Knowledge that Transforms

Managers and professionals have images about what professionalism involves. These images are used in personnel decisions and in other evaluation situations. The images used by professionals have multiple dimensions, many of which do not correspond to conventional stereotypes. The variable of power is of critical importance in developing and maintaining professional images. If management seeks to enhance the image of its personnel who are labeled professionals, it runs some risk of losing control of these personnel. The imagery of professionalization is viewed as developing more fully after individuals leave their professional training.

The three year Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) quality of work life experiment was one of eight large scale projects developed by the American Center for Quality of Work Life and assessed by the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research. The key themes of this research program involved union–management collaboration and employee participation in organizational change. This article presents major outcomes of the experiment, with particular emphasis on the participatory change process that was the central focus at TVA. The implications of participation are discussed in terms of the paradoxes of change, leadership, and process. Based on data from interviews and observation of events throughout the experiment, recommendations are provided for similar quality of work life programs.

Needed cutbacks in government and industry can lead to a situation where professionals have to operate where their autonomy is limited. How do they cope? Responses may include: “dubious” practice, the development and use of “simplified decision‐rules,” “whistle‐blowing,” reformism, and retreatism. Management can institutionalize a code‐of‐action that draws on the positive responses of the reformers and “decision simplifiers” and in this way better accommodate the need for both efficiency and professional integrity.

This article reports on a study of technical professionals and technical managers in research and development laboratories. The basic premise which derives from John Holland's theory of vocational choice is that stable personality characteristics are associated with the different groups, and that these stable differences create an adaptive differentiation between the two groups. It is further suggested that this system of differentiated persons and occupational roles results in a partial key to the dilemma of autonomy versus control in organizations.

Based on a conceptual cross‐national framework, the authors demonstrate how differences in a nation's prevailing beliefs about professionalism can affect national practices in managing technology and technical professionals. In the United States, the notion of professionalism has led in some cases to vertical polarization within the firm, a lack of adequate technical training among managers, an overuse of operational control of professionals, an over‐emphasis on breakthrough technology, and a de‐emphasis on practical production technologies. The authors conclude that a balanced view of professionalism can enhance a nation's competitive position.