Submission 10527
Title Page
Submission number
10527
Title of the workshop
Professionals, professions and professionalism at work:
A Paper Development Workshop for JPO
Name of primary sponsor
OMT
250-word abstract of the
workshop.
This workshop is an opportunity for prospective authors to work on
their papers with the editorial team of the Journal of Professions and
Organization (JPO). This new journal from Oxford University Press
aims to be the premier outlet for research on professional
organizations, including their work, management, and their broader
social role. Authors and prospective authors are welcome to be in
touch with the editors (all three of whom will be serving as
facilitators of the workshop) before, during and after the PDW.
Authors working with data and or theory relevant to academia,
accounting, architecture, consulting, engineering, investment
banking, law, health, or any other occupation claiming professional
status are encouraged to submit and/or participate. We are
particularly receptive to interdisciplinary perspectives and
contributions, and we have a strong interest in all professional
organizations, professional service firms (PSFs), and public sector
professionals (PSPs).
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Submission 10527
Professionals, professions and professionalism at work:
A Paper Development Workshop for JPO
a. Overview
There is a growing awareness of the critical role that professions play in advanced economies.
Professionals and professional service firms are key advisors, analysts, defenders and developers
of the major institutions that underpin capitalist economies (Brint, 1994; Brock, Powell &
Hinings, 1999). As gatekeepers to key financial institutions, the professions influence both the
success and failure of capital markets (Coffee, 2006; Nicolai, Schultz & Thomas, 2010).
Professional service firms are also powerful economic actors in their own right, contributing over
3 trillion (USD) to the global economy (Riddle, 2002). Professions influence more than the
market system, however. They are also key agents of social change. As Scott (2008: 219)
observes, “the professions in modern society have assumed leading roles in the creation and
tending of institutions. They are the preeminent institutional agents of our time.”
Professions are institutions that have experienced profound changes. Professional
organizations are increasingly adopting both the logic (Faulconbridge & Muzio, 2009; Leicht &
Fennel, 2008) and structures (Cooper et al, 1996; Brock et al, 1999; 2007) of business
corporations. Professional identities are increasingly framed around logics of efficiency and
commerce (Anderson-Gough, Grey & Robson, 1998; Goodrick & Reay, 2010) which have
displaced traditional logics of ethics (Brint, 1994; Suddaby, Gendron & Lam, 2009). Professional
firms now tend to be multidisciplinary (Suddaby & Greenwood, 2005) and transnational
(Suddaby, Cooper & Greenwood, 2007; Brock, Yaffe & Dembovsky, 2006); a development
which is eroding the value of traditional self-regulatory regimes (Clementi, 2004) and making the
professional service firm the primary site of professional control and regulation (Cooper &
Robson, 2006).
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Until now, all the above discourse has taken place across a range or managerial,
organizational, sociological and disciplinary journals. However, beginning in 2013, the Journal of
Professions and Organization (JPO) will provide a single home for scholars interested in the
interface between professional sand the organizations in which they work. JPO aims to be the
premier outlet for research on professional organizations, including their work,
management and their broader social and economic role. Whereas the focus will be on the
organizational level, we maintain a broad interest in professionals, the professions,
professionalization, professional practice and relevant work-place issues. We are particularly
receptive to interdisciplinary perspectives and contributions, with strong interests in all
professional organizations, professional service firms (PSFs), and public sector professionals
(PSPs). While recognizing the importance of traditional professions, we welcome work on new
professions, occupations claiming some professional status, and on knowledge workers more
generally.
JPO will be a catalyst for top quality scholarly research concerning professionals and their
organizations. We aim to connect to a number of important theoretical as well as organizational
and managerial developments which are emerging in this field. Current theoretical advances are
building on institutional theory, and the sociology of organizations and markets. This journal will
be a leading venue for these theoretical advances as they apply to professional organizations,
PSFs and PSPs. Further, there will be a strong emphasis on developments in managerial practices
and organizational forms relevant to these contexts. Another objective is concerned with better
understanding the crucial role of professional organizations and occupations in the wider
economic and social order. A critical objective of JPO is to leverage the network of international
scholars in sociology, management, psychology, geography as well as economics and business
history in order to advance research in the broader field of expert or knowledge-based work. This
broad perspective will enable us to bring together scholars from very diverse disciplines to allow
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us to engage in broad debates and foster a multidisciplinary research agenda. This makes JPO
quite unique and puts it at the forefront of the development towards more integrative and
multidisciplinary research in this specialty field.
This PDW will be an opportunity for prospective authors to learn more about JPO and
explore the suitability of their research for this outlet. All three editors of JPO will be in
attendance. Authors will be invited to send any ideas, formative drafts, or manuscripts to the
editors ahead of the PDW; or to bring their work along with them. [Format of the PDW is
outlined later in this proposal.] We will circulate additional information once the JPO website
is up and running, but until then prospective authors are welcome to contact the editors,
David Brock (dmb@bgu.ac.il), Hüseyin Leblebici, (hleblebi@illinois.edu) and Daniel Muzio
(daniel.muzio@mbs.ac.uk).
JPO’s scope
Taking stock of the theoretical fragmentation of this field and with the realization that existing
models may no longer fit the changing, more complex and uncertain social, economic, and
cultural environment in which the professions operate, JPO will publish a breadth of papers that
contribute both theoretically and empirically to our understanding of contemporary professional
organizations, their work and management. Prior analyses seem to indicate three levels of
analysis within which empirical and theoretical advances are called for, namely:
●
the micro/workplace level: concerning issues such as working conditions and practices;
●
the meso/organizational level: concerning issues such as management and organization of
PSFs and PSPs; and,
●
the macro/institutional level: concerning issues such as broader changes in the field of
professionals, as well as regulation and their changing social role.
We thus encourage submissions which explore, but are not limited to, questions such as:
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Submission 10527
●
What new managerial practices, strategies, organizational structures and business models
are evolving?
●
What have we learned about the management and organization of professionals that may
lead to better normative understandings of effective managerial techniques in the
contemporary context?
●
What are the prospects for new ownership structures? What impact are these likely to have
on work practices and cultures? What types of firms are most likely to pursue these?
●
What is the likely impact of new organizational models for the working conditions and
experiences of professionals?
●
What changes are underway concerning the broader social function of professional
organizations?
●
How are professions and professional organizations reshaping core political, economic
and social institutions?
●
What theoretical and conceptual lenses can we use to make sense of such developments?
●
To what extent can professional organizations be studied using concepts derived from
mainstream organizational theory (N-form, boundaryless organization, virtual corporation,
the adhocracy) and in what ways should these be developed to apply to professional
firms?
●
Existing models of PSFs tend to be Anglo-centric in focus and to reflect the experiences of
a few show case professions (law or accountancy), how relevant are these for
understanding PSFs in other national and occupational contexts?
JPO will publish papers of various methodologies and approaches: conceptual, theory building,
meta-analytical, and empirical. Recognizing the multi-disciplinary character of this area,
submissions may draw on history, geography, political theory, sociology, economics and
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management thinking. Given the extremely fluid state of the field, we are also keen to consider
speculative and thinking pieces.
b. Relevance of this PDW to OMT
The objectives of this PDW are very much in line with the stated domain of the OMT
division, namely to promote theoretical development and empirical testing of organization–level
research in what is a particularly significant and topical context. Furthermore, similar to OMT’s
mission statement, this PDW will contribute to the development of the community of researchers,
educators, and practitioners who advance OMT scholarship within the domain of professions,
professional organizations, and professional projects.
c. Workshop format
The PDW will run for two hours. We will begin with brief introductions of all present, during
which participants will be asked to try to give a one-minute overview of their “professional
organization” research. This initial phase should take about half an hour.
Then for about the next hour, we will split into groups to discuss specific papers and ideas
submitted by attendees. Depending on the number of papers/drafts/proposals send in advance to
the editorial team, further members of the editorial board will be invited to help provide personal
attention to attendees as far as possible.
For the final half-hour we will gather together again in the spirit of sharing new insights. The
editors will briefly sketch the way forward for JPO, and arrangements will be make for all
participants to keep in touch in the future.
To make our sessions as productive as it can be we will request participants to submit their
papers in advance of the workshop.
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