Complying Resistant and Resistant Complying Frontline Professionals: An Identity Work Perspective

Abstract

Professionals are caught between two competing identity demands of being autonomous actors or turning into conformist organizational members. Professionalism has been mainly viewed as a discursive resource on which professionals draw in their identity talks to either fully or partially resist managerialism that intends to discipline their identities. Based on a study conducted in a public social welfare organization, we found that the frontline professionals’ identities are disciplined in their talks about two routine practices of daily paperwork and regular supervisory meetings (both introduced by the organization) when performing in congruence with the rules. However, when discussing the instances of intentional deviation from the organizational policies, their seemingly resistant identities are disciplined by their aspiration of presenting their selves as caregivers which is rooted in the most dominant professional discourse in this field. We, therefore, argue that control is not the sole property of organizations, but pervasive professional discourses may also introduce disciplinary effects that account for the responsible autonomy demonstrated by professionals. By pairing discursive practices with different types of action, our analysis also suggests that both discursive conformity and resistance cut across the boundaries between acting in alignment with and against the organizational policies.