Becoming a Profession? - Executive Coaching in Australia

Since the 1980s, executive coaching has become one of the fastest growing sectors in business services. Yet, there is no clear data that identifies the number of individuals claiming to act as executive coaches either nationally or internationally. It has been estimated by PricewaterhouseCoopers (2007) that there are 30,000 coaches worldwide generating an income of $1.5 billion. Given the economic value and growth of such a service, it has attracted many people wishing to position themselves as executive coaches and as experts in the field. It is this growth in executive coaches, and coaching in general, that has seen the leaders in this field follow a traditional occupational development model of creating occupational associations and now extending this to claim professional status. Despite the claims of the coaching professional associations that executive coaching is a profession, executive coaching remains a fragmented and unregulated occupation, requiring no formal qualifications or experience to practice, or use the term “coach”. This thesis examines executive coaching from the different aspects of executive coaches, professional associations, educators and trainers and clients. I have used Greenwood, Suddaby and Hinings (2002) to examine the stages in institutional change. By using their framework I examine the stages that an occupation attempts to achieve change, or emerge. The thesis suggests the professionalization project is not only a process, but also a strategy used by professional associations as they display a professional image to a variety of audiences. In this thesis I have examined the role of the professional associations, educators and trainers, executive coaches and clients in the attempts to make executive coaching a profession. I argue that theories of professionalization need to account for these changes in circumstance. The view I have taken has added to this by examining the role of professional organisations as it is emerging

Practitioner-Policymaker Interplay and Field Governance: Conceptual and Empirical Studies Using the Case of the European Impact Investing Field of Practice

La governança de l’àmbit representa una àrea important però passada per alt de la recerca de l’àmbit organitzacional i institucional. Aquesta dissertació teoritza la interacció entre els professionals i els formuladors de polítiques com un dels mecanismes subjacents de la governança de l'àmbit i suggereix la importància de considerar els professionals com a contribuents actius a la governança de l'àmbit. Usant mètodes conceptuals i empírics de recerca i idees de la governança de l'àmbit, el treball institucional i els estudis d'acció robusta, aquesta tesi examina qui participa en la interacció dels formuladors de polítiques, com i quan es pot organitzar, sostenir i escalar la interacció, i quins resultats produeix la interacció. Aquesta dissertació utilitza el cas de l'àmbit de pràctica de la inversió d'impacte europeu per demostrar com es desenvolupa la interacció entre els professionals i els formuladors de polítiques sota les activitats de convocatòria d'una associació amb el mandat percebut d'orquestrar i estabilitzar les interaccions entre els actors de l’àmbit com a part del seu treball de manteniment. Així mateix, el cas permet mapejar i analitzar les activitats que l'associació va utilitzar per possibilitar i gestionar interaccions que, en repetir-se en el temps, generen rutines i normes que constitueixen l'ordre institucional.La gobernanza del ámbito representa un área importante pero pasada por alto en la investigación del ámbito organizacional e institucional. Esta disertación teoriza la interacción entre los profesionales y los formuladores de políticas como uno de los mecanismos subyacentes de la gobernanza del ámbito y sugiere la importancia de considerar a los profesionales como contribuyentes activos a la gobernanza del ámbito. Usando métodos conceptuales y empíricos de investigación e ideas de la gobernanza del ámbito, trabajo institucional y estudios de acción robusta, esta tesis examina quién participa en la interacción de los formuladores de políticas, cómo y cuándo se puede organizar, sostener y escalar la interacción, y qué resultados produce la interacción. Esta disertación utiliza el caso del ámbito de práctica de la Inversión de Impacto Europea para demostrar cómo se desarrolla la interacción entre los profesionales y los formuladores de políticas bajo las actividades de convocatoria de una asociación con el mandato percibido de orquestar y estabilizar las interacciones entre los actores del ámbito como parte de su trabajo de mantenimiento. Asimismo, el caso permite mapear y analizar las actividades que utilizó la asociación para posibilitar y gestionar interacciones que, al repetirse en el tiempo, generan rutinas y normas que constituyen el orden institucional.Field governance represents an important but overlooked area of organizational and institutional field research. This dissertation theorizes practitioner-policymaker interplay as one of the underlying mechanisms of field governance, and suggests the importance of considering practitioners as active contributors to field governance. Using conceptual and empirical methods of research and ideas from field governance, institutional work, and robust action studies, this thesis examines who participates in practitioner-policymaker interplay, how and when the interplay can be organized, sustained, and scaled, and what outcomes the interplay produces. This dissertation uses the case of the European Impact Investing field of practice to demonstrate how practitioner-policymaker interplay develops under convening activities of an association with a perceived mandate to orchestrate and stabilize interactions between field actors as a part of its maintenance work. Also, the case allows to map and analyze the activities the association used to enable and manage interactions that, when repeated over time, generate routines and norms that constitute institutional order

Pharmacists’ perceptions of the nature of pharmacy practice

The pharmacy profession is formed of different sectors. The two main ones are community and hospital pharmacists. Sociologists have examined if community pharmacists are a profession or not as a result of their marginalised role in healthcare and links with commerce. Few sociological studies have included hospital pharmacists. This study engaged with the theories from the sociology of the professions such as the neo-Weberian social closure perspective, professions as an interrelated system and Foucault’s concept of knowledge and power to explore the nature of pharmacy practice in healthcare in England, United Kingdom. Its purpose was to reveal new insights into pharmacists’ perceptions of the nature of pharmacy practice linking this to their status in society. This qualitative collective case study consisted of four cases studies. Each case study included five pharmacists from community pharmacy, acute hospital, mental health or community health services, respectively. A total of twenty pharmacists were included. Only pharmacists registered for 5 years or more, who had worked in the relevant healthcare setting for at least 2 years and provided written consent were entered. Data were obtained from one in-depth individual semi-structured interview using a guide covering how they viewed their practice, contributions made to healthcare, their future and how others viewed pharmacists. Each pharmacist was asked to complete a diary for 5 days to include any positive contributions or frustrations experienced. The data for each case were analysed using inductive thematic analysis followed by a cross-case analysis. Five themes were identified; (i) the hidden healthcare profession, (ii) important relationships, (iii) pharmaceutical surveillance, (iv) re-professionalisation strategies and (v) two different professions. The core function defining the pharmacy profession is pharmaceutical surveillance, shifting the sociological understanding of pharmacists’ practice away from dispensing. There is an internal split between community pharmacists and pharmacists in other healthcare settings due to differences in practice, re-professionalisation strategies and relationships with doctors including lacking ideological professional solidarity. Pharmacists are not recognised as healthcare professionals by the public but as ‘typical community pharmacists’ with an image as shopkeepers. Pharmacists interpret professionalism as a controlling rather than an enabling ideology. The status of pharmacists in society today remains unclear

The Platform Economy and Industrial Relations. Applying the old framework to the new reality. CEPS Research Report No. 2017/12, August 2017

This paper investigates the relationship between the platform economy, industrial relations and social dialogue, as portrayed in the literature. It provides strong evidence that workers in the platform economy are organising into new employee associations (unions) and are also being brought into existing employees associations. None of the evidence surveyed indicates that platforms are organising into employer associations or being incorporated into existing employer associations. Anecdotal evidence suggests that actors in the platform economy are engaging in tripartite dialogue. The authors conclude that i) no overarching framework exists for governing or facilitating social dialogue between the parties involved in the platform economy, and ii) even if the existing framework is applied to parties in the platform economy, it offers a poor fit due to differences between platform workers and employees, and platforms and employers

The Center Will Hold: Critical Perspectives on Writing Center Scholarship

In The Center Will Hold, Pemberton and Kinkead have compiled a major volume of essays on the signal issues of scholarship that have established the writing center field and that the field must successfully address in the coming decade. The new century opens with new institutional, demographic, and financial challenges, and writing centers, in order to hold and extend their contribution to research, teaching, and service, must continuously engage those challenges. Appropriately, the editors offer the work of Muriel Harris as a key pivot point in the emergence of writing centers as sites of pedagogy and research. The volume develops themes that Harris first brought to the field, and contributors here offer explicit recognition of the role that Harris has played in the development of writing center theory and practice. But they also use her work as a springboard from which to provide reflective, descriptive, and predictive looks at the field.https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/usupress_pubs/1143/thumbnail.jp

Legal Records at Risk

Why do so few institutions in the legal sector have professional records managers or archivists on their staff? This book is the culmination of a three year project by experienced archivist and records managers on private sector legal records at risk in England at Wales. It summarises the work of the Legal Records at Risk (LRAR) project and its predecessors, diagnoses the problems of preservation of archives in the legal sector in England and Wales and outlines a national strategy for such records

The English building industry in late modernity: An empirical investigation of the definition, construction and meaning of profession.

This thesis describes the methods by which individuals and associations give meaning to the concept of profession within the English building industry in the late modern period. The hypothesis is that professional associations control occupations. Whilst this might be accepted in a wider literature, building professionals identify with a far bleaker, late modern, interpretation of profession. The literature portrays a 'backwards' industry without a determinant authority, characterised by fragmented and servile professional associations. The thesis utilises Burrage's (2006) four-goal-framework to structure its investigation through semi-structured interviews with professionals and their associations. This proposes that associations control admission and training, define and defend a jurisdiction, set up a system to govern their own members and seek to improve their corporate status. This work concludes that professionals and associations strategically engage with these issues. There are problems facing professions, but their demise is not one of them. Indeed, rather than be defensive, associations are enhancing their controlling systems. This involves a looser coupling between associations and their membership, which creates some fracturing to the construction of identity. However, the result is new forms of occupational provision, in alliance with both clients and the state, that establish clear dialogues for identity and very specific types of service that are well separated from external 'quacks'. Faced with an environment that is ostensibly deeply sceptical, associations are selective in how they defend and enhance both their status and control systems. This has led, for example, to a withdrawal from controlling entry in the face of government demands to widen participation, to be replaced with strong regulatory schemes for members. This creates standardisation and practical guarantees of competency, a powerful executive in a quasi-judicial regulatory role, and clear rules of behaviour and permanent training through CPD. The result is 'competent', 'safe', 'good' and 'ethical' occupational jurisdiction

Organisations and networks: theoretical considerations and a case study of networking across organisations.

This dissertation considers the rise of new and emergent organisational forms characterised as networks. The work presents an analysis of the underlying themes that motivate such developments by drawing upon modern models of organisation together with contemporary perspectives on information systems. A network is seen as interlinked work processes supported by communication technologies; work processes which, in particular, can transcend space and time and enable team based approaches. The characteristics that might distinguish the network are set out in terms of technology, the nature of the work process, and approaches to traditional organisational functions. Associations of individuals, institutions and groups of people and institutions; and societal considerations affecting inter-governmental and regional developments are also considered. An analysis of these characteristics is presented within a layered model and further developed by the use of tools and techniques drawn from social network analysis. A detailed case study is presented using this theoretical approach. The case examined is the Commonwealth Network of Information Technology for Development (COMNET-IT). This is an initiative of the Commonwealth aimed at bringing together expertise and organisations from around the world to coordinate their efforts in utilising information technology in pursuit of development goals. The focus of COMNET-IT's activities is on adding value to the work of a group of geographically dispersed experts through the utilisation of electronic networks. The study provides a detailed theoretical analysis of the network phenomenon. Using structuration theory and social network analysis, this research provides insights into processes of network formation and evolution, network structure and the behaviour of network participants. The processes of appropriation of technology are observed and analyzed, and this work is supported by detailed empirical research investigating electronic group meetings

The social organisation of motherhood: advice giving in maternity and child health care in Scotland and Finland

This study is a qualitative, cross-cultural research on advice giving for mothers in maternity and child health services in Scotland and Finland. It has been accomplished through local case studies using ethnographic methods. The main objective is to analyse how in these service systems motherhood, women's daily life, and their responsibilities for children's welfare and health are defined and organised, and how these definitions vary across social and cultural contexts. Methodologically, referring to the feminist methodology by Dorothy E. Smith, it is emphasised that beginning from the local and particular, from the everyday practices of health professionals, can provide more general understanding of the social relations that organise motherhood in the two societies. Empirical results of the study are presented under six substantial themes: The first theme discusses different professional groups as service providers and the relationships between them. Second theme concentrates on the clinic and the home as the physical settings of service provision and their professional and cultural meanings. Third section discusses the relationship and interaction between health professionals and their clients. Next two themes are related to the standards of motherhood: expectations for proper motherhood, child care, and family relations of the mothers. The last theme analyses possible conflicts between women's everyday experience and professional expertise in motherhood. The general conclusions drawn from the research suggest that motherhood is socially organised at four different but interrelated levels, named in this study as interactional level, institutional level, welfare state level, and socio-cultural leveL. Advice giving for mothers in maternity and child health care is related to family policy measures, social class and gender systems, historical and cultural tradition, customs, and ways of thinking in a certain society. This complexity underlines the relevance of qualitative approach in comparative research