This thesis explores the relationship between sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) and career progression (CP) by applying a performative, post-structuralist, and queer theory influenced approach to career theory. It analyses how, that is to say in what ways and by what means, homosexual and transgender difference is produced through the processes associated with CP. It is based on 36 interviews with individuals of diverse ages and occupations who identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or Transgender (LGBT) and are based in the south-west of England. Hitherto career theory has based its understanding of CP on individual differences and/or category based explanations. The contribution of this thesis comes from using an anti-categorical understanding of difference to show how SOGI and CP are interacting disciplinary regimes. SOGI not only affects CP through assumptions about capability and suitability, but difference is constituted through CP – as the associated acts and interactions shape the way we think of ourselves, our possibilities, our becoming. Responsibility for achieving SOGI and CP is devolved to the individual, who is then often forced to prioritise one or the other. The findings show some shared patterns (which are argued to be based on situational, performative, embodied experiences not identity categories), such as minimising or compensating for difference, femininity as a locus for limiting discourse and self-employment as a mode of exclusion. Trajectories, choices and aspirations are affected, though not necessarily disadvantageously, leading to the conceptualisation of careers as queered by homosexual and transgender difference. This research contributes by arguing that rather than consider CP in terms of category based ceilings, CP and the production of difference can be understood as multiplicitous, emergent, and co-productive processes. This thesis forms a timely contribution to understanding LGBT experience during a period of intense change in social recognition, which includes discourses of normalisation, by suggesting that we still need to recognise the often subtle internal and external reiterations of heteronormative discourse that produce difference.

This thesis documents a qualitative research study of twenty postmodern therapy practitioners in Aotearoa New Zealand, focusing on their experiences in the wider field of therapy. The participants were aligned in their subscribing to postmodern critiques of therapy as a instrument of power, and in their interest in, and use of, therapy techniques and approaches that have grown out of those critiques – including narrative therapy, critical psychology, “Just Therapy”, and feminist poststructuralist therapy approaches. I argue that these practitioners represent a social movement within the field of therapy. The thesis examines the nature of the wider therapy field in Aotearoa New Zealand, analysing the perspectives of the participants. I demonstrate how this field has become increasingly dominated by the twin forces of neoliberalism and bio-science, making postmodern therapy work difficult, particularly within public sector services. In the final substantive part of the thesis, I critically examine and appraise the strategies used by participants to negotiate and resist these forces. This discussion is divided into two main chapters, dealing first with the participants who have difficulty in engaging in official politics and who consequently attempt to operate “under the radar” of management surveillance: these participants are characterised as “battlers”, “burn-outs” and “blow-outs”. Then, I turn my attention to the second group of participants – “infiltrators”, “outsiders” and “accepters” – who strategically utilise symbolic capital to pose resistance, or simply leave the public system. I also consider the professed abilities of this second group to cultivate a postmodern sensibility and to tolerate contradiction and compromise. I conclude this investigation of the possibilites for resistance to neoliberal and bio-scientific discourses by recommending greater strengthening of this local postmodern therapy movement.

Nowadays crisis leadership must display greater representation in  organizational  studies for  the  reason  that  leadership  organizing  capability  is  constituted  through communication. This  hesis  employs  a  sensemaking  perspective  to  obtain  a  broader  understanding  of the  ways  leadership  unfolds  under  abrupt  uncertain  circumstances  that  are  also vulnerable  to  changes  in  the  environment,  such  as  crises. Besides,  this  study  presents  the  particularity  of  delving  into  the  centrality  of communication  from  a  constructionist  view  in  order  to  understand  how  crisis  leadership is  constituted  through  the  communicative  interactions  of  individuals. In  order  to  do  this,  this  qualitative  study  displays  the  sensemaking  of  20  Swedish crisis  managers  to  get  their  own  perceptions  of  communication  effectiveness  in  crisis management,  how  they  make  sense  of  self-identity  in  the  role  of  crisis  leadership,  and  the part  of  communication  in  the  meaning  construction  of  realities  during  a  crisis. The  results  display  that  crisis  leaders  recognize  the  fundamental  role  of communication  in  the  meaning-construction  and  to  maintain  a  shared  sense  of  meaning among  individuals.  Crisis  leaders  concern  about  communicating  stories  of  learning,  and following-up.  They  show  a  high  sensitivity  to  anticipate  the  crisis  and  emphasize  that effective  communication  builds  good  relationships  between  networks.  Managers acknowledge  that  good  communication  skills  ensure  effective  leadership  during  a  crisis. In  making  sense  of  crisis  leadership  this  study  shows  the  intersection  of  leadership, organizing,  and  communication  as  intertwined  processes. / Krisledarskap  är  ett  område  som  behöver  undersökas  mer,  särskilt  eftersom  den organiserande  funktionen  ledare  har  vid  en  kris  utgörs  av  kommunikation.  Denna master-uppsats  använder  teorier  om  meningsskapande  för  att  nå  en  bredare  förståelse  för hur  ledarskap  utövas  kommunikativt  under  osäkra  omständigheter  och  svåra  situationer i  omgivningen  såsom  kriser. Undersökningen  utgår  från  en  konstruktivistisk  syn  på  kommunikationens  centrala roll  för  att  förstå  hur  krisledarskapet  formas  genom  individers  interaktion. Studien  omfattar  intervjuer  med  20  svenska  krishanterare  som  skapar  mening  kring sina  erfarenheter  och  uppfattningar  om  effektiv  kommunikation  vid  krishantering,  hur de  förstår  sin  egen  identitet  i  rollen  som  krisledare  samt  kommunikationens  betydelse  för att  skapa  bilder  av  verkligheten  under  en  kris. Resultaten  visar  att  krisledare  betonar  den  grundläggande  betydelse  som kommunikation  har  för  meningsskapandet  och  för  att  upprätthålla  en  delad  och gemensam  förståelse  bland  individer  vid  en  kris.  Krisledare  är  engagerade  i  att kommunicera  historier  som  bidrar  till  lärande  vid  uppföljningar  efter  kriser.  De  visar ocskå  en  stor  känslighet  och  förmåga  att  kunna  förutse  kriser  och  betonar  att  effektiv kommunikation  bygger  goda  relationer  i  nätverk  som  är  viktiga  i  krishanteringen. Krisledarna  betonar  även  att  god  kommunikationsförmåga  säkerställer  effektivt ledarskap  under  en  kris.  Denna  studie  visar  att  det  är  i  skärningspunkten  mellan ledarskap,  organisering  och  kommunikation  som  krisledarskapet  uppstår  i sammanflätade  processer.