Eroding ‘Respectability’: Deprofessionalization Through Organizational Spaces

an article by Sabina Siebert (University of Glasgow, UK) and Stacey Bushfield, Graeme Martin and Brian Howieson (University of Dundee, UK) published in Work, Employment and Society Volume 32 Issue 2 (April 2018)

Abstract

This article addresses the question – can a deterioration in organizational spaces erode a profession’s status?

It draws on the organizational spaces literature to analyse the relationship between design of the physical work setting and senior doctors’ experiences of deprofessionalization. Analysis of qualitative data from a study of senior hospital doctors identifies two main themes that link the experience of spaces with perceptions of the erosion of professional status and reduced knowledge sharing.

These two themes are:

• emplacement, which is the application of coercive power both in and through spatial arrangements; and
• isolation, which refers to physical alienation in the workplace leading to disconnection and a perceived loss of power.

Observing the changes in the physical environment over time and mapping them against these processes of deprofessionalization offers interesting new insights into the sociology of professions.

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