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Managed (Critical Perspectives on Management and Organisations (: How do…
Managed
Critical Perspectives on Management and Organisations
An ideal worker & the
professional identity
Who is an ‘ideal worker’?
Due to a move towards a 24/7/365 work cycle,
employees today are expected to prioritise work ahead of family, personal needs, and even
health
Therefore, an ‘ideal worker’ is one who is totally
committed to and always available to fulfil his or her work duties
Employees who embrace this expectation is
richly rewarded, especially those performing professional or managerial jobs
What is a professional identity?
Role identities comprise of goals, values, beliefs,
norms, interaction styles, and time horizons associated with a given role
Two main forms of professional identities:
– Expected: employer expectations and beliefs
– Experienced: own expectations and beliefs
Organisations employing professionals (e.g.
surgeons, consultants, lawyers, academics) expect their workers to conform to the ideal worker image
When a worker’s experienced professional identity does not meet the ideal worker image (i.e.
expected professional identity) conflict arises
This expectation has lead to persisting gender
inequality in the workplace
How do organisations control employees’ professional identity
Organisational mechanisms of identity control
Structure of work
– The successful performance of the professional role
been contingent upon always prioritising work demands over all other life demands and therefore
always being available to the employer
Performance evaluations
– Reinforcing the above structure of work by
rewarding (e.g. promotions, salary increments, non-monetary rewards - stars) those who fulfil such
‘expected’ professional identity requirements
taken together; r, the structure of work and the
performance evaluation system creates a self-fulfilling prophecy of professionals continuously
adopting the ‘expected’ professional identity
: How do employees cope
with conflicting professional identities?
How do professionals cope with conflict?
Professionals cope with conflicting identities
by ‘straying’ from the expected identity (i.e. ideal worker image)
They do so by either passing or revealing
– Passing: intentional or accidental
misrepresentation of membership in the favoured group (i.e. expected professional
identity)
– Revealing: intentional or accidental disclosure
of non-membership in the favoured group (i.e. expected professional identity)
Congruence vs. conflict
If an employee’s expected and experienced
professional identities are in sync and congruent they are unlikely to experience conflict
Historically, researchers and practitioners focused
on women (based on popular gender norms),especially those with young children as being the
main cohort of professionals who would experience conflict, recent research indicates that conflict is not
only restricted to them
However, a large percentage of professionals
experience conflict between the two identities
Tools for straying