The ambivalent dynamics of secretarial 'bitching': Control, resistance, and the construction of identity

We conceptualize bitching as an ambivalent communicative practice that take s place in and contributes to the construction of gendered organizational i dentities. Through interpretive analyses of in situ bitching among corporat e secretaries, we show how the ambivalent dynamics of their collective bitc hing both maintained stereotypical gender attributes and destabilized the p roperly professional secretarial identity. By elaborating the ambivalent dy namics of bitching, rye offer a more nuanced understanding of the interplay of control and resistance in the communicative construction of gendered wo rkplace identities.