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1 – 10 of over 148000Library assistants were originally considered to be professional librarians in the making, and were trained accordingly. With the expansion of libraries and librarianship…
Abstract
Library assistants were originally considered to be professional librarians in the making, and were trained accordingly. With the expansion of libraries and librarianship, Britain's “apprenticeship” system of qualification gave way to formal library school education, and a new category of “non‐professional staff” was created, of people who were unwilling or unable to proceed to graduate‐level qualification. The development of non‐professional certificates of competence in the UK is described against parallel developments in the US, Canada and Australia; the COMLA training modules are also examined. The theoretical and practical issues surrounding training are discussed, training schemes and qualifications in the four countries analysed, and the relative merits of in‐house training and external certificate programmes argued.
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Sally Smith, Thomas N. Garavan, Anne Munro, Elaine Ramsey, Colin F. Smith and Alison Varey
The purpose of this study is to explore the role of professional and leader identity and the maintenance of identity, through identity work as IT professionals transitioned to a…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore the role of professional and leader identity and the maintenance of identity, through identity work as IT professionals transitioned to a permanent hybrid role. This study therefore contributes to the under-researched area of permanent transition to a hybrid role in the context of IT, where there is a requirement to enact both the professional and leader roles together.
Design/methodology/approach
The study utilised a longitudinal design and two qualitative methods (interviews and reflective diaries) to gather data from 17 IT professionals transitioning to hybrid roles.
Findings
The study findings reveal that IT professionals engage in an ongoing process of reconciliation of professional and leader identity as they transition to a permanent hybrid role, and they construct hybrid professional–leader identities while continuing to value their professional identity. They experience professional–leader identity conflict resulting from reluctance to reconcile both professional and leader identities. They used both integration and differentiation identity work tactics to ameliorate these tensions.
Originality/value
The longitudinal study design, the qualitative approaches used and the unique context of the participants provide a dynamic and deep understanding of the challenges involved in performing hybrid roles in the context of IT.
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Helen Thacker, Ann Anka and Bridget Penhale
The purpose of this paper is to consider the importance of professional curiosity and partnership work in safeguarding adults from serious harm, abuse and neglect.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to consider the importance of professional curiosity and partnership work in safeguarding adults from serious harm, abuse and neglect.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper draws on a range of materials including: review of published materials in relation to professional curiosity, reports from adult serious case reviews (SCRs) and safeguarding adult reviews (SARs); relevant materials drawn from the SAR Library, thematic reviews of SARs and Google searches; observations from practice and experience. It also refers to the relevant academic literature.
Findings
Lessons from SCRs and SARs show that a lack of professional curiosity and poor coordination of support can lead to poor assessments and intervention measures that can fail to support those at risk of harm and abuse. There are a number of barriers to professionals practicing with curiosity. Working in partnership enhances the likelihood that professional curiosity will flourish.
Practical implications
There are clear implications for improving practice by increasing professional curiosity amongst professionals. The authors argue that there is a scope to improve professional curiosity by utilising and developing existing partnerships, and ultimately to help reduce the number of deaths and incidents of serious harm.
Originality/value
The paper considers the importance of employing professional curiosity and partnership work in safeguarding adults’ practice, so enabling practitioners to better safeguard adults at risk of abuse and neglect.
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By drawing on a detailed case study of the work of tax consultants, the purpose of this paper is to develop a more detailed understanding of the role of ambiguity in professional…
Abstract
Purpose
By drawing on a detailed case study of the work of tax consultants, the purpose of this paper is to develop a more detailed understanding of the role of ambiguity in professional work, and its relationship to the division of labour in professional service firms (PSFs).
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on a three-year, longitudinal interpretive case study comprising 42 interviews, supplemented by observations and document data.
Findings
The research determines that processes of “obfuscation” and “privatisation” separate client work from case work. This maintains a division of labour between junior and senior professionals, which in turn facilitates financial leverage. The findings indicate that a more nuanced view on the role and origins of ambiguity is needed; particularly the role ambiguity plays in the division of labour. While inherent in professional work, ambiguity is also an effect of the way work processes are organised in order to obtain leverage.
Research limitations/implications
The research is based on a case study. Therefore, the paper explores its topic in empirical detail, but at the same time calls for exploring the topic in different contexts. The paper encourages further research on the role ambiguity plays being constituted by structural arrangements, and on the way the core of professionalism is inverted by the division of labour. The paper highlights the value of detailed empirical approaches for understanding professional work.
Practical implications
The paper draws attention to the way ambiguity becomes a part in sustaining a division of labour among professional workers, and to the importance of this in maintaining financial leverage as well as in creating a precarious work situation for junior professionals.
Social implications
The paper raises concerns about the way professional work is legitimated in society as opposed to how it is constructed in PSFs.
Originality/value
The paper challenges prevalent notions of professional work as ambiguous, offering instead a way of engaging with professional work processes in detail, theoretically and methodologically. Traditional assumptions about the division of labour and the “core” of professional work are problematized, and traditional assumptions about ambiguity as a cause of specific structural arrangements are questioned.
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Christian Gadolin and Thomas Andersson
The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze conditions that influence how employees engage in healthcare quality improvement (QI) work.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze conditions that influence how employees engage in healthcare quality improvement (QI) work.
Design/methodology/approach
Qualitative case study based on interviews (n=27) and observations (n=10).
Findings
The main conditions that influence how employees engage in healthcare QI work are professions, work structures and working relationships. These conditions can both prevent and facilitate healthcare QI. Professions and work structures may cement existing institutional logics and thus prevent employees from engaging in healthcare QI work. However, attempts to align QI with professional logics, together with work structures that empower employees, can make these conditions increase employee engagement, which can be accomplished through positive working relationships that foster institutional work, which bridge different competing institutional logics, making it possible to overcome barriers that professions and work structures may constitute.
Practical implications
Understanding the conditions that influence how employees engage in healthcare QI work will make initiatives more likely to succeed.
Originality/value
Healthcare QI has mainly been studied from an implementer perspective, and employees have either been neglected or seen as passive resisters. Weak employee perspectives make healthcare QI research incomplete. In our research, healthcare QI work is studied closely at the actor level to understand healthcare QI from an employee perspective.
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Martin Löwstedt and Rikard Sandberg
Research concerned with standardization of the construction process has generally considered the challenges from only rational and instrumental perspectives. The purpose of this…
Abstract
Purpose
Research concerned with standardization of the construction process has generally considered the challenges from only rational and instrumental perspectives. The purpose of this paper is to foreground a social perspective of this challenge. Specifically, the work of construction site managers is explored through a professional work lens in order to emphasize significant misalignments with the principles of standardized production in the construction industry.
Design/methodology/approach
Data are drawn from a longitudinal (2014–ongoing) case study of site managers’ work in a large Swedish construction company. The research design is characterized by an explorative approach, altogether consisting of 44 in-depth interviews at the site manager level (28) and at other managerial levels (16). All the interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed particularly to highlight two contrasting dominant discourses: “standardized construction production” and “site manager work.”
Findings
The findings show that site manager’s work is enmeshed with a particular type of professional expertise and identity that is ideologically crafted around a proclivity for free and independent work. It is outlined in detail how these social dimensions of work are enacted to form an ongoing (and successful) resistance to organizational initiatives that are based on principles of standardization.
Originality/value
This study improves our understanding of an unresolved social challenge that impedes the transformation toward more standardized construction production. It adds new perspectives and value to current research by reminding that (and how) significant changes in production processes also seriously implicate professional work.
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To improve organization performance and service quality, managers will want to pay attention to the major drivers of professional satisfaction and effectiveness. By providing…
Abstract
To improve organization performance and service quality, managers will want to pay attention to the major drivers of professional satisfaction and effectiveness. By providing focused professional assessment and self‐management programs throughout an organization, managers can make a balanced investment in the satisfaction of their employees and customers.
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Considerable research has been conducted into the outcomes of vocational lifelong learning (VLL) funding in terms of courses offered and their effectiveness, but much less into…
Abstract
Purpose
Considerable research has been conducted into the outcomes of vocational lifelong learning (VLL) funding in terms of courses offered and their effectiveness, but much less into the work, professional development needs and careers of staff organising and delivering VLL programmes. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the career management and development needs of such university staff.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey was conducted of VLL professionals in higher education to establish the position and their future prospects.
Findings
A survey revealed that experienced VLL staff are being required, in some cases unwillingly, to move away from activities concerned with external training to take on work in areas such as technology transfer and general student recruitment. This development is likely to be to the detriment of VLL provision by universities.
Practical implications
VLL staff identify further knowledge of new developments in the field, stronger IT skills, and competence in conducting research as their major development needs.
Originality/value
The paper puts forward some concrete suggestions for improvements.
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Ansumalini Panda and Chandan Kumar Sahoo
This study aims to explore the relationship between work–life balance and employee retention by examining the mediating role of psychological empowerment among software firms…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore the relationship between work–life balance and employee retention by examining the mediating role of psychological empowerment among software firms based in India.
Design/methodology/approach
The study collected 283 responses by using a structured questionnaire and interview method. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to validate the hypothesized research model for examining the consistency and sturdiness of the study variables by applying AMOS 20.
Findings
The result reveals that psychological empowerment partially mediates the relationship between work–life balance and the retention of professionals. This indicates that a high degree of psychological empowerment strengthens the relations between work–life balance and the retention of professionals.
Research limitations/implications
The research outlined a best-fit model of psychological empowerment as a partial mediator among work–life balance and the retention of professionals. The study presents a set of sensible and practical aspects where work–life balance and retention of professionals can aid in developing and generating commitment to the organization which could offer new insights for software professionals, managers and practitioners.
Originality/value
This study emphasized that psychological empowerment helps in enhancing dedication, loyalty, integrity, allegiance and trustworthiness among employees, thus playing a role between work–life balance and the retention of professionals.
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Marcello Russo and Filomena Buonocore
The central aim of this paper is to test a model in which work‐family enrichment is associated with lower levels of professional turnover through higher levels of job satisfaction…
Abstract
Purpose
The central aim of this paper is to test a model in which work‐family enrichment is associated with lower levels of professional turnover through higher levels of job satisfaction and professional commitment.
Design/methodology/approach
The bootstrap procedure for estimating indirect correlations in multiple mediator models was used to test the hypotheses.
Findings
The findings show that nurses experiencing high levels of work‐family enrichment are likely to report lower intentions to leave their profession by virtue of their higher levels of professional commitment.
Research limitations/implications
The research relies on a cross‐sectional design with a single source of data.
Practical implications
The research suggests that management should foster work‐family enrichment since this appears to be linked to decreased turnover intentions.
Social implications
There is a shortage of nurses in Italy and many other countries, which has negative consequences for high‐quality nursing care and costs of the healthcare system, and the results of the present study suggest ways in which nurse retention could be improved.
Originality/value
This study contributes to work‐family literature by addressing the relationship between work‐family enrichment and professional‐related outcomes.
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