A. Liljegren, Johan M. Berlin, Stefan Szücs, S. Höjer
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.
{"title":"The police and ‘the balance’—managing the workload within Swedish investigation units","authors":"A. Liljegren, Johan M. Berlin, Stefan Szücs, S. Höjer","doi":"10.1093/JPO/JOAB002","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/JPO/JOAB002","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 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.","PeriodicalId":45650,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Professions and Organization","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2021-05-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1093/JPO/JOAB002","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47442247","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Assuming that red tape is inevitable in institutions, and drawing on positive organizational behavior, we compare the impact of individual psychological capital on the ability of street-level bureaucrats (SLBs) with different professional backgrounds to work within the confines of red tape. The two SLB professions investigated here are nurses and local government employees; and the work outcomes of interest to this study are well-being and engagement. The findings show that red tape has a different impact on each professional group but, encouragingly, they also indicate that psychological capital has a compensatory effect. Implications include nurses requiring more psychological resources than local government employees to counteract the negative impact of red tape. A practical implication for managers is that, if perception of red tape in organizations is set to increase or to stay constant, enhancing the psychological capital of professionals in SLB roles, through specific interventions, may be beneficial to professionals and organizations alike.
{"title":"Red tape and psychological capital: a counterbalancing act for professionals in street-level bureaucracies","authors":"A. Dudau, G. Kominis, Y. Brunetto","doi":"10.1093/jpo/joaa024","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jpo/joaa024","url":null,"abstract":"Assuming that red tape is inevitable in institutions, and drawing on positive organizational behavior, we compare the impact of individual psychological capital on the ability of street-level bureaucrats (SLBs) with different professional backgrounds to work within the confines of red tape. The two SLB professions investigated here are nurses and local government employees; and the work outcomes of interest to this study are well-being and engagement. The findings show that red tape has a different impact on each professional group but, encouragingly, they also indicate that psychological capital has a compensatory effect. Implications include nurses requiring more psychological resources than local government employees to counteract the negative impact of red tape. A practical implication for managers is that, if perception of red tape in organizations is set to increase or to stay constant, enhancing the psychological capital of professionals in SLB roles, through specific interventions, may be beneficial to professionals and organizations alike.","PeriodicalId":45650,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Professions and Organization","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2021-04-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1093/jpo/joaa024","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46141467","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Research typically finds that several new professions are barely institutionalized. Labels such as ‘semi-profession’, ‘emerging profession’, or ‘commercialized profession’ have been developed to capture this notion of professions in the making. Yet there is limited understanding of the factors contributing to such an intermediate status. Employing a relational perspective on professions, we study the case of project managers in Germany to shed light on the underlying reasons for this limited institutionalization. We show how project managers in Germany face a particular field of relations populated by various stakeholders, including neighboring occupations embedded in existing institutional structures, which helps explain their sustained status as a profession in the making. Our study contributes to the literature by revealing the reasons for this limited institutionalization, and by offering a positive mapping of professions in the making, as opposed to seeing them either as failed professionalization projects or merely as a stage in the process toward full professionalization.
{"title":"Forever a profession in the making? The intermediate status of project managers in Germany","authors":"Manuel Nicklich, Timo Braun, Johann Fortwengel","doi":"10.1093/jpo/joaa020","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jpo/joaa020","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Research typically finds that several new professions are barely institutionalized. Labels such as ‘semi-profession’, ‘emerging profession’, or ‘commercialized profession’ have been developed to capture this notion of professions in the making. Yet there is limited understanding of the factors contributing to such an intermediate status. Employing a relational perspective on professions, we study the case of project managers in Germany to shed light on the underlying reasons for this limited institutionalization. We show how project managers in Germany face a particular field of relations populated by various stakeholders, including neighboring occupations embedded in existing institutional structures, which helps explain their sustained status as a profession in the making. Our study contributes to the literature by revealing the reasons for this limited institutionalization, and by offering a positive mapping of professions in the making, as opposed to seeing them either as failed professionalization projects or merely as a stage in the process toward full professionalization.","PeriodicalId":45650,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Professions and Organization","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2021-04-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"41387385","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article examines the impact of external jolts on professional women’s careers. Although scholars have begun to address the role of context in career, little research has addressed the effects of unexpected and uncontrollable events. This is regrettable, particularly in the light of the current pandemic that appears to be impacting on us in hitherto unimaginable ways. We draw on the accounts of women professionals who appeared on the iconic BBC radio programme, Desert Island Discs. Our study culminates in two contributions: the first relates to the interplay of structure and agency in women’s accounts of jolts and their response. The second argues that jolts trigger changes in the career imagination, and potentially in professional landscapes themselves.
{"title":"Women in extraordinary times: the impact of external jolts on professional women’s careers","authors":"L. Cohen, J. Duberley","doi":"10.1093/jpo/joaa019","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jpo/joaa019","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 This article examines the impact of external jolts on professional women’s careers. Although scholars have begun to address the role of context in career, little research has addressed the effects of unexpected and uncontrollable events. This is regrettable, particularly in the light of the current pandemic that appears to be impacting on us in hitherto unimaginable ways. We draw on the accounts of women professionals who appeared on the iconic BBC radio programme, Desert Island Discs. Our study culminates in two contributions: the first relates to the interplay of structure and agency in women’s accounts of jolts and their response. The second argues that jolts trigger changes in the career imagination, and potentially in professional landscapes themselves.","PeriodicalId":45650,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Professions and Organization","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2021-04-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1093/jpo/joaa019","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42135871","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In Western countries, the occupational discipline of nursing is undergoing processes of professionalization. Although professionalization offers an appealing perspective on occupational advancement, it is an ambiguous process, especially in the context of ongoing reforms of advanced liberal states. More specifically, there is a confusing relationship between the professionalization of nursing and the state. This relation is underexamined in theories of nursing professionalization. Instead of seeing the state and professions as two distinct spheres, this article highlights their interconnectedness. It argues that nursing professionalization can be understood as a strategy of advanced liberal governmentality. Through an empirical analysis of the professionalization of Dutch nursing from a Foucauldian perspective, it shows how the appeal to ‘professionalism’ functions as a disciplinary mechanism that produces forms of advanced liberal ‘(bio)power’. This generates academic and practical questions, since nurses—the largest group of healthcare professionals—have distinctive relations with their patients, who regard them as ‘independent’ and ‘caring experts’. Furthermore, it sheds light on the academic debate about the reconfiguration of professionalism by showing how certain ‘professional’ reconfigurations are not only unavoidable but unavoidably (bio)political as well.
{"title":"The governmentality of nursing professionalization in advanced liberal societies","authors":"Jan-Luuk Hoff, Marlot Kuiper","doi":"10.1093/JPO/JOAA027","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/JPO/JOAA027","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 In Western countries, the occupational discipline of nursing is undergoing processes of professionalization. Although professionalization offers an appealing perspective on occupational advancement, it is an ambiguous process, especially in the context of ongoing reforms of advanced liberal states. More specifically, there is a confusing relationship between the professionalization of nursing and the state. This relation is underexamined in theories of nursing professionalization. Instead of seeing the state and professions as two distinct spheres, this article highlights their interconnectedness. It argues that nursing professionalization can be understood as a strategy of advanced liberal governmentality. Through an empirical analysis of the professionalization of Dutch nursing from a Foucauldian perspective, it shows how the appeal to ‘professionalism’ functions as a disciplinary mechanism that produces forms of advanced liberal ‘(bio)power’. This generates academic and practical questions, since nurses—the largest group of healthcare professionals—have distinctive relations with their patients, who regard them as ‘independent’ and ‘caring experts’. Furthermore, it sheds light on the academic debate about the reconfiguration of professionalism by showing how certain ‘professional’ reconfigurations are not only unavoidable but unavoidably (bio)political as well.","PeriodicalId":45650,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Professions and Organization","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2021-03-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45506192","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The increasing use of digital technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) may be harmful to professions and occupations. Professional role identity can be damaged as AI takes the place of people across a broad range of professional tasks. Past studies have focused on individual-level identity, yet collective-level professional role identity remains largely unstudied. In addition, identity studies have developed two separate explanations for identity shifts: one relying on professionals’ interpretation of technology and one relying on institutional logics. It is thus unclear whether and how the interpretation of technology and institutional logics coexist in a shifting identity. To address these gaps, I studied how collective-level professional role identity is being affected by AI among audit professionals in Japan. My research consisted of a textual analysis of professional publications from 2009 to 2018 and 42 interviews with Japan's national professional association and the ‘Big Four’ firm auditors. My analysis shows that a new collective professional role identity was constructed with six identity themes reflecting six interpretations of technology. These identity themes enacted a new constellation of managerial and professional logics that framed the audit profession’s future positively. This study expands our knowledge about professional role identity by showing the value of an in-depth analysis of the content of collective identity, the missing link between the interpretation of technology and institutional logics and the importance of collective identity as a guiding principle for professions. This research also helps advance hybridity literature, as well as the emerging scholarly conversation about AI and professions.
{"title":"Collective professional role identity in the age of artificial intelligence","authors":"M. Goto","doi":"10.1093/JPO/JOAB003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/JPO/JOAB003","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 The increasing use of digital technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) may be harmful to professions and occupations. Professional role identity can be damaged as AI takes the place of people across a broad range of professional tasks. Past studies have focused on individual-level identity, yet collective-level professional role identity remains largely unstudied. In addition, identity studies have developed two separate explanations for identity shifts: one relying on professionals’ interpretation of technology and one relying on institutional logics. It is thus unclear whether and how the interpretation of technology and institutional logics coexist in a shifting identity. To address these gaps, I studied how collective-level professional role identity is being affected by AI among audit professionals in Japan. My research consisted of a textual analysis of professional publications from 2009 to 2018 and 42 interviews with Japan's national professional association and the ‘Big Four’ firm auditors. My analysis shows that a new collective professional role identity was constructed with six identity themes reflecting six interpretations of technology. These identity themes enacted a new constellation of managerial and professional logics that framed the audit profession’s future positively. This study expands our knowledge about professional role identity by showing the value of an in-depth analysis of the content of collective identity, the missing link between the interpretation of technology and institutional logics and the importance of collective identity as a guiding principle for professions. This research also helps advance hybridity literature, as well as the emerging scholarly conversation about AI and professions.","PeriodicalId":45650,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Professions and Organization","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2021-03-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44049485","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Growth in the internationalization of economic activity has favoured an increase in institutional control at a supranational level. A typical example of such institutions that wield this control is corporate professions such as Project Management (PM). Attempting to replicate the successful strategies of the collegial professions but embracing advantages presented by global markets, corporate professions is confronted by the dilemma of how to reconcile the demands of stakeholders at both national and global levels. This research investigates an international corporate profession, PM, and its development within Italy using a historical case study. Results shows an increase in the number of regulations faced by international corporate professions as they attempt to satisfy a number of different institutions (and their competing agendas) while attempting to colonize a national context. This we define as ‘professional regulatory entanglement’. It concludes that what was once a simple bargain involving two actors, the state and the profession, with a long established, commonly agreed and mutually beneficial agenda is now a much more complex system involving multiple actors and a number of competing agendas and this results in the homogenization of professional practice across the globe.
{"title":"Professional regulatory entanglement: the curious case of project management in Italy","authors":"Luca Sabini, S. Paton","doi":"10.1093/JPO/JOAB001","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/JPO/JOAB001","url":null,"abstract":"\u0000 Growth in the internationalization of economic activity has favoured an increase in institutional control at a supranational level. A typical example of such institutions that wield this control is corporate professions such as Project Management (PM). Attempting to replicate the successful strategies of the collegial professions but embracing advantages presented by global markets, corporate professions is confronted by the dilemma of how to reconcile the demands of stakeholders at both national and global levels. This research investigates an international corporate profession, PM, and its development within Italy using a historical case study. Results shows an increase in the number of regulations faced by international corporate professions as they attempt to satisfy a number of different institutions (and their competing agendas) while attempting to colonize a national context. This we define as ‘professional regulatory entanglement’. It concludes that what was once a simple bargain involving two actors, the state and the profession, with a long established, commonly agreed and mutually beneficial agenda is now a much more complex system involving multiple actors and a number of competing agendas and this results in the homogenization of professional practice across the globe.","PeriodicalId":45650,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Professions and Organization","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2021-02-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.1093/JPO/JOAB001","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46167567","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"OUP accepted manuscript","authors":"","doi":"10.1093/jpo/joab017","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jpo/joab017","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45650,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Professions and Organization","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"61682060","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"OUP accepted manuscript","authors":"","doi":"10.1093/jpo/joab013","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jpo/joab013","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45650,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Professions and Organization","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"61681807","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"OUP accepted manuscript","authors":"","doi":"10.1093/jpo/joab016","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/jpo/joab016","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45650,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Professions and Organization","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.2,"publicationDate":"2021-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"61682057","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
京公网安备 11010802042870号
京ICP备2023020795号-1
扫码关注我们
求助内容：
应助结果提醒方式：