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Critical Perspectives on Management and Organisations: Week 9 (LO3: How do…
Critical Perspectives on Management and Organisations: Week 9
LO1: An ideal worker & the professional identity
Who is an 'Ideal Worker
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 are richly rewarded, especially those performing professional or managerial jobs
Professional identity
Organisations employing professionals expect their workers to conform to the ideal worker image
When a worker's experienced professional identity does not meet the expected professional identity, conflict arises
This expectation has led to persisting gender inequality in the workplace
Expected professional identity:
employer expectations and beliefs
Experienced professional identity:
own expectations and beliefs
LO2: How do organisations control employees’ professional
identity?
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 has 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
LO3: How do employees cope with conflicting
professional identities?
Congruence vs conflict
If expected and experienced professional identities in sync and congruent, will be unlikely to have conflict
Women however experience more conflict after having children
How to professionals cope?
By straying from expected identity
By Passing or revealing
Passing
Intentional or accidental misrepresentations of membership in favoured groups
Revealing
intentional or accidental disclosure of non-membership in the favoured group (i.e. expected professional identity)
Tools for straying
Seeking assistance in restructuring work (revealing)
Applying for reduced workloads
Seeking parental or carer's leave
Hiding or sharing personal information (passing and revealing)
How professionals control their personal info dictate if they use passing or revealing to alter work structure to cope
Personally altering the structure of work (passing)
Focusing on cultivating a local client base
Working on internal projects to reduce travel time
Working from home
LO4: Integrated identity management strategies for multiple audiences
Factors influencing the use of passing and/or revealing when interacting with audiences
Closeness of relationship
Pass to those distant while revealing to close friends and mentors
Perceived access to formal accomodations
Reveal if having access to formal accommodations and pass if not
Audience status
Pass to high-status while revealing to same status audiences
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
LO5: Consequences of using integrated identity
management strategies for professionals
Gender differences
Women less likely to engage in identity management strategies that allow passing to high status audiences and more likely to reveal
Men are equally likely to use passing as well as revealing
due to women being more likely to use formal accomodations (parental leave) provided by employer
External perceptions and performance evaluation
High performance ratings given to:
Those who embrace the expected professional identity
Those who use passing to cope with conflict
Low performance rating given to those who use revealing especially to senior status audiences 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