Occupational invocation : managing experts through occupational norms
Name
1126277181-MIT.pdf
Size
3.38 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
f315c95b7c0d615826f4e1f71d08e1dc
Author(s)
Conzon, Vanessa Mariangela.
Advisor(s)
Erin Kelly and Susan Silbey.
Date Issued
2018
Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Abstract
Using data from a 16-month ethnographic study of a pharmaceutical company research unit, I examine how managers can successfully manage expert contractors. These expert scientists perform essential work in advancing drug development projects. However, they often complete work late, refuse to perform requested work, and act in other ways that managers believe impedes project progress. Although the literature on expert management suggests that these challenges can be overcome by rewarding, punishing, and socializing experts, these practices are difficult to implement when expert workers are contracted from outside of the organization. I show how managers can manage expert contractors through a process I label occupational invocation. In this process, managers first publicly highlight experts' breaches of shared occupational norms. Managers then reintegrate experts by providing them with an opportunity to display a correction of their actions such that they align with the community's expectations as well as the contracting organization's interests. By referencing common norms, occupational invocation helps enable the management of expert contractors.
Description
Thesis: S.M. in Management Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2018
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 36-41).
Subjects
Sloan School of Management.
MIT Department
Sloan School of Management
Terms of Use
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