In contrast to the traditional view of professionalism as a position of significant status and autonomy, hard-earned and jealously guarded by occupational groups, critical perspectives have emphasized how professions act as ‘the institutionalised form of the control of occupations’ (Johnson, 1972: 38), enacting the ‘responsibilization’ (Grey, 1997) of expert labour. In this paper, I examine the complexity of employee responses to professionalization initiatives in light of work that develops a broader understanding of non-conformity in the face of similar disciplinary practices in the contemporary workplace (Kondo, 1990; Kunda, 1992; Fleming and Sewell, 2002; Collinson, 2003). I do so by relating Judith Butler’s concept of ‘performativity’ to an analysis of the professionalization of a particular sub-discipline of management: project management. I argue that performativity provides insight into the simultaneous attraction, insecurity and antipathy that professionalization arouses in employees, and offers a persuasive account of the potential of parody to subvert professionalization initiatives.
Abbott, A. (1988) The System of Professions: An Essay on the Division of Expert Labour. London: University of Chicago Press .
2.
Althusser, L. (1971) ‘Ideology and Ideological Apparatuses (Notes towards an Investigation)’; reprinted in V. Beechey and J. Donald (eds) Subjectivity and Social Relations. Milton Keynes: Open University Press , 1985.
3.
Alvesson, M. and Willmott, H. (2002) ‘Identity Regulation as Organizational Control: Producing the Appropriate Individual’ , Journal of Management Studies39(5): 619-644 .
4.
Alvesson, M. and Kärreman, D. (2000) ‘Varieties of Discourse: On the Study of Organizations through Discourse Analysis’ , Human Relations53(9): 1125-1149 .
5.
Anderson-Gough, F. , Grey, C. and Robson, K. (2000) ‘In the Name of the Client: The Service Ethic in Two Professional Services Firms’ , Human Relations53(9): 1151-1174 .
6.
Austin, J. L. (1962) How to Do Things with Words. Oxford: Oxford University Press .
7.
Becker, H. S. (1970) Sociological Work: Method and Substance. Harmondsworth: Allen Lane .
8.
Burawoy, M. (1979) Manufacturing Consent. London: University of Chicago Press .
9.
Butler, J. (1990) Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. London: Routledge .
10.
Butler, J. (1993) Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of ‘Sex’. London: Routledge .
11.
Butler, J. (1995) ‘Burning Acts, Injurious Speech’, in A. Parker and E. K. Sedgwick, Performativity and Performance. London: Routledge .
12.
Butler, J. (1998) The Psychic Life of Power: Theories in Subjection. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press .
13.
Callinicos, A. (1990) Against Post-modernism. London: Polity Press .
14.
Casey, C. (1995) Work, Self and Society: After Industrialism. London: Routledge .
15.
Cohen, L. , Finn, R. , Wilkinson, A. and Arnold, J. (2003) ‘Preface: Professional Work and Management’ , International Studies of Management and Organization32(2): 3-24 .
16.
Collinson, D. L. (1994) ‘Strategies of Resistance: Power, Knowledge and Subjectivity in the Workplace’, in J. Jermier , D. Knights and W. Nord (eds) Resistance and Power in Organizations. London: Routledge .
17.
Collinson, D. L. (2002) ‘Managing Humour’ , Journal of Management Studies39(3): 269-288 .
18.
Collinson, D. L. (2003) ‘Identities and Insecurities: Selves at Work’ , Organization10(3): 527-548 .
19.
Dent, M. and Whitehead, S. , eds (2002) Managing Professional Identities: Knowledge, Performativity and the ‘New’ Professional. London: Routledge .
20.
Derrida, J. (1988) ‘Signature, Event, Context’, in Limited, Inc.Evanston, IL: North Western University Press .
21.
Dews, P. (1989) ‘The Return of the Subject in Late Foucault’ , Radical Philosophy51: 37-41 .
22.
Durkheim, E. (1957) Professional Ethics and Civic Morals. London: Routledge .
23.
Fleming, P. and Sewell, G. (2002) ‘Looking for the Good Soldier, Svejk: Alternative Modalities of Resistance in the Contemporary Workplace’ , Sociology36(4): 857-872 .
24.
Fleming, P. and Spicer, A. (2003) ‘Working at a Cynical Distance: Implications for Power, Subjectivity and Resistance’ , Organization10(1): 157-179 .
25.
Foucault, M. (1978) The History of Sexuality: An Introduction. Harmondsworth: Penguin .
26.
Foucault, M. (1980) Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings 1972-1977, ed. C. Gordon.Brighton: Harvester Press .
27.
Fournier, V. (1999) ‘The Appeal to “Professionalism” as a Disciplinary Mechanism’ , Sociological Review47(2): 280-307 .
28.
Freidson, E. (1970) Professional Dominance: The Social Structure of Medical Care. Chicago: Atherton Press .
29.
Friedman, A. (1977) Industry and Labour: Class Struggle at Work and Monopoly Capitalism. London: Macmillan .
30.
Goffman, E. (1959) The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. Harmondsworth: Penguin .
31.
Gregson, N. and Rose, G. (2000) ‘Taking Butler Elsewhere: Performativities, Spatialities and Subjectivities’ , Environment and Planning D: Society and Space18(4): 433-452 .
32.
Grey, C. (1997) ‘Management as a Technical Practice: Professionalization or Responsibilization?’ , Systems Practice10(6): 703-725 .
33.
Grey, C. (1998) ‘On Being a Professional in a “Big Six” Firm’ , Accounting, Organizations and Society23(5-6): 569-587 .
34.
Hochschild, A. R. (1983) The Managed Heart: The Commercialization of Human Feeling. London: University of California Press .
35.
Hodgson, D. E. (2000) Discourse, Discipline and the Subject: A Foucauldian Analysis of the UK Financial Services Industry. London: Ashgate .
36.
Hodgson, D. E. (2002) ‘Disciplining the Professional: The Case of Project Management’ , Journal of Management Studies39(6): 803-821 .
37.
Johnson, T. J. (1972) Professions and Power. London: Macmillan .
38.
Knights, D. and Willmott, H. (1989) ‘Power and Subjectivity at Work’ , Sociology23(4): 535-558 .
39.
Kondo, D. (1990) Crafting Selves: Power, Gender and Discourses of Identity in a Japanese Workplace. Chicago: University of Chicago Press .
40.
Kunda, G. (1992) Engineering Culture: Control and Commitment in a High-Tech Corporation. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press .
41.
Lovell, T. (2003) ‘Resisting with Authority: Historical Specificity, Agency and the Performative Self’ , Theory, Culture and Society20(1): 1-17 .
42.
Lyotard, J. (1984) The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press .
43.
McNay, L. (1992) Foucault and Feminism: Power, Gender and the Self. Cambridge: Polity Press .
44.
McNay, L. (2000) ‘Subject, Psyche and Agency: The Work of Judith Butler’ , Theory, Culture and Society16(2): 175-193 .
45.
Morris, P. W. G. (1997) The Management of Projects. London: Thomas Telford .
46.
Mulkay, M. J. (1988) On Humour: Its Nature and Place in Modern Society. Oxford: Blackwell .
47.
Packendorff, J. (1995) ‘Inquiring into the Temporary Organization: New Directions for Project Management Research’ , Scandinavian Journal of Management11(4): 437-455 .
48.
Parsons, T. (1954) ‘The Professions and Social Structure’, in Essays in Sociological Theory. New York: Free Press .
49.
Power, M. (1997) The Audit Society: Rituals of Verification. Oxford: Oxford University Press .
50.
Ray, C. A. (1986) ‘Corporate Culture: The Last Frontier of Control’ , Journal of Management Studies23(3): 287-297 .
51.
Saks, M. (1983) ‘Removing the Blinkers? A Critique of Recent Contributions to the Sociology of the Professions’ , Sociological Review31(1): 1-21 .
52.
Searle, J. H. (1969) Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language. London: Cambridge University Press .
53.
Sennett, R. (2000) The Corrosion of Character. New York: W. W. Norton .
54.
Shenhav, Y. (1999) Manufacturing Rationality: The Engineering Foundations of the Managerial Revolution. Oxford: Oxford University Press .
55.
Sturdy, A. and Fleming, P. (2003) ‘Talk as Technique: A Critique of the Words and Deeds Distinction in the Diffusion of Customer Service Cultures in Call Centres’ , Journal of Management Studies40(4): 753-774 .
56.
Thompson, P. and Ackroyd, S. (1995) ‘All Quiet on the Workplace Front? A Critique of Recent Trends in British Industrial Sociology’ , Sociology29(4): 615-633 .
57.
Watson, T. J. (1994) In Search of Management: Culture, Chaos and Control in Managerial Work. London: International Thomson Press .
58.
Wilensky, H. (1964) ‘The Professionalization of Everyone’ , American Journal of Sociology70 .
59.
Willmott, H. (1993) ‘Strength Is Ignorance; Slavery is Freedom: Managing Culture in Modern Organizations’ , Journal of Management Studies30(4): 515-552 .
