Organization Of Professional Work Research Articles

Professional regulation in the digital era: A qualitative case study of three professions in Ontario, Canada.

Technology is transforming service delivery and practice in many regulated professions, altering required skills, scopes of practice, and the organization of professional work. Professional regulators face considerable pressure to facilitate technology-enabled work while adapting to digital changes in their practices and procedures. However, our understanding of how regulators are responding to technology-driven risks and the impact of technology on regulatory policy is limited. To examine the impact of technology and digitalization on regulation, we conducted an exploratory case study of the regulatory bodies for nursing, law, and social work in Ontario, Canada. Data were collected over two phases. First, we collected documents from the regulators' websites and regulatory consortiums. Second, we conducted key informant interviews with two representatives from each regulator. Data were thematically analyzed to explore the impact of technological change on regulatory activities and policies and to compare how regulatory structure and field shape this impact. Five themes were identified in our analysis: balancing efficiency potential with risks of certain technological advances; the potential for improving regulation through data analytics; considering how to regulate a technologically competent workforce; recalibrating pandemic emergency measures involving technology; and contemplating the future of technology on regulatory policy and practice. Regulators face ongoing challenges with providing equity-based approaches to regulating virtual practice, ensuring practitioners are technologically competent, and leveraging regulatory data to inform decision-making. Policymakers and regulators across Canada and internationally should prioritize risk-balanced policies, guidelines, and practice standards to support professional practice in the digital era.

Automating Expert Labor in Medicine: What Are the Questions?

I argue that the contemporary organization of professional work indicates the limits of answering typical questions about automation and technology in work to understand the practices of experts. Examining the case of automation in medicine, specifically Stereotaxis technology, I analyze a colligation of data on decisions about the uptake of this robotic technology among United States surgeons. I examine data including: procedure efficiency over time, the technology’s affordances for the preservation of surgeons’ bodily capital, changes in the profession’s demographic profile, physician social networks, and clinical researchers’ published assessments. The data suggest that automation of a central task can support and enhance the work of individual experts. They also show that using robotics does not improve efficiency. This case thus challenges the assumption that automation displaces work, at least in the case of professionals. And so, because Stereotaxis becomes more of a complement to surgeons’ work as opposed to a substitute, this case points towards the importance of focusing attention less on job automation than on task automation. The case also highlights that users of the technology (physicians) value it differently than do purchasers (administrators). In addition, it identifies the differing considerations motivating their decisions to adopt or not adopt the technology. And in light of the finding that robotics use is more common among the rank-and-file than the elite, it may be that some professionals perceive automation to afford mobility opportunities. Based on these findings I propose new questions for scholarship on medicine, work, and automation, including those around “expert” versus “unskilled” labor, the body, and workplace divisions of labor.

In a flash of time: knowledge resources that enable professional cross-boundary work

Abstract In this paper, we highlight the networked context of the professions. In particular, we indicate that neo-classical professionals tend to work across organizational boundaries in project teams, often to meet the needs of clients and the wider society. However, little is known about the resources that professionals draw on to meet immediate, fast paced, client demands in project network organizations (PNOs). We pinpoint how knowledge resources, human, social and organizational capital enable professionals to produce outputs at a fast pace/tempo. Temporality emerged as an unexpected but key issue in our empirical research and we explore this further here. First, we put forward how professional work organization(s) has changed by focusing on the boundaries of organizations, and how this is often temporary and project-driven. Second, we use the specific lens of knowledge resources which are drawn upon to enable networked working and ask the question: which knowledge resources enable professionals to work at a fast pace within networks? Third, appreciative of the vast literature on temporary and networked organizations in professional work, our focus is beyond a single profession or organization, and hence, we build upon the prior research on PNOs. We do this by drawing on empirical data of a humanitarian aid project networked organization (HN) that upscales across its network at high speed, often within days, to generate funds for humanitarian disasters in order to save lives.

СУБСТАНЦИИ КОМПОЗИТНОЙ ФОРМЫ

Architecture as a language of social communication embodies the artistic content in various forms that are associated with the organization of professional work. During the period of handicraft production, the architect-the main builder, expressed the cosmic harmony of the Universe made by the Creator. Being a designer, an architect expressed mathematical proportions in the composite forms of the building drawing. The division of labor in design led to the differentiation of the composite form into a functional form, compositional form and constructive form. Industrialization of design led a composite concept to the development of spatial concepts and the formation of an environmental approach. The development of formative thinking of the architect led to the creation of new innovative eco-friendly architectural materials. Unique manufacturing techniques allow to create perfect flatness and flexibility of composite materials associated with the absence of internal stress. This led to the creation of spatial structures without seams in different temperature and climatic conditions. The article systematizes professional design experience concentrated in the concept of composite form, calling the integrated, differentiated and multilayer superpositions of design graphics and the construction body.

CoPs facing rationalization: the politics of community reproduction

PurposeThis paper aims to explore the relationship between the contemporary forms of manufacturing rationalization and the reproduction of communities of practice (CoPs) centred on tasks and craft. Building on critical literature highlighting the tensions between CoPs and rationalization, this paper aims to develop a nuanced account of how CoPs are reproduced in the context of rationalization.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative case study of a CoP involved in the production of automotive components was conducted. Following a change in ownership, the company was instructed to rationalize production according to the principles of lean production. Data were collected through participant observation and semi-structured interviews.FindingsThe CoP of the case study reinterpreted, resisted and redefined the lean production practices according to the established norms and values. In collusion with local management, workers protected the integrity of the community by engaging in hypocritical reporting. While lower-level managers buffered the rationalization pressures, workers would “get the work done” without further interference.Research limitations/implicationsThe critical research approach may be applied to a wide range of cases in which informal or professional work organization collides with change programmes driven by management. Future research is encouraged to investigate more closely how CoPs gain access to formal and informal power by enrolling lower-level managers in their joint enterprise and world view.Practical implicationsManagers should be aware that attempts to rationalize community-based work forms may lead to dysfunctional patterns of organizational decoupling.Originality/valueThis study is one of the first to empirically examine the relationship between CoPs and manufacturing rationalization.

Time, Knowledge, and Power in Psychotherapy: A Comparison of Psychodynamic and Cognitive Behavioral Practices

Time has long been recognized as a marker of professional control and a tool for the organization of work. Yet we know less about how temporality intersects with experts’ epistemic goals. This article illustrates how the patterning of time in psychotherapy shapes the construction of knowledge about mental illness and how this relationship is mediated by patients’ own interventions. I focus on psychodynamic and cognitive behavioral therapeutic practices and draw on data from ethnographic observations in an outpatient psychiatry clinic and in-depth interviews with psychotherapists. The article details the constitutive relationship between two dimensions of temporality: first, clock time, namely the length of treatment, the length and frequency of sessions, and the flow of the therapy hour, and second, the temporal epistemics of illness, its construction as a phenomenon with a past, present, and future. Clinicians in the two orientations attempt to construct particular temporal landscapes by integrating these two facets of their work. Yet they must always do so in response to patients’ own temporal interventions. By attending both to the organization of professional work and the temporality of illness, this article brings together two largely distinct literatures within medical sociology, namely scholarship on the profession of medicine and social scientific understandings of the temporal dimensions of illness. It shows that temporality is constitutive of how knowledge and power are negotiated in expert work.

SPECIFIC FEATURES OF STATUS OF ATTORNEYS WORKING AT THE ATTORNEYS' CONSULTATIONS AT VOLOGDA DISTRICT COURT

In contemporary world plays a significant role institute legal profession. In anticipation of the reforms the legal community is important to explore this institution not only at the present stage, but also to trace its development in history. The purpose of this research - to characterize the status of the problematic aspects of a barrister in their relationship with the status of Consultations attorneys at the district courts by the example of consultations with attorneys Vologda district court. Scientific and practical significance of the work lies in the fact that the historical study of the subject will adopt a positive historical experience and avoid repeating mistakes. The author uses historical, comparative, hermeneutical , mathematical methods, as well as general methods of scientific research. The author analyzes the performance of consultations with attorneys Vologda district court at the beginning of the XX century , concluding that the consultation attorneys in the Vologda district court is not an organ of the community of barristers and voluntary association of individuals for the convenience of the organization of professional work . The results of this study provide scientific and practical value , as may be applicable both for the training of students in the disciplines of "legal profession" and "History of State and Law", and in practice - in the drafting of the reform of the legal profession. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.12731/2218-7405-2013-10-17

Time Work by Overworked Professionals

How are professionals responding to the time strains brought on by the stress of their higher status jobs? Qualitative data from professionals reveal (a) general acceptance of the emerging temporal organization of professional work, including rising time demands and blurred boundaries around work/ nonwork times and places, and (b) time work as strategic responses to work intensification, overloads, and boundarylessness. We detected four time-work strategies: prioritizing time, scaling back obligations, blocking out time, and time shifting of obligations. These strategies are often more work-friendly than family-friendly, but "blocking out time" and "time shifting" suggest promising avenues for work-time policy and practice.

Perspective—Professional Work: The Emergence of Collaborative Community

This paper traces the main lines of evolution of the organization of professional work. The argument is illustrated with material on the case of doctors and hospitals. While market and hierarchy principles have become progressively more salient in professional work, we argue that, in parallel, the community principle has been growing more influential, too. We further argue that professional community is mutating from a Gemeinschaft, craft guild form, via Gesellschaft forms, toward a new, collaborative form. This evolution, however, is a difficult one, and the outcome is uncertain. We identify some implications for future research.

New Professionalism, Trust and Competence

Many professional occupations have acquired a new environment and new conditions for their legitimacy. Decentralization, deregulation, privatization and new market forms have turned many professional work organizations, including schools, into clearer and more delimited organizations. Thus, there is a demand for a new professionalism in the discourse on changes and leadership of work organizations. Professionalism is strongly related to confidence in abstract systems and institutions as well as trust in individual professional practitioners. A minor semantic questionnaire study of the concept of professionalism was conducted. Results showed a very strong emphasis upon knowledge, competence and skill, and on the coupling with professions and professional practice. Professionalism was regarded by respondents as contextual competence rather than as a general capability. Practical knowledge, experience and knowledge in use were stressed over theoretical knowledge and formal education. Moreover, the concept had a strong positive connotation. Professionalism was always interpreted in the study as a phenomenon on the individual level and never on the organizational level. A cognitive aspect was completely dominant, a clear minority of respondents indicated an affective aspect, another clear minority expressed an ethical and moral aspect. Authority, licence and legitimation were barely mentioned. The concept of professionalism was not directly linked to confidence or trust, but only indirectly through concepts such as ethics and responsibility. Conversely, however, it was the cognitive attitudes towards professionalism that formed the decisive basis for trust in professionals.

The catalyst process: What academics provide to practitioners

AbstractIn this article, I explore what academics may offer community groups and practitioners by suggesting that scholars serve as catalysts that make community projects possible. One goal is to propose the catalyst model as a way of refocusing the action research paradigm. Action research is an established paradigm for scholars who wish to combine their research agenda with a desire to partner with community leaders on change projects. Discussions of action research tend to focus on the value of the approach for academics and methodological strategies that allow them to produce research their university colleagues consider legitimate. In the catalyst approach, we explore what university people provide in pragmatic terms that allows community movements and projects to move ahead. I deemphasize expert knowledge and focus instead on institutional resources. Scholars provide a gateway to a rich resource environment. The organization of professional work also allows scholars to give continuity to projects and to provide a framework that allows projects that otherwise might stall to move toward completion. The catalyst model eliminates the notion that scholars and practitioners belong to fundamentally different intellectual cultures and thereby removes one of the perceived barriers to effective action research. The model also indicates some organizational strategies for university people to use should they wish to set up long‐term university‐community partnerships..

Obstacles and Opportunities in Access to Professional Work Organizations for Long-term Fieldwork: The Case of Japanese Laboratories

Professional work organizations such as corporations and government agencies are becoming important sites for anthropological research. As a result, we need more attention to one of the most difficult yet critical aspects of long-term fieldwork in such organizations: access. After delineating the critical features of professional work organizations, the author uses his experiences in Japanese and American bioscience laboratories to generate hypotheses concerning their dynamics of access. This article argues that we can increase access by identifying and serving the needs of the professional work organizations studied, and offers some exploratory suggestions for systematic intellectual treatment of the access issue. Modifications of our own professional practices and organization are suggested in light of the challenges posed by access to these organizations.

Expert Power and Control in Late Modernity: An Empirical Review and Theoretical Synthesis

This paper provides an overview and evaluation of contemporary debates over the nature and significance of 'expert power' within 'late modemity'. It focuses on the changing relationship between expert power, organizational control and class formation within the wider context provided by the global shift towards more reflexive and flexible forms of capital accumulation. It concludes that the latter will have fateful consequences for the major forms of expertise. organizational design and class power taking shape in late modemity. In par ticular, it suggests that 'the politics of expertise' has become more intensely contested in contemporary conditions, and that this produces a more frag mented division of labour within and between the professional and managerial middle classes. Thus, expert groups are seen to play a strategic role in the radical restructuring of professional work organization and control occurring within the much more fragmented middle-class formations emerging in advanced capitalist societies.

Practical knowledge and occupational control: The professionalization of architecture in the United States

An analysis of the formation of a discipline of architectural design in the United States in the first part of the 19th century emphasizes the relationship between the substantive content of professional expertise and the social structure of professional practice. As a newly constructed practice of design was threatened by broad changes affecting the structure of occupational control, explicit professionalizing projects emerged from the ideological organization of professional work itself. This paper identifies limitations of the market monopoly model and outlines an alternative view that focuses on the way the rhetorical dimensions of professional work organize the efforts of actors within a self-reproducing structure of occupational control. Analysis of the production of practical knowledge opens up new directions for research, incorporating the cultural dimensions of work into a macrostructural account of a profession and the processes of professionalization.

Psychiatry and suicide: the management of a mistake.

Combining theoretical and empirical material, this paper outlines why mistakes and acts which might be regarded as mistakes are an important vehicle for analyzing the social organization of professional work. It investigates a major event of potential error in psychiatry-suicide of a patient-as a means of understanding basic beliefs and organizational feature of the psychiatric profession. Based on participant observation and interviews, the evidence is also supported by all previous studies on this subject. In presenting its argument, the paper brings together a body of psychiatric literature on professional response to suicide not previously organized.