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Mark Gatto

Northumbria University, Newcastle Business School, Graduate Student

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Project Managing Faculty Equity Challenge

PhD student: Masculinities in parental discourses: A dystopian fiction inspired critical discourse analysis & fictocriticism of organisational patriarchy towards subversion and change

Extensive administrative experience working with internal colleagues, external and overseas partners.

Qualified and practising Business Coach

Human Resources Management and Development MA (with DIstinction)

Creative Writing Masters degree and English Literature Degree: 2.1

Highly skilled in the use a a variety of writing styles and levels of formality as well as oral presentations.
Supervisors: Professor Jamie Callahan

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Papers by Mark Gatto

The Parental Club: 2029

Springer eBooks, 2023

Introduction: Being a Parent at Work—Inhabiting ‘In-Between’ the Past, Present and Future

Springer eBooks, 2023

Parents at Work

Springer eBooks, 2023

Pre-conference Workshop 2130

Springer eBooks, 2023

Dystopian Fictocriticism

Parents at Work

Masculinities in working parent discourses: a dystopian fiction inspired subversive fictocriticism of patriarchal organisations

What is the problem? Despite UK government legislation to promote equality in the workplace e.g.,... more What is the problem? Despite UK government legislation to promote equality in the workplace e.g., Shared Parental Leave (SPL) and flexible work, the gender pay and care gaps continue to favour men over women (ONS, 2020; UK Government, 2020b). Uptake of UK SPL in 2020 was 2% of eligible couples (Howlett), which signals cultural and structural barriers. The existence of ‘masculine organisations’ (Acker, 1990) may explain this problem. Masculine organisations are microcosms of patriarchy, which maintain hegemonic masculinity (HM) as the ‘most honoured way of being a man’ (Connell & Messerschmidt, 2005). This patriarchal ‘gender norm’ (Butler, 2011) perpetuates the ‘motherhood penalty’ (Brearley, 2021) and ‘patriarchal deficit’ (Bailey, 2015), which negatively impacts all working parents, and their employers by association. Method This thesis uses dystopian fiction (DF) to ‘blur the lines’ between fictional and empirical data (Phillips, Pullen, & Rhodes, 2014). DF is used as a critical ...

To apply dystopian fiction motifs and principles as a lens to analyse organisational gender imbalances

To apply dystopian fiction motifs and principles as a lens to analyse organisational gender imbalances: PhD Project Approval Summary

University Forum for Human Resource Development Annual Conference 2018: Power and possibility: unleashing the potential of HRD, Jun 5, 2018

Leveraging Athena SWAN to legitimize spaces of resistance in a performative university

Women, Work, and Activism Conference, Nov 9, 2018

What Will be the Surprises for HRD in 2028? A Futures Scenario

The paper reports findings from a futures workshop to consider surprises — unexpected or astonish... more The paper reports findings from a futures workshop to consider surprises — unexpected or astonishing events or facts — that may await HRD. Participants were asked to identify an HRD issue for the future and then pose questions that placed surprise up front and that could indicate a vulnerability for HRD. Two scenarios are developed for the year 2028 and events leading to this year. In the first, S1, human behaviour within organizations is defined by machines and machines prescribe why, what and where work is needed, who does it, when, and how work is done. Thus programmes of learning are pre-determined by machines. In the second, S2, aritificial intelligence proves to be incapable of adapting to the extreme events of solar activity affecting satellites and internet communications globally. HRD rebuilds trust in the collective human ability to work together collaboratively to restore a team ethic and rebuild. The scenarios are discussed and a recommendation is made for HRD research t...

Sharing care: Equal and primary fathers and early years parenting

Gender, Work & Organization, 2021

Exposing interpellation with dystopian fiction: a critical discourse analysis technique to disrupt hegemonic masculinity

Handbook of Research Methods on Gender and Management, 2021

Dystopian fiction (DF) speculates on 'the hegemonic order and… resistance' (Baccolini & Moylan, 2... more Dystopian fiction (DF) speculates on 'the hegemonic order and… resistance' (Baccolini & Moylan, 2003). Applying unconventional methods can enable researchers to look again from a new critical angle and challenge the primacy of mainstream qualitative gendered management research. DF provides a lens for critical discourse analysis/CDA enabling researchers in identifying ideological influences and proposing acts of resistance and change inspired by the genre. Background This method expands on research promoting storytelling and fiction in managerial and organisational research (e.g. Rhodes & Brown, 2005). By positioning this method in an abstract space, we hope to generate creative solutions to enduring 'wrongs'(Fairclough, 2013). Method Using illustrative examples with working parents, this CDA examines parental decision making at micro, meso and macro levels of discourse to demonstrate how DF can enhance CDA methods. This method aspires to the liminal spaces in between fiction and reality, towards a speculative pathway of resistance and change.

Parenthood demands: resisting a dystopia in the workplace

Human Resource Development International, 2020

Ties that bind: An inclusive feminist approach to subvert gendered “ othering ” in times of crisis

Gender, Work & Organization, 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic, as an ongoing societal crisis, compounds pre-existing intersectional inequ... more The COVID-19 pandemic, as an ongoing societal crisis, compounds pre-existing intersectional inequalities. Since the start of this crisis, those on the margins-women, single parents, LGBTQ+, Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic peoplesand those living in precarity and poverty found themselves increasingly "othered. " As a group of academics who encounter gendered reality in disparate ways, we unite through this paper to prioritize a collective ethic of care as a counter-narrative to the "business as usual" rhetoric that endures as our oppressive reality. In responding to this special issue, a (dis)embodied alterethnographical text is offered, encompassing four evocative reflections on symbolic annihilation to "unmute" our individual voices. We present an inclusive discussion to connect our disconnected otherness, collectively resisting the dominant, patriarchal narratives, through non-linear, "messy writing. " Our contribution is threefold. First, we empirically contribute to dismantling heteronormative binarism by reclaiming our collective voices as a loud rebuttal to hegemony. Second, through collective conceptualizations of gendered crisis, we problematize theorizing gender from a unified conceptual lens to demonstrate the importance of an inclusive approach to feminism. Finally, a

It’s OK not to be OK: Shared reflections from two PhD parents in a time of pandemic

Gender, Work & Organization, 2020

Adopting an intersectional feminist lens, we explore our identities as single and co-parents thru... more Adopting an intersectional feminist lens, we explore our identities as single and co-parents thrust into the new reality of the UK COVID-19 lockdown. As two PhD students, we present shared reflections on our intersectional and divergent experiences of parenting and our attempts to protect our work and families during a pandemic. We reflect on the social constructions of 'masculinities' and 'emphasized femininities' as complicated influence on our roles as parents. Finally, we highlight the importance of time and self-care as ways of managing our shared realities during this uncertain period. Through sharing reflections, we became closer friends in mutual appreciation and solidarity as we learned about each other's struggles and vulnerabilities.

Trojan horses: Creating a positive hidden (extra)curriculum through a Justice, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) initiative

Management Learning

In this paper, we describe a mechanism for subverting the institutional-level neo-liberal hidden ... more In this paper, we describe a mechanism for subverting the institutional-level neo-liberal hidden curricula of responsibility learning in universities by using a positive hidden curriculum based on extra-curricular activities partnering staff and students. In our study, we leverage projects from an institution-sponsored Justice, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) initiative as notional ‘Trojan horses’ to instil within university students a more reflexive awareness of responsibility that they can take with them when they graduate. In delivering this positive hidden (extra)curriculum, staff are seemingly performing the formal agenda of the institution’s responsibility agenda while undermining its managerialist hidden curriculum by working in tandem with students. Our key findings – student reflection and voice – are evidence of the positive hidden curriculum implementation. Our contributions are twofold. First, we demonstrate that positive hidden curricula can serve as a tool of ...

It's OK not to be OK: Shared Reflections from two PhD Parents in a Time of Pandemic

by Amal Abdellatif and Mark Gatto

Gender, Work & Organization, 2020

[Co-First Authors] Adopting an intersectional feminist lens, we explore our identities as single ... more [Co-First Authors]
Adopting an intersectional feminist lens, we explore our identities as single and co‐parents thrust into the new reality of the UK COVID‐19 lock‐down. As two PhD students, we present shared reflections on our intersectional and divergent experiences of parenting and our attempts to protect our work and families during a pandemic. We reflect on the social constructions of 'masculinities' and 'emphasised femininities' (Connell, 2005) as complicated influence on our roles as parents. Finally, we highlight the importance of time and self‐care as ways of managing our shared realities during this uncertain period. Through sharing reflections, we became closer friends in mutual appreciation and solidarity as we learned about each other's struggles and vulnerabilities.

Parenthood demands: resisting a dystopia in the workplace

Human Resource Development International, 2020

Parenthood is a high impact, and culturally divisive issue; its influence over organisational lif... more Parenthood is a high impact, and culturally divisive issue; its influence over organisational life is as normalised as the negative consequences for working parents. The parental problem is indicative of patriarchal cultures idolising ‘hegemonic masculinity’ (HM), which privileges masculine careers. Such hegemonic problems demand radical, multifaceted approaches to re-imagine patriarchal organisational cultures; this is where dystopian fiction can help.

This paper uses Dystopian Fiction (DF) to offer a manifesto of five demands (adapted from ‘The Children of Men’ by P.D. James, 1992), as a speculative future for new conceptions of parenthood. Drawing on masculinities theory and feminist manifestos, the paper problematizes current parental decisions in the context of DF examples of hegemonic masculinity. The paper’s ‘scriptology’ incorporates DF and authorial reflexivity to subvert HM and imagine the future. These five demands promote a reconceptualization of existing problems affecting working parents towards equitable change.

1. Openly negotiate and make transparent organisational parental policies

2. Strengthen civil rights for marginalised mothers

3. Abolish the silencing of fathers in fertility discourse

4. Stop ‘deporting’ mothers out of their career paths

5. End the anticipatory discrimination of potential mothers

KEYWORDS: , , , ,

What Will be the Surprises for HRD in 2028? A Futures Scenario

International Journal of HRD Practice, Policy and Research, 2018

The paper reports findings from a futures workshop to consider surprises — unexpected or astonish... more The paper reports findings from a futures workshop to consider surprises — unexpected or astonishing events or facts — that may await HRD. Participants were asked to identify an HRD issue for the future and then pose questions that placed surprise up front and that could indicate a vulnerability for HRD. Two scenarios are developed for the year 2028 and events leading to this year. In the first, S1, human behaviour within organizations is defined by machines and machines prescribe why, what and where work is needed, who does it, when, and how work is done. Thus programmes of learning are pre-determined by machines. In the second, S2, aritificial intelligence proves to be incapable of adapting to the extreme events of solar activity affecting satellites and internet communications globally. HRD rebuilds trust in the collective human ability to work together collaboratively to restore a team ethic and rebuild. The scenarios are discussed and a recommendation is made for HRD research to consider the direction and value of their work and how progress in academic life might be reconstituted to allow more attention to be given to key areas of machine learning and artificial intelligence.

The Parental Club: 2029

Springer eBooks, 2023

Introduction: Being a Parent at Work—Inhabiting ‘In-Between’ the Past, Present and Future

Springer eBooks, 2023

Parents at Work

Springer eBooks, 2023

Pre-conference Workshop 2130

Springer eBooks, 2023

Dystopian Fictocriticism

Parents at Work

Masculinities in working parent discourses: a dystopian fiction inspired subversive fictocriticism of patriarchal organisations

What is the problem? Despite UK government legislation to promote equality in the workplace e.g.,... more What is the problem? Despite UK government legislation to promote equality in the workplace e.g., Shared Parental Leave (SPL) and flexible work, the gender pay and care gaps continue to favour men over women (ONS, 2020; UK Government, 2020b). Uptake of UK SPL in 2020 was 2% of eligible couples (Howlett), which signals cultural and structural barriers. The existence of ‘masculine organisations’ (Acker, 1990) may explain this problem. Masculine organisations are microcosms of patriarchy, which maintain hegemonic masculinity (HM) as the ‘most honoured way of being a man’ (Connell & Messerschmidt, 2005). This patriarchal ‘gender norm’ (Butler, 2011) perpetuates the ‘motherhood penalty’ (Brearley, 2021) and ‘patriarchal deficit’ (Bailey, 2015), which negatively impacts all working parents, and their employers by association. Method This thesis uses dystopian fiction (DF) to ‘blur the lines’ between fictional and empirical data (Phillips, Pullen, & Rhodes, 2014). DF is used as a critical ...

To apply dystopian fiction motifs and principles as a lens to analyse organisational gender imbalances

To apply dystopian fiction motifs and principles as a lens to analyse organisational gender imbalances: PhD Project Approval Summary

University Forum for Human Resource Development Annual Conference 2018: Power and possibility: unleashing the potential of HRD, Jun 5, 2018

Leveraging Athena SWAN to legitimize spaces of resistance in a performative university

Women, Work, and Activism Conference, Nov 9, 2018

What Will be the Surprises for HRD in 2028? A Futures Scenario

The paper reports findings from a futures workshop to consider surprises — unexpected or astonish... more The paper reports findings from a futures workshop to consider surprises — unexpected or astonishing events or facts — that may await HRD. Participants were asked to identify an HRD issue for the future and then pose questions that placed surprise up front and that could indicate a vulnerability for HRD. Two scenarios are developed for the year 2028 and events leading to this year. In the first, S1, human behaviour within organizations is defined by machines and machines prescribe why, what and where work is needed, who does it, when, and how work is done. Thus programmes of learning are pre-determined by machines. In the second, S2, aritificial intelligence proves to be incapable of adapting to the extreme events of solar activity affecting satellites and internet communications globally. HRD rebuilds trust in the collective human ability to work together collaboratively to restore a team ethic and rebuild. The scenarios are discussed and a recommendation is made for HRD research t...

Sharing care: Equal and primary fathers and early years parenting

Gender, Work & Organization, 2021

Exposing interpellation with dystopian fiction: a critical discourse analysis technique to disrupt hegemonic masculinity

Handbook of Research Methods on Gender and Management, 2021

Dystopian fiction (DF) speculates on 'the hegemonic order and… resistance' (Baccolini & Moylan, 2... more Dystopian fiction (DF) speculates on 'the hegemonic order and… resistance' (Baccolini & Moylan, 2003). Applying unconventional methods can enable researchers to look again from a new critical angle and challenge the primacy of mainstream qualitative gendered management research. DF provides a lens for critical discourse analysis/CDA enabling researchers in identifying ideological influences and proposing acts of resistance and change inspired by the genre. Background This method expands on research promoting storytelling and fiction in managerial and organisational research (e.g. Rhodes & Brown, 2005). By positioning this method in an abstract space, we hope to generate creative solutions to enduring 'wrongs'(Fairclough, 2013). Method Using illustrative examples with working parents, this CDA examines parental decision making at micro, meso and macro levels of discourse to demonstrate how DF can enhance CDA methods. This method aspires to the liminal spaces in between fiction and reality, towards a speculative pathway of resistance and change.

Parenthood demands: resisting a dystopia in the workplace

Human Resource Development International, 2020

Ties that bind: An inclusive feminist approach to subvert gendered “ othering ” in times of crisis

Gender, Work & Organization, 2021

The COVID-19 pandemic, as an ongoing societal crisis, compounds pre-existing intersectional inequ... more The COVID-19 pandemic, as an ongoing societal crisis, compounds pre-existing intersectional inequalities. Since the start of this crisis, those on the margins-women, single parents, LGBTQ+, Black, Asian, and Minority Ethnic peoplesand those living in precarity and poverty found themselves increasingly "othered. " As a group of academics who encounter gendered reality in disparate ways, we unite through this paper to prioritize a collective ethic of care as a counter-narrative to the "business as usual" rhetoric that endures as our oppressive reality. In responding to this special issue, a (dis)embodied alterethnographical text is offered, encompassing four evocative reflections on symbolic annihilation to "unmute" our individual voices. We present an inclusive discussion to connect our disconnected otherness, collectively resisting the dominant, patriarchal narratives, through non-linear, "messy writing. " Our contribution is threefold. First, we empirically contribute to dismantling heteronormative binarism by reclaiming our collective voices as a loud rebuttal to hegemony. Second, through collective conceptualizations of gendered crisis, we problematize theorizing gender from a unified conceptual lens to demonstrate the importance of an inclusive approach to feminism. Finally, a

It’s OK not to be OK: Shared reflections from two PhD parents in a time of pandemic

Gender, Work & Organization, 2020

Adopting an intersectional feminist lens, we explore our identities as single and co-parents thru... more Adopting an intersectional feminist lens, we explore our identities as single and co-parents thrust into the new reality of the UK COVID-19 lockdown. As two PhD students, we present shared reflections on our intersectional and divergent experiences of parenting and our attempts to protect our work and families during a pandemic. We reflect on the social constructions of 'masculinities' and 'emphasized femininities' as complicated influence on our roles as parents. Finally, we highlight the importance of time and self-care as ways of managing our shared realities during this uncertain period. Through sharing reflections, we became closer friends in mutual appreciation and solidarity as we learned about each other's struggles and vulnerabilities.

Trojan horses: Creating a positive hidden (extra)curriculum through a Justice, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) initiative

Management Learning

In this paper, we describe a mechanism for subverting the institutional-level neo-liberal hidden ... more In this paper, we describe a mechanism for subverting the institutional-level neo-liberal hidden curricula of responsibility learning in universities by using a positive hidden curriculum based on extra-curricular activities partnering staff and students. In our study, we leverage projects from an institution-sponsored Justice, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) initiative as notional ‘Trojan horses’ to instil within university students a more reflexive awareness of responsibility that they can take with them when they graduate. In delivering this positive hidden (extra)curriculum, staff are seemingly performing the formal agenda of the institution’s responsibility agenda while undermining its managerialist hidden curriculum by working in tandem with students. Our key findings – student reflection and voice – are evidence of the positive hidden curriculum implementation. Our contributions are twofold. First, we demonstrate that positive hidden curricula can serve as a tool of ...

It's OK not to be OK: Shared Reflections from two PhD Parents in a Time of Pandemic

by Amal Abdellatif and Mark Gatto

Gender, Work & Organization, 2020

[Co-First Authors] Adopting an intersectional feminist lens, we explore our identities as single ... more [Co-First Authors]
Adopting an intersectional feminist lens, we explore our identities as single and co‐parents thrust into the new reality of the UK COVID‐19 lock‐down. As two PhD students, we present shared reflections on our intersectional and divergent experiences of parenting and our attempts to protect our work and families during a pandemic. We reflect on the social constructions of 'masculinities' and 'emphasised femininities' (Connell, 2005) as complicated influence on our roles as parents. Finally, we highlight the importance of time and self‐care as ways of managing our shared realities during this uncertain period. Through sharing reflections, we became closer friends in mutual appreciation and solidarity as we learned about each other's struggles and vulnerabilities.

Parenthood demands: resisting a dystopia in the workplace

Human Resource Development International, 2020

Parenthood is a high impact, and culturally divisive issue; its influence over organisational lif... more Parenthood is a high impact, and culturally divisive issue; its influence over organisational life is as normalised as the negative consequences for working parents. The parental problem is indicative of patriarchal cultures idolising ‘hegemonic masculinity’ (HM), which privileges masculine careers. Such hegemonic problems demand radical, multifaceted approaches to re-imagine patriarchal organisational cultures; this is where dystopian fiction can help.

This paper uses Dystopian Fiction (DF) to offer a manifesto of five demands (adapted from ‘The Children of Men’ by P.D. James, 1992), as a speculative future for new conceptions of parenthood. Drawing on masculinities theory and feminist manifestos, the paper problematizes current parental decisions in the context of DF examples of hegemonic masculinity. The paper’s ‘scriptology’ incorporates DF and authorial reflexivity to subvert HM and imagine the future. These five demands promote a reconceptualization of existing problems affecting working parents towards equitable change.

1. Openly negotiate and make transparent organisational parental policies

2. Strengthen civil rights for marginalised mothers

3. Abolish the silencing of fathers in fertility discourse

4. Stop ‘deporting’ mothers out of their career paths

5. End the anticipatory discrimination of potential mothers

KEYWORDS: , , , ,

What Will be the Surprises for HRD in 2028? A Futures Scenario

International Journal of HRD Practice, Policy and Research, 2018

The paper reports findings from a futures workshop to consider surprises — unexpected or astonish... more The paper reports findings from a futures workshop to consider surprises — unexpected or astonishing events or facts — that may await HRD. Participants were asked to identify an HRD issue for the future and then pose questions that placed surprise up front and that could indicate a vulnerability for HRD. Two scenarios are developed for the year 2028 and events leading to this year. In the first, S1, human behaviour within organizations is defined by machines and machines prescribe why, what and where work is needed, who does it, when, and how work is done. Thus programmes of learning are pre-determined by machines. In the second, S2, aritificial intelligence proves to be incapable of adapting to the extreme events of solar activity affecting satellites and internet communications globally. HRD rebuilds trust in the collective human ability to work together collaboratively to restore a team ethic and rebuild. The scenarios are discussed and a recommendation is made for HRD research to consider the direction and value of their work and how progress in academic life might be reconstituted to allow more attention to be given to key areas of machine learning and artificial intelligence.