FEELING STRESSED AND BURNED OUT - A FEMINIST READING AND RE-VISIONINGOF STRESS-BASED EMOTIONS WITHIN MEDICINE AND ORGANIZATION SCIENCE

This article is written in the spirit of resistance, as a challenge an d alternative to what are accepted as neutral, unbiased conceptualizat ions of stress and burnout within traditional and popular discourse. F indings reported in a previous study suggest that the ways we conceptu alize and experience stress and burnout are not inherently neutral, bu t are shaped by culture and a particular set of dominant themes preval ent in organizational and professional discourse. This article exposes the processes by which some forms of organizational experience and kn owledge related to stress and burnout have become dominant, whereas '' other'' forms have become marginal and suppressed. Through a postmoder n feminist reading of stress and burnout as expressed within the medic al and organizational discourses, the author reveals how gender acts a s an axis of power and meaning that helps sustain dominant and seeming ly neutral conceptualizations within the discourses. Building from the feminist reading, she develops a radical reconstruction of the ways o rganizational participants and theorists could interpret and experienc e stress related emotions, and discusses the cultural conditions that could produce and sustain such a revision. The reading and revision re veal ways in which experiences of stress and burnout have been shaped and constrained by the dominant discourse and suggest ways social scie ntists might rewrite those experiences toward more humane ends. Insofa r as stress and burnout are among the most common and well-researched topics (and emotions) within the field of organizational behavior, thi s paper has far-reaching theoretical, epistemological, and practical i mplications. More generally, the feminist reading and revision open ne w spaces for other ways of theorizing and argues against the limitatio ns of knowledge and experience imposed by traditional organizational t heory and medical discourse.