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Item Type:Journal Article
Title: The Changing Organizational Context of Professional Work
Author: Leicht, Kevin T.
Author: Fennell, Mary L.
Abstract: Our paper represents an attempt to stimulate continued sociological interest in professional work. Our review suggests that understanding professional work is central to understanding larger workplace changes in the late twentieth century. Some researchers have documented the increasingly diverse arrangements for the delivery of professional services, even as others point to a convergence of professional control around accountability and cost containment issues. Claims of diverging interests across work settings are often confounded by greater racial, gender, and ethnic diversity among professionals. We suggest that the study of professional careers provides an avenue for studying the diversification of professionals and work settings. Future research should also follow changes in the prestige rankings of different organizational arrangements from the viewpoint of professionals, professional associations, and clients. Finally we warn researchers that managerial groups seeking control of professional work have professional agendas of their own which constrain the possibilities for sweeping change.
URL http://www.jstor.org/stable/2952550
Volume 23
Pages 215-231
Publication Annual Review of Sociology
ISSN 03600572
Date 1997-01-01 January 01, 1997
Extra ArticleType: research-article / Full publication date: 1997 / Copyright © 1997 Annual Reviews