Sociology Essays | Differences Between
Managers and Professional
What
kind of divisions, if any, are there between professionals
and managers?
You are expected to refer to case studies of particular professions
to illustrate your arguments.
The question of potential divides between professionals and
managers has become more prominent in recent decades, due
to the changing structures of professional and bureaucratic
organisations. David Brock et al are currently writing a paper
entitled:‘The changing professional organisation; towards new
Archetypes and Typology.’ Brock
draws attention to the ease with which professional organisations
could once be understood. They cite Mintzberg’s delineation
of the professional bureaucracy and Greenwood et al’s
professional partnership (p²) model as reflecting the
key features of professional organisations, where professionals
were the operators, but also in managerial control. However,
managerial structures are now forming part of professional
processes. For example, hospitals are experiencing changes
to their original organisational structures.
Over the course of this essay, an attempt will be made to
identify any divisions that may exist between professionals
and managers. In order to determine how significant these
divisions are, it is also necessary to consider the similarities
between professionals and managers. Since the similarities
between professionals and managers are not the focus of this
essay, they will not be considered in full. However, there
is a summary of some similarities between professionals and
managers in Section ‘A’ of the Appendix. Following
a discussion of the divisions between professionals and managers,
a conclusion will be drawn which shall hopefully help to determine
how many divisions there actually are between them, and how
these divisions may affect the new organisational structures
in which they have to work together.
Professionals and managers have been grouped together in
various ways over the years. Goldthorpe, for example, terms
them as the ‘service class.’ Gouldner terms them
the ‘New Class.’ Grouping them together in such
a way is related to problems in defining the ‘middle
class,’ simply because it is ‘in the middle.’
Savage et al have cited three ways of dealing with the problem
of defining the middle classes, the third of which is:
“to explore how the middle classes might actually be
social classes in their own right. This has, in British work,
centred around discussion concerning the argument that some
groups within the middle class can best be seen as a ‘service
class.’” The concept of ‘social classes’
has been explained in Section ‘C’ of the Appendix.
Although professionals and managers have been grouped together
by various people, there are various divisions to be found
between them. As Kornhauser has emphasised in Scott (in Vollmer):
To examine professionals in bureaucracies is to examine the
“relation between two institutions, not merely between
organisations and individuals.”
Scott writes:
“Two institutions are involved in the relation between
professionals and bureaucracies. Furthermore, it is important
to understand that the two systems are based on fundamentally
different principles.” Some of the divisions that can
be found between professionals and managers shall now be highlighted.
Please note: The above essays and dissertations were written by students and then submitted to us to display and help others. Thanks to all the students who have submitted their work to us.
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