Abstract
This study investigated the enactment of professional agency in an emotionally troubled work context emerging from a conflicted relationship between the professional and the work organization. Narrative interviews with Finnish educators were utilized. The findings indicate that the enactment of agency was in part framed by the educators’ rational interpretations of the relationship between themselves and their employer, plus their work history and future prospects. However, it was simultaneously embedded with contradictory emotions, such as a sense of being undervalued, fear, and a sense of empowerment. Within this framework, multifaceted professional agency was enacted particularly via leaving the organization. This was also a means of upholding one’s professional identity and resisting the organization’s work practices. The paper contributes to the theorizing of professional agency, particularly regarding its emotional dimension, and elaborates the significance of an emotional relationship between professionals and their organizations.
 Keywords: career, educators, emotions, meaningful work, narrative research, professional agency, professional identity
Highlights
This study investigated the enactment of professional agency in an emotionally troubled work context emerging from a conflicted relationship between the professional and the work organization
We aimed to investigate the enactment of educators’ professional agency in an emotionally troubled work context, where the emotions emerged from a conflicted relationship between the professional and the work organization
It indicates that the professional agency of both educators was enacted through decisions which led to a career transformation, and to the maintenance of professional identity
Summary
This study investigated the enactment of professional agency in an emotionally troubled work context emerging from a conflicted relationship between the professional and the work organization. In addition to dealing with social constraints, professionals are expected to be innovative, to be actively involved in organizational development, and to collaborate across professional and organizational boundaries (Alasoini, 2011; Buch & Andersen, 2013) In this sense, professionals function as leading agents in developing contemporary work organizations and society (Brock et al, 2014; Scott, 2008). The paper describes how the educators enacted a variety of forms of professional agency in this kind of emotionally troubled work context They changed their career path by leaving their organization (a form of transformative agency), and yet maintained their professional identity (a form of upholding agency). We suggest that recognition of the emotional nature of the relationship between the professional and work organization provides a perspective on what makes work meaningful for employees, with implications for their organizational commitment
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