Professional Ethos Research Articles

Organisational Justice and Political Agency among Nurses in Public Healthcare Organisations: A Qualitative Study Protocol.

Nurses are rarely treated as equals in the social, professional, clinical, and administrative life of healthcare organisations. The primary objective of this study is to explore nurses’ perceptions of organisational justice in public healthcare institutions in Majorca, Balearic Islands, Spain, and to analyse the ways in which they exercise their political agency to challenge the institutional order when it fails to reflect their professional ethos. An ethnomethodological approach using critical discourse analysis will be employed. The main participants will be nurses occupying different roles in healthcare organisations, who will be considered central respondents, and physicians and managers, who will be considered peripheral respondents. Data generation techniques include semi-structured interviews, a sociodemographic questionnaire, and the researcher’s field diary. This is one of the first studies to address organisational justice in healthcare organisations from a macrostructural perspective and to explore nurses’ political agency. The results of this study have the potential to advance knowledge and to ensure that healthcare organisations are fairer for nurses, and, by extension, for the patients in their care.

Circuits of architecture and urban planning: Professional ethos and the internationalization of small architectural offices

AbstractAlthough the production of the built environment is increasingly globalized, and architecture and urban planning (AUP) professionals are known to be the key carriers of mobile ideas, the internationalization of small owner‐centred architectural offices has gained little academic attention, compared to the large consultancies that dominate the global market. We bring together the literature on the circuits of urban planning ideas, the international movement of AUP firms and professional ethoses to explore the internationalization of small AUP offices. Using interview data from Finnish offices, we investigate the ‘what, where, why and how’ and find that they have entered specific geographically delimited AUP circuits demarcated by type of project. We contribute to the literature by identifying motives characteristic of small offices guided by professional ethoses suited to the circuits where they internationalize. Their ethoses may evolve in time and space, as they operate in new circuits. We propose that ethos–circuit coherence may contribute to the successful internationalization of small architectural offices. The findings open avenues for further research on professional ethos not only of architects but also other internationally operating professionals, as it may guide their decisions by other than a narrowly conceived profit motive.

“My Role Is Important, but Not Critical”: Why Intention Matters in the Creation of Victim Assistance Units in Israel

ABSTRACT Crime victims often need assistance navigating the unfamiliar legal system. Limited research exists, however, on those tasked with helping victims, the victim assistance units (VAUs), particularly outside the US. Indeed, there have been calls in the literature for more comparative research in this area. Responding to their call, this exploratory study analyzes the creation of VAUs within the district attorney’s offices (DAO) in Israel following specific victims’ rights legislation. Using qualitative interviews with representatives from three quarters of the VAUs in Israel (N = 6), the paper explores the formation of two models of VAUs, examines the specific location of the VAU within the DAOs, and analyzes various influences on the work of the VAU. I argue that limited resources, cultural organization and professional ethos prevent VAUs from fully addressing victims’ needs. In order to best respond to victims’ needs, the VAUs should expand their contact with victims and receive sufficient resources to do so. The Israeli case study demonstrates that to best assist victims, VAUs should be created with a “victim-centered” agenda. This study advances our knowledge of victim workers outside the US, highlighting the impact of their DAO’s affiliation and its potential impact on victims.

Local context and immigrant bureaucratic incorporation: insights from Amsterdam and New York City

ABSTRACT This article explains how bureaucratic inertia and resistance to accommodating immigrants were overcome in Amsterdam and New York City. Scholarship on ‘immigrant bureaucratic incorporation’ is based largely on research conducted in U.S. suburban and rural areas and tends to highlight the importance of bureaucrats’ professional ethos – at times amplified by inclusive state and federal policies. Building on this work, our examination of Amsterdam school policies and New York City language access policies underscores instead the importance of local political and civic context in explaining why and how bureaucracies responded to the needs of immigrant communities in these established gateway cities. While Amsterdam and New York City bureaucrats initially resisted accommodating immigrants’ needs largely due to big-government inertia, their interactions, synergies, and conflicts with other local governmental and nongovernmental actors active on immigrant issues eventually resulted in more inclusive school and language access policies and practices.

Hostess, Ghost, and Apocalypse: Reconsidering Alice Munro’s “Carried Away”

ABSTRACT The global COVID-19 pandemic affords contemporary readers a unique perspective for reinterpreting the relationship between Jack and Louisa in Alice Munro’s short story “Carried Away.” This alternate reading prioritizes Louisa’s difficult experiences with illness and rejection and reconsiders Jack as an abusive interlocutor who takes advantage of Louisa’s status as town librarian and the era’s social mores, its calamities, and the fog of war to exert control over a woman he desires, but could otherwise not be with. In this reading, Jack uses Louisa’s professional ethos of availability and her public workspace to reorder an otherwise heterotopic space and establish a system whereby he can anonymously surveil her and keep her under his control. Louisa’s pandemic-associated anxieties are acutely present for contemporary readers who are experiencing the most impactful global sickness of the past 100 years. This reading positions Jack as an intentional bad actor rather than as a man simply “carried away.”

Small Business Dynasties in Modern Russia: Strategies and Prospects for Reproduction

Reproduction of generational succession in small and medium-sized businesses is a basic element of the national economies of many Western countries. Russia’s socio-economic development is also guided by a significant increase in the SME sector. However, the relatively short period of development of market relations in our country, economic crises and transitivity of the status of family business (both in the legal field and in public opinion), instability of organizational and communicative practices of inheritance of capital are factors that prevent the formation of entrepreneurial dynasties in Russia. An empirical study of strategies for reproduction of entrepreneurial dynasties shows that small businesses in our country are less focused on educational strategies, through obtaining professional education. Professional continuity is based primarily on work experience (usually from grassroots positions) and mentoring from the older generation. However, the educational strategies are becoming more relevant at the level of prospects for including the third generation of heirs in the family business. Strategies of social (accumulation of mobilizable social relations) and symbolic (accumulation and multiplication of recognition capital) investment are common in dynastic reproduction. Family traditions and business experience are often associated with the ability to transfer social capital at a lower cost, the advantage of broadcasting and adopting informal business experience and business connections. Intergenerational continuity is ensured by the formation and translation of the family culture of the business dynasty with special value-identification meanings, including the special professional ethos of family business representatives.

Collaborative Care Rises to the Pandemic Challenge

Collaborative Care Rises to the Pandemic Challenge

O Impacto das Empresas Militares Privadas nas Operações Militares

The aim of this article is to analyse the employment of Private Military Companies (PMC’s) inmilitary operations and UN missions. The PMC’s operate throughout the world, commissioned by governments, intelligence agencies, private industries, warlords, drug cartels and rebel groups to support their militaries and investments. These companies share not only similar corporate aims but also a professional ethos; they are largely run and staffed by ex-military personnel. The existing literature confirms the fact that Africa is the largest theatre of PMC’s operation next to Iraq and Afghanistan (GWATIWA, 2016). This phenomenon continues to raise serious concerns to the national armed forces, as most governments are still reliant on their military forces to protect their borders and vital interests. Traditionally military function has been known to be the sole responsibility of the state; (SINGER, 2008) however, the PMCs are continuing to infringe on that mandate. The international system has undergone a significant change since the United States (US) terrorist attack incident in September 2011, where the PMC’s has become broadly acceptable elements of the Global War on Terrorism (GWT). Therefore, this article will look into the employment of PMCs in different countries and analyse the trend and legalities involved. Finally, a conclusion will be drawn to identify measures to curb or minimise the threats posed by PMCs to state militaries and military operations.

Knowledge and identity construction in medical weblogs: A study of epistemic predicates

Following the discourse-based, interactional approaches to modality and identity, and recognizing that knowledge is social, relative and contextual, this paper aims to explore epistemic predicates in a corpus of Polish medical weblogs run by healthcare practitioners. The focus is put on the role of epistemic predicates in identity work performed by the bloggers and their audience. The study reveals the variety of the usage patterns of epistemic verbs, the diversity of the roles which healthcare practitioners act out in their blogs and the numerous purposes for which they engage in blogging. To construct their professional identity, healthcare practitioners draw on discursive strategies of distancing-mitigation, legitimization and self-disclosure. In this way, they position themselves as expert specialists who follow their professional ethos, as researchers who extend their knowledge and advice givers who are willing to share knowledge with their non-specialist audience and to educate their patients. They authenticate their expertise through references to their own medical practice and experience. The bloggers also aim to minimize the distance between their readers and engage in conversation with them. In response, the audience actively participates in the co-construction of knowledge and experience-sharing, and contributes to community building.

The U.S. military culture system of values mirrored by professional lingo

This research unveils the nature of relations among such phenomena as "ethnos", "culture" and "language". Vested with the function of axiological retranslation, mottoes of the U.S. Armed Forces services and branches make essential part of the military lingo as a semi-autonomous existential form of the national language. Clichéd formulas of the professional sublanguage official register explicitly reflect collective mindset, dominant values, behavioral patterns, and conceptosphere of America’s society military cluster. The authors arrive at the conclusion that military mottoes are typical of vocativity, brevity, metaphoricity, widespread use of Latinisms, stereotypogenicity, and appeal for professional ethos.

Philosophy in Belarus: Historical Specificity – Modern Trends – National Context

The article considers the formation and development of philosophy in Belarus in the context of historical conditions and modern opportunities. Discussing the national context of the philosophical process, the author reveals the four aspects of the phenomenon of “national philosophy.” Firstly, there are national institutional and disciplinary structures, which are responsible for an organized scientific, methodological, research and educational activity, which at the level of the nation-state is formalized by certain institutions, system of professional education, norms of professional ethos, standards of behavior within the community and in the wider social environment. Secondly, in the light of philosophical culture, national philosophy is interpreted as a set of value and cognitive orientations passed down from generation to generation. Thirdly, national philosophy can be viewed in the aspect of the tradition of studying the philosophical thought of the nation in the context of its historical development. Fourthly, national philosophy appears in the aspect of the philosophical foundations of the national idea and national-cultural identity. The author examines the main stages of the development of the Belarusian philosophical culture, it is shown that the features of this culture were formed under the condition of a complex combination of the worldview and values of Latin civilization, Christianity, modern European science, rationalism of social projects of the Enlightenment, ideological and worldview attitudes of Western Russian culture, formalized Soviet philosophical disciplines. The article reviews the circle of theoretical, ideological, and practical problems that the modern philosophical process in Belarus faces, the author emphasizes the unfading value of philosophical knowledge as a source of heuristic means for finding effective local answers to global problems of cultural and civilizational development. The author argues that there are two conditions that make national philosophy possible: this is, first of all, a connection with the history of thought in the area of national genesis and also the expression of thought in a national language.

Physicians’ decision processes about the HPV vaccine: A qualitative study

BackgroundThe contemporary crisis of trust in vaccines has severely impaired acceptance of the HPV vaccine, especially in France, where its uptake culminated at 23.7% in 2018 (complete course at age 16). Physicians’ recommendations strongly influence its acceptance/refusal. Our study sought to understand the decision processes leading physicians to recommend this vaccine (or not). MethodsQualitative interviews of French physicians (general practitioners, gynecologists, and pediatricians). We first randomly selected doctors in a national register of medical professionals and then resorted to snowballing to build a convenience sample. We coded the interviews in a thematic analysis built both inductively and deductively from our research questions and data. ResultsTwo thirds of the participants (19/28) were favorable to HPV vaccination, some (4) opposed it, while the others were hesitant about recommending it. In explaining their opinions, most participants mentioned that they trusted the stakeholders within the vaccination system: the less trust they had, the more critical they were of the vaccine and the more importance they attributed to patients’ opinions. We identified three different ways they interacted with patients on this topic: informing and convincing; adapting to patients’ opinions; refusing compromise about vaccination. Crossing these various themes, we found 5 types of physicians: dissidents (mistrustful of the healthcare system and HPV vaccine), hesitant (finding it difficult to make up their minds about this vaccination), laissez-faire (letting patients decide by themselves, but very favorable to HPV vaccination), educator (very favorable), and uncompromising vaccinators (refusing debate). Pediatricians were overrepresented among the latter two types. ConclusionsPhysicians’ judgment was influenced by their trust in the stakeholders involved in designing and implementing the HPV vaccination strategy. In this sense, doctors did not differ substantially from laypeople. They were, nonetheless, strongly influenced by their professional style and ethos.

Medical hybridity and beyond: professional transitions in Italian outpatient settings

The marketization of public healthcare has brought about organizational transformations, affecting health professionals' ways of working in hospitals and outpatient organizations. As a result of the reforms in the 1990s, the principle of business-like healthcare has been introduced in the Italian health system. This paper presents the main findings of a study of specialist doctors working in two local health organizations in the Tuscany region. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with specialist doctors working in an outpatient setting, the article examines the manifold reactions to changes of the medical profession within outpatient settings. In particular, the combination of professional and organizational dimensions has been taken into consideration. The results show that a change is involving outpatient specialist doctors' identity: organizational change affects several dimensions of the medical professional ethos. The change has been understood by categorizing three major types of approaches to medical professionalism, which are aimed to understand the complexity of the domain and to summarize professionals' reactions: the first is linked to a traditional model of professionalism; the second accepts partially business-like organizational issues, while trying to create individual spaces of autonomy in daily tasks; the third co-opts new organizational issues, which become part of the medical professional ethos.

Neoliberal language policies and linguistic entrepreneurship in Higher Education

Abstract This paper analyzes English-Medium-Instruction (EMI) lecturers’ ambivalent orientations towards neoliberal language policies and linguistic entrepreneurship. The data includes interviews with six case-study lecturers’ biographic narratives, audiologs and video/audio-recorded observations, collected in a market-oriented Catalan university. I show that lecturers problematize Englishization policies but operationalize them by presenting themselves as leading actors in the deployment of EMI. Following “managerialism” logics, they envision English as an economically-convertible “career skill”, imperative to meet new employability/workplace demands. They carve advantaged professional ethos linked to their self-attained English-language resources. They devalue their “non-native” accent but present themselves as content and English-language lecturers, distinguishing themselves from “ordinary” colleagues who teach in local languages, in narratives of “competitiveness” whereby they naturalize a socioeconomically-stratifying system of meritocracy/revenue grounded on the marketization of English. This contributes to understand neoliberal-governance regimes which impose language-based mechanisms for lecturers’ profiling based on views of education as the corporatized “making” of productive workers-to-be.

Management of technological innovation: high tech R&D in the GDR

Fundamental changes in the management of technological innovation took place over the course of the 40-year history of the German Democratic Republic. This article analyzes management culture in electronics and microelectronics R&D, as well as at Carl Zeiss Jena. R&D directors of the 1950s and 1960s, whose careers started in the Weimar or Nazi era, had a professional ethos and managerial style not rooted in state socialism. This article analyzes their approaches to management according to criteria such as reliance on authority and hierarchy, promotion of communication, and importance attached to political conformity. Developments in R&D management at Carl Zeiss are traced up into the 1980s. The role of the Stasi (secret police) in high tech R&D is discussed.

Understanding Teacher Identity Construction: Professional Experiences of Becoming Indonesian Montessori Teachers

This study sought to investigate the identity construction of Indonesian Montessori teachers. The research was done in two Montessori schools in Yogyakarta: Cosmic School and Universe School (pseudonyms). The participants involved in this research were eight teachers in total. The data gathering process employed questionnaire, classroom observation, interview, and written reflections. The findings have shed a light on the ways teachers develop their identities within Montessori’s values and principles that they reflect and implement in their daily teaching practice. The findings of the research portrayed that there were four major salient principles influencing the identity formation of becoming Montessori teachers. They were movement and cognition, choice, interest, and teacher ways and child ways. Those principles and values were becoming teachers’ guidance of creating professional working ethos. Montessori principles also influenced the teachers in the ways they perceived and treated the students. This study also revealed the undertaken agencies to hold identity as Montessori teachers. There were three broad themes to explain their agencies. They entailed the essence of building communication between teacher and parents, the significance of community support, and the importance of being well-prepared teachers. Based on the findings and discussion, some recommendations for future studies are also presented.

Ethos of the teaching profession in the perspective of students of pedagogical and non-pedagogical universities

The effects of a teacher’s work depend not only on his/her qualifications and professional skills, but also on his/her personality traits and life attitude. All these components are important in the teaching and educational work, and at the same time they make up the ethos of the teaching profession. Contemporary conditions of the functioning of Polish education, the pace and scope of transformations taking place, and finally the often signaled crisis of the educational impact of the school are arguments proving the need to rebuild the ethos, which requires its proper interpretation, especially in academic milieu. The article is a research report, the subject of which is the teacher’s professional ethos.

Transnational Jihadism and the Role of Criminal Judges: An Ethnography of French Courts

AbstractLower national courts are increasingly asked to perform a transnational role, being directly involved in major geopolitical issues such as conflicts, migration, and transnational terrorism. Based on an ethnography of French criminal courts, this article aims to examine this emerging role of national lower courts as transnationalized players. Through an examination of terrorism prosecutions in France and the positions of the different judicial actors, it is argued that lower criminal courts, acting within a transnational context, can offer more robust resistance to states’ policies than supreme courts. This is because of the routine and the banality of their function and the direct interaction with the accused persons coupled with the judges’ own professional ethos and notion of judicial independence. Unlike supreme courts, whose role is more visible, and thus under the constant scrutiny of the political branches of the state, lower courts can operate in a more distant, independent space.

Making Space

Making Space

The Return to Reflexivity in Management and Leadership Practice: Seeing More, Seeing Differently

This symposium responds to one of the grand challenges of our times, restoring the ethos of professionalism, by inviting a return to reflexivity. Reflexivity provides the connective tissue between theory and practice, allowing us to get out of the dispositions and values of the field, breaking with the ‘logic of theory’ and turning to the ‘logic of practice’. Applied to professions, professionals, and professionalism, a return to reflexivity broadens our sights by offering new ways of accounting for professional conduct, beyond the mere focus on specialized knowledge and competence that traditionally have defined expertise. Instead, the focus is on additional modes of knowledge like practical judgement – phronesis – which bring to the fore neglected aspects of what professionalism truly means, particularly when geared to serving the common good. These neglected aspects include not only values but also virtues, cultivating character and conscience. These dimensions of professionalism can provide a response in addressing the persistence of professional misconduct and malpractice at the core of many social, political, and economic crises. Reflexivity at the interface between social complexity and individual agency supports practical judgments and the development of leadership practice, in ways that allow actors to assess their situations and gain insights into the constraints and tensions they encounter in the social contexts within which they are embedded. Reflexivity offers an essential response in contexts characterized by volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity and can enrich leadership practice. Why ‘Return’ to Reflexivity? Why Now? Presenter: Elena P. Antonacopoulou; U. of Liverpool What Does it Mean to be Reflexive in Growing Leadership? Presenter: Beverley Hawkins; U. of Exeter Business School Presenter: Christian Moldjord; Norwegian Defence U. College/Royal Norwegian Air Force Academy Norway Presenter: Chrysavgi Sklaveniti; U. of St. Gallen Presenter: Christina Stokkeland; Norwegian Defence U. College/Royal Norwegian Air Force Academy Norway Reflexivity in Leadership Development Through Art-Based Methods Presenter: Steven S. Taylor; Worcester Polytechnic Institute Cultivating Reflexivity to Avert Conduct Risk – The Internal Audit Department Case Study Presenter: Woon Gan Soh; Singapore Cultivating Reflexivity to Avert Professional Ineptitude – The Germanwings Case Study Presenter: Fotis Vouzas; Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd U. Presenter: Marina Mavromati; U. of Macedonia Presenter: Christina Nizamidou; U. of Cyprus