A Tale of Two “Unorganizables”

Isler, Jonathan

doi:10.1007/s11133-007-9065-x

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…Despite the preponderance of literature contrasting the two strategies of professionalism and unionization (Isler, 2007;Rabban, 1991), professionals have been quite content to take on positions as employees under "flat fee" situations, and to bargain collectively. Nurses and allied health professions (Haiven, 1999), teachers, some doctors, and now lawyers do so.…”

Section: Résumé De L'articlementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although many public sector professional workers are unionized, still the literature on professionalism and unionization generally juxtaposes the two concepts as competing options for occupational power (Crouch, 1982;Freidson, 1973;Offe and Wiesenthal, 1980;Parkin, 1979), whether the discussion is based on the traits of the profession, social class and material power, or logics of action. Isler (2007) describes the dilemma as a choice workers must make between constructing an identity as a professional or as an "organizable worker" (443). As we shall see below, an occupational community built upon the shared values of a subset of a professional group is a mechanism that bridges this apparent contradiction.…”

Section: Closurementioning

confidence: 99%

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Erosion and Renewal of Professional Powers in Public Sector Employment: The Role of Occupational Community

Campbell

2014

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This paper describes a case study of a particular form of knowledge worker; lawyers, and their efforts to achieve collective bargaining. Within self-regulated professions like law, the professional regulatory body controls much of the labour process and defines the body of professional knowledge. Apprenticeships, such as clinical locums in medicine and articles in law, play an important role in the transfer of labour process norms. However, more and more professionals seek employment in large organizations where the autonomy historically enjoyed by the self-employed worker and crafted in the confines of mentorships is increasingly subject to bureaucratic and administrative controls. In large employment settings rules and policies may interfere with workers’ exercise of professional discretion and full utilization of their knowledge. The result of the erosion of traditional labour process power under bureaucratic forms of organization leads professionals to seek alternate forms of control. Many turn to collective bargaining as a mean to wrest back control over the application of discretionary judgment from large, often public sector, employers.In the case of the legal profession in Canada, a great many lawyers are employed in the public sector. The subspecialty of criminal prosecution was broadly framed as a service private sector lawyers once provided on a fee-for-service basis, but until relatively recently it was not a distinct area of practice to which one dedicated a career. The regularization of prosecution in the public sector results in a strong sense of occupational community among public prosecutors. The forces of bureaucratic control and occupational community act together to support collective bargaining among professionals who otherwise have been opposed to this strategy, claiming it is “unprofessional”.Cet article présente une étude de cas d’un type spécifique de travailleurs du savoir, les procureurs de la Couronne, ainsi que leurs efforts pour parvenir à négocier collectivement. Dans les professions autorégulées comme le droit, l’ordre professionnel exerce généralement un contrôle sur la plupart des processus de travail et détermine l’ensemble des connaissances professionnelles. Les modes d’apprentissage, tels l’internat clinique en médecine ou la rédaction d’articles en droit, jouent un rôle important dans le transfert des normes de travail. Toutefois, de plus en plus de professionnels obtiennent leur emploi dans de très grandes organisations où l’autonomie, naguère si chère au travailleur autonome et développée dans le cadre du mentorat, s’avère davantage sujet au contrôle bureaucratique et administratif. En effet, dans ces grandes organisations, les règles et les politiques établies par les administrateurs peuvent venir interférer avec l’exercice de la discrétion professionnelle de ces travailleurs et la pleine utilisation de leur savoir professionnel. Le résultat de l’érosion du pouvoir dans le processus traditionnel de travail, sous la pression des formes bureaucratiques de l’organisation, con...

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Section: Résumé De L'articlementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Closurementioning

confidence: 99%

Erosion and Renewal of Professional Powers in Public Sector Employment: The Role of Occupational Community

Campbell

2014

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“…Dans quelles sphères se jouent alors ces processus de visibilisation ? Sont-ils destinés à s'opérer « hors les murs » (Jarty, 2011), voire en dehors du travail, durant des processus de négociation ou à l'occasion de luttes sociales (Poo & Tang, 2005 ;Isler, 2007 ;Krinsky, 2008 ;Gall, 2012) ?…”

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Illusionnistes et modèles vivants

Robert¹,

Ruiz²,

Béguin³

et al. 2019

jda

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Ce texte est le fruit d'une pluralité scientifique, associant l'anthropologie et l'ergonomie. En tant qu'anthropologues intéressés par l'humain au travail, nous pensons que, au-delà d'apports notables (Wallman, 1979 ;Godelier, 1981 ;Chamoux, 1994 ; Absi, 2010 ; Absi et alii, 2014), ces questions sont actuellement trop peu constituées en anthropologie, malgré la centralité du travail comme condition de vie et porteur des dimensions sociales et politiques de l'existence. Simultanément, en tant qu'ergonomes intéressés aux formes concrètes et aux conditions de travail, nous pensons que les effets délétères du travail sur les travailleurs sont des atteintes à l'Humain, entendu moins comme « facteur humain » que comme acteur humain (Béguin, 2007), et que l'anthropologie peut aider à mieux identifier les dimensions qui sont en jeu.

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Struggles on the frontier of professional control: Leading cases from Canada

Campbell

Haiven

2011

Economic and Industrial Democracy

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Professions and unions have often been positioned as opposing alternatives or logics of action in theories of labour. Professions embrace a spirit of individualism and mystique, privileged by a social status, while unions are collectivist and seek respect and to usurp power from a dominant class. How do professionals successfully shift their position from dominance to subordination when they engage in collective bargaining? This article proposes that collective representation of professions is not a substitution of one form of power for another, but rather is the expression of a new arena of power for labour playing itself out at the forefront of work regulation in Canada. Three cases of labour disputes of professionalized workers highlight the struggle over the exercise of discretion and illustrate that collective bargaining is an occupational closure strategy that alters the boundaries of a profession in an attempt to maintain professional control. Keywordscollective bargaining, industrial conflict, interest politics, labour process, labour relations All trade associations are attempts by those who sell their labour to determine how work shall be done, and by whom. Professions also do this. But they go further: they decide what shall be made, for whom and how their decrees shall be enforced. (Illich, 1977: 16)

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A Tale of Two “Unorganizables”

Cited by 4 publications

References 20 publications

Erosion and Renewal of Professional Powers in Public Sector Employment: The Role of Occupational Community

Erosion and Renewal of Professional Powers in Public Sector Employment: The Role of Occupational Community

Illusionnistes et modèles vivants

Struggles on the frontier of professional control: Leading cases from Canada

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