Professions and Other Organisations Stephen Ackroyd.

Professions and Other Organisations

Stephen Ackroyd

Professions: a Sideshow?

Studies of New Forms of Business Organisation– “The Organisation of Business”, (Oxford, 2002) and the edited

collection “Oxford Handbook of Work and Organisation” (2005) Comparative Study of the Effects of the new public

management (NPM) on the delivery of public services. – Work with Ian Kirkpatrick, “The New Managerialism and the

Public Service Professions” (Palgrave, 2005) and various papers (Organization, Public Admin, etc)

Comparative Study of the Organisation of the Professions and New Expert Occupations

– Work with Daniel Muzio in Organisation Studies, Journal of Law and Society Organization and forthcoming edited book “Redirections in the Study of Expert Labour” (Palgrave, 2007)

Classifying the Professions

TRADITIONAL /

EVOLVED

(High Group)

MODERN /

DESIGNED

(Low Group)

INFORMAL

(Low Grid)

FAMILY,

COMMUNITY

(Egalitarian)

NEW ORGS

(Individualist -

Egalitarian)

FORMAL

(High Grid)

PROFESSIONS

(Hierarchical)

FORMAL ORGANISATIONS

(Fatalist – Hierarchical)

NHS Hospitals (Nurses)

Social Services Depts Housing Services(Housing Associations)

Reorganisation

1. Single purpose organisation

+ + + + +(+ + +)

2. Purchaser - provider splits + + + +

3. New systems of accountability and control

+ + + + +

Modes of Implementation

4. Top-down Implementation

+ + + + + + + + +

5. Early implementation

+ + + + +

6. Regulatory agencies

+ + + + + + + +

7. Benchmarking & performance indicators

+ + + + + +

I. Comparative Analysis of Reform –in Three Public Services (Kirkpatrick, Ackroyd + Walker, 2005)

NHS Hospital Doctors (Nurses)

Local AuthoritySocial Workers

Housing Managers

1. Continued attachment to professional culture and values (Public service ethos)

+ + +(+ + +)

+ + + + +

2. de facto professional control of day to day work practices

+ + (+ +)

+ + + +

3. Rejection of managerial legitimacy

+ (+ )

+

Professional Closure4. Internal

5. External

+ + +(+ +)

+ + +

+ + +(+ +)

+ + +

Importance of Professional Organisation in Three Public Services (Kirkpatrick, Ackroyd and Walker, 2005)

Co-operation and Conflict:Managerialisation and Professionalisation

6. OccupationalProject II:

subordination of independentsources of skill

and independentknowledge

4. GroupAgency II:

Development of a

managerialcadre

5. OrganisationalMobilisation II :Routinsation of administration /

bureaucratisation

6. OrganisationalProject II:

Profession infiltrates

and developsde facto control

of employingorganisation

4. GroupAgency II:

profession develops credentials

and monopolyof supply

5. Occupational Mobilisation II:

Profession develops its

occupational association +consolidates professional

identity

II. Comparative Analysis of Expert Occupations: Doctors, Lawyers & Management Consultants

Why are expert occupations differently organised?

Why has there been no major profession formed in the 20th Century?

How can we understand the differences of organisation of lawyers, medical doctors ad management consultants?

Three Types of Expert Occupations I

Three Types of Expert Occupation II

McKenna’s Analysis of the Status Trade off for Expert Occupations

Key points of difference

Nothing in the ‘nature of the knowledge’ argument

The way groups have come to derive their status (McKenna)

Technology and the development of expertise – management consulting moves towards less training and experience

The Formative Context