1. TOPIC
[] Feminist scholars believe that women in organizations can become marginalised in
organizational life because of the dynamics of gender relations within patriarchal
organizational structures. (Miller, 2008: 113.)
Use this statement as your point of departure, create a coherent argument in response to this
statement. Provide your own relevant examples to support your argument. Please note that
your point of view with regards to the statement has to be set out in the Introduction
section of your assignment. Remember to refine your Introduction once you have written
the Conclusion to your assignment.
2. READ AND SUMMARIZE THE FOLLOWING COMPULSORY SOURCES
The four (4) readings below will provide you with a broad overview of feminist theory as it
applies to organisational communication. The readings are available under Theme 1.7 on
Blackboard:
i. ASHCRAFT, K.L. (2014). Feminist theory. (In) The SAGE Handbook of Organizational
Communication: Advances in theory, research and methods. Eds. Putnam, L. &
Mumby, D.K. 3rd edition. Los Angeles: Sage (chapter 4)
ii. DU PLOOY-CILLIERS, F. (2014). Research Paradigms and Traditions. (In) Research
Matters. Eds. Du Plooy-Cilliers, F.; Davis, C. & Bezuidenhout. R. Cape Town: Juta
(chapter 2)
iii. MILLER, K. (2015). Organizational Communication: Approaches and Processes. 7th
edition. Belmont: Wadsworth. (chapter 6) MUMBY, D.K. (2014).
iv. WRENCH, J.S. & PUNYANUNT-CARTER, N. (2012) Introduction to Organizational
Communication. Creative Commons License.
Carefully read and make your own integrated summaries of these prescribed sources.
3. SELECT A THEORETIECAL LENS
Once you are familiar with the concepts underlying Critical and Feminist Theory and have
noted the various Feminist approaches such as Liberal Feminism, Radical Feminism,
Standpoint Feminism and Postmodern Feminism, you then need to select a specific Feminist
approach for critical discussion. For example, you may decide to choose Radical Feminism,
(CMS 3A Assignment brief 2021)
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but remember you may also choose one of the other Feminist approaches as your preferred
theoretical lens. As the aim is to provide an in-depth critical discussion, this requires that you
do more reading on your selected approach. Therefore, your next step is to find the most
recent sources on your selected approach, for example, Radical Feminism. You must search
for and find at least two (2) of your own additional sources (i.e., journal articles) in the UJ
library online databases. An acceptable academic source means that you need to find peer
reviewed academic journal articles to use as additional sources.
Please contact the subject librarian, Ms. Constance Ndumela ([email protected]) if you
need assistance in finding sources or accessing databases. Ms Ndumela has presented two
Zoom online training session on 1 March and 8 March. If you did not attend these sessions
on databases and eBooks, you can find information on the recordings on BB. Please also
complete the Online Information Literacy Module (5 hours) in your own time offered by the
UJ Library to improve your academic skills.
Some useful journals are i.e., Organization; Management Communication Quarterly; Journal
of Applied Communication; Communication Monographs; Communication Abstracts;
Communicare; Communicatio; Communitas; Critical Arts; Acta Academica. Some useful
databases are Sabinet, Ebscohost, Emerald.
Once you have read and summarized your additional sources, integrate these summaries with
your summaries of the prescribed readings (see above). Remember, the more you read the
deeper your understanding of the topic will be!
You are now ready to start on the discussion section of your assignment. This means that
you must provide an in-depth critical discussion of the Radical Feminist (as per the example)
approach as it pertains to organisational communication. Also draw on your knowledge from
the second year Research Methodology course on the Literature Review.
4. CREATE AN APPROPRIATE LOGICAL STRUCTURE
You need to decide how you are going to structure your assignment so that it follows a logical
course from outset to the end, guiding the reader as to your thinking on the topic. You need
to cover the following in your assignment (listed below in no specific order of importance):
i. Indicate the relevance of the Radical Feminist (for example) approach to the study of
organisational communication.
ii. Discuss the idea of gender as conceptualised by Radical Feminists (for example)
theorists.
iii. Discuss how feminist approaches seek to bring about the emancipation of women in
the organisation you have selected to use a case study.
iv. Discuss possible issues related to gender inequality in an African organisational
context. For example, using the Radical Feminist approach as the theoretical lens, you
can look at your church or school as an organisation. What are the sources of gender
inequality you can identify in this organisational context?