Book Review: Johan Alvehus, The Logic of Professionalism: Work and Management in Professional Service Organizations

IF 2.7 3区 管理学 Q1 ECONOMICS Work Employment and Society Pub Date : 2023-02-07 DOI:10.1177/09500170221150097
S. Frenkel
{"title":"Book Review: Johan Alvehus, The Logic of Professionalism: Work and Management in Professional Service Organizations","authors":"S. Frenkel","doi":"10.1177/09500170221150097","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"In this succinct, stimulating monograph, Johan Alvehus explains how professional work perpetuates professionalism. The Logic of Professionalism (hereafter LOP) comprises eight chapters beginning with an outline of the author’s intentions and his approach. Chapter 2 explores the meaning of professionalism and how in professional service organisations (PSOs), a professional institutional logic co-exists with market and bureaucratic logics. In Chapter 3, Alvehus discusses the organisation of case and client-related problem-solving that creates ambiguities enabling professionals to retain control over their work. In addition, Alvehus shows how professionals often succeed in appropriating control over quality and HRM systems. Chapter 5 focuses on relational control. Leadership in PSOs is shared among senior professionals who acquire influence by political manoeuvring. Analysis then shifts in Chapter 6 to the organisational level where LOP co-exists with other logics. Chapter 7 explains the persistent dominance of the professional logic in PSOs leaving the final chapter to investigate whether LOP in the future will remain powerful or be undermined. Despite a deliberately selective engagement with relevant literatures, Alvehus succeeds in fulfilling his aim of exploring management and work practices that maintain LOP in PSOs (p. 6). Key concepts are explained, and where appropriate, relevant empirical studies are drawn on to support the author’s argument. For example, we learn that LOP refers to ‘professional workers’ discretion and judgement’ (p. 21), which helps to justify continuing control over the work process, high earnings and elevated social status. Professional work in PSOs is characterised by several attributes, including application of abstract knowledge, worker autonomy, adaptation to client needs and continuous learning (pp. 7–8). PSOs are governed by professionals and address complex public or private sector problems. Arising from the co-existence of professional, market and bureaucratic logics, PSOs are hybrid in form, generating recurrent patterns of behaviour that are frequently contested (p. 29). 1150097WES0010.1177/09500170221150097Work, Employment and Society X(X)Book Reviews book-review2023","PeriodicalId":48187,"journal":{"name":"Work Employment and Society","volume":"37 1","pages":"1112 - 1113"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7000,"publicationDate":"2023-02-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"3","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Work Employment and Society","FirstCategoryId":"91","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09500170221150097","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"ECONOMICS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 3

Abstract

In this succinct, stimulating monograph, Johan Alvehus explains how professional work perpetuates professionalism. The Logic of Professionalism (hereafter LOP) comprises eight chapters beginning with an outline of the author’s intentions and his approach. Chapter 2 explores the meaning of professionalism and how in professional service organisations (PSOs), a professional institutional logic co-exists with market and bureaucratic logics. In Chapter 3, Alvehus discusses the organisation of case and client-related problem-solving that creates ambiguities enabling professionals to retain control over their work. In addition, Alvehus shows how professionals often succeed in appropriating control over quality and HRM systems. Chapter 5 focuses on relational control. Leadership in PSOs is shared among senior professionals who acquire influence by political manoeuvring. Analysis then shifts in Chapter 6 to the organisational level where LOP co-exists with other logics. Chapter 7 explains the persistent dominance of the professional logic in PSOs leaving the final chapter to investigate whether LOP in the future will remain powerful or be undermined. Despite a deliberately selective engagement with relevant literatures, Alvehus succeeds in fulfilling his aim of exploring management and work practices that maintain LOP in PSOs (p. 6). Key concepts are explained, and where appropriate, relevant empirical studies are drawn on to support the author’s argument. For example, we learn that LOP refers to ‘professional workers’ discretion and judgement’ (p. 21), which helps to justify continuing control over the work process, high earnings and elevated social status. Professional work in PSOs is characterised by several attributes, including application of abstract knowledge, worker autonomy, adaptation to client needs and continuous learning (pp. 7–8). PSOs are governed by professionals and address complex public or private sector problems. Arising from the co-existence of professional, market and bureaucratic logics, PSOs are hybrid in form, generating recurrent patterns of behaviour that are frequently contested (p. 29). 1150097WES0010.1177/09500170221150097Work, Employment and Society X(X)Book Reviews book-review2023
查看原文
分享 分享
微信好友 朋友圈 QQ好友 复制链接
本刊更多论文
书评:约翰·阿尔韦赫斯:《专业主义的逻辑:专业服务组织的工作与管理》
在这本简洁、刺激的专著中,约翰·阿尔韦赫斯解释了专业工作如何使专业精神永久化。《专业主义的逻辑》(以下简称LOP)由八章组成,首先概述了作者的意图和方法。第二章探讨专业主义的含义,以及在专业服务组织(pso)中,专业制度逻辑如何与市场逻辑和官僚逻辑共存。在第3章中,Alvehus讨论了案例和客户相关问题解决的组织,这些组织创造了模糊性,使专业人员能够保留对其工作的控制权。此外,Alvehus还展示了专业人员如何成功地对质量和人力资源管理系统进行适当的控制。第5章主要讨论关系控制。私营社会组织的领导权由通过政治手段获得影响力的资深专业人士分享。然后,在第6章中,分析转移到LOP与其他逻辑共存的组织层面。第7章解释了专业逻辑在pso中的持续主导地位,最后一章探讨了LOP在未来是否会保持强大或被削弱。尽管有意选择了相关文献,Alvehus还是成功地实现了探索维持pso中LOP的管理和工作实践的目标(第6页)。书中解释了关键概念,并在适当的地方引用了相关的实证研究来支持作者的论点。例如,我们了解到LOP指的是“专业工人的判断力和判断力”(第21页),这有助于证明对工作过程、高收入和高社会地位的持续控制是合理的。pso的专业工作有几个特点,包括抽象知识的应用、工作者的自主性、对客户需求的适应和持续学习(第7-8页)。公共服务组织由专业人士管理,处理复杂的公共或私营部门问题。由于专业、市场和官僚逻辑的共存,pso在形式上是混合的,产生了经常受到争议的反复出现的行为模式(第29页)。1150097wes0010 .1177/09500170221150097工作、就业与社会X(X)书评
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
求助全文
约1分钟内获得全文 去求助
来源期刊
CiteScore
7.90
自引率
13.50%
发文量
80
期刊介绍: Work, Employment and Society (WES) is a leading international peer reviewed journal of the British Sociological Association which publishes theoretically informed and original research on the sociology of work. Work, Employment and Society covers all aspects of work, employment and unemployment and their connections with wider social processes and social structures. The journal is sociologically orientated but welcomes contributions from other disciplines which addresses the issues in a way that informs less debated aspects of the journal"s remit, such as unpaid labour and the informal economy.
期刊最新文献
‘You’d Die if You Didn’t Have Fun’: Interpreting the Experiences of Long-Term Unemployed Men as Bakhtinian Death–Rebirth (Doing) Time Is Money: Confinement, Prison Work and the Reproduction of Carceral Capitalism Book Review: Tiziano Bonini and Emiliano Treré, Algorithms of Resistance: The Everyday Fight Against Platform Power Book Review: Sarah Waters, Suicide Voices: Labour Trauma in France Book Review: Pablo Pérez-Ahumada, Building Power to Shape Labor Policy: Unions, Employee Associations, and Reform in Neoliberal Chile
×
引用
GB/T 7714-2015
复制
MLA
复制
APA
复制
导出至
BibTeX EndNote RefMan NoteFirst NoteExpress
×
×
提示
您的信息不完整,为了账户安全,请先补充。
现在去补充
×
提示
您因"违规操作"
具体请查看互助需知
我知道了
×
提示
现在去查看 取消
×
提示
确定
0
微信
客服QQ
Book学术公众号 扫码关注我们
反馈
×
意见反馈
请填写您的意见或建议
请填写您的手机或邮箱
已复制链接
已复制链接
快去分享给好友吧!
我知道了
×
扫码分享
扫码分享
Book学术官方微信
Book学术文献互助
Book学术文献互助群
群 号:481959085
Book学术
文献互助 智能选刊 最新文献 互助须知 联系我们:info@booksci.cn
Book学术提供免费学术资源搜索服务,方便国内外学者检索中英文文献。致力于提供最便捷和优质的服务体验。
Copyright © 2023 Book学术 All rights reserved.
ghs 京公网安备 11010802042870号 京ICP备2023020795号-1