Professions and (new) management occupations as a contested terrain:Redefining jurisdictional claims

In this article, we discuss how research on professions and organizations may benefit from a better understanding of the emergence and prevalence of 'new' management occupations or 'corporate professions' and their interactions with 'traditional' professions. To this end, we explore the theoretical and empirical implications of selected studies, analysing how professional and occupational jurisdictions, as well as inter-occupational relationships, are redefined. This occurs as new areas of management expertise emerge and gain influence in relation to broader organizational, technical and institutional developments

Bad barrels and bad cellars:a ‘boundaries’ perspective on professional misconduct

Professions have traditionally been associated with a public safeguard role, with their superior ethical standards usually invoked to justify their occupational privileges and special labour market position. As such professionals have been thought to act as 'social trustees' (Brint, 1994) of key skills for the benefit of society as a whole or as 'gatekeepers' (Coffee, 2006) who play a fundamental role in maintaining the integrity of broader institutions. Yet recent scandals from Enron, to Parmalat and the recent financial crisis call into question the fiduciary role played by the professions. Thus, rather than as gatekeepers and social trustees, professions may have acted, perhaps unwittingly, as accomplices if not masterminds in recent episodes of corporate wrongdoing and malpractice. This chapter focuses on the role of professions in processes of malpractice and approaches this through the consideration of a number of key boundaries which frame professional practice and the tensions, conflicts and opportunities or temptations these generate. These include: 1) internal divisions within professional services firms between different services and the conflict of interests these may produce (thus the tensions between auditing and consulting within large accountancy firms), 2) the relationship between professional advisers and external stakeholders such as clients and increasingly financial investors, and the capture dynamics which may be at play here, 3) the boundaries which exist between different firms and professions engaged in gatekeeping functions and the systemic myopia that this allows and 4) the existence national and regional boundaries between jurisdictions with different standards of professional practice and regulatory oversight

Inserting professionals and professional organizations in studies of wrongdoing : the nature, antecedents and consequences of professional misconduct

Professional misconduct has become seemingly ubiquitous in recent decades. However, to date there has been little sustained effort to theorize the phenomenon of professional misconduct, how this relates to professional organizations, and how this may contribute to broader patterns of corruption and wrongdoing. In response to this gap, in this contribution we discuss the theoretical and empirical implications of analyses that focus on the nature, antecedents and consequences of professional misconduct. In particular, we discuss how the nature of professional misconduct can be quite variegated and nuanced, how boundaries between and within professions can be either too weak or too strong and lead to professional misconduct, and how the consequences of professional misconduct can be less straightforward than normally assumed. We also illuminate how some important questions about professional misconduct are still pending, including: how we define its different organizational forms; how it is instigated by the changing nature of professional boundaries; and how its consequences are responded to in professional organizations and society more widely

Critical Essay: Inserting professionals and professional organizations in studies of wrongdoing:The nature, antecedents, and consequences of professional misconduct.

Professional misconduct has become seemingly ubiquitous in recent decades. However, to date there has been little sustained effort to theorize the phenomenon of professional misconduct, how this relates to professional organizations, and how this may contribute to broader patterns of corruption and wrongdoing. In response to this gap, in this contribution we discuss the theoretical and empirical implications of analyses that focus on the nature, antecedents and consequences of professional misconduct. In particular, we discuss how the nature of professional misconduct can be quite variegated and nuanced, how boundaries between and within professions can be either too weak or too strong and lead to professional misconduct, and how the consequence of professional misconduct can be less straightforward than normally assumed. We also illuminate how some important questions about professional misconduct are still pending, including: how we define its different organizational forms; how it is instigated by the changing nature of professional boundaries; and how its consequences are responded to in professional organizations and society more widely

How to Build Reputation in Financial Markets

A company's reputation for accountability and trustworthiness is a critical factor in its ability to attract the financial resources required to support its strategies. However, there has been little research done on how companies build and preserve the trust of financial markets. This research highlights a number of practices and features that seem to positively influence the formation of corporate reputation in financial markets. Collectively, the findings indicate that companies are guided by knowledgeable, respected and committed leaders, that are transparent and comprehensive in their communication of corporate plans, and that display credible and independent control systems are more likely to gather the consensus of the financial community around bold strategic plans

Corporate Disclosure Policy, Corporate Governance Structures and mechanisms and Analyst's Recommendations: Is Corporate Reputation and Intermediate Variable?

2nonenoneMazzola, Pietro; Gabbioneta, ClaudiaMazzola, PIETRO ALBERICO C.; Gabbioneta, Claudi

Exploring the drivers of corporate reputation: A study of Italian securities analysts

3nonemixedGabbioneta, Claudia; Mazzola, Pietro; Ravasi, DavideGabbioneta, Claudia; Mazzola, PIETRO ALBERICO C.; Ravasi, David