PDW: Professions in Organizational Life: Theoretical and Empirical
Advances
Friday, August 11, 1:00-5:00 PM
Marriott Marquis, International A
Co-organizers:
Amit Nigam
Rakesh Khurana
Session Objective:
Professions are central to organizational and public life. As an avenue
for social mobility, professions shape how individuals define and navigate
their careers. As social institutions for training and research, they
create the specialized knowledge and skilled workforce that both
organizations and organizational scholars take for granted. Through
training and socializing individuals, professions also help define the
perspectives, identities and biases that individuals bring to their work.
Finally, as powerful political actors, organized professions are critical
in defining the legal and institutional environment within which
organizations operate.
Despite their importance, organizations researchers have devoted
relatively little attention to examining the role of professions. This ½
day workshop is intended to explore how organizations and strategy
researchers develop new theoretical and empirical insights by focusing on
the role of the professions in modern organizations. We draw on diverse
perspectives and empirical projects to examine the role that professions
play in organizational and public life. We define professions broadly, as
occupational communities that have specialized expertise, occupational
identity, and some form of field-level organization. The central goal of
the workshop is to show that making professions explicit can generate
fresh perspectives and insights that enrich both macro- and
micro-organizations research.
The scope of the workshop is topical rather than comprehensive. Given the
potential importance of professions across levels of analysis and
contexts, we focus on understanding how making professions explicit can
both recast existing theoretical discussions in the study of
organizations, and generate new theoretical perspectives that can help us
better understand our empirical research contexts.
The specific goals of this PDW are to:
· Introduce participants to cutting edge theory and empirical research
examining the role of professions in organizational and public life
· Identify and explore how participants own research might be enhanced by
incorporating an empirical or theoretical focus on professions
· Create an opportunity for participants to share works-in-progress that
incorporate a focus on professions
· Generate insights as to how making professions explicit can contribute
to mainstream theories and debates in the organizations and strategy fields
· Facilitate opportunities for exchange and collaboration among both
micro- and macro- scholars working in diverse domains.
The session will have two segments:
The first segment involves short presentations examining how a focus on
the role of professions can reframe ongoing discussions and debates in the
study of organizations and strategy, followed by an open discussion and
Q&A. The anticipated topics and presenters are (subject to fine-tuning):
Rakesh Khurana Management as a profession: Is it? And can it create
more principled managers?
A Nigam & G Dokko Professional identities and the construction of
technical standards
Beth Bechky "When a profession is just work: Occupations, work practice,
and organization theory
The second segment focuses on the potential for incorporating a
professions emphasis into participants ongoing research. It incorporates
short presentations of existing works-in-progress. The anticipated topics
and presenters are (subject to fine-tuning):
Candy Jones Reputations, careers and network ties: the value and
consequences of inter-firm alliances between architecture and engineering
firms.
Matthew Bidwell Professional work/Temporary work: why do organizations
treat IT consultants like their own?
Scott Snook Socializing professionals: the impact of the MBA experience
on MBAs professional identities
The panel will be followed by roundtables (50 minutes), each facilitated
by a presenter and/or organizer, in which participants will have the
chance to discuss challenges and opportunities in their own
works-in-progress. Pre-registered participants are invited to submit a 1
page abstract outlining a current work-in-progress. The PDW organizers
will distribute the one page abstracts to all pre-registered participants
in advance of the workshop. The tables will report back to the
organizers, who will create a list of challenges and opportunities (10
minutes).
Pre-registration is recommended, but not required for this workshop.
To Pre-register contact Amit Nigam [ mailto:
amit_nigam@bus.emory.edu
]
amit_nigam@bus.emory.edu
Amit Nigam
O&M Faculty
Goizueta Business School
Emory University