Women scholars' coping narratives in generating research impact cases in the UK: insights from Sisyphus, Hestia and Tyche

Abstract

Purpose: We explore how women management scholars navigate “doing” research impact. Drawing on the voices of women leaders of research impact cases in UK business schools, we identify and theorise three distinct autobiographical narratives of coping. To inform systemic changes for more equitable national research policy implementation, we highlight barriers that deter individuals from becoming impactful scholars.

Design/methodology/approach: This qualitative study comprises semi-structured interviews with 15 mid/late career women research impact case study leaders who were purposively selected to reflect on their lived experiences of impact case study generation.

Findings: A thematic analysis revealed three mythological archetypes: Sisyphus (a figure in Greek mythology whose eternal repetitive and futile punishment was to roll a boulder uphill, only for it to roll back down), Hestia (the Greek Goddess of the hearth) and Tyche (the Greek Goddess of luck and change). Our empirical study contributes to understanding how individual women management scholars experience and cope with the UK’s research impact policy agenda in the neoliberal university.

Research limitations/implications: The interviewees’ accounts of coping with REF (Research Excellence Framework) impact case studies are subjective and have influenced the research process and findings. The study has important practical and policy implications.

Practical implications: The study has important practical and policy implications.

Originality/value: We call for more inclusive systemic opportunities in business schools in terms of who “does impact” and how they are supported in coping with the demands of research impact work. We advocate rethinking traditional heroic paradigms of academic labour (Harley, 2019), to enable women impact case writers to shift from Sisyphean struggles to greater recognition, inclusion and support for their contributions.