Search results

The purpose of this paper is to examine how refugees from a professional career domain restore a coherent narrative when confronting barriers to recognition of their former career status. It focuses in particular on the identity work in which they engage in order to reconcile tensions between their current status as refugees and their professional identity.

In total, 15 refugees to the UK who were professionally qualified in medicine or teaching in their country of origin took part in interviews or focus groups exploring career barriers, plans and future aspirations. Initial inductive thematic analysis identified recognition of professional identities as a primary concern. Further analytic iterations between theory and empirical material sharpened the focus on identifying the tensions in their professional identity work.

Participants struggled both to restore their former professional identity and to develop alternative identities. Professional identity work limited, but also sustained them in the face of barriers they encountered as refugees.

More support for refugee career development would facilitate adaptation to local job markets, thereby addressing gaps in education and health services in the UK.

The paper highlights the tensions in refugee professional identity work and particularly the challenges and rewards of professional identification in the face of employment barriers.

As Perkins (1990) points out, it has already become commonplace to observe that there is a substantial and increasing shortage of skilled young people entering the labour market. That much is well known, but what is to be done about it? One response emerged in the UK government's 1989 autumn public spending statement, in which plans were announced to increase the number of graduates by 10% over the next three years. Whilst this may help overcome certain skills shortages, the extra graduates will of course mean fewer other young entrants to the labour market. The overall supply of labour market entrants will only be increased to the extent that older people currently outside the labour market are encouraged to enter it. Skilled young people will remain hard to find. This article focusses on graduates, who form a large proportion of those skilled young people.

The Graduate Development Project involved a close examination of graduate development in eight UK‐based companies over a three‐year period. Questionnaire data were obtained from a total of 1,189 graduates in the first few years of their careers, and 677 of their managers. The latter stages of the project involved company‐specific development work of various kinds. Key findings are reported concerning graduates′ experiences, attitudes and self‐rated competences. These are compared and contrasted with their managers′ views. Differences between companies, and between graduates at different stages of early career, are examined. The graduate experiences which most powerfully influence outcomes such as organizational commitment are identified. The impact of the project on the management of graduate development is discussed.

This chapter looks at the discursive dimension of the working environment in research and higher education organizations; more specifically at neoliberal managerial discourse and at how it participates in shaping the way researchers, teachers and support staff perceive themselves and their experiences. It is based on a multiple case study and combines an intersectional and a socio-clinical approach. The empirical data is constituted by in-depth interviews with women conducted in Ireland and Chile, and includes some observations made in France. A thematic analysis of individual narratives of self-ascribed experiences of being bullied enables to look behind the veil drawn by managerial discourse, thus providing insights into power vectors and power domains contributing to workplace violence. It also shows that workplace bullying may reinforce identification to undervalued social categories. This contribution argues that neoliberal managerial discourse, by encouraging social representations of “neutral” individuals at work, or else celebrating their “diversity,” conceals power relations rooting on different social categories. This process influences one’s perception of one’s experience and its verbalization. At the same time, feeling assigned to one or more of undervalued social category can raise the perception of being bullied or discriminated against. While research has shown that only a minority of incidents of bullying and discrimination are reported within organizations, this contribution suggests that acknowledging the multiplicity and superposition of categories and their influence in shaping power relations could help secure a more collective and caring approach, and thus foster a safer work culture and atmosphere in research organizations.

Describes career‐related experiences of over 1,000 graduates in the first few years of their careers in eight organizations, along with the perceptions of their bosses. Long‐term career prospects were an important factor in graduates′ decisions to join their organization, but the degree of importance varied substantially between organizations. Subsequent to joining, most graduates experienced low Career Clarity: that is, they found it difficult to identify short‐term and long‐term career possibilities in their organization. This eroded their organizational commitment. Graduates perceived a moderate amount of support from organizational systems for their career development, but also considerable barriers which they could not control. Their bosses had significantly more positive views of graduate career opportunities in the organization than the graduates. A case study of one organization illustrates some issues in managing graduate careers.

Examines what makes employees feel valued by their employer, through a survey of training consultants operating at Brathay, an educational charitable trust, associate training consultants working with Brathay to support both its youth and corporate work, and training consultants operating in a commercial organization. Clusters responses under the headings of fairness, environment and inclusion. Suggests differences that may exist between the different types of employees sampled, and their needs/expectations in terms of feeling valued by their employer.

Existing research on the early careers of graduates has provided some useful information but has also suffered from several limitations. It has not examined the full range of graduate experiences, nor has it investigated differences between organizations or stages in early career. Reports a study designed to overcome these and other limitations. Presents data concerning the reported experiences of 797 graduates in the first three years of their careers with eight substantial UK‐based recruiters of graduates. The most pervasive finding is that graduates’ experiences varied a great deal between organizations. Thus it is important for managers and researchers to evaluate individual organizations rather than using aggregated data. Nevertheless, some general statements can be made. Graduates felt their social relationships at work were harmonious, but this co‐existed with less than adequate performance feedback from bosses, and some negative opinions about colleagues. They tended to feel that career prospects in the organization were fairly attractive, but were unsure about exactly what paths were available, or how to get onto them. Graduates generally did not feel their work taxed their skills, but it nevertheless developed them, and offered considerable autonomy. Training courses were rated quite positively, but some doubt was expressed about the overall planning of training and development. Organizational systems were seen as neither helpful nor obstructive. Perceptions of the adequacy of pay and benefits varied greatly between companies. With increasing tenure, graduates’ work involved more decision making and supervision of others, but not more autonomy or visibility within the company. Training was perceived more positively in the first year than subsequently. Graduates did not become clearer about career paths with increasing tenure. Overall these results paint a complex and differentiated view of graduate experiences at work. Some trends identified in other work are confirmed, but others are not. Specific areas of concern are identified. The data provide a benchmark against which other organizations can be compared.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how two kinds of UK-based media positioned investment banking as dirty work during the financial crisis, thereby engaging in moral enterprise (Becker, 1963) and contributing to the shaping of society's normative contours (Cohen, 1972).

The authors employ rhetorical analysis to explore how newspaper editorials and an online blog portray investment banking as tainted between April 2008 and October 2009.

These media sources construct the values and behaviours of investment bankers, rather than the tasks of their occupation, as morally tainted. Through specific rhetorical strategies the authors advance three key arguments: bankers are morally tainted because their wealth is excessive; because their wealth is not earned; and because they are selfish and materialist.

In investigating media designations of investment banking as dirty work, the paper addresses two aspects of dirty work which are underexplored. First, it examines a high-prestige occupation and second, investigates the construction and attribution of taint to a previously untainted occupation. It makes two methodological contributions to the literature: contributing to the nascent interest in the media's construction of dirty work (e.g. Grandy and Mavin, 2012); and using rhetorical analysis to study the construction of taint.

This article is drawn from doctoral research exploring the identity struggles faced by professionals who take on management and leadership roles. The research focused on the experience of medical directors – the most senior doctor‐manager with board responsibility for medical affairs. Based on the fact that a medical director is a hybrid manager this research has implications for any professional who takes on a managerial or leadership role while continuing to practice their profession. Some challenges of working as a hybrid are associated with the difference in orientations between professionals and managers. While the notion of who and what a professional is has changed and new forms of accommodation have been forged the hybrid identity remains a site of potential conflict for the individual and those they work with. The purpose of this paper is to explore the experience of the hybrid identity.

The experience of the hybrid identity is explored through social identity theory (Tajfel and Turner).

The analysis reveals that the medical director role is ambiguous, that medical identity is robust and that medical management is difficult compared to clinical work. Managerial identity in general is constructed negatively and from the perspective of doctors. The importance of maintaining clinical credibility is both embraced as a resource which bolsters and maintains medical identity and so distinguishes medical directors from the taint associated with the pejorative managerial identity that doctors construct of managers.

The implications for the selection, training and development of doctors and medical directors are raised as are those for the relationship between doctors and patients, and doctors and the organisation. Some implications identified, specifically for leadership in practice are as follows: leadership/management is challenging and difficult compared to professional work; language use is significant for how leaders are perceived; language use has implications for leader effectiveness; early exposure to leadership for professionals is important; and leadership role definition is important for consistency and role credibility.