Janet Sayers

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original essay, 'Who cares', sparked reader complaints and an enquiry by the Privacy Commissioner, and the issue was withdrawn from publication.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