Part‐time Work as Practising Resistance: The Power of Counter‐arguments
| Published date | 01 December 2013 |
| Author | Patrizia Hoyer,Julia Nentwich |
| Date | 01 December 2013 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8551.2012.00828.x |
Part-time Work as Practising Resistance:
The Power of Counter-arguments
Julia Nentwich and Patrizia Hoyer
Research Institute for Organizational Psychology, University of St. Gallen, Varnbüelstr 19,
9000 St. Gallen, Switzerland
Corresponding author email: julia.nentwich@unisg.ch
Contributing to a Foucauldian perspective on ‘discursive resistance’, this paper theo-
rizes how part-time workers struggle to construct a valid position in the rhetorical
interplay between norm-strengthening arguments and norm-contesting counter-
arguments. It is thereby suggested that both the reproductive and the subversive forces
of resistance may very well coexist within the everyday manoeuvres of world-making.
The analysis of these rhetorical interplays in 21 interviews shows how arguments and
counter-arguments produce full-time work as the dominant discourse versus part-time
work as a legitimate alternative to it. Analysing in detail the effects of four rhetorical
interplays, this study shows that, while two of them leave unchallenged the basic
assumptions of the dominant full-time discourse and hence tend instead to reify the
dominant discourse, two other interplays succeed in contesting the dominant discourse
and establishing part-time work as a valid alternative. The authors argue that the two
competing dynamics of challenging and reifying the dominant are not mutually exclu-
sive, but do in fact coexist.
Introduction: part-time work as
a challenge to the norm
Even though the implementation of ‘flexible
working policies’ is positioned as highly relevant
for increasing workplace diversity, full-time
work is still constructed as the ‘standard prac-
tice’, marginalizing those who do not perform
within its boundaries: part-time workers (Hyde,
2008). The ability and willingness to work what
counts as full time has become a synonym for
commitment, productivity and professionalism
(Dick and Hyde, 2006; McDonald, Bradley
and Brown, 2008; Ozbilgin, Tsouroufli and
Smith, 2011; Smithson, 2005) as well as mascu-
linity (Meriläinen et al., 2004; Simpson, 1998;
Smithson, 2005). Consequently, the full-timer is
perceived as evidence of prioritizing work over
non-work, while the part-timer is associa-
ted with ‘women’s issues’ (McDonald, Bradley
and Brown, 2008) and career-limiting ‘mommy
tracks’ (Buzzanell and Goldzwig, 1991), revealing
disadvantages to women’s lifetime employment
and earning prospects (Lane, 2004; McDonald,
Bradley and Brown, 2008; Smithson, 2005). In
this context, part-time work becomes a sensible
and contested category, which essentially violates
the deeply held beliefs about the importance of
‘being there’ (Lawrence and Corwin, 2003).
These discursive constructions of worktime
arrangements mark important mechanisms of
This paper was written as a collaborative effort by both
authors. An earlier version of this paper was presented in
June 2010 at the 6th Conference on Gender, Work and
Organization, Keele University, UK. The authors would
like to thank the participants of the ‘practising resist-
ance’ stream, the Editors and two anonymous reviewers
of this Journal as well as colleagues at the Research
Institute for Organizational Psychology at the University
of St. Gallen for their critical discussions and highly
valuable ideas for developing the analysis. The interviews
that form the heart of this paper were conducted by the
first author. The authors would like to thank all partici-
pants in this study for their time and patience in contrib-
uting to this research.
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British Journal of Management, Vol. 24, 557–570 (2013)
DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8551.2012.00828.x
© 2012 The Author(s)
British Journal of Management © 2012 British Academy of Management. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd,
9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA, 02148, USA.
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