Andrea Tomo - Professional identity crisis: balancing the internal and external perception of professional image

The author would like to express his great appreciation to Dr Davide de Gennaro not only for the precious contribution related to the second and third chapter, but also and above all for his valuable and constructive suggestions during the planning and development of this book. His willingness to give his time and effort has been very appreciated.

This book aims at offering a novel understanding of the reasons behind the crisis of the professional identity occurring at the individual level. Such reasons are often neglected, leaving much more space to the analysis of identity at the organizational and contextual levels.

Conversely, we contend that full comprehension of the dynamics taking place is now paramount from the individual perspective.

On these grounds, the book proposes an analysis of the factors affecting professional identity and image from both an internal and external standpoint, and the possible strategies and behaviours fostered by professionals to cope with the social view of their professions and to respond to the threats and uncertainties featuring their contexts.

In doing so, the book offers interesting insights into the professional world that is quickly changing also highlighting novel and stimulating challenges. It tries to tie together theoretical and practical aspects to better comprehend the evolution of professions in a period characterized by profound changes and uncertainties both from a social and economic point of view. Our goal, also through a case study of a particularly deprofessionalized context, is to identify common features and dissonances within the literature on the topic by proposing an all-encompassing investigation of the phenomena that may lead to a poor external perception of the profession. The results of the case study will therefore represent a starting point for future considerations on professional identity, the threats affecting it, and the coping strategies and behaviours fostered by professionals to deal with them.

At least to our knowledge, this is the unique book to systematically address the issues relating to the crisis of professional identity according to a behavioural perspective, following a profound theoretical systematization to date unavailable that is strongly compelled with relevant practical implications on the individual level, sometimes neglected in the field. Also, the book benefits from rich empirical material on professional identity perception and professionals proactive behaviour in order to find out behavioural dimensions previously not disentangled.

Indeed, the book is articulated over three chapters, providing a rich theoretical and empirical analysis to support and discuss the issues raised.

The first chapter explores the multifaceted aspects concerning professional identity as a complex phenomenon, which presents ramifications in many different disciplinary fields, ranging from the organization studies to those in the psychological and sociological ones. Going over the essential features of the literature on professional identity, we analyze the articulation of the phenomenon by discussing and comparing some of the proposed classifications. In more detail, the chapter will problematize extant literature through a systematic review in order to catch identity struggles with their antecedents and consequences from already existing empirical studies on professional identity. This approach enables the discussion of studies not yet analyzed in the academic debate to then reorganize the results with the aim of discovering overlooked issues and possible neglected relationships. The results from the review will support the discussion over the main threats to professional identity, leading to the struggles affecting professionals and to the reactions often providing the reasons for resisting to organizational change. We believe that a deeper understanding of the threats and struggles to identity will enhance a better comprehension of what policies, reforms, and other kinds of actions might be of support for making professionals change agents rather than bearers of hurdles to organizational change.

The second chapter will deeply analyze from a theoretical perspective the reasons behind the identity crisis occurring in the professional field by discussing three main phenomena directly connected: deprofessionalization, precarization, and proletarianization. Numerous factors, such as persisting economic recession and austerity, automation generated by technologies advancements, and increased competition, are profoundly transforming the nature of professionals work, creating new threats and challenges for them who witness a deep transformation of their work. Deprofessionalization is a phenomenon that has been gripping the professions since the 1980s and that, due to the advent of technology and competition, has experienced a strong increase over the years and the data show this trend. Scholars have investigated perception of identity and of image and prestige in organizational contexts characterized by strong cultures, tight communities, and strict display rules showing that people strive to fit into challenging roles without losing their individuality but nevertheless economic volatility and technological change have led people to work outside these strong contexts in a constantly evolving scenario. More specifically, although much has been written about the changes occurring in professional practices and jurisdiction, scant attention has been given to professionals perceived image in the context of the ever-expanding pressures and increasing regulatory entropy, and this chapter aims to investigate these dynamics.