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Critical Perspectives on Management and Organisations (Who is an ‘ideal…
Critical Perspectives on
Management and
Organisations
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?
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
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, nonmonetary
rewards - stars) those who fulfil such
‘expected’ professional identity requirements
Taken together, the structure of work and the
performance evaluation system creates a selffulfilling
prophecy of professionals continuously
adopting the ‘expected’ professional identity
Congruence vs. conflict
professional identities are in sync and congruent
they are unlikely to experience conflict
However, a large percentage of professionals
experience conflict between the two identities
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
How do professionals cope with conflict?
Professionals cope with conflicting identities
by ‘straying’ from the expected identity (i.e.
ideal worker image)
– 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)
Tools for straying
Personally altering the structure of work (i.e.
passing)
– Focusing on cultivating a local client base
– Working on internal projects to reduce travel time
– Working from home
Seeking assistance in restructuring work (i.e.
revealing)
– Applying for reduced workloads
– Seeking parental and/or carer’s leave
Hiding or sharing personal information (i.e.
passing and revealing)
– How professionals controlled their personal
information dictate whether they use passing
Combining passing and revealing
Factors influencing the use of passing and/or
revealing when interacting with audiences
– Audience status
Pass to high-status while revealing to same-status
audiences
– Closeness of relationship
Pass to those distant while revealing to close friends
(colleagues) and mentors
– Perceived access to formal accommodations
Reveal if having access to formal accommodations
(e.g. parental leave) and pass if not
– Extremity of the conflict experienced
When faced with extreme circumstances in work (e.g.
excessively demanding project) or personal life (e.g.
death of a close family member) reveal while passing
on all other circumstances
Spillover of perceptions across audiences
Efforts to pass or reveal to one audience
(e.g. high-status) can spillover and influence
the perceptions held of the professional by
other audiences (e.g. same- or low-level)
– Passing to high-status audiences tends to
facilitate passing to equal- or low-status
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
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 utilise formal accommodations
(e.g. parental leave) 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:
– Those who embrace the expected professional identity
(i.e. congruent with their experienced professional
identity)
– Those who use passing (especially to senior-status
audiences) identity management strategies to cope
with conflict
Low performance rating given to those who use
revealing (especially to senior-status audiences)
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 ratings results
in missing out on promotions and/or unstable career
trajectories