1. |
- Alvehus, Johan, et al.
(author)
-
Inhabiting institutions: Shaping the first teacher role in Swedish schools
- 2019
-
In: Journal of professions and organization. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 2051-8811 .- 2051-8803. ; 6:1, s. 33-48
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This study examines a recent reform in the Swedish teaching profession—the so-called first teacher reform, aimed at increasing teacher professionalism and the status of teachers. The reform created a situation by which a new role had to be created and inhabited by first teachers, appointed on what were considered arbitrary criteria. There were few existing norms, rules, and routines to draw upon for the newly appointed first teachers. The empirical focus of this study, based upon interviews and observations from seven schools in four Swedish municipalities, is how the newly appointed first teachers shape their role in relation to other teachers and to school management. We contribute to inhabited institutions theory by showing how processes of institutional change rely on externalization by relational work, through which the new role gains legitimacy and mutual recognition, and on objectification by jurisdictional work, through which the new role becomes taken for granted in a new division of labour. We thus argue that changes in the material basis of work processes are key to understanding processes of institutional inhabitation. Moreover, we show how changes in intra-professional jurisdictions can lead to upgrading, rather than degradation, of professional work.
|
|
2. |
- Alvehus, Johan, et al.
(author)
-
‘It’s complicated’: Professional opacity, duality, and ambiguity—A response to Noordegraaf (2020)
- 2021
-
In: Journal of Professions and Organization. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 2051-8803 .- 2051-8811. ; 8:2, s. 200-213
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In this comment to Noordegraaf’s ‘Protective or connective professionalism? How connected professionals can (still) act as autonomous and authoritative experts’, we argue that Noordegraaf has contributed significant insights into the development of contemporary professionalism. However, we argue for a less binary and more complex view of forms of professionalism, and for finding ways of understanding professionalism grounded in a relational view of everyday professional work. The first section (by Johan Alvehus) suggests that Noordegraaf’s ‘connective professionalism’ is primarily about new ways of strengthening professionalism’s protective shields by maintaining functional ambiguity and transparent opacity around professional jurisdictions. The second section (by Amalya Oliver and Netta Avnoon) argues for viewing professionalism on a range of protection–connection and offers an approach for understanding how connective and protective models co-occur. Both commentaries thus take a relational, dynamic, and somewhat skeptical view on the reproduction and maintenance of professionalism.
|
|
3. |
- Andersson, Thomas, 1970-, et al.
(author)
-
Co-optation as a response to competing institutional logics : Professionals and managers in healthcare
- 2018
-
In: Journal of Professions and Organization. - : Oxford University Press. - 2051-8803 .- 2051-8811. ; 5:2, s. 71-87
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Researchers working under the institutional logics perspective find the struggle between managerial logic and various professional logics one of the most intriguing issues in healthcare organizations. Previous research provided several explanations at both the organizational level (mediation, hybridization, and selective coupling) and the individual actor level (hierarchization, sense making, reinterpretation, and hijacking) for the coexistence of professional and managerial logics in healthcare. However, all of these explanations are based on the underlying institutional logics not changing. In this article, we show that co-optation can explain the coexistence of institutional logics, but that it also causes the underlying institutional logics to change. Co-optation means that an actor adopts a strategic element from another logic that retains the most important elements of its own logic. Empirically, this article illustrates co-optation processes through a qualitative study of outpatient units in child and adolescent psychiatric care in Sweden. Using an institutional logics framework, we describe and explain how managers co-opted elements of professional logics and professionals co-opted elements of managerial logic in their attempts to support their own interests. Even if co-optation is performed to protect the home logic, the co-opted elements ultimately change it. This study contributes to the institutional logics framework by describing and explaining how co-optation can be a dynamic response to competing logics at the individual actor level.
|
|
4. |
- Björkdahl, Joakim, 1975, et al.
(author)
-
Getting on track for digital work: Digital transformation in an administrative court before and during COVID-19
- 2021
-
In: Journal of Professions and Organization. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 2051-8803 .- 2051-8811. ; 8:3, s. 374-393
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This article analyses organizational change and new ways of working in one of our most institutionalized and professionalized contexts-the courts. Here, digital technologies and the implementation of digital work practices carry great promise as they enable more accessible and qualitative services to be produced more efficiently and effectively. While prior studies have shown that institutionalized and professionalized actors are reluctant to respond to change, attempts to change work practices through digital technologies remain understudied. In particular, we do not know how COVID-19 has influenced the motivation and implementation of digitalized work. This article draws on a large Swedish administrative court and its attempts to digitalize its work starting in 2018. We find that several barriers first inhibited a successful transformation of work practices. These barriers were connected to the institution of the court and the institutionalized profession of judges, which worked together in preventing organizational change. However, COVID-19 radically accelerated the digital implementation of work practices and gave rise to two separate re-assessment processes. The first established new motivations for digitalized work, and the second allowed for a new perception of value in digital work. These processes effectively broke down perceived barriers and substantially facilitated a more successful digital transformation of working practices.
|
|
5. |
- Blomgren, Maria, 1966-, et al.
(author)
-
Coping with contraditions : hybrid professionals managing institutional complexity
- 2015
-
In: Journal of Professions and Organization. - Oxford : Oxford University Press. - 2051-8803 .- 2051-8811. ; 2:1, s. 78-102
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This article deals with how organizations cope with institutional complexity. By applying theories of translation, we follow the lead of those arguing that attention has to be given to the microprocesses of institutional complexity. Thus far, empirical studies focusing on such processes have been rare. Among those studies undertaken, analyses of structures and practices have dominated while analyses of the interpretations and construction of meaning of involved actors have been neglected. We thus undertook an empirical study of the introduction of a national report on quality comparisons in health care. This report contained four conflicting institutional logics—a democratic logic, a professional logic, a managerial logic, and a market logic. We investigated the conflicts between these logics and how the conflicts were managed. The findings of the study contribute to institutional theory by suggesting that a new type of soft actor—the hybrid professional—is likely to be influential in organizations characterized by institutional complexity. The reason for this is found in the character and work of the hybrid professionals, where an important part of their work was to construct problems and solutions that aligned with all the logics at play.
|
|
6. |
- Brès, Luc, et al.
(author)
-
Rethinking professionalization : A generative dialogue on CSR practitioners
- 2019
-
In: Journal of Professions and Organization. - : Oxford University Press (OUP): Policy F - Oxford Open Option D. - 2051-8811 .- 2051-8803. ; 6:2, s. 246-264
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Studies of emerging professions are more and more at the crossroad of different fields of research, and field boundaries thus hamper the development of a full-fledged conversation. In an attempt to bridge these boundaries, this article offers a 'generative dialogue' about the redefinition of the professionalization project through the case of corporate social responsibility (CSR) practitioners. We bring together prominent scholars from two distinct academic communities-CSR and the professions-to shed light on some of the unsolved questions and dilemmas around contemporary professionalization through an example of an emerging profession. Key learnings from this dialogue point us toward the rethinking of processes of professionalization, in particular the role of expertise, the unifying force of common normative goals, and collaborative practises between networks of stakeholders. As such, we expand the research agenda for scholars of the professions and of CSR.
|
|
7. |
- Essén, Anna, et al.
(author)
-
Well, what do you know? Exploring physicians' embedded framings of management consultants and their expertise
- 2008
-
In: Journal of Professions and Organization. - : Oxford University Press (OUP): Policy F - Oxford Open Option D. - 2051-8803 .- 2051-8811. ; 5:3, s. 262-278
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Members of traditional occupations with strong professional ideals, such as lawyers, auditors, and physicians, are increasingly exposed to situations in which they need to interact with members of newer occupations, like management consultants, HRM-specialists, and tech companies providing legal and medical services. Despite the increased salience of such inter-occupational interactions, the question of how occupations are enacted and remade in individual members’ ‘relating’ to people outside of their group is largely underdeveloped in the literature. To address this gap, we explore how physicians, as members of a traditional occupation with strong professional ideals, perceive management consultants, and their expertise. Drawing on a framing lens and data from the Polish healthcare sector, we show how individuals variably enact their occupation when framing ‘the other’ in inter-occupational relationships. More specifically, we show that individuals’ framing of management consultants involve framing of the context (the enacted relationship between professional and managerial ideals), of the organization (as bureaucratic and hierarchical, or non-bureaucratic and inclusive), and of the self (as having a unipod or polypod self-image). Together these nested framings shape occupational members’ perceptions of and receptivity to the expertise of ‘the other’. Our conceptualization opens up avenues for future studies of how occupations are enacted as members ‘relate’ to other occupational groups, and suggests that framing is a fruitful lens to unpack such acts of relating.
|
|
8. |
- Gøtzsche-Astrup, Oluf, et al.
(author)
-
Trust in interagency collaboration: The role of institutional logics and hybrid professionals
- 2023
-
In: Journal of Professions and Organization. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 2051-8803 .- 2051-8811. ; 10:1
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Interagency collaboration among social workers, teachers, and police is key to countering violent extremism in the Nordic countries by securing comprehensive assessment of cases of concern. Yet, previous research indicates that different institutional logics—perceptions of fundamental goals, strategies, and grounds for attention in efforts to counter violent extremists—exist across professions and challenge collaboration and trust building in practice. In this article, we empirically investigate these claims across social workers (n=1,105), teachers (n=1,387), and police (n=1,053) in four Nordic countries: Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland. Using results from online surveys with professionals, we investigate the distribution of a ‘societal security logic’ and a ‘social care logic’ across professions and the degree to which these institutional logics translate into mutual trust. Through a comparison of institutional logics among practitioners with and without practical experience of interagency collaboration, we investigate whether and how institutional logics tend to mix and merge in hybrid organizational spaces. We conclude that differences in institutional logics across professions are differences in degree rather than in kind, but that such differences are important in shaping mutual trust and that experiences of interagency collaboration are correlated with a convergence toward a ‘social care logic’ conception of countering violent extremism.
|
|
9. |
- Heusinkveld, Stefan, et al.
(author)
-
Professions and (new) management occupations as a contested terrain : Redefining jurisdictional claims
- 2018
-
In: Journal of Professions and Organization. - : Oxford Univ Press. - 2051-8811 .- 2051-8803. ; 5:3, s. 248-261
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In this article, we discuss how research on professions and organizations may benefit from a better understanding of the emergence and prevalence of 'new' management occupations or 'corporate professions' and their interactions with 'traditional' professions. To this end, we explore the theoretical and empirical implications of selected studies, analysing how professional and occupational jurisdictions, as well as inter-occupational relationships, are redefined. This occurs as new areas of management expertise emerge and gain influence in relation to broader organizational, technical and institutional developments.
|
|
10. |
- Jacobsson, Kerstin, 1966, et al.
(author)
-
Street-level bureaucrats under new managerialism : a comparative study of agency cultures and caseworker role identities in two welfare state bureaucracies
- 2020
-
In: Journal of Professions and Organization. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 2051-8803 .- 2051-8811. ; 27:3, s. 316-333
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Officials in welfare state bureaucracies face the challenge of negotiating their role identities in the context of changeable organizational priorities and managerial styles. Previous studies have found that the professional values may mediate top-down demands and enable the preservation of professional autonomy also under public management reforms. But how do street-level bureaucrats who lack a common professional or occupational training respond to shifting organizational demands? Based on comparative ethnography, the present article investigates how caseworkers’ role identities are conceived and practised in two of the largest state bureaucracies in Sweden, the Social Insurance Agency (SIA) and the Public Employment Service (PES). The article identifies two radically different agency cultures, resulting in rather opposite caseworker role identities. These role identities affect how front-line staff respond to organizational demands, either by focusing externally on client-related outcomes (PES) or internally on organizational output (SIA). The analysis suggests that agency culture may shape caseworker responses to governance in patterned ways, also in the absence of joint professional training or strong occupational communities.
|
|
11. |
- Kanon, Miranda, 1989-, et al.
(author)
-
Working on connective professionalism : What cross-sector strategists in Swedish public organizations do to develop connectivity in addressing ‘wicked’ policy problems
- 2023
-
In: Journal of Professions and Organization. - : Oxford University Press. - 2051-8803 .- 2051-8811. ; 10:1, s. 50-64
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In light of current debates on ‘protective’ and ‘connective’ professionalism, this article explores a new type of occupational position that is emerging within the Swedish public sector: the cross-sector strategist. The growing presence of this intermediary occupational position is seen as attempts to formalize and institutionalize the imprecise roles and governance of ‘wicked’ policy problems, and the job of these strategists is focused on supporting other jurisdictions to meet and act. By pursuing connective strategies in the form of triggering, selling, bridging, brokering, and forming accountabilities, cross-sector strategists seek to establish embedded workspaces where strategic action and decisions can be produced jointly and across jurisdictional boundaries. The study illustrates how calls for changes in professional action towards connectivity are now part of the formal organizational structure of public sector organizations, confirming the incapability of professional actors to connect in the absence of intermediary support functions. In the concluding discussion, we consider the relevance of ‘connective professionalism’ as a descriptive theoretical device applied to work settings understood as increasingly complex and interdependent, with calls for inter-professional collaboration and intensifying engagement in preventing problems rather than simply treating them.
|
|
12. |
- Kronblad, Charlotta, et al.
(author)
-
'Being a professional is not the same as acting professionally'-How digital technologies have empowered the creation and enactment of a new professional identity in law
- 2023
-
In: Journal of Professions and Organization. - : Oxford Univ Press. - 2051-8811 .- 2051-8803. ; 10:2, s. 99-119
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper shows that digital technologies have empowered new work practices and identity work in the setting of the legal profession in five different countries. Using qualitative data from 33 interviews with legal tech lawyers, supported by workplace and conference observations and photographs, we analyse how legal tech lawyers use social and material attributes to craft and enact a new identity. This identity is distinctly different from the established professional identity of lawyers, showing that legal tech lawyers see, and express, themselves as legal professionals in a broader sense, rather than identifying with traditional law. This paper explains how technology has functioned as an enabler for them to craft this new identity, much influenced by how, where, and when their work is done. The paper supports and extends a sociomaterial approach to understanding the implications of digital transformation and shows the potential of looking into the development of professional identities in this transformation.
|
|
13. |
- Kronblad, Charlotta, et al.
(author)
-
When digitalization hit the court : Strategizing to turn turbulence into opportunities
- 2024
-
In: Journal of Professions and Organization. - : Oxford University Press. - 2051-8811 .- 2051-8803.
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- During Covid-19, the pace of digitalization in industry and society increased. This article zooms in on the court system in Sweden and its response to this rapidly changing context. During the pandemic, the courts had encountered new expectations, and digital technologies had been implemented at speed. Suddenly online trials and digital delivery of court services became a reality. When the pandemic eased questions arose whether to return to business-as-usual or to continue on the new digital path. This article builds on a series of strategic workshops performed at the Swedish courts 2020–23 (with a total of 200 professionals attending). We found that digitalization had affected core work processes as well as the mindset and culture for further change. However, strategic alignment of different organizational components to fit the new reality is still needed in order for the courts to keep, and develop, the largest gains from digitalization: flexibility, efficiency, and accessibility.
|
|
14. |
- Kvålshaugen, Ragnhild, et al.
(author)
-
Innovative capabilities in international professional service firms: enabling trade-offs between past, present, and future service provision
- 2015
-
In: Journal of Professions and Organization. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 2051-8803 .- 2051-8811. ; 2:2, s. 148-167
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This study examines the relationship between service provision and innovation in international professional service firms (IPSFs). Through an extended study in one IPSF, we find that innovation stems from the provision of services in the past and present. Different service provisions offer different learning opportunities which influence the modification, renewal, and creation of service concepts, service processes, technologies, and relationships. In order to take advantage of the learning opportunities, certain operational and dynamics capabilities are identified as important. With regard to operational capabilities, understanding customer needs, internal learning, formalization, external and relational learning, integration, and commercialization are identified as important capabilities. Further, two dynamic capabilities driving innovation are identified: learning and knowledge accumulation and scaling and expanding the service portfolio. The learning and knowledge accumulation capability is grounded in the efficient provision of standardized-provided services. By providing these services, insights into customer’s needs are gained, specialized expertise is developed, and reputation and legitimacy for solving novel and complex problems increase. The scaling and expanding capability enables the IPSF to develop customized–co-produced services into standardized-provided services over time with global outreach. Our study shows that careful management of the service portfolio is of utmost strategic importance for the sustainable competitive advantage of IPSFs.
|
|
15. |
- Liljegren, Andreas, 1970, et al.
(author)
-
Laypersons, professions and governance in the welfare state : the Swedish child protection system
- 2014
-
In: Journal of Professions and Organization. - : Oxford University Press. - 2051-8803 .- 2051-8811. ; 1:2, s. 161-175
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The article describes and analyses laypersons’ role in networks of expertise and their relationship to professions. It is suggested that networks of expertise are a profitable way of analysing claims-making activities, as it opens up for groups other than professions to be included in the discussion. In the first part of the article, three interest groups—professions, laypersons, and service users—who base their legitimacy on knowledge, are described, analysed, and compared. It is argued that what is special about laypersons’ claims-making activities is that they are built on general common sense instead of the more specialized knowledge that professions and service users build their legitimacy on. In the second part, child protection systems in three countries are compared. The US system is described as professionalized, the English one as semi-professional and the Swedish case as deprofessionalized (or laypersonalized). The third part of the article looks closer at Sweden and asks: who are the laypersons in the Swedish child protection system? How much can the laypersons be regarded as professionals working in a layperson system and how strong is the political affiliation? The conclusions include that laypersons are identified as having two roles: holding executive powers, as in child protection in Sweden and England, and a more consultative and supervisory role. Either way it can be seen as a weakness for a profession to be subordinated to laypersons, yet it can also be a strength for a specific network of expertise.
|
|
16. |
- Liljegren, Andreas, 1970, et al.
(author)
-
The police and ‘the balance’— managing the workload within Swedish investigation units
- 2021
-
In: Journal of Professions and Organizations. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 2051-8811 .- 2051-8803. ; 8:1, s. 70-85
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Professionals within street-level organizations are essential for the delivery of public services to citizens. However, among a number of difficult dilemmas, they have to deal with an extensive workload. The police can be seen as a good example of this; they are expected to solve most crimes, including the so-called mass crimes and the more spectacular cases that make it into media headlines, and often on a continually decreasing budget. A key regulating mechanism for investigation departments in the Swedish police is the so-called balance. The balance can be described as a basket in which they put the cases that there is a desire and potential to work on but not in the immediate term. The purpose of this article is to analyse the balance as a way of rationing the workload within the Swedish police. Working with the balance consists of two processes: limiting and buffering the workload. Limiting is the practice of reducing the work in a situation. Buffering is the process of putting some work on hold to deal with later, of which the article identifies five kinds; functional, problematic, quasi, progressive, and symbolic buffering. The exploration of ‘the balance’ contributes to our understanding of how street level organizations attempt to defend their professional jurisdictions, their well-being, and their ability to complete their duties.
|
|
17. |
- Nilsson, Johanna, 1961, et al.
(author)
-
The Swedish textile conservators' transformation: From the museum curator's assistant to a profession in its own right
- 2021
-
In: Journal of professions and organization. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 2051-8811 .- 2051-8803. ; 8:2, s. 168-183
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The article descrieb how the vocation of textile conservator in Sweden has been transformed from that of being regarded simply as a museum curator's assistant to becoming a profession in its own right. The members of the textile conservators association, the Swedish Association for Textile Conservation founded in 1967, played a crucial role in this transformation with the establishment of a university-based vocational education programme in 1985. The transformation is further scrutinized by considering aspects of gender where, for example, gender bias employment strategies favoured men as painting conservators, as well as social class where demarcation of women as curators was evident. This is discussed and compared with the contemporary shift of gender distribution among the employees in the museum sector that historically was largely male dominated. Social class and the effects of a university education on occupational status are considered, and the effects that education had on elderly, experienced colleagues are another important intersectional aspect. Today’s textile conservators have reached a professional status in several aspects with university education being probably the most important contributing factor. The image of the vocation has improved from that of a seamstress who performed repairs on textiles at the direction of her superior, to an academic who, on the basis of their scientific knowledge, independently performs the many tasks included in preservation, as well as conducting research to doctorate level. Despite this, it would seem that the museum community has not yet managed to take full advantage of textile conservators’ competence as researchers.
|
|
18. |
- Parding, Karolina, et al.
(author)
-
Intra-professional collaboration and organization of work among teachers: How entangled institutional logics shape connectivity
- 2024
-
In: Journal of Professions and Organization. - : Oxford University Press. - 2051-8803 .- 2051-8811. ; 11:1, s. 83-98
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Intra-professional collaboration is essential as it enables professionals to learn, develop, and define the terms of the profession in their own way. Yet conditions for collaboration are shaped by how work is organized and governed. This article examines how conditions for intra-professional collaboration, where work takes place with colleagues within the same profession in same or similar roles, are perceived by teachers, in relation to how work is organized, by drawing on empirical insights from a study on teachers working in education systems defined by market-driven reforms. Our findings nuance ideas of professional connectedness by showing how the organization of work, affected by 'entangled institutional logics' (Blomgren and Waks 2015; Alvehus and Andersson 2018) and market-based governance reforms, shapes intra-professional collaboration. Our contribution is thus to take departure from established understandings of connectivity, that is, 'related to others and outsiders' (Noordegraaf 2020) by examining connectivity within professions, showing how there continues to be a struggle between the profession, organization, and market which shapes conditions for intra-professional work within the teaching profession. Our analysis of intra-professional collaboration holds significance for emergent understandings of connectivity (see Adams et al. 2020a; Alvehus, Avoon and Oliver 2021: 201; Kanon and Andersson 2023) by underscoring how the contemporary organization and management of work shape the conditions that enable, or augment, inwards connectivity and the ability for professionals to collaborate in meaningful ways.
|
|
19. |
- Pemer, Frida, et al.
(author)
-
Strategic management of professional service firms: Reviewing ABS journals and identifying key research themes
- 2017
-
In: Journal of Professions and Organization. - : Oxford University Press (OUP): Policy F - Oxford Open Option D. - 2051-8803 .- 2051-8811.
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- While practitioners and researchers point to the relevance and importance of the strategic management of professional service firms (PSFs), limited work has been done on systematically integrating and organizing existing research in this field. In this paper, we aim to strengthen the theoretical foundation of PSF strategic management by providing an overview of the research published in leading academic journals. We identify nine recurring themes in the research conducted on strategic management of PSFs; we show how they have evolved over time and how they relate to relevant theories, research approaches, methods, and other variables of interest. Building on the findings from the literature review, we present an integrated model of key themes in the strategic management of PSFs. We also provide insights into the types of themes, methodologies, industry contexts and geographical scopes addressed in articles published in leading journals. Finally, we discuss avenues for future research and how they could add new perspectives to existing studies.
|
|
20. |
- Schütze, Carolin
(author)
-
Professional discretion in Swedish welfare institutions : What factors influence perceived discretion?
- 2022
-
In: Journal of Professions and Organization. - : Oxford University Press. - 2051-8803 .- 2051-8811. ; 9:3, s. 364-376
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Discretion is a central topic in the literature on service delivery of frontline professionals, especially in the light of neoliberal transformations in all welfare states. Previous studies have focused on exploring “discretionary space” and its meaning for service delivery, but these studies have not been able to clearly identify single determinants of perceived discretion. This study aims to contribute to the discussion by investigating factors that influence perceived discretion. To this end, data were examined from a nationwide survey of Swedish frontline professionals (N = 1319) within two major welfare organizations: the Public Employment Service and the Swedish Social Insurance Agency. Hierarchical OLS regression was applied, resulting in the identification of two major influencing factors. Frontline professionals who reported higher levels of work pressure showed less perceived discretion, and frontline professionals working at the Public Employment Service showed higher levels of perceived discretion than those working at the Social Insurance Agency, highlighting the importance of organizational context for discretion. Greater work experience also proved to increase the feeling of having discretion at work. The results of this paper add to the existing literature by proposing a model of factors that are important for perceived discretion by frontline professionals.
|
|
21. |
- Sirris, Stephen, et al.
(author)
-
Collegiality as institutional work : Collegial meeting practices among Norwegian pastors
- 2023
-
In: Journal of Professions and Organization. - : Oxford University Press. - 2051-8803 .- 2051-8811. ; 10:3, s. 243-255
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Collegiality is considered a hallmark of professionalism and involves specialization, equality, and leadership based on profession. Traditionally, within a profession, collegiality is treated as given and dealt with intra-professionally. This article, in contrast, studies collegiality as institutional work within the organizational context. We analyse how professionals and managers in a highly professionalized and institutionalized organization perform collegiality as institutional work. Interview and observational data shed light on collegiality in the practices of pastors in the Church of Norway. The findings highlight collegiality as a cultural ideal and a process of work beyond a mere governance structure. Collegial meetings constitute structural work that signals the intersection of conceptual work (theology) and operational work (daily challenges), facilitated by relational work. This article shows how collegiality constitutes institutional work that not only maintains the pastor profession as an institution but also gradually adapts it in response to external demands and strengthened management.
|
|
22. |
- Svallfors, Stefan, 1961-
(author)
-
Knowing the game : motivations and skills among partisan policy professionals
- 2017
-
In: Journal of Professions and Organization. - : Oxford University Press. - 2051-8803 .- 2051-8811. ; 4:1, s. 55-69
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This article focuses on “partisan policy professionals” (PPPs), i.e. people who are employed to affectpolitics and policy, and analyzes their particular motivations and skills. This article focuses on the occupationalpractices of PPPs: what are their main motivations and driving forces, and what are thekey skills they deploy in their work? The main motivation for PPPs is a desire to wield power and influencethe course of affairs, while their working-life satisfaction comes from getting their messageinto the media without becoming personally exposed. The key resource of PPPs is contextdependentpolitically useful knowledge, in three main forms: “Problem formulation” involves highlightingand framing social problems and their possible solutions. “Process expertise” consists of understandingthe “where, how, and why” of the political and policy-making processes. “Informationaccess” is the skill to be very fast in finding reliable and relevant information. These motivations andskills underpin a particular professionalism based in an “entrepreneurial ethos”, which differs fromboth the ethos of elected politicians, and that of civil servants, and which has some potentially problematicimplications for democratic governance.
|
|
23. |
- Wadmann, Sarah, et al.
(author)
-
‘We don’t like the rules and still we keep seeking new ones’: The vicious circle of quality control in professional organizations
- 2019
-
In: Journal of Professions and Organization. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 2051-8803 .- 2051-8811. ; 6:1, s. 17-32
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Standardization, auditing, and performance measurement increasingly characterize the governance of professional organizations. In hospital services, this is expressed in a multiplication of quality as- surance programmes, which may be characterized as technologies of quality control. Organizational research shows that the impact of such technologies is profound and often problematic. Even if rooted in professional expertise, they tend to evoke resistance and evasion among professionals. Drawing on Crozier’s classic analysis of bureaucratic malfunctions and recent theory of professional hybridity and co-optation, this article brings forth a new aspect of professionals’ encounter with managerial forms of governance, as manifested in a case study from the Danish hospital services. Despite scepticism, professional groups with differing status and interests can reinforce a burden- some system of governance with even more standards and intensified measuring, as they seek to use the technologies of quality control to manage uncertainties and enhance their standing in relation to other groups. Hence, professionals can find themselves caught in what we call a vicious circle of quality control. This dynamic, we propose, is essentially of a professional nature; it is through their very efforts to promote their distinctive aspirations that professionals may end up fuelling excessive measurement and detailed controls, thereby making their own work more difficult.
|
|
24. |
- Taheri, Jaleh, et al.
(author)
-
Inequality in professional work
- 2023
-
In: Journal of Professions and Organization. - 2051-8803. ; 10:3, s. 309-311
-
Research review (peer-reviewed)
|
|