Professional identity – product of structure, product of choice
- 15 October 2008
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Emerald Publishing in Journal of Organizational Change Management
- Vol. 21 (6), 721-742
- https://doi.org/10.1108/09534810810915745
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to extend the discussion of the recursive relationship between the identity of a profession and the professional identity of individuals in the context of change.Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws on qualitative data collected as part of a pilot study into change in the NHS. It draws on structuration theory and insights from social identity theory (SIT) to propose that the relationship between the collective level of the profession and the individual level of the professional is recursive.Findings – The data suggest that individual professionals use and rewrite scripts of their profession but also draw upon new scripts as they engage with local change. To that extent they contribute from the local level upwards to the changing identity of their profession. Further more detailed micro level studies are required.Research limitations/implications – The argument is based on a limited data set and points towards the need for further microlevel studies which exa...Keywords
This publication has 69 references indexed in Scilit:
- Work identities of nursesCareer Development International, 2004
- Trends in doctor-manager relationshipsBMJ, 2003
- The `Neo-Bureaucratic' State: Professionals, Managers and Professional Managers in Schools, General Practices and Social WorkOrganization, 2003
- Building coalitions in an era of technological changeJournal of Organizational Change Management, 2000
- Human service professionals in the community services industryAustralian Social Work, 1999
- Gender and Social Security Policy: Pitfalls and PossibilitiesFeminist Economics, 1998
- Decline vs. retention of medical power through restratification: an examination of the Ontario caseSociology of Health & Illness, 1997
- Moving Clinicians into ManagementJournal of Management in Medicine, 1994
- Reconceptualising Structure and Agency in the Sociology of Education: structuration theory and schoolingBritish Journal of Sociology of Education, 1992
- Boundary-Work and the Demarcation of Science from Non-Science: Strains and Interests in Professional Ideologies of ScientistsAmerican Sociological Review, 1983