Elisabeth Kelan

Dr Elisabeth Kelan is Senior Research Fellow in the Lehman Brothers Centre for Women in Business at London Business School, and Lecturer in Work and Organisations at King’s College London. Prior to that, she worked at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) where she also received her PhD.

Elisabeth is a leading scholar on gender relations in organisations. Her specialism is in the use of qualitative and ethnographic methods. She has presented her research internationally, published widely, and has received various awards for her research. She has provided advice to supranational and business organisations.

Elisabeth is the founder of [http://www.athena-associates.com Athena Associates] , a company that specialises in providing organisations with advisory, consulting and speaking services on issues related to women, gender and diversity. She co-authors the [http://ladygeek.org.uk Lady Geek] blog and is a qualified Yoga teacher.

Research

Elisabeth’s research interests are in the area of gender and technology at work, gender and identity in organisations, socialisation into organisational cultures, gender issues in management and business, management education, ethnography, discourse analysis and qualitative methodologies. Her expertise is in the following areas:
*Gen(d)eration Y and MBA Education
*Challenging Gender Stereotypes
*Gendered Organisational Culture
*Leadership, Promotability and Career Advancement
*ICT Work & Gender
*Business Ethics and Gender Representations in Management Texts
*The Glass Ceiling

Since 2006, she leads and conducts research in the Lehman Brothers Centre for Women in Business at London Business School.

During her relatively brief academic career, she has researched with and presented at the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis 2005, the Women as Global Leaders conference in Abu Dhabi 2006, the United Nations in New York 2007, and the Women's Forum for the Economy and Society in Deauville 2007 and 2008.

In 2008, she gave keynote addresses to the Mayor of London & Greater London Authority's Women in London’s Economy programme held at the Merchant Taylors' Hall, the Academy of Management in Los Angeles, and the European Professional Women's Network and European Central Bank in Frankfurt.

In The Times of 23 January 2008 on the next generation of management gurus, Stuart Crainer described her as an up and coming thinker that will make her mark in the next few years [cite web|url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/career_and_jobs/mba/article3232236.ece|title=Business benefits from a more disciplined approach|last=Crainer|first=Stuart|date=2008-01-23|work=TimesOnline|accessdate=2008-10-11] .

In June 2008, she organised the “Humanising Work” event with Judy Wajcman, then Visiting Professor at the Lehman Brothers Centre for Women in Business at London Business School. The groundbreaking seminar attempted to expose business academics and practicioners to current research and knowledge in the social sciences and saw two talks by (Lord) Anthony Giddens and Richard Sennett. Stefan Stern from the Financial Times likened this event to an academic version of the Rumble in the Jungle and referred to it as the "Dialectic in the Park" - a reference to London Business School's Regent's Park campus. He authored several articles on the topic of "What sociologists can teach managers" discussing his impression that sociologists could help you run your company better than management gurus [cite web|url=http://blogs.ft.com/management/2008/06/20/what-sociologists-can-teach-managers/|title=What sociologists can teach managers|last=Stern|first=Stefan|date=2008-06-20|work=Management Blog|publisher=FT.com|accessdate=2008-10-11] .

Works

*Kelan, E.K. (2009) "Performing Gender: The Fluidity and Rigidity of Gender at Work", Basingstoke: Palgrave.
*Kelan, E.K. (2009) 'The Politics of Technology and Gender'. In: Berg Olsen, J.K. and Hendricks, V.F. (eds.) "A Companion to Philosophy of Technology", Oxford: Blackwell.
*Kelan, E.K. (2009) 'Discursive Theories of Gender'. In: O'Brien, J. (ed.) "Encyclopaedia of Gender and Society", London: Sage.
*Kelan, E.K. and Nentwich, J.C. (2009) 'The Value of Seeing Gender as a 'Doing" In: Ozbilgin, M. (ed.) "Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at Work: A Research Companion", Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.
*Kelan, E.K. (2008) 'Gender, Risk and Employment Insecurity: The Masculine Breadwinner Subtext', In: "Human Relations", 61:9, 1171-1202.
*Kelan, E.K. (2008) 'The Discursive Construction of Gender in Contemporary Management Literature', In: "Journal of Business Ethics", 18:2, 427-445.
*Kelan, E. (2008) 'Bound by Stereotypes?', In: "Business Strategy Review", 19:1, 4-7
*Kelan, E.K. (2008) 'Self-entrepreneurial Careers: Current management practices in Swiss ICT work' In: Jemielniak, D. and Kociatkiewicz, J. (eds.) "Management practices in High Tech Environments", Hershey: Idea Group.
*Kelan, E.K. (2008) 'Emotions in a Rational Profession: The Gendering of Skills in ICT Work', In: "Gender, Work and Organization", 15:1, 49-71.
*Kelan, E.K. (2007) "I Don't Know Why' – Accounting for the Scarcity of Women in ICT Work', In: "Women's Studies International Forum", 30:6, 499-511.
*Kelan, E.K. (2007) 'Tools and Toys: Communicating Gendered Positions Towards Technology', In: "Information, Communication and Society", 10:3, 357-382.  
*Gantert, R., Kelan, E.K., Saxer, S. (2007) 'Die narrative Konstitution von Geschlecht im Gespräch (The Narrative Constitution of Gender in Dialogue)'. In: Grisard, D., Häberlein, J., Kaiser, A., Saxer, S. (eds.) "Gender in Motion", Frankfurt/Main: Campus.
*Kelan, E.K. (2006) "Binary Logic? Doing Gender in Information Communication Technology Work", unpublished PhD thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science. Available at http://www.elisabeth-kelan.net/
*Kelan, E.K. (2006) 'Zur (De)Konstruktion von Geschlecht in neuer Managementliteratur' ((De)Constructing Gender in Newer Management Literature). In: Bendl, R. (ed.) "Betriebswirtschaftslehre und Frauen- und Geschlechterforschung, Teil 1: Verortung geschlechterkonstituierender (Re-)Produktionsprozesse", Frankfurt/Main: Peter Lang.

References