The manager is not the boss : an investigation into managing professionals from both within and without the profession
Year: 2009
Type: article
Abstract: Professionals have an inherent expectation of autonomy in their work, an associated lack \nof respect for both the managerial role and the people who hold managerial positions, and \nhighly specialized knowledge and skills. These characteristics alone make the \nmanagement of professionals difficult. Add to this the fact that there are an increasing \nnumber of professionals being managed by individuals from outside their profession, and \nthe complexity of the managerial role becomes even greater. It is the purpose of this \ndissertation to examine the management of professionals and to determine if a set of \nstrategies exists that managers can use in order to mitigate the lack of respect that their \nsubordinates afford them. The dissertation consists of a three-study research design. The \nfirst study consists of interviews of professionals and their managers, looking for \nexpectations, experiences, and perceptions of managerial effectiveness. A list of \nstrategies was developed through these interviews. The second study is a large scale \nsurvey conducted over a diverse set of professionals, designed to validate the strategies \nand answer questions regarding managers of professionals. The third study consists of a \nvignette experiment, with participants rating the effectiveness of managers of varying \nlevels of expert power and strategies. The research findings indicate that managers who \nare members of the profession of their subordinates are more effective than those who are \nnot. A set of four strategies for managing professionals was identified. These strategies \nare used more often by managers who are members of the profession, and are inherent to \nprofessional membership, but are capable of being adopted by managers who are not \nmembers of the profession.
Author: Patricia Genoe McLaren
Language: English
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2232010901