Organizational commitment as a gendered practice : the case of female bank employees in four regions of Pakistan

This exploratory study is aimed at understanding organizational commitment as a gendered practice among female bank employees in four different regions of Pakistan. Though organizational commitment has remained the main focus of research in organizational studies, gender as an important facet of employees' organizational commitment has been overlooked. This study recognises gender as an important workplace reality, which is practiced in everyday organizational lives of employees. A practice-based view of gender helps to avoid the historical bias of gender stereotypes as major to organizational commitment of female employees. It recognises the lived experiences that are significant to female employees' organizational commitment. The Grounded Theory methods are borrowed to capture the lived experiences of female employees. Unstructured interviewing has provided an opportunity to recognise and respect the voices of respondents. Thematic analysis is used to encapsulate the rich field data under four thematic categories of resistance, moral harassment, engaging in network of relations, and trading loyalty. Epistemological, ontological and methodological aspects are viewed through the lenses of social constructionism. The main argument put forward is that societal gendered practices are significant in informing the organizational life of female ) employees. These practices are featured by power relations between the opposite sexes, which can be located within patriarchal practices. The uniqueness and originality of this study lies in recognising the diversity of gendered practices, within different locations, in influencing the patterns of employees' workplace life. The study makes reference to an important emergent phenomenon of 'religion as a power ( force)', which can be of interest for future studies. The study is important in addressing the gender issues in much sensitive environment for female employment. It is believed that this study can make some contributions to address the issue of the glass ceiling and to contribute in promoting workplace gender equity and equality.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo