What Do Technicians Mean When They Talk about Professionalism? An Ethnography of Speaking
The Structuring of Work in Organizations
ISBN: 978-1-78635-436-5, eISBN: 978-1-78635-435-8
Publication date: 17 August 2016
Abstract
Sociologists have paid little attention to what people mean when they call themselves “professionals” in their everyday talk. Typically, when occupations lack the characteristics of self-control associated with the established professions, such talk is dismissed as desire for greater status. An ethnography of speaking conducted among several technicians’ occupations suggests that dismissing talk of professionalism may have been premature. The results of this study indicate that among technicians, professional talk highlights dynamics of respect, collaboration, and expertise crucial to the horizontal divisions of labor that are common in postindustrial workplaces, but have very little to do with the desire for occupational power.
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Acknowledgements
Acknowledgments
The work reported herein was supported under the Educational Research and Development Center program, agreement number 117Q00011-91, CFDA 84.117Q as administered by the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education. The findings and opinions expressed in this report do not reflect the position or policies of the Office of Educational Research and Improvement or the U.S. Department of Education. We thank our colleagues who have provided helpful criticism along the way: Asaf Darr, Mario Scarselletta, and Stacia Zabusky.
Citation
Barley, S.R., Bechky, B.A. and Nelsen, B.J. (2016), "What Do Technicians Mean When They Talk about Professionalism? An Ethnography of Speaking", The Structuring of Work in Organizations (Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Vol. 47), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 125-160. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0733-558X20160000047017
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2016 Emerald Group Publishing Limited