Professional Deviance: Maintaining Professional Legitimacy and Status

• In Event: 161 - Section on Organizations, Occupation and Work Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 07. Organizational Legitimacy and Illegitimacy

Abstract

It is often taken for granted that professions change to keep pace with their dynamic environments, but how does it happen? Considering two physician professions, we detail the process by which a profession is divided by an identity-challenging external change. We find that through the process of “professional molting,” a profession, once confronted by an external shock, sheds passé components of its identity and shifts to reemerge as a profession better aligned with external developments. The deliberation behind such a professional change surprisingly does not center objectively on the new development, but rather focuses on factors of identity and status. We discuss the implications of these findings for the sociology of professions and professional change.

Author

• Gawin Tsai, University of Chicago