Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Professions, Professionals and the ‘new’ Government Policies: A Reflection on the last 30 Years
- 3 Professionals, Power and the Reform of Public Services
- 4 Professionals Dealing with Pressures
- 5 A managerial Assault on Professionalism?: Professionals in Changing Welfare States
- 6 Legal Professionals Under Pressure: Legal Professional Ideology and New Public Management
- 7 Institutionalizing Professional Conflicts Through Financial Reforms: The Case of dbcs in Dutch Mental Healthcare
- 8 Public Professionals and Policy Alienation
- 9 Loyalties of Public Sector Professionals
- 10 Democratizing Social Work: From New Public Management to Democratic Professionalism
- 11 Bounded Professionalism: Why Self-Regulation is Part of the Problem
- 12 Control of Front-Line Workers in Welfare Agencies: Towards Professionalism?
- 13 Professionalization of (police) Leaders: Contested Control
- 14 Conclusions and Ways Forward
- About the Editors and Authors
14 - Conclusions and Ways Forward
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 January 2021
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Professions, Professionals and the ‘new’ Government Policies: A Reflection on the last 30 Years
- 3 Professionals, Power and the Reform of Public Services
- 4 Professionals Dealing with Pressures
- 5 A managerial Assault on Professionalism?: Professionals in Changing Welfare States
- 6 Legal Professionals Under Pressure: Legal Professional Ideology and New Public Management
- 7 Institutionalizing Professional Conflicts Through Financial Reforms: The Case of dbcs in Dutch Mental Healthcare
- 8 Public Professionals and Policy Alienation
- 9 Loyalties of Public Sector Professionals
- 10 Democratizing Social Work: From New Public Management to Democratic Professionalism
- 11 Bounded Professionalism: Why Self-Regulation is Part of the Problem
- 12 Control of Front-Line Workers in Welfare Agencies: Towards Professionalism?
- 13 Professionalization of (police) Leaders: Contested Control
- 14 Conclusions and Ways Forward
- About the Editors and Authors
Summary
Introduction
In the previous chapters, pressures on professionals have been analyzed from multiple angles, based upon different conceptual and empirical analyses. It is now time to draw conclusions and propose ways forward. In doing so, we will explore the ‘state of professionalism’ with critical and political points of view that transgress Dutch borders. We will do this by returning to the various themes or parts that made up this book: I. Professionals and (managerial) pressures, II. Controlling professional practices, and III. Organizing professionalism. After a short summary of the main findings we will outline the main points of our own perspective on ‘pressured professionals’ in which the concept of ownership plays an important role. The chapter ends with a research agenda for the near future.
Professionals and (managerial) pressures
In chapter 3 Janet Newman has set the scene: there is no such thing as ‘the’ pressures on ‘the’ professional. This was reiterated by other authors, especially in part I (chapters 4, 5 and 6). With respect to professions we have seen that professions differ structurally and practically. Structurally, in terms of institutionalization, organizational connections, educational backgrounds and demographical make-up. Practically, in terms of the extent to which professions themselves are contested when it comes to client or case treatment (chapter 4), and the extent to which professionals have autonomy and discretionary spaces (chapter 5).
Professional forms and the pressures they undergo, moreover, are never static. With respect to this change, three observations can be made. Firstly, changes affect different relations (between, in Newman’s terms, government, organizations, associations and the public) and these relations generate multiple ‘sites of contestation’ that might hinder professionals, but might also help them to develop resistance and conflict. Professionals themselves have various coping strategies to deal with pressures (Hupe & Van der Krogt, chapter 4). They might individualize work (coping), seek stronger associational control (networking), or politicize professional fields (activism).
Secondly, with respect to professional work there is no such thing as linear change, with ever increasing pressures. Professionals have always been pressured (chapter 3) and new changes do not automatically increase pressures. However, various types of pressure can be discerned.
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- Information
- Professionals under PressureThe Reconfiguration of Professional Work in Changing Public Services, pp. 229 - 238Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2013