Managing occupational identity and institutional pressure within French business schools

Abstract

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to examine how faculty members in French business schools (FBSs) manage intense pressure to adapt their practices and roles to new international academic standards. It stresses that in order to stimulate people’s accommodation of new institutional demands it is important to apprehend and manage occupational identity (OI).Design/methodology/approach– This is an inductive qualitative study that draws on 48 interviews in ten FBSs and written data.Findings– The paper categorizes faculty members’ responses to demands for more international academic research based on their initial OI. It also discusses the strategies schools employ to manage this transition and faculty’s professional roles.Originality/value– The originality lies in the empirical examination of a phenomenon that has so far been studied only theoretically. Business schools can improve their performance and avoid mission drift by apprehending and managing faculty members’ occupational identities.