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Critical perspectives on management and organisations (Organisation…
Critical perspectives on management and organisations
Ideal worker and professional identity
ideal worker
expect to prioritize work ahead of family, personal needs and even health. employees who embrace this expectation is richly rewarded, especially those performing professional or managerial jobs
professional identity
role identities comprise of goals, values, beliefs, norms, interaction styles, and time horizons associated with a given role
forms of professional identities
expected: employer expectations and beliefs
experienced:own expectations and beliefs
organisations employing professionals expect their workers to conform to the ideal worker image
when a worker;s experienced professional identity does not meet the ideal worker image conflict arises
this expectation has lead to persisting gender inequality in the workplace
Organisation mechanisms & method to cope with conflict
Mechanisms of identity control
Performance evaluation: reinforcing the above structure of work by rewarding those who fulfill such expected professional identity requirements
taken together, the structure of work and the performance evaluation system creates a self-fulfilling prophecy of professionals continuously adopting the expected professional identity
Structure of work: the successful performance of the professional role been contingent upon always always prioritizing work demands over all other life demands and therefore always being available to the employer
Congruence vs. conflict
if an employee's expected and experienced professional identities are in sync and congruent they are unlikely to experience conflict
How do professionals cope with conflict
cope with conflict identities by straying from the expected identity
Passing: intentional or accidental misrepresentation of membership in the favored group
Revealing: intentional or accidental disclosure of non-membership in the favored group
Tools for straying
Personally altering the structure of work (i.e passing)
working on internal projects to reduce travel time
working from home
focusing on cultivating a local client base
Seeking assistance in restructuring work ( revealing)
applying for reduced workloads
seeking parental and / or carer's leave
Hiding or sharing personal information ( passing and revealing
how professionals controlled their personal information dictate whether they use passing or revealing to alter work structure to cope
Integrated identity management strategies for multiple audiences
Combining passing and revealing
audience status: pass to high-statue while revealing to same-status audiences
closeness of relationship: pass to those distant while revealing to close friends and mentors
perceived access to formal accommodations:reveal if having access to formal accommodations and pass if not
extremity of the conflict experienced: when faced with extreme circumstances in work or personal life reveal while passing on all other circumstances
Spillover of perceptions across audiences
efforts to pass or reveal to one audience can spillover and influence the perceptions held of the professional by other audiences
revealing to close colleagues often results in informal re-structuring of work which enables one to pass to wider high-status audiences
revealing to high-status audiences often results in revealing to broader audiences across the organisation
passing to high-status audiences tends to facilitate passing to equal - or low status audiences
Consequences of using integrated identity management strategies for professionals
Gender differences
on average
women less likely to engage to identity management strategies that allows passing to high-status audiences and more likely to reveal
men are equally likely to use passing as well as revealing identity management strategies
the reasons for the above patterns are complex-often attributed to women being more likely to utilize formal accommodations provided by employer than men
senior audience perceptions of professionals dictate the performance evaluation system
External perceptions and performance evaluation
High performance ratings given to : 1, those who embrace the expected professional identity. 2, those who use passing identity management strategies to cope with conflict
low performance rating given to those who use revealing identity management strategies to cope with conflict
high performance rating results in stable and straightforward career paths and at times accelerated advancement while low performance rating results in missing out on promotions and/or unstable career trajectories