Forming, Repairing, Maintaining, and Strengthening (managerial) Identities – Identity Work of Black African Females In White Western Private Organizations In South Africa and Austria

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Keywords: woman, manager, race, discrimination, intersectionality, organization

Abstract: Austrian private organizations in general and the majority of South African private organizations still operate on an unfair advantage of Whiteness and ethnic privilege, as a variant of whiteness, which remains uncontested and under-researched in the context of Organization Studies in these two countries. The aim of our paper is to explore the identity work of Black African employees and managers in private organizations in which whiteness still prevails. We pose the question how these women identify with their work and the organization and how they form, repair, maintain and strengthen their (managerial) identities in these white organizations. Based on 25 interviews, our comparison shows that some topics of identity work are the same independent of the local context.