The power and vulnerability of the “new professional”: web management in UK universities
Program: electronic library and information systems
ISSN: 0033-0337
Article publication date: 1 May 2007
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this research is to explore the character of an emergent occupational role, that of university web manager.
Design/methodology/approach
The primary data used were 15 semi‐structured interviews conducted in 2004. These were analysed partly for factual and attitudinal data, but also for the discursive interpretative repertoires in use.
Findings
The paper examines the diverse backgrounds, occupational trajectories, organisational positions, job roles and status of practitioners working in “web management” in UK higher education. The discursive divide between the marketing and IT approaches to the web is investigated. Two case studies explore further the complexity and creativity involved in individuals' construction of coherent and successful occupational identities.
Research limitations/implications
The paper examines the position of web managers within the framework of the notions of the marginal but powerful “new professional” or “broker” technician. It gives a vivid insight into how the web as a dynamic and open technology opens up opportunities for new forms of expertise; but also explores the potential vulnerabilities of such new roles. In order to examine personal experiences in depth, data were gathered for only a relatively small number of individuals. The research was also limited to the UK university sector and to those with a broad responsibility for the web site of the whole institution, i.e. not library web managers and other web authors who work primarily to produce a departmental web presence. These limits imply obvious ways in which the research could be extended.
Practical implications
There are implications for how institutions support people in such roles, and for how they can support one another.
Originality/value
There is a vast literature about the web, little about the new work roles that have grown up around it.
Keywords
Citation
Cox, A. (2007), "The power and vulnerability of the “new professional”: web management in UK universities", Program: electronic library and information systems, Vol. 41 No. 2, pp. 148-169. https://doi.org/10.1108/00330330710742926
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2007, Emerald Group Publishing Limited