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1 – 10 of 941Anne K.H. Neal, Merridee Lynne Bujaki, Sylvain Durocher and François Brouard
The authors examine and compare accounting associations' identities in distinct segments of the accounting profession surrounding the 2014 merger of three Canadian accounting…
Abstract
Purpose
The authors examine and compare accounting associations' identities in distinct segments of the accounting profession surrounding the 2014 merger of three Canadian accounting associations.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conceive of accounting associations' magazine front covers as a setting for “identity performance” (i.e. a scenery through which identity dimensions are intentionally communicated to target audiences). The authors examine pre-merger and post-merger associations' identity performances that took place between January 2011 and December 2020 and identify 21 broad themes that the authors interpret in terms of identity logics (i.e. professionalism/commercialism) and audience focus (society/association members), underscoring (dis)similarities in identity performances pre- and post-merger.
Findings
The authors' analysis reveals distinct identity performances for the different segments of the pre-merger accounting profession and for the post-merger unified accounting association. Identity logics manifest differently: a commercial logic dominated for two of the associations and a professional logic dominated for the third. Identity fluidity was evident in the merged association's shift from commercial toward professional logic when the association ceased publishing one magazine and introduced a new one. Society rather than associations' members dominated as a target audience for all associations, but this focus manifested differently. Post-merger, identity performances continued to focus on society as the audience.
Originality/value
The authors highlight the Goffmanian identity performances (Goffman, 1959) taking place via accounting associations' magazines. The authors adopt a segment perspective (Bucher and Strauss, 1961) that demonstrates that commercialism does not trump professionalism in all segments of the profession. For the first time, the authors juxtapose identity logics (professionalism/commercialism) and targeted audiences to better understand how these facets of accountants' identities compare between segments.
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Silvia Lizett Olivares-Olivares, Miriam Lizzeth Turrubiates Corolla, Juan Pablo Nigenda Alvarez, Natalia Mejía Gaviria, Mariana Lema-Velez, Miguel Angel Villarreal Rodríguez, Luis Carlos Franco Ayala, Elena María Trujillo Maza, Isabel Barriga Cosmelli and Klaus Puschel Illanes
Professional Identity Formation is the dynamic evolution to “think, act and feel” to become part of a professional community. This document presents the development and the study…
Abstract
Purpose
Professional Identity Formation is the dynamic evolution to “think, act and feel” to become part of a professional community. This document presents the development and the study that aimed to assess the usability of a m-Learning Identity App (MLIA) focused on the formation of professional identity among undergraduate medical students.
Design/methodology/approach
MLIA development included four phases: Conceptual, prototype, pilot and implementation, before further deployment. The conceptual model was designed by eight faculty members from three Latin American universities. The prototype was developed and tested with stakeholders. The pilot was performed during 5 weeks before the implementation. Cross-sectional data collected during implementation from 138 medical students who completed a survey to assess the usability of MLIA are presented. During deployment, 977 posts were made on Professional Identity Formation, and examples of these posts are presented.
Findings
The prototype and pilot phases demanded improvements. The survey explored (1) Familiarity, (2) Perceived ease of use, (3) Perceived usefulness for Professional Identity Formation, (4) Satisfaction, (5) Intention to reuse (6) Digital aesthetics and (7) Safety. Results from the usability assessment suggest that students perceived MLIA as a secure space with positive aesthetics and ease of use.
Research limitations/implications
Important limitations of the present study include, firstly, that it does not provide information on the effectiveness of the MLIA in shaping professional identity in medical students, it focuses exclusively on its development (conceptual model, prototype, pilot and implementation) and usability. Secondly, the study design did not consider a control group and, therefore, does not provide information on how the App compares with other strategies addressing self-reflection and sharing of meaningful experiences related to professional identity.
Originality/value
MLIA introduces a different approach to education, simulating a secure, easy-to-use, social media with a friendly interface in a safe environment to share academic and motivational moments, transitioning from being to becoming a professional.
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Candida Brush, Birgitte Wraae and Shahrokh Nikou
Despite the considerable increase in research on entrepreneurship education, few studies examine the role of entrepreneurship educators. Similarly, most frameworks from…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite the considerable increase in research on entrepreneurship education, few studies examine the role of entrepreneurship educators. Similarly, most frameworks from entrepreneurship education recognize the educator’s importance in facilitating instruction and assessment, but the factors influencing the educator role are not well understood. According to the identity theory, personal factors including self-efficacy, job satisfaction and personal values influence the perspective of self, significance and anticipations that an individual in this role associates with it, determining their planning and actions. The stronger the role identity the more likely entrepreneurship educators will be in effectively developing their entrepreneurial skills as well as the overall learning experience of their students. The objective of this study is to pinpoint the factors that affect entrepreneurial role identity.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing upon the identity theory, this study developed a theoretical framework and carried out an empirical investigation involving a survey of 289 entrepreneurship educators across the globe. Structural equation modeling (SEM) technique was applied to analyze and explore the factors that impact the identity of the educators in their role as entrepreneurship teachers.
Findings
The findings show that the role identity of entrepreneurship educators is significantly influenced by their self-efficacy, job satisfaction and personal values. Among these factors, self-efficacy and job satisfaction have the most significant impacts on how educators perceive their role. The implications of these results and directions for future research are also discussed.
Originality/value
The novelty of the current study is derived from its conceptualization of the antecedents of role perception among entrepreneurship educators. This study stands out as one of the earliest attempts to investigate the factors that shape an individual’s scene of self and professional identity as an entrepreneurship educator. The significance of comprehending the antecedents of role perception lies in the insights it can offer into how educators undertake and execute their role, and consequently, their effectiveness in teaching entrepreneurship.
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Sundeep Sahay and Esther N. Landen
The purpose of this paper is to understand how digital interventions are mediating the identity work of community health workers (CHWs) in the context of two African countries.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to understand how digital interventions are mediating the identity work of community health workers (CHWs) in the context of two African countries.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper analyzes the everyday work of CHWs in two low- and middle-income country (LMIC) contexts (Uganda and Malawi) and seeks to understand changes in collective identity and the role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in mediating this “identity work”. As CHWs conduct their everyday tasks of care giving, data reporting and maintaining social interactions, they play two primary roles. One is the care giving role oriented towards the community, and two, is reporting and administrative work by virtue of them being affiliated with the Ministry of Health, either in formal or voluntary capacity. The ambivalence which they experience as they move back and forth between these two worlds of work is significantly now mediated through ICTs. The paper analyzes these dynamics and identifies three key sets of ambivalence in identity work: (1) role embracing-institutional distancing; (2) conformist-resistant and (3) dramaturgical-transformative. The paper makes unique contributions to information systems (IS) and ICT for development (ICT4D) studies in that it focuses on a nonprofessional group, which plays a fundamental role in providing care to underserved populations and also conducts data work which provides the foundation of the national health information system. This contrasts with dominant research in the field which focuses on professional groups, largely based in Western business organizations.
Findings
The paper identifies identity related tensions that emerge with the mediation of digital technologies in the work world of CHWs. These include tensions of conformist-resistant; and (3) dramaturgical-transformative. These findings are relevant and unique to the field of IS and ICT4D studies in that it focuses on a nonprofessional group, which plays a fundamental role in providing care to underserved populations and also conducts data work which provides the foundation of the national health information system.
Research limitations/implications
While acknowledging identity construction and negotiation is a function of both work and social lives, in this paper we could only focus on the work lives.
Practical implications
As digital interventions in the health sector of low and middle income countries is becoming increasingly widespread, often the focus is more on the supply side (the supply of the technology) rather than on the demand side (users experiences and aspirations). Identity becomes a lens to understand these demand side dynamics, which helps provides practical guidance on implementation approaches to ensure that the technology adds value to user work processes and there is a seamless and not a disruptive transition.
Social implications
CHWs are the most neglected cadre in the health system of low and middle income countries, even though they provide the cutting edge in care provision work to the most marginalized populations, living in rural and underserved areas. By focusing on how technologies can be more effectively implemented to support these care processes, the paper provides important social implications both for practice and research.
Originality/value
Analysis of identity construction and negotiation of informal groups in the unorganized sector of low and middle income countries has not received adequate attention in IS research. The paper seeks to fill this important gap.
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Begüm Ekmekçigil and Olesia Gorbunova Öner
The practice of public relations (PR) is shaped by the ‘life world’ of the professionals; moreover, both the experiences of the professionals and societal changes shape the…
Abstract
The practice of public relations (PR) is shaped by the ‘life world’ of the professionals; moreover, both the experiences of the professionals and societal changes shape the profession in a particular area (Hodges, 2006). Women have always played an important part in the development of PR as a profession and academic field in Turkey. Since PR Association of Turkey was established in 1972, five out of eight presidents have been women, and most of the members are also female. Female PR practitioners represent 70% of the total workforce of PR sector in Turkey, and most of the communication agencies are led by female entrepreneurs.
However, research on women' positions and their multiple roles in PR in Turkey are limited.
This chapter uses a qualitative study with 27 in-depth one-on-one interviews conducted in order to analyse female PR practitioners' experiences related to (1) the start of their careers, (2) their career experiences, (3) their evaluation of the profession, and lastly (4) their career goals. The interviewees included agency owners, managers, deputy general managers and group directors.
The research aimed to discover the female PR professional experience in respect of the difficulties they face in their practice and everyday life, advantages and/or disadvantages of being a female PR professional in Turkey and the ways women balanced their career and family duties.
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A large number of studies indicate that coercive forms of organizational control and performance management in health care services often backfire and initiate dysfunctional…
Abstract
Purpose
A large number of studies indicate that coercive forms of organizational control and performance management in health care services often backfire and initiate dysfunctional consequences. The purpose of this article is to discuss new approaches to performance management in health care services when the purpose is to support innovative changes in the delivery of services.
Design/methodology/approach
The article represents cross-boundary work as the theoretical and empirical material used to discuss and reconsider performance management comes from several relevant research disciplines, including systematic reviews of audit and feedback interventions in health care and extant theories of human motivation and organizational control.
Findings
An enabling approach to performance management in health care services can potentially contribute to innovative changes. Key design elements to operationalize such an approach are a formative and learning-oriented use of performance measures, an appeal to self- and social-approval mechanisms when providing feedback and support for local goals and action plans that fit specific conditions and challenges.
Originality/value
The article suggests how to operationalize an enabling approach to performance management in health care services. The framework is consistent with new governance and managerial approaches emerging in public sector organizations more generally, supporting a higher degree of professional autonomy and the use of nonfinancial incentives.
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Ahreum Lim, Daeun Jung and Eunsun Lee
As emerging scholars of color with transnational backgrounds, we collectively recount our socialization experiences in US higher education institutes. We explore moments of…
Abstract
Purpose
As emerging scholars of color with transnational backgrounds, we collectively recount our socialization experiences in US higher education institutes. We explore moments of betweenness as catalysts for envisioning a more inclusive academia that operates beyond the tokenism of diversity.
Design/methodology/approach
Employing betweener autoethnography (Diversi and Moreira, 2018), we inquire into the sense of impasse encountered by South Korean female emerging scholars in the field of education in becoming an outsider within the academic system.
Findings
Chronicling our shifts in perspectives of our positionality, we interweave inquiries motivating us to challenge normative pressures and map our betweener experiences onto the Wiedman and DeAngelo’s (2020) socialization model. Through this process, we wedge open in-between spaces in the socialization process that accommodate the nuanced positionality of transnational scholars.
Originality/value
Integrating postcolonial critiques on the Western-centric meritocratic academia, this piece sheds light on the complexity and fluidity of emerging transnational scholars’ socialization processes. The thick, nuanced description deepens the understanding of the complexity of their identity negotiation within the dominant logics of academia. Our inquiries interwoven through betweener autoethnography serve as guidance for mentoring international graduate students and transnational scholars.
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Abdelmoneim Bahyeldin Mohamed Metwally and Ahmed Diab
In developing countries, how risk management technologies influence management accounting and control (MAC) practices is under-researched. By drawing on insights from…
Abstract
Purpose
In developing countries, how risk management technologies influence management accounting and control (MAC) practices is under-researched. By drawing on insights from institutional studies, this study aims to examine the multiple institutional pressures surrounding an entity and influencing its risk-based management control (RBC) system – that is, how RBC appears in an emerging market attributed to institutional multiplicity.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors used qualitative case study research methods to collect empirical evidence from a privately owned Egyptian insurance company.
Findings
The authors observed that in the transformation to risk-based controls, especially in socio-political settings such as Egypt, changes in MAC systems were consistent with the shifts in the institutional context. Along with changes in the institutional environment, the case company sought to configure its MAC system to be more risk-based to achieve its strategic goals effectively and maintain its sustainability.
Originality/value
This research provides a fuller view of risk-based management controls based on the social, professional and political perspectives central to the examined institutional environment. Moreover, unlike early studies that reported resistance to RBC, this case reveals the institutional dynamics contributing to the successful implementation of RBC in an emerging market.
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Stefanie Sullivan and Joanna McIntyre
In the context of a highly regulated teacher education system, this chapter offers an alternative vision for a ‘better normal’ for teacher education in England. It foregrounds the…
Abstract
In the context of a highly regulated teacher education system, this chapter offers an alternative vision for a ‘better normal’ for teacher education in England. It foregrounds the need for teacher educators and teacher preparation curricula to promote ‘a way of being’ that enables teachers and teacher educators to have agency, develop as ‘thinking’ professionals and be resilient in an ever-changing policy context.
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This paper examines the career progression of women auditors working in auditing firms in Tanzania and the strategies employed by women auditors to cope with the masculine nature…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper examines the career progression of women auditors working in auditing firms in Tanzania and the strategies employed by women auditors to cope with the masculine nature of audit firms.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected through semi-structured, in-depth interviews with current and former female and male auditors in two auditing firms. A thematic approach to the analysis is adopted.
Findings
The study reveals that career progression of women auditors studied is constrained by gender-related barriers such as motherhood, pregnancy, maternity leave and limited coaching and networking, as well as household and caring responsibilities. These barriers are facilitated by the patriarchal system, which regards women as wives and mothers rather than professional workers. As a result, women auditors balanced work and family responsibilities by employing various coping strategies including establishing informal network organization, hiring nannies, living with family members, enrolling children to boarding schools and lobbying in the allocation of audit assignments. Despite employing these strategies, very few women reach top positions in audit firms in Tanzania.
Practical implications
The findings reveal a need for wider engagement on the role of women and men in society, particularly to address the gender-related barriers faced by women in the accountancy profession.
Originality/value
Most previous studies of gender in the accountancy profession have focused on Western contexts. This is one of few to examine the phenomenon in an African context.
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