Women’s Leadership and Organizational Learning in Nutrition Service Units in Mamuju: An Irigarayan Analysis

Abstract

Background – Nutrition service units depend not only on technical compliance but also on how staff learn from field experience, translate policy, and coordinate across organizational boundaries. Gendered assumptions can determine which forms of knowledge and leadership are recognized.

Purpose – This study examined how women working in nutrition service units in Mamuju described leadership and workplace learning, and how Luce Irigaray’s philosophy illuminates their negotiation of bureaucratic discourse.

Method/Approach – A critical qualitative design analyzed de-identified interview accounts from eight women in leadership, coordination, and programme-delivery roles across SPPG Karema 1, SPPG Polresta Mamuju, and SPPG Rangas Beach. Interviews conducted in May 2026 were the primary evidence, supported by contextual observations and operational documents. Reflexive thematic analysis was informed by Irigaray’s concepts of subject position, difference, relationality, and critique of the universal subject.

Findings – Four themes were identified: relational coordination as a learning infrastructure; experience as situated professional knowledge; translation and contextual adaptation at the policy–practice boundary; and critical negotiation within bureaucracy. Participants described listening, questioning, and translating as ways to connect national requirements with local realities. The evidence supports an interpretation of gendered organizational processes, not a claim that women possess an inherently relational leadership style.

Conclusions – Women’s accounts show how leadership can create workplace-learning opportunities by legitimizing field knowledge and dialogic interpretation. Service units should institutionalize reflective debriefing and traceable feedback while maintaining national standards and accountability.

Novelty/Originality/Value – The study connects Irigarayan feminist philosophy with workplace learning in Indonesian public nutrition services and offers four tentative principles—participation, reflective dialogue, bounded adaptation, and trust-based feedback—for leadership development. These principles are conceptual rather than a validated intervention model.

Keywords: gendered organizations; Irigaray; nutrition service units; relational leadership; workplace learning