Threatened Professions: Negotiating Professional Change and Identity

• In Event: 161 - Section on Organizations, Occupation and Work Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 10. Organization Learning and Change

Abstract

Professions enjoy great authority. Categorical boundaries, demarking what is legitimate and illegitimate, are an important part in the maintenance of this authority. In this paper, I examine two physician professions in which attempts have been made to break through a rigid categorical boundary—the notion that legitimate medical education cannot be provided by a for-profit organization. One is a case of success while the other is one of failure. I find that the status of the two professions was a key factor in how each profession responded to a categorical boundary challenge. Moreover, while high-status and low-status groups have been found to be more likely to partake in unconventional activities, this paper shows how the conformist actions of middle-status groups can also sometimes result in legitimacy-and-status-endangering unconventional activities.

Authors

• Gawin Tsai, University of Chicago

• Joanna Veazey Brooks, Harvard University