Please enable JavaScript.
Coggle requires JavaScript to display documents.
Week 9 (Ideal Workers and Professional Identity ("Ideal Worker",…
Week 9
Ideal Workers and Professional Identity
"Ideal Worker"
Totally committed: put work above all else (e.g. health, family)
Always available
Examples
Partners at law firms, work around the clock, always on call
Academics at universities (e.g. Deans)
Surgeons- often on call during public holidays, holiday periods, all through the day and night
Consultants- must be available for travel sometimes interstate or even overseas to see clients
Those who conform are rewarded (e.g. with promotion)
"Professional Identity"
Management strategies for Multiple audiences
combine passing and revealing
audiences status
Combining passing and revealing
Perceived access to formal accommodations
extremity of the conflict experienced
Spillover of perceptions across audiences
Example
Pregnancy announcement from female worker- news is often then spread to everyone else in the organisation
Consequences of using integrated identity strategies
Gender Differences
Women
Less likely to pass high status audiences
More likely to reveal
Most (93%) women who take leave want to return
46% of women want their own source of income
Negative correlation between success and likability
How to keep women connected to workplace
Create reduced hour jobs
Provide flexibility in the day
Provide flexibility in the arc of a career
Remove the stigma
Stop burning bridges
Provide outlets for altruism
Nurture ambition
Men
Equally likely to use passing as well as revealing
Positive correlation between success and likability
Examples
Men often discouraged to take parental leave whereas the opposite is true for females
Usually have assistance managing household duties (whether it be from a girlfriend or wife etc ) so focus can often be solely on work
External perceptions and Performance evaluation
High Performance ratings
Embrace the expected professional identity
Results in stable and straightforward career paths
Use passing to identify management strategies
Low performance rating
Revealing (senior-status)
Controlling employee's professional identity
Organizational mechanism of identity control
Structure of work
Successful performance -> contingent over prioritizing work demands.
Performance of evaluations
reinforcing the structure by rewarding.
Examples
Big marketing and accounting firms- some not allowing official lunch breaks in place of continuous work
Bonuses for teachers in private schools according to students' grades achieved
Coping with conflicting professional identities
Congruence vs conflict
Congruence
Expected & experienced
professional identities in sync
Conflict
Large % of workers have conflict
Women = main cohort that experience conflict
Coping
Professionals cope by 'straying'
Passing
Intentional/accidental
misrepresentation of membership
Revealing
Intentional/accidental disclosure
of non-membership
Tools to help straying
Alter work structure
Example
Dishing off work to other colleagues without formal approval
Seeking assistance in restructuring work
Example
Manager allowing worker to come to work later so children can be dropped at school
Hiding/sharing personal info