Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
Roy Suddaby
University of Alberta
Daniel Muzio
University of Manchester
DRAFT
(not for circulation)
1
Introduction
or systems.
1
persistence. Later, researchers focused attention on the powerful
and practices that explain their internal coherence and their position
forms.
2
Structure and Function
relationship with clients (Lewis & Maude, 1949) and, perhaps most
3
society as they provided “centres of resistance to crude forces which
function for the broader social system in which they were embedded.
4
an identifiable social group (Johnson, 1972). Others suggested that
and change (Benson, 1975; Freidson, 1986). Critics also noted that
5
interest were a defining feature of many professions (Rosenberg et al,
1986). Perhaps most damaging, however, was the critique that, while
6
al, 1961; Freidson, 1970a; Daniels, 1973) that contradicted many of the
able to) extract economic rents for their services (Friedman &
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of high social status (Elliot, 1972). Freidson (1982: 39) described this
of professions.
which expert knowledge and skill is traded for monopoly control over
8
evidence. The challenges to the view that professions are simple
really one of the erosion of social barriers (Krause, 1996). So, for
control over expert knowledge (Haug, 1973; Perolle, 1984;; Jones &
9
purely professional contexts to large bureaucracies encourages the
was neither complete nor was it the sole explanation for their
10
maintaining institutions of justice. Halliday (1987) argued that while
11
as ongoing processes of professionalization. Professions emerge from
latter view is the primary thesis of Abbott (1988) who observed that
professions.
12
empirical inquiry, however, not only undermined the coherence of the
13
ecology of competing institutions. Within this theme, one question
following section.
independence.
14
Buchanan, 1974; Larson, 1977), and even began to produce their own
take over and close-off key spaces, structures and functions in the
15
organizations they increasingly inhabit. Others observe that large
1988). While this line of research persists (i.e., Aranya & Ferris,
16
capital requirements and a professional workforce whilst Malhotra
client relations.
might be determinative.
colleagues (Brock, 2006; Brock et al, 1997, 2006) each challenge the
17
network”, the “multidisciplinary professional firm” and the “star
firms are increasingly adopting both the logic (Leicht & Fennel, 2008;
(Starbuck, 1992).
18
& Robson, 2006) or transnational governance structures that are
Clementi, 2004).
19
elite class interests internally. While early research (Auerbach, 1976;
social class rather than expertise, more recent studies (Gilson &
Mnookin, 1988; Galanter & Palay, 1991; Hanlon, 1997; 1999; Ackroyd
2008) reveal how the economics of law firms are focused on the
20
constructing elite professional identities that infuse the values and
Dirsmith, Heian & Samuel, 1998; Cook, Falconbridge & Muzio, 2012).
21
“gatekeeper” function that elite professional service firms play in the
beyond the control of the nation state (Strange, 1996; Faulconbridge &
Muzio, 2012; Standing, 2010). Thus Dezalay and Garth (1996) show
accountants (Arnold, 2005; Suddaby et al, 2007) reveal the active role
expertise.
22
Theorists who view professions from the point of view of power
2002; Gordon, 2010; Hanlon, 2004; Leicht & Lyman, 2006; Quack,
capitalist interests.
23
agents “in the creation and tending of institutions” (Scott, 2008: 216),
was couched in the rhetoric public service and was legitimated by the
24
forms (Suddaby & Greenwood, 2005). Medical practices and hospitals
25
Fourcade (2006) demonstrates how economists, as a profession,
status.
26
professionalism exists in practice or that it is unique to professional
jurisdiction and social position not only with other professions but
2010).
professions, such as medicine and law, and the nation state. While
these professions are highly dependent upon the nation state with
27
symbiotic relationship between traditional professions and the nation
professions, it also has to succeed in the ecology of the state, for quite
other reasons”.
forms.
28
The strategic reciprocity between professions and adjacent
effort during the Second World War (Baron et al, 1986; Dobbin, 2007).
concluding section, discuss the implications that this view might have
Professions
29
Ecological reasoning has been applied to a broad range of social
work (Lawrence & Suddaby, 2006). That is, professions are likely to
ignore others. So, for example, Hannan and Freeman (1977; 1984;
1989) explicitly state that while ecosystems may at times exhibit both
30
competitive (commensalism) and cooperative (symbiotic) behaviors,
stasis.
profession (Abbott, 1988) and the professional firm (Galanter & Palay,
31
Few studies, however, seek to identify the conditions under
hospital and the medical profession. Even more rare are studies that
forms.
forms.
while natural selection (i.e. the idea that some species are deselected
32
question of the relative power difference that exists between
33
These questions are also relevant to professions and
(Florida, 2001)?
34
35
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36
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