Janet Sayers

Janet Sayers
Sayers in 1988
Academic background
Alma mater	University of Auckland
Thesis	Small treats: retail service work from a consumer’s perspective (2003)
Doctoral advisor	Nicholas Holt Perry, Bruce Macdonald Curtis
Academic work
Institutions	Massey University

Janet Grace Sayers is a New Zealand organisational psychology academic, and is a full professor in the School of Management at Massey University, specialising in research on removing barriers to participation in employment and education.

Academic career

Sayers has a Bachelor of Arts, a Diploma in Business and Administration, and a Master of Business Studies, all from Massey University. Sayers completed a PhD titled Small treats: retail service work from a consumer’s perspective at the University of Auckland in 2003. Sayers then joined the faculty of the School of Management at Massey University, rising to full professor in 2023.

Sayers's research covers marginalisation and barriers to participation in employment and education, and how to overcome them. She is also interested in internet political discourse, such as the passive-aggressive social media meme Be like Bill. Business challenges examined by Sayers include new technology such as wearable devices, sustainability, managing diversity, including racism, ability, gender, and age), and remote working. Her methods include language-based methods such as discourse analysis, story analysis and narrative analysis. With colleague Margaret Brunton, Sayers published a 2019 paper on a controversial photo-essay from 2006 on aged care. The original essay, 'Who cares', sparked reader complaints and an enquiry by the Privacy Commissioner, and the issue was withdrawn from publication. Sayers and Brunton felt that "the voices of the caregivers were unfairly suppressed. We needed to try and understand why this came about".

Sayers is on the editorial board of the journal Gender, Work and Organisation and is a co-editor of the Routledge series on women writers and organisational studies, and has co-edited three other books.

Selected works

Books

• Sayers, JG. (2012). Managing diversity. Denmark: Bookboon.
• Sayers, J., & Eds, NM. (Eds.) (2005). The Global Garage: Home-Based Business in New Zealand. Southbank, VIC: Thompson-Dunmore Press ISBN 0170127958
• Sligo, FX., Fountaine, SL., Sayers, JG., & O'Neill, D. (Eds) (2000). Effective communication in business. Palmerston North, NZ: Software Technology NZ Ltd

Journal articles

• Roy K. Smollan; Janet G. Sayers (December 2009). "Organizational Culture, Change and Emotions: A Qualitative Study". The Journal of Change Management. 9 (4): 435–457. doi:10.1080/14697010903360632. ISSN 1469-7017. Wikidata Q122235516.
• Janet Sayers; Margaret Brunton (12 December 2018). "Using the heterotopic mirror to reveal tensions in public reaction to a photographic essay of eldercare staff and older adults". Journal of Aging Studies. 48: 17–24. doi:10.1016/J.JAGING.2018.12.002. ISSN 0890-4065. PMID 30832926. Wikidata Q92123726.
• Barbara A Plester; Janet Sayers (23 January 2007). ""Taking the piss": Functions of banter in the IT industry". Humor. 20 (2). doi:10.1515/HUMOR.2007.008. ISSN 0933-1719. Wikidata Q114673418.
• Roy K. Smollan; Janet G. Sayers; Jonathan A. Matheny (19 February 2010). "Emotional Responses to the Speed, Frequency and Timing of Organizational Change". Time & Society. 19 (1): 28–53. doi:10.1177/0961463X09354435. ISSN 0961-463X. Wikidata Q122900859.
• Marco van Gelderen; Janet Sayers; Caroline Keen (22 February 2008). "Home‐based internet businesses as drivers of variety". Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development. 15 (1): 162–177. doi:10.1108/14626000810850900. ISSN 1462-6004. Wikidata Q125576205.
• Janet Grace Sayers; Ira Fachira (July 2015). "Telling tales: online comic and gripe story‐sharing by service workers about difficult customers". New Technology, Work and Employment. 30 (2): 128–144. doi:10.1111/NTWE.12047. ISSN 0268-1072. Wikidata Q125576197.
• Janet Grace Sayers (16 February 2016). "A report to an academy: On carnophallogocentrism, pigs and meat-writing". Organization. 23 (3): 370–386. doi:10.1177/1350508416629454. ISSN 1350-5084. Wikidata Q125576237.
• Janet Grace Sayers; Deborah Jones (August 2014). "Truth Scribbled in Blood: Women's Work, Menstruation and Poetry". Gender, Work and Organization. 22 (2): 94–111. doi:10.1111/GWAO.12059. ISSN 0968-6673. Wikidata Q125576238.
• Emma Bell; Alexia Panayiotou; Janet Sayers (December 2019). "Reading the TED Talk Genre: Contradictions and Pedagogical Pleasures in Spreading Ideas About Management". Academy of Management Learning and Education. 18 (4): 547–563. doi:10.5465/AMLE.2017.0323. ISSN 1537-260X. Wikidata Q125576883.