shape not only the racio-ethnic and gender identities of individuals but also the processes of racialization, gendering and culturalization that create and reinforce particular social locations in society and in the workplace.