2026-09-19T22:17:21Zhttps://dspace.mit.edu/server/oai/requestoai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/1228332021-07-05T14:03:20Zcom_1721.1_7582com_1721.1_7581col_1721.1_131023
Erin Kelly and Susan Silbey.
Conzon, Vanessa Mariangela.
Sloan School of Management.
Sloan School of Management
2019-11-12T17:37:18Z
2019-11-12T17:37:18Z
2018
2018
https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/122833
1126277181
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).
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.
by Vanessa Mariangela Conzon.
S.M. in Management Research
S.M.inManagementResearch Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management
41 pages
eng
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.
http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582
Sloan School of Management.
Occupational invocation : managing experts through occupational norms
Thesis
application/pdf
2019-11-12T17:37:17Z
Publication
Master
Sloan
unknown
unknown
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<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.</Abstract>
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