Identities at Work
Identities at Work
Identities at Work
Volume 5
Series Editors-in-Chief:
Dr. Rupert Maclean, UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and
Training, Bonn, Germany
Professor David N. Wilson, OISE, University of Toronto, Canada
Associate Editors:
Professor Felix Rauner, University of Bremen, Germany
Professor Karen Evans, Institute of Education, University of London, UK
ALAN BROWN
University of Warwick, UK
SIMONE KIRPAL
University of Bremen, Germany
and
FELIX RAUNER
University of Bremen, Germany
A C.I.P. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
Published by Springer,
P.O. Box 17, 3300 AA Dordrecht, The Netherlands.
www.springer.com
The purpose of this Book Series is to meet the needs of those interested in an in-depth analysis of
current developments concerning various aspects of education for the world of work with partic-
ular reference to technical and vocational education and training. The Series examines areas that
are at the ‘cutting edge’ of the field and are innovative in nature. It presents best and innovative
practices, explores controversial topics and uses case studies as examples.
The audience for the Book Series includes policy-makers, practitioners, administrators, plan-
ners, researchers, teachers, teacher-educators, students and colleagues in other fields interested in
learning about TVET, in both developed and developing countries, countries in transition and
countries in a post-conflict situation.
The Series complements the International Handbook of Technical and Vocational Education
and Training, with the elaboration of specific topics, themes and case studies in greater breadth
and depth than is possible in the Handbook. The Book Series also augments the various other pub-
lications in the International Library of Technical and Vocational Education and Training.
Topics to be covered in the Series include: training for the informal economy in developing coun-
tries; education of adolescents and youth for academic and vocational work; financing education for
work; lifelong learning in the workplace; women and girls in technical and vocational education and
training; effectively harnessing ICT’s in support of TVET; planning of education systems to promote
education for the world of work; recognition, evaluation and assessment; education and training of
demobilized soldiers in post-conflict situations; TVET research; and school-to-work transition.
The Book Series Technical and Vocational Education and Training: Issues, Concerns and
Prospects, and other publications in the International Library of Technical and Vocational
Education and Training, are publications of the UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for
Technical and Vocational Education and Training (UNESCO-UNEVOC) in Bonn, Germany.
Those interested in obtaining more information about the Book Series, or who wish to explore
the possibility of contributing a manuscript, should (in the first instance) contact the publishers.
v
INTRODUCTION BY THE SERIES EDITORS
Work is a central feature in the life of most people. Not only does it
provide them with the means of survival in terms of food, shelter and
clothing, but for most the type of work undertaken gives purpose and
meaning to their life, and, if they are fortunate enough to be undertak-
ing work that they truly like, it is a major source of pleasure and satis-
faction in their life. Because of such matters, most of those who are
unemployed suffer from feelings of alienation, and a loss of self
esteem, work-related identify and status.
It is also no coincidence that when we meet someone for the first time
we are often keen to find out ‘what they do for a living’. This is because
to know a person’s occupation gives the inquisitive observer a great deal
of information about the person in question, such as their likely level of
income, educational attainment, standard of living, and the types of peo-
ple they associate with in both work and leisure time. This information
is also likely to provide an indication of their likely attitudes and values
regarding a wide range of social, political and economic issues. In other
words, a person’s work has a significant influence on their identify, both
as individuals and as members of social groups.
The relationship between an individual and their work is an interac-
tive one, in that while work helps define an individual’s identity, so an
individual’s identify impacts on and helps shape their work, and their
relationships with their employer, fellow employees, and the occupa-
tional group with which they work.
For many in the workplace, due to a shift from the Industrial Age to
the Information Age, and related matters such as globalisation, and the
greater mobility of employees across national and international
borders, individuals are increasingly working in rapidly changing envi-
ronments where they need to take on new areas of responsibility and
master increasingly complex work situations. The extent to which indi-
viduals and groups of employees are able to cope with, and adjust to,
such major change does not only rely on their commitment to, interest
vii
viii Introduction by the Series Editors
and training for the job in question, but also upon their level of com-
mitment and identification with their employment. That is, it affects their
Identities at Work, which is the subject of this book.
In this age of increasing mobility of workers across national borders,
an individual’s ties and commitment to a particular employer or com-
pany tends to become weakened, as does the commitment of employers
to those they employ. The impact of globalisation, particularly the out-
sourcing of jobs, also affects these ties and commitment.
This volume examines the interdependence between employees’
identification with work and their work commitment. As such, it relates
to such important matters as an individuals’ commitment to their work
organisation and employer in terms of loyalty and motivation, which in
turn impacts on workforce stability and improved performance. It also
addresses how work identities are formed, learned and obtained.
A feature of this book, which contributes to its importance in the
field, is that it adopts a truly multi-disciplinary approach and interna-
tional perspective, drawing as it does on research insights offered by the
disciplines sociology and psychology, and on the literature relating to
organisational management and to vocational education and training.
Rupert Maclean,
Director of the UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre,
Bonn, Germany
and
David N. Wilson,
Professor Emeritus at OISE,
University of Toronto, Canada
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ix
x Table of Contents
Figures
xi
xii List of Figures and Tables
Tables
xv
xvi Contributors
1
A. Brown, S. Kirpal and F. Rauner (eds.), Identities at Work, 1–10.
© 2007 Springer.
2 Alan Brown, Simone Kirpal and Felix Rauner
employers and employees may consider strong work identities and occu-
pational attachments produce strong inter-firm demarcations and con-
fine employees to particular job positions in ways that may restrict the
competitiveness of companies. In such circumstances there may be ten-
sions between an employer’s desire for more flexibility and a wish that
employees had more adaptable forms of attachments and those employ-
ees who wish to retain former attachments and values.
Certainly, we can identify conflicting interests and a number of unan-
swered questions. Although the different book chapters do not address
all of the questions and issues raised, we hope that with this compilation
of results from theoretical and empirical research some of those issues
can be addressed and clarified. Most of all, however, we hope to have
contributed to a reinvigoration of the debate about the nature and devel-
opment of work-related identities and that discussions of these issues
will continue.
The volume is structured into four parts. The first part presents ideas
and concepts about work-related identities from different theoretical and
empirical perspectives, including mapping out different approaches
towards conceptualising vocational identities and investigating the mean-
ing these can have for particular societal or occupational groups. The
empirical studies, all of which present their own approach towards a the-
oretical foundation for the investigations undertaken, focus on bankers in
Denmark, young mothers entering training programmes in Germany,
tourism employees in Greece and skilled workers in Europe.
The FAME Consortium starts this section with an overview of how dif-
ferent national European research traditions connect theoretical concepts
of vocational identity formation with empirical research and related the-
oretical concepts and topics. It outlines how ‘identity’ is conceptualised
in psychology, psychoanalysis and sociology and delineates a new con-
ceptual framework for the analysis of vocational identity. Furthermore,
with examples drawn from Estonia, Greece and France it shows how the
debate on vocational identity has been anchored in different national,
empirically-based research traditions.
The presentation of three empirical studies follows this introductory
overview in part one. Combining quantitative and qualitative methods,
Morten Smistrup investigates the vocational identity of Danish bankers
and the role it used to play in the past and currently plays in processes of
becoming a committed bank employee. From the analysis of the banking
sector he delineates some general aspects of vocation and vocational
identity and the significance of these phenomena to society and the indi-
vidual. The vocation herein is conceptualised as a formative collective
6 Alan Brown, Simone Kirpal and Felix Rauner
Monika Nerland and Karen Jensen address the role that initial edu-
cation can play in constructing a new professional self. They analyse
curricular and policy documents in order to demonstrate how new kinds
of work identities are offered to students in Norway who want to
become nurses or computer engineers. These documents, which recently
have been newly adopted for both professional groups, also define,
implicitly or explicitly, emerging visions and expectations of the pro-
fessional self. Based on theoretical concepts introduced by Foucault the
authors discuss how the formulation of goals, activities and evaluation
procedures in the curricula impose new demands on the learning self as
they view the students as creators of knowledge, boundary crossers and
innovators of self and ethics.
The second case study, which David Finegold and Robert Matousek
present, focuses on the bioscience industry in the US. While historically
the diverse skills required in the sector were embodied in specialists
from different disciplines such as biology, chemistry and computer sci-
ence, who spoke different technical languages and had different
approaches to solving problems, major advances in biotechnology
require new types of professionals. The authors introduce two new types
of bioscience professionals who embody a new combination of skill mix:
computational biologists who are able to integrate programming skills
and biological knowledge, and bioscience business professionals who
can integrate science and business to help commercialise new products.
The authors discuss some of the key labour market, organisational and
individual-level factors related to the creation of new professional pro-
files and identities and identify processes that may also apply to similar
developments in other forms of complex knowledge work.
Part One
FAME Consortium
The following individuals contributed to this article: Alan Brown (University of
Warwick, UK), M’Hamed Dif (University of Louis Pasteur of Strasbourg, France),
Leena Helemäe (University of Tallinn, Estonia), Simone Kirpal (University of
Bremen, Germany), Sokratis Koniordos (University of Patras, Greece), Gabriele
Laske (University of Bremen, Germany), Nikitas Patiniotis (Panteion University
of Athens, Greece) and Olga Strietska-Ilina (Czech National Observatory of VET
& Labour Market, National Training Fund, Czech Republic)
1
Reference is made to ‘vocational’, ‘occupational’, ‘professional’ or ‘work-related’
identity as any kind of identity formation processes that develop through the interac-
tion between the individual and the work context including vocational education and
training. The most inclusive terminology may be applied when referring to ‘work-
related’or ‘work identity’, whereas ‘vocational’or ‘occupational identity’more specif-
ically refers to certain features of the work context or a specific concept of work. For
example, ‘occupational identity’ may be more applicable to labour markets and work
concepts that are structured along occupational lines. However, the project partners
reached a common understanding to use the different terminology in an interchange-
able manner referring to the same kind of identity formation processes at work.
13
A. Brown, S. Kirpal and F. Rauner (eds.), Identities at Work, 13–44.
© 2007 Springer.
14 FAME Consortium
individual to the work context in very different ways and each period
called for a different kind of identification with work. Thus, vocational
and broader work-related identities are not constant over time; rather
they need to be understood in a dynamic way.
In agricultural, pre-modern times organised around the feudal sys-
tem each individual was socially, politically and economically depend-
ent upon a work-and-bread giver. Work was closely linked to a person’s
social relations and status and identities were largely ascribed and
attached to pre-defined social roles (Gellner, 1992). Under capitalist
economic relations work became contracted whereby the person was
politically free. However, the economic contractual relationships of
early industrialisation still preserved a high level of interdependence
between work and social status. It provided a newly emerging collec-
tive work identity that at least for the first half of the 20th century could
be considered relatively stable. During that period the qualifications to
perform in an occupation both in industry and crafts were mostly
obtained through on-the-job training and usually served as the basis for
a lifetime occupational specialisation.
With the establishment of modern welfare states, the relationship
between work and social status became much more complex. As over
the past decades working conditions have been constantly improved
and legally regulated, work tasks and duties have become clearly
defined in time, space and function marking a clear distinction from
private time and leisure. The welfare state also provided for a harmon-
isation of life-styles across the hierarchy of occupations and the private
sphere. ‘The liberation from economic vulnerability and subjection’
(Gellner, 1992, p. 142), the separation of work and the social life
beyond it, and the homogenisation of life styles also brought about
greater freedom in terms of how individual work identities are linked to
social roles.
For hundreds of years apprenticeships in the crafts and trade busi-
ness all over Europe had two main functions. First, to equip a person
with some basic skills that would secure an income to sustain a family.
The second function was to socialise a person into a community of
practice whereby the person would acquire not only skills, but also
internalise a certain kind of conduct and outlook. Both aspects, the
establishment of an economic foundation and the internalisation of
certain norms and behaviours, were geared towards the individual’s
smooth and successful transition and integration into society. At the
same time, the socialising function of apprenticeships worked in two
directions: from the individual’s point of view as a learner it enabled
A Survey of Theoretical Concepts 15
a high level of flexibility into its training and accreditation system, the
latter emphasises the process of learning and becoming skilled support-
ing the formation of a vocationally-based identity through a socialisation
process that focuses on becoming a member of a particular community
of practice.
The general education and vocational training systems across
Europe are challenged to respond to labour market demands that push
for greater flexibility. Today, they need to consider and prepare young
people to be able to master a whole range of work tasks and associated
vocational roles. Multi-skilling, changing job profiles and employment
patterns, competitive requirements on job performance and the creation
of hybrid occupations (like, for example, the European job profile
‘mechatronic’) assume insertion of people into various communities of
practice simultaneously and the development of a complex skill mix.
Modern forms of work organisation with highly complex internal
structures (like teamwork, project-based teams that cross traditional
organisational boundaries and interdisciplinary interdepartmental work)
are increasingly combined with links to external and international com-
munities of practice. Forming part of different communities, however,
may not always be compatible and may demand conflicting loyalties
(Cohen, 1994). The insertion of the Self into incompatible communities
of practice certainly is not unproblematic, because the individual may
encounter discomfort and conflict also at the level of his or her self-iden-
tity. This may not question the identification with a particular commu-
nity of practice as such, but puts great challenges on the individual to
integrate different expectations, professional roles and levels of identifi-
cation into a coherent self-picture (Sennett, 1998).
In Estonia, studies focusing on early life careers can look back at a tra-
dition of more than 35 years. Studies at Tartu University initially focused
on vocational counselling and the process of how individuals decide to
follow a particular vocational track. Influenced by communist education
one major concern was how to ‘locate the right person to the right place’
and to define ‘a scientific direction of labour force allocation through
individuals’ occupational choices’ (Titma, 1972, p. 22). Distinct from the
official ideology, this concept emphasised the active role of young people
showing some similarities with the American human resources approach
of that time (Ginzberg, 1968; Ginzberg et al., 1951). In this context, the
vocational orientation was linked to an individual’s personal development
assuming that occupational choices are dependent upon understanding
the ‘interconnections between society and individual as well as the ability
to pursue socially meaningful goals’ (Titma, 1972, p. 46).
The communist regime promoted a concept whereby work became
the central element of life, connecting the society and the individual as a
necessity and the basic sphere of self-realisation of every human being
(Titma, 1972). That a person’s skills, abilities, knowledge and experi-
ences should match the specific requirements of a particular job was
regarded as the main factor when making occupational decisions. In
addition, work values were also assumed to have an impact on how peo-
ple value and choose a particular occupational specialisation. Values as
criteria for choices were conceptualised as being dynamic and subject to
change. In the light of labour force allocation, these values should be
‘consciously shaped’to help young people make ‘the right’choices in the
sense of being aware of one’s own abilities and skills in combination with
the chosen work context and socially acceptable goals.
Inspired by the American sociologist Ginzberg, occupational choice
was conceived as a process of different stages that connects general
education, vocational training and the chosen vocational track with the
specific job or workplace. During the 1960s self-determination and ‘sub-
jective aspects’ of occupational choice were emphasised like, for exam-
ple, how an individual perceives and values the popularity and prestige
of a particular occupational specialisation. In those early studies the
24 FAME Consortium
level of school performance meant that many of them did not progress
through what Piaget designated the ‘formal operational stage of cogni-
tive development’, which largely unfolds under the impact of formal
education during early adolescence (from 11 to 15 years) and involves
the development of the capacity to understand abstract and hypothetical
ideas (Piaget and Inhelder, 1973). Instead, on-the-job apprenticeships
largely consisted of ‘learning-by-doing’, and the repetitive performance
of routine tasks, making it very difficult for the trainees to acquire an
understanding of abstract and higher level work processes. This system
of vocational training operated a mechanism of exclusion that effec-
tively channelled apprentices with a lower class background into man-
ual jobs, while individuals with higher-level general education and of
middle class origin were favoured to become larger employers
(Koniordos, 2001).
2
On primary and secondary labour markets and industrial dualism see Doeringer and
Piore (1971), Piore (1975) and Berger and Piore (1980).
A Survey of Theoretical Concepts 27
general traits) correlates with the type of proprietor. The emergent pat-
tern is that the longer someone attended formal schooling, the closer
the person approaches the large employer type of entrepreneur.
Inversely, decreasing numbers of years of formal education tend to cor-
relate with the artisan worker type. Although the quality of education
could not be considered, longer schooling also facilitates that students
have the possibility to absorb more theoretical and general knowledge.
A comparison of the average years of schooling between the two voca-
tional specialisations investigated shows that (with the exception of the
small employers) machinists in metal-working on average attended
school about 1.5 years longer than the workers engaged in garment
making. The greater differential in years of school attendance can also
be attributed to the traditional role expectations of women that placed
emphasis on assuming housekeeping and family responsibilities after
completion of elementary education. Accordingly, the female intervie-
wees working in the garment industry on average attended 6.6 years of
schooling compared to their male counterparts, who attended on aver-
age 8.1 years (Koniordos, 2001).
Closer study also reveals that the majority of the independent artisan
and small-employer machinists attended technical school courses at
evening classes alongside working during the day. This combination
exposed them to formal education and elementary general technical
traits while practical on-the-job training provided them with specific
technical traits and a chance to apply the more general knowledge
learned at school. These people were trained as skilled craft workers.
By contrast, practical technical education did not form part of learning
the garment trade. Here, the character of the trade itself, its domestic
environment and the overall state of the industry further supported the
traditional role of women in Greece. Finally, most of the large employer
type of entrepreneurs had followed high-school, college, or university
courses. With their middle-class background and a considerably higher
proportion of formal education they were being prepared for non-manual
labour and supported to develop abstract thinking capabilities and
administrative skills.
Since most of the artisans and small employers could not or only to
a very limited extent rely on financial assistance from their families,
their skills became their primary asset. Skills turned into the basic
means for obtaining higher wages that would allow for securing some
savings and eventually turn into capital for the individual to establish
her or his own business. Once a business was set up, skills again
became the crucial resource in order to safeguard know-how, technical
A Survey of Theoretical Concepts 29
independence and to keep down unit labour costs. The skills acquired
during the artisan apprenticeship and working prior to establishing an
independent workshop had to be fairly broad in order that the individ-
ual was prepared to tackle successfully new challenges at work (Piore
and Sabel, 1984). By being skilled and successful, the artisan was able
to attract customers and to acquire a good reputation in the trade. It
would be extremely difficult to remediate the lack or insufficiency of
skills in order to survive as an independent employer. The process of
becoming an independent artisan, however, also implied a shift from
accumulating specific technical traits to developing general technical
traits. While, in the sample, the machinists showed a strong inclination
towards combining a longer and higher-level technical schooling with
on-the-job training, practical work experience was of paramount impor-
tance for skill acquisition in garment manufacturing confirming the
notion that in garment manufacturing technical skills are mainly picked
up on-the-job.
In summary, we can conclude that machinists in metal-working
attended school much longer than skilled workers in the garment trade.
Also, their on-the-job apprenticeships lasted twice as long as those
involved in garment making, they worked more years as wage-earners
and changed employers more often before becoming independent. This
appears to imply that for becoming and surviving as an artisan a sine
qua non is the acquisition of skills, particularly in machining. But the
making of garments also requires expertise and knowledge of fabrics,
designing, making prototypes, wholesaling and retailing, and the actu-
al sewing implies mastery of operating the machines, fine finishing and
ironing. It also extends to wholesaling and retailing of goods. Still, arti-
san and small-employer machinists who started their own business had
a wider range of technical skills than the skilled workers in garment
manufacturing. This may be due to the technology involved that obliged
machinists to stay longer in education and to have more practical on-
the-job training. This increases their chances of acquiring specific and
general, mostly technical, traits type of skills. By contrast, skilled gar-
ment artisans, due to the greater division of labour in the trade, were
more restricted in their range of work tasks. Small employers in garment
making also displayed administrative skills as part of their qualification
for becoming independent. The higher involvement of general traits
combined with the fact that all of them are male gives them a profile
distinct from that of the same trade artisans, and distinguishes them
from the different types of machinist, among whom there are less
marked disparities.
30 FAME Consortium
3
The first field investigation on ‘Socio-vocational Inclusion Programmes’ was
launched in 1982 and concerned unemployed young school leavers without qualifi-
cations in the region of Nord-Pas-de-Calais (France) (Dubar et al., 1987); the second
field investigation was conducted between 1984 and 1985 and concerned a CVT pro-
gramme for employees’ career development within two production units of thermal
A Survey of Theoretical Concepts 33
electricity of EDF (Dubar and Engrand, 1986); and the third investigation covering
the period from 1986 to 1989 concerned CVT policies and practice within firms that
applied innovative modes of labour organisation, training and human resources man-
agement (Bel et al., 1988).
34 FAME Consortium
4
This section is based on Brown (1997).
A Survey of Theoretical Concepts 35
Two aspects are important to keep in mind. First, the sets of activi-
ties at work and communities of practice and the identities they
support are constantly changing. Second, not all aspects of these
activities, practices and identities are passively received by those
engaging in them while in the process of becoming skilled; rather
individuals also actively engage in shaping them. An understanding
of such dynamism is required if a fundamental tension about occu-
pational identity formation processes is to be recognised: that is,
there is both continuity and change in how these processes develop
over time. The framework is further based upon some fundamental
theoretical commitments.
36 FAME Consortium
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45
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46 Morten Smistrup
forty years ago the household economy for a large part of the population
was based on cash (and maybe some minor savings), today nearly all
household transactions involve banks. This means that almost everybody—
from the unskilled worker to the manager—is interacting on a daily
basis with banks and bankers must be able to interact with people from
all social groups. Within the bank technological developments have
brought about two major changes: first, the tasks related to the safe
handling of cash have diminished and the importance of jobs related to
this has decreased, and, second, a considerable number of administra-
tive routines have vanished.
The deregulation of the monetary market has opened the way for
broader competition between banks and made room for new actors on
the financial market. This has lead to the creation of so-called ‘finan-
cial supermarkets’, whereby banks engage in providing a number of
new products and services. For the individual banker this means that
she1 has to deal with new and changing products and that his or her role
is changing in direction of that of the seller. The customer, on the other
hand, is developing a growing consciousness about the importance of
checking the different bank offers, and as such customers have gained
a much greater market power while the authority of the banker has
decreased.
In summary, the situation of the banking sector has been undergoing
change in that the societal role of banks has changed from servicing the
privileged to serving the public in general; the traditional status and
authority of the banker has been shattered; and competition has sharp-
ened with an increasing orientation towards selling products and serv-
ices. However, despite modernisation processes having changed many
aspects of banking, banks as institutions are still functionally based
upon the gathering of free capital and redistributing this in the form of
loans. But this takes place in new ways that have caused great changes
in the work profile and the role of the individual banker.
1
Since 60 per cent of bank employees are women I use ‘she’ when nothing else seems
obvious.
48 Morten Smistrup
Social conditions
An autonomous
social world
with its own
practices
● As a banker you must be able to win the trust of the customer and
possess the ability to establish a general view of the customer’s
problems and needs and be able to suggest professional solutions
to these problems based on the products of the bank in a way that
benefits both parties in the long run.
● In the interaction with the customer the banker must preserve a
personal distance to the customer in such a way that what takes
place remains within certain themes and follows the respective
rules. These relations form part of the reproduction of the sym-
bolic space of the bank. While doing so, the banker must be able
to handle the existing demands for control and external regulation
The Vocational Identity of Danish Bankers 53
and, despite this, nurture the intimacy that is necessary for the
banker to assume the role of an adviser.
● The banker must be familiar with and live up to the role expecta-
tions typical for banking, including the maintenance of a personal
front characterised by a subdued ‘professional’ appearance with-
out expressive signs of individuality and visible expressions of
needs and emotions. This means that at all times the banker must
stay in control in any kind of situation since this is strongly related
to the prevailing view of what expresses trustworthiness and reli-
ability.
● Through participating in the general basic education shared by
practically everybody in customer-related functions, the new
banker acquires the ability to master what is accepted as the nec-
essary knowledge and gets acquainted with the products and pro-
cedures. This is a central element in developing the professional
ability to thematise and formulate problems in a way that is
expected from a banker and becomes part of the social construc-
tion of meaning within the group.
● The new banker has to learn the norms and values that are func-
tioning as the prescriptive and regulative basis for everyday behav-
iour in the bank and, not least, is the basis of the expectation to
demonstrate loyalty that reaches far beyond the regular working
hours.
2
This might be the result of a certain over-determination in the material caused by the
construction of the research approach but despite this I consider the conclusions to
be valid.
The Vocational Identity of Danish Bankers 55
sides of themselves that they appreciate and that they are able to find
ways to express their individuality. When the employees related to sto-
ries about how they as individuals evoked change in local practices, the
sentence ‘you must realise that I am not a typical banker’ appeared fre-
quently in the interviews. This statement relates to the fact that the
recruitment of new trainees is based on trying to identify candidates who
will fit smoothly into the organisation. Hence, we find a tendency
towards a great uniformity in education, values and social background
among those recruits, which is supported by quantitative (Smistrup,
2002) as well as qualitative data (Smistrup, 2003). In the ways described
here the process whereby a newcomer is allowed participation and mem-
bership is a reproduction process (where she internalises the norms and
expectations) as well as a transformation process (were she is seeking to
establish space for her individuality within this), a process whereby the
successful outcome is largely based on the existence of suitable habitual
preconditions (Bourdieu, 1994).
An essential aspect of learning a trade is to learn what you are
expected ‘to do’ in order to be recognised as a skilled employee or expert
in the vocational field. This implies a shift in focus from the actualisa-
tion of an individual self and the significance of the individual to a col-
lective understanding of what the individual is expected to be, is able to
do and how her actual practice is recognised by others. This shift is a
prerequisite to recognise herself as a banker. Identity is a concept that
is highly suitable to conceptualise encounters between individuality
and context since it is the result of a learning process that evolves in the
space of tension between social norms and individual needs. Vocational
identities are developed as a result of the learning processes that unfold
in the borderland between ‘the collective’ and ‘the subjective’ while the
trainees participate in, conduct and reflect upon the work practice and
their work experiences. This is fundamentally based on conceptualising
identity as relational and a learning process which takes place in the
interaction between a structured social word that pre-exists the individ-
ual and faces her as a reality and a subjective world that has been struc-
tured by the totality of her biographical experiences and life conditions
(Alheit, 1994; Dausien, 1998).
Developing an identity is characterised by continuity as well as change
(Dewey, 1963). The source of change through learning is the social and
material interaction (in its widest sense) under specific contextual
circumstances (Mead, 1934; Goffman, 1992; Wenger, 1998), but the
results of learning, and as such its significance beyond the specific con-
text, is dependent upon the continuity of biographical experience
The Vocational Identity of Danish Bankers 57
fulfilling her needs for social belonging, security etc. But it is also where
she faces a situation that is ambivalent, needs compromising and forces her
to devalue or silence a number of earlier experiences to survive as part of
the community. Part of protecting one’s own individuality within the voca-
tional context can be understood in terms of back- and front-stage behav-
iour (Goffman, 1992) and the ability to comply with role expectations and
the social identity formation process this implies. This calls for the devel-
opment of tolerance of ambivalence (Becker-Schmidt, 1982) as a central
quality of vocational identity. On the other hand, the individual to some
extent affects the social surroundings through action and negotiation.
In the empirical studies of bankers the social relation with the cus-
tomer manifested itself very strongly. This relationship is characterised
by a complex exchange of trust and reliability on a professional as well
as personal level and is closely related to two aspects of the vocational
self-understanding of bankers. They, on the one hand, see themselves as
people who help customers solve important problems in their lives and,
on the other hand, as bankers who, as business people, have the respon-
sibility of not involving the bank in risky engagements. The first element
of this self-understanding is based upon a solid vocational knowledge
combined with having highly developed communication skills and pos-
sessing the ability to gain the confidence of others. Bankers typically
perceive these skills as a part of their personality or as something they
have learned from their parents during primary socialisation. The sec-
ond element is connected to bankers being careful, sceptical and criti-
cal, which either derives from their vocational training and/or is related
to personal traits and their work-life socialisation.
The elements of the collective and the subjective self-understanding
(or organising perspectives) described in the previous section are partly
contradictory. The way the individual banker deals with this contradic-
tion is two-sided. On the one hand, she individualises and privatises the
situations when she functions as a counsellor mixing professional
judgements and normative personal understandings in making business
decisions. On the other hand, she assumes a paternalistic role towards
the customer. This attitude is apparent when bankers describe their task
in relation to the customer as parallel to that of a doctor or when they
attempt to ‘mould’ the customer to show economic ‘responsibility’ and
in this way the bankers establish personal norms and values as criteria
The Vocational Identity of Danish Bankers 61
for the evaluation of the customer. This approach positions the banker
in a similar role to that of the ‘concerned parent’, who acts according
to what she thinks is best for her ‘child’, while at the same time this
positioning makes it possible to administer a self-image as being loyal
to the bank and meeting the business requirements.
Another important source of identity formation is the collegial rela-
tionship within the bank. Bankers as a professional group put in a lot of
effort to maintain a stable social balance among themselves. A dominant
feature of this relationship is to help and support one another and to have
a relaxed and easy-going tone outside opening hours. But this is also a
relationship where everybody maintains a distinct distance. Though habit-
ually bank colleagues participate in company-organised sports and other
leisure activities and to some extent engage in social exchange with other
bankers, it is not a very close or empathic culture. A characteristic feature
of this culture is that bankers are reluctant to criticise one another, to
behave in ways that might be interpreted as confrontational or to express
strong and explicit feelings (especially negative ones). This reflects an
established norm of personal distance and emotional control that is also a
key element in customer relations as described above, but is also a means
to maintain the privacy of the counselling situation. Demonstrating emo-
tional control combined with living up to a formal dress code forms part
of the shared understanding of what constitutes the professional appear-
ance. But the interviews also revealed that this is rather founded on the
habitual dispositions of the employees than on corporate rules. As such
those features of the professional appearance appear stable as an element
of the shared vocational identity of bankers. However, it is also obvious
that it is a fragile stability that might easily be shattered.
Any activity in the bank is subservient to strong front-stage backstage
regulations and it is expected that the employee is able to handle the rules
of these two scenes. The opening hours during which customers might be
present are characterised by a rigid bodily and emotional control. This
applies to the dress code, forms of behaviour, not to be seen eating or drink-
ing etc. It is common understanding that a highly controlled appearance
and behaviour expresses a sort of inner virtue and conveys a higher level of
seriousness and precision.At the same time this kind of appearance and the
symbolic signal of the social space are a precondition for the establishment
of the paternalistic position in relation to the customers and to help main-
tain the desired balance between intimacy and distance. This is partly
reproduced in an interaction between explicit rules and the dispositions of
the individual banker, but it is also a highly efficient form of social control.
Only very rarely are reprisals or corrections necessary to maintain this.
62 Morten Smistrup
3
This form of identification might be related to the development of a corporate iden-
tity, but from the bankers’ point of view there is no distinction between a corporate
identity and ‘being a banker’ (i.e. relating to the vocation). Hence, I interpret this as
an element of the vocational identity.
The Vocational Identity of Danish Bankers 63
reproduce these attitudes within the social space they establish which
is characterised by being kept ‘pleasant’ and free of conflicts and
confrontational behaviour. These processes are based on personal
orientations or dispositions as well as the bank-specific vocational
socialisation. It is, however, a fragile balance since it is characterised
by contradictory demands. These contradictions constantly challenge
the employee to make decisions and negotiate to what extent and in
what ways she complies with meeting the different expectations.
What meets the eye as a high level of identification and balance
reveals itself as a permanent struggle to maintain an identity that
is able to mediate these contradictions. The combination of pre-
dictability and precaution that characterises the banker is a product
of this and is combined with a degree of traditionalism that conveys
the image of bankers as being ‘boring’. The individual banker is
aware of this stereotype, but accepts that this is the price that must
be paid in order to appear as professional on the front-stage. This is
contrasted by a much more multi-facetted social life ‘back stage’
than what appears on the ‘front stage’ and the fact that the safe and
controlled social space with a minimum of visible conflicts also con-
tains relationships between colleagues that are characterised by com-
petitiveness. In this context competition is not necessarily expressed
as an urge to win, but rather as a wish not to achieve less than the
other employees in a similar job position. Also in this context it is
important not to be or appear aggressive.
An important basis of the reproduction of the described social
practices, through which the vocation acts as a collective organising
perspective, is the recruitment of new trainees that possess habitual dis-
positions that mirror the existing ones and thus support the current
social practices. This explains why the elements in the work of the
banker that are valued and experienced as a possibility to realise indi-
vidual needs in the work-context, at the same time have a reproductive
function in relation to the vocation itself and as such are promoted and
reinforced. In many aspects the values that the employees exercise in
their private lives do not appear very different from those exercised in
the bank. For instance, bankers’ personal lives appear quite traditional
with a focus on the family and their close social context preserving
traditional family values (for example, most bank employees live in
families with 2 or 3 children and have rarely been divorced). In their
social life in general they mirror their distance to and interest in other
people as well as the traditional and cautious norms that they value in
their counselling practice.
64 Morten Smistrup
work situations bearable. At the same time this is also the reason why
vocational identities have a ‘conservative’ connotation during times of
change. Balancing the contradictions of capitalist work life demands
requires immense efforts and a defensive attitude, because this balance
is fragile.
That individuals develop a vocational identity in relation to their
respective community of practice is also of importance in a broader
societal sense. Besides creating internal coherence within the profes-
sional group it is also the basis for establishing and maintaining shared
standards and norms for the quality of work. Through their vocational
identity individuals create demarcations from other groups by which a
shared understanding of the role of the vocation in relation to societal
production and society as a whole are established. In times of increas-
ing complexity of production professional groups cannot be regulated
from one central institution but have to be decentralised. This moves an
important part of control and regulation to the vocational institutions
themselves. Hence employees’ vocational identities must be considered
central to the sustainability of production on a broader level.
Finally, vocational identity plays a key role in lifelong learning.
Incorporating elements of situatedness as well as of biographical con-
structions of continuity, vocational identity can be considered as a basis
of adult learning. Any learning process builds upon previous knowl-
edge, which is negotiated and transformed within situated practices.
But this knowledge is also situated within a biography that includes not
only an individual’s self-image of what she is, but also a vision of what
she may become. In this sense a vocational identity is not just a con-
struction of the present based on a reconstruction of the past but is also
a forecast for the future. Since the motivation for adults to engage in
lifelong learning is strongly related to how meaningful they consider
the topics of learning in the light of their present lives and their future
plans they will typically revert to their vocational identity. Maybe this
identity must be enriched or maybe it has to be transformed, but it can-
not be ignored.
Although these general conclusions about the significance of voca-
tional identity are drawn from my investigation with bankers, I consider
them to be of general relevance. The ‘good’ banker is expected to be
able to juggle three balls at the same time: be helpful to customers,
loyal to the bank and professionally recognised by colleagues. Meeting
these divergent demands is only possible on the backbone of a strong
vocational identity. But the banker today has to stretch her arms still
further to catch the balls.
66 Morten Smistrup
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70 Gwendolyn Paul and Uta Zybell
1
As a response to the unequal conditions for this group to participate in the German
training system that the project disclosed, the new Vocational Training Act
(Berufsbildungsgesetz), which came into force on 1 April 2005, incorporated the
opportunity to make training schemes more flexible.
The Example of Young Single German Mothers 73
The social ratio into which the sexes are yoked is the result of a
complex process: polarising differentiation, discriminating
assessment, disparate treatment and unequal positioning of peo-
ple according to gender all interact with each other [translation
from German] (Becker-Schmidt, 2000, p. 61).
The Example of Young Single German Mothers 75
Whereas before the training courses began, the young mothers’ lives
were heavily characterised by isolation and little contact with the ‘out-
side world’, the results of the project clearly demonstrate that participat-
ing in a vocational training programme is experienced as forming a link
with society. For the young women, vocational training ‘with children’
80 Gwendolyn Paul and Uta Zybell
task that gives additional meaning to their day: ‘It’s just great. I have to get
up in the morning, and I know why. I am there for me, not just for my child.’
In addition to helping them overcome a phase of aimlessness and ‘going
with the flow’, participating in vocational training also allows the women
to move themselves back closer to the centre of their everyday life. Self-
realisation and responsibility for oneself are powerful arguments for voca-
tional training for young mothers with children. One young woman
expresses this in the following way: ‘But it’s also such a good feeling
because at that moment you’re not a mother, you’re simply yourself.’This
‘being oneself’ gains a new dimension as a result of the vocational train-
ing. For the young women, gainful employment does not just mean mak-
ing a proven and positively valued contribution to society. It also means
developing skills that are not directly related to home and child.
In the assessment of the meaning of skilled work in contrast to the
work of reproduction, what the young mothers say in the JAMBA proj-
ect tallies with the values that were also found in other studies. Stauber
(1996), who has analysed the life development of single mothers in
rural regions, states:
3.4 Conclusion
First, the young women hardly have any free time to themselves, and
second they see their private time also as being work. One woman for-
mulates this double work reference as follows: ‘Work actually gives me
88 Gwendolyn Paul and Uta Zybell
a chance to rest. The exhausting part only begins in the evening, when
I get home.’ The specific nature of their situation compared to people
of the same age lies in the fact that the latter do not yet face the
demands of raising children and family work, and compared to work-
ing men in that, to these men, family does not require any special effort
of reconciliation.
The results of the empirical study we presented confirm the impor-
tance of a person’s occupation as a ‘gateway to the world’ (Beck et al.,
1980, p. 222) and as an opportunity for societal participation. The
young mothers have successfully been able to develop a distinctive
vocational identity, even if they have not in all cases been able to enter
their ‘dream occupation’. They transfer their occupational sense of
belonging into a general membership of society. The majority of the
project participants could no longer imagine not being in employment.
‘I have to say that I now wouldn’t want to give up work and go back to
where I was before. Work has given me a great deal in life.’
Despite being in circumstances that initially seem to be incompati-
ble with undergoing a vocational training programme, the example of
young mothers shows the continued strength of vocational identifica-
tion. The specific characteristic of the group of young mothers lies in
the fact that they became mothers ‘too early’ and not that, just like other
young women, they attach great value to vocational qualifications.
Despite the tendencies for individualisation, their motherhood acts as a
decisive obstacle in the way of obtaining a training place in the German
Dual System. This continues to be the typical route by which most
young men and women become integrated into the labour market in
Germany, even though it has been characterised by a series of crisis
symptoms for many years.
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4
4.1 Introduction
91
A. Brown, S. Kirpal and F. Rauner (eds.), Identities at Work, 91–114.
© 2007 Springer.
92 Nikitas Patiniotis and Gerasimos Prodromitis
The social effects of the tourist industry affecting the formation or the
transformation of employees’ vocational identity working in this sector
may be encoded, in no particular evaluative order, as follows (Stott,
1978, p. 81; Andronicou, 1979; Jafari, 1974, p. 238; Tsartas et al., 1995;
Tsartas and Thanopoulou, 1995; Tsartas, 1998; OECD, 1980):
● Tourism as we can observe in Greece leads to the rapid transfor-
mation of agricultural areas into areas that offer mainly tourist
services. People live in opulence owing to high earnings and
income poured into the area under tourist development.
● The level of income becomes the principal indicator of social status
diminishing the importance of factors such as family traditions,
educational background or political power. Pursuing higher earn-
ings becomes a personal strategy leading to individualism, com-
petition and superficial social relations based mainly on personal
interest and selfishness. The ostentatious showing off of wealth
and the consumer goods owned by the ‘successful’ undermines the
role of altruistic relations.
● The practices of local tradition are adjusted and commercialised to
be compatible with the tastes and aesthetics of the foreign tourists.
This leads to an estrangement from tradition.
● Tourists bring with them their own way of life, consumption,
entertainment and food habits, which are imitated by the locals
who aspire to be considered successful. Thus, there is a decline or
even a rejection of local habits and a prevalence of foreign ones.
● The environmental effects from the rapid growth of tourism can be
registered, especially in areas considered as ‘traditional settle-
ments’ or areas of ‘exceptional natural beauty’. The effects may
concern the natural environment as well as buildings, arbitrarily
built settlements, advertisements, etc. that spoil the landscape.
● Young people and women become financially independent by
means of employment in tourism.
● The seasonal nature of employment and long working hours blur
the distinction between work and leisure affecting employees’
relations with family, friends and colleagues.
96 Nikitas Patiniotis and Gerasimos Prodromitis
the sociological on the other hand. This phenomenon has often been
empirically registered either as a mere addition to some sociological
and central parameters of psychological research or, as use (and in
some cases misuse) of non-conventional psychological mechanisms,
from the researchers’ point of view, used in an effort to analyse wide-
spread phenomena. The outcome that ensues from such options is the
preservation, feedback and disguise of the scientific bipolar ‘method-
ological holism—methodological individualism’ or, in other words, the
reproduction of sociological and psychological reflections and the fail-
ure of transcendence beyond this approach due to a superficial and
‘supplementary’ conjunction between psychology and sociology
(Papastamou, 2002).
On a theoretical level, these one-sided choices of explanatory prin-
ciples are connected to the preservation of a deceptive distinction
between the individual and the society. In terms of modern sociological
theory this distinction is expressed as a problem of tracing the relations
between the social authority of action and the social structure
(Mouzelis, 1991, 1995; Giddens, 1990). The selection of psychologi-
cally reductionist explanations gives maximum autonomy to subsys-
tems of social integration at the expense of social structure, whereas
recourse to sociologically reductionist explanations results in the
detachment of the systemic structure at the expense of a relative auton-
omy of the social action authority. In consequence of this second
option, we have, on the one hand, the image of a ‘highly socialised’
puppet-individual, and on the other hand, an anthropomorphic image of
society in its entirety, in which meanings such as ‘principles of social
values’, ‘collective consciousness’ or ‘collective soul’ have a value in
themselves as entities that control everybody and everything in society.
Integration into social groups and differentiation from others form
the basis for the formation of a social identity through a procedure of
recognition and self-attribution to in-group specific characteristics and,
at the same time, the adoption of original views (Tajfel, 1979; Tajfel,
1982; Turner, 1982; Turner, Oakes et al., 1994). Thus, social identity
could be simultaneously deemed to be a cognitive structure related to
the management and classification of social information, and a struc-
ture of emotional and judgmental investment on both the individual and
collective level. In short, social identity could be considered as an
organisational principle of: the definition of social groups; the regula-
tion of the relations between the individual and her or his reference
group; and the regulation of in-group relations. This specific approach
provides the framework for concepts and formal theoretical analyses,
100 Nikitas Patiniotis and Gerasimos Prodromitis
1
From our research such factors involve the economic crisis in the country of origin,
inflation due to introduction of the EURO, natural disasters in tourist resorts and wars
and conflicts in countries around the tourist resorts.
104 Nikitas Patiniotis and Gerasimos Prodromitis
4.7 Epilogue
107
sure
Continued
108
Annex 1 Continued
Reasons
Restaurant Self- Family Secondary Intensive Sense of Problems with In the context of
Manager employed tradition; education training in individual interpersonal family business
(male) owner Personal ‘Tourism superiority relations with regarding an
suitability business customers and hierarchic
and sense Organisation’ colleagues; allocation of
of Limited tasks, according
superiority personal free time to age
Self- Self- Favourable No Balance of Indifference of Mobility to the Enjoyment of
employed employed period relationships/ the central tourist industry 15 personal free
restaurant owner of tourism mutuality government years ago; time after the
owner in the between owner policy on Previous jobs as end of the
(male) 1980s and customers tourism; technician and tourist season;
Absence of commercial Occupation
infra representative compatible
structures and with his
central personal
planning agricultural
property
Office Paid Supplement Music One Seasonal work Lack of free Seasonal jobs in Desire of
clerk in work income teacher month supply; foreign time tourism making a
car during the of non-formal languages; career in the
rental summer training interpersonal tourist sector;
services period in the relations; Concerned
(female) specific job satisfaction about future
Continued
109
110
Annex 1 (Continued)
Reasons
Tourist Paid Practical Higher Not Contact with Problems of Previous Intention to
guide of work reasons education mentioned Greek adjusting to occupation in an stay in Greece
Austrian associated civilisation and the Greek airline in his
origin with the Greek way culture country
(male) personal of life;
life Good relations
with
management
Campsite Self-employed Alternative Secondary No Personal Lack of Previous
manager for education gratification infrastructure occupation as car
(male) summer from on the local mechanic;
employment ‘intercultural level; Seasonal
exchange’; Intensive employment in
Exploitation of employment, tourism;
the Greek both personal Works in the dull
tradition in the and for the period of tourism
provinces family in a family cattle-
members breeding unit
Waiter Paid Tired of Secondary No Homeland is a Substantial Moved into
at a work previous education way of life; absence of tourism due to
coffee work as a Life tourist tiredness with his
shop sailor; perspective organisations previous
(male) Decision totally in the field occupation as a
to return compatible sailor
111
112 Nikitas Patiniotis and Gerasimos Prodromitis
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The ‘Double’ Vocational Identity: Greece 113
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114 Nikitas Patiniotis and Gerasimos Prodromitis
Felix Rauner
University of Bremen, Germany
115
A. Brown, S. Kirpal and F. Rauner (eds.), Identities at Work, 115–144.
© 2007 Springer.
116 Felix Rauner
% %
100 100
14% Highly qualified (MA/BA) 17%
90 90
80 80
70 70
Skilled workers/employees
60 Technicians, Masters etc. 60
61%
50 66% 50
40 40
30 30
20 20
Low skilled workers
10 10
15% Un-skilled workers 9%
0 0
1995 2010
1
One attempt to establish a national qualification framework on this basis is the UK
system of National Vocational Qualifications (cf. Young, 2005).
2
These scenarios shall henceforth be referred to as ‘vocational education’ and
‘employability’.
Vocational Education and Training in Europe 119
65 Country
group
60
55
50
45
40
3
{
35
30
25
20
2
{
15
10
5
1
{
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
5.2.4 Income
3
‘On the other hand the lack of managerial education contributes to German weak-
ness in many marketing-intensive consumer good and business service industries’,
(Porter, 1990, p. 369).
130 Felix Rauner
If it turns out that VET systems cannot satisfy the demand for training
positions, then the consequences with regard to the social disintegration
of young people might actually be more severe than a future lack of
skilled workers. Statistical data on juvenile delinquency suggest that the
successful integration of young people into a company-based or dual
vocational training programme is a valuable step toward their integration
into society.
90
Per cent
80 77 75 73 72 70
70 66 64 62
60
Per cent
50
41 39
40 37 36 35 33 32
30
20
10
0
lia
en
d
nd
ry
an
nd
er e
Be nd
m
a
es
y
c
tri
an
an
an
an
iu
ga
an
ed
p
tra
la
la
la
at
us
el
nl
al
Ja
lg
m
Po
Ire
er
un
St
Fr
Sw
us
Ic
Ze
Fi
A
itz
H
d
A
G
te
ew
Sw
ni
N
Country
academic qualifications are not appropriate for work profiles at the inter-
mediate level, which means that graduates frequently have to undergo a
programme of vocational training subsequent to their degree. An
increasing percentage of graduates thus face the paradoxical situation
that with a Bachelor’s degree they are rated at ‘level 4’, according to the
European framework for the recognition of vocational qualifications,
but have to undertake dual vocational training, rated at ‘qualification
level 2’, in order to improve their vocational skills and employability
(KOM, 2004, p. 317).
There is a similar picture in relation to educational opportunities.
For example, if our first scenario is detached from the education
system, as is the case with the traditional dual system of vocational
education and training in Germany, and if the educational track that
prepares individuals for higher education is largely separated from
the track leading to vocational certificates, as with the German
Gymnasium, then the decision to pursue dual vocational training, after
obtaining a lower secondary school qualification, acts as a considerable
restriction to entry to university education and thus of further career
opportunities. However, if on the other hand, vocational education is
linked to acquiring entry qualifications for higher education, as prac-
tised with increasing success in Switzerland, then vocational education
and training becomes particularly attractive because the initial training
Vocational Education and Training in Europe 135
5
The emergence of the academic system, with its highly diversified structures for
research and teaching, and the privileges associated with a university degree have
together increased demand for higher education on the international scale. At the same
time industrialisation and the subsequent establishment of scientific management in
the early 20th century engendered a far-reaching devaluation of operative work and
therefore a de-qualification of the majority of employees. The result was a worldwide
reduction, and sometimes discontinuation, of the pre-industrial tradition of appren-
ticeship training. It was only the emergence of process-oriented business strategies in
the late 20th century which produced work that once again required highly qualified
and highly motivated employees. The consequence was the re-establishment of com-
prehensive initial vocational education and training schemes as outlined by the
vocational education scenario.
Vocational Education and Training in Europe 137
Practical training
100
20
0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5
Years
metalwork that these apprentices had received in their first year of the
apprenticeship, which although course oriented, took place predomi-
nantly in training workshops and laboratories, did not contribute much
towards professional growth, and is therefore responsible for their fail-
ure to develop and understand occupation-specific solutions (Haasler
and Meyer, 2004, p.145). In addition to these meta-trends, there was
clearly also diversity within the training types (A and B); this is
assumed to reflect the different learning environments and training
methods within the type of training because of the different companies
involved.
If vocational training is completely detached from actual work prac-
tice, then the qualifying effects of practical work experience are
renounced (type C). This considerably delays the formation of voca-
tional competence.6 If practical work experience is integrated into the
training process, as is the case with traditional apprenticeship training,
a particularly effective learning method, which also shortens training
periods, is achieved.
A study by Haasler and Meyer (2004) compared trainees from SMEs
(small and medium-size enterprises), who had been largely trained in
practical work processes, and trainees from large companies, who had
6
All forms of vocational education require a two-year period of practical education for
students to be deemed to have sufficient occupational aptitude. Consequently, even
vocationally-related courses taught at universities, such as medicine, law and teach-
ing, have had to be supplemented with additional periods (about two years) of prac-
tical training in order for students to be regarded as professionally proficient.
Vocational Education and Training in Europe 139
instead been largely trained in workshops during their first year. The
study identified huge differences in the development of both vocational
competence and vocational identity. Trainees from SMEs developed
elements of vocational identity specific to their chosen occupational
domain after the first year of training. Whilst,
Im Gegensatz dazu stehen die Befunde aus der Untersuchung der
Auszubildenden der Großindustrie. Sie verfügen weder über eine
vergleichbare berufliche Kompetenz noch hat sich eine nen-
nenswerte berufliche Identität entwickelt [The findings concern-
ing the trainees from large companies contrast this picture. They
did not develop a comparable level of vocational competence, nor
did they develop anything at all one might wish to call vocational
identity] (Haasler and Meyer, 2004).
The authors attribute this contrast to the varying learning environ-
ment and training methods within different companies (this has already
been identified as an important factor, see above).
Providing that a skilled worker’s chosen occupational specialisation
meets their interests and inclinations, then those trained according to
the first scenario tend to develop a vocational identity during the course
of that training process. The development of this identity strengthens
their performance orientation and quality awareness, particularly when
they are working in the occupational domain for which they have
trained. If, instead, vocational identity is under-developed, or even non-
existent, in the employees of a company because of the absence of an
initial vocational education, the Human Resources Management
department of that company has to undertake a great deal of effort to
compensate for the ensuing lack of commitment. Frequently, this com-
pensation is achieved by mechanisms which increase the employees’
extrinsic motivation, such as a distinctively performance-based wage
system, which comes together with the threat of cutting back under-
performers. Mechanisms at the societal level, such as a divided labour
market and mass unemployment, can also affect employees’ extrinsic
motivation: the potential threat of unemployment strengthens the work
ethic of employees (see Jaeger, 1989, p. 569).
Competence and qualification research show that competence devel-
opment and the formation of vocational identity are in fact closely con-
nected (Raeder and Grote, 2005, p. 337). Conversely, adherence to a
social system which sticks to the normative ideal of the work ethic, as in
European societies, entails the risk that those economies will lose their
competitive edge and capacity for innovation (Jaeger, 1989, p. 566).
140 Felix Rauner
80
70
60
50
40
Work ethic (job compliance)
30
Professional ethic
20 (occupation-based work
performance)
10
0
No Undecided Yes
Figure 5.8 Work ethic and professional ethic in two Swiss enterprises
5.5 Conclusions
Using the economic, social and subject-related criteria from the
Copenhagen Process to evaluate two competing development scenarios
has provided a strong argument for Europe to adapt its old tradition of
vocational education and training, its apprenticeship system, so it is
suitable for the conditions of a modern economy.
Vocational training that is integrated into actual work processes can
make an important contribution to the social integration of young
Vocational Education and Training in Europe 141
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Soskice, D.W. and B. Hancké (1996). Von der Konstruktion von Industrienormen zur
Organisation der Berufsausbildung. Eine vergleichende Analyse am Beispiel von
Großbritannien, Deutschland, Japan und Frankreich. WZB Discussion Paper FS I
96–310. Berlin: Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung.
144 Felix Rauner
6.1 Introduction
147
A. Brown, S. Kirpal and F. Rauner (eds.), Identities at Work, 147–182.
© 2007 Springer.
148 Sabine Raeder and Gudela Grote
6.5 Methods
6.5.1 Sample
6.5.2 Procedures
gives reasonsjob
forwas a co
study
plansand gets suppo
school decisions
looks for a new job due to e
not consciously mad
problems with colleague
identity crisis:
“the basis was shaking incidence
heavily
authenticity
ecological y
consistency
individuality
consequence
biographical
continuity
6.5.3 Categories
Changes in working life ‘For a long time, I didn’t set goals actively. For
the first time, when I took this job.’
Changes in non-work ‘It always sounds brutal when you say
spheres of life the family is over. But this responsibility is
gone.’
Clear-cut phases in ‘The aspect of staying someplace for a longer
working life time, 101⁄2 years. Compared with the periods
before where I did nothing for more than three
years.’
Clear-cut phases in non- ‘I really have the feeling as if I had
work spheres of life different lives. And I remember the first
very poorly.’
Break in working life ‘At the same time, the price of dropping
out. You have to start from anew. And you
behave as if you were really good in your job.
It takes you a long time until you are good
in your job.’
Break in non-work ‘I had a baby very late, which is radically
spheres of life cutting in one’s life. Suddenly, the whole
organising. Flexibility is enormously
cut in.’
Developmental process ‘There, I gained my first work experiences.
in working life In a team and a big organisation, it was
an important experience. (. . .) First you
don’t think you can do it and then you just
have to do it. Then you grow into it and
that’s okay.’
Developmental process in ‘With every step I took I added something
non-work spheres of life to that, what I am today, what I do today.’
Exception in working life ‘This education is not focused that way
[like my other education]. This education
does not lead to a new occupational
specialisation.’
Career Changes and Identity Continuities: Switzerland 161
Exception in non-work ‘In South Wales, it had been the only time
spheres of life I had to pack my bags without wanting to.’
Ongoing search for ‘I always need a new challenge.’
a new challenge in
working life
Variety in the ‘That’s why I changed [the job] that often,
occupation or job because as soon as I knew it inside out, it
was boring to me. I always needed something
multi-faceted so that I’m faced with a challenge.’
Change in vocational ‘By handcraft. By producing something
competences where you have to look carefully. That’s
training for the eyes. (. . .) I remember that
I made this development. I wasn’t able to see
at the beginning of my apprenticeship.’
Change in vocational ‘At home, it was not important what we women
interests and goals did, what kind of education we had. (. . .) What
we achieved at school was not appreciated.
Therefore, I made no efforts and I didn’t learn
anything. (. . .) I wanted to show that I am able
to learn and I wanted to have a basis of gen-
eral knowledge.’
Personality development ‘I experienced a lot more ups and downs than
today. I was less even-tempered.’
Changed importance of ‘The job isn’t as predominant as it has
work and private life been in the past.’
Abstract pattern of change ‘zigzag way’
162 Sabine Raeder and Gudela Grote
Personal choice or ‘I knew for a long time when I’ve had enough,
decision I’m going and then I’m travelling.’
Self-responsibility ‘You are responsible for your own life
yourself.’
Actively pursuing ‘When I intended something, I actually
interests or goals made it.’
Personal activity ‘Yes, I attended a lot of courses to really
find out, what [which occupation] belongs to me.’
Strong personal influence ‘In an organisation like the police, few is made
possible, you have to fight for a lot.’
Matter of course ‘Into theology studies, the way was absolutely
obvious to me.’
Actively shaping the ‘I formed a department, that’s called urban
situation planning. (. . .) And then with my department
urban planning and tourism, I began to take the
public spaces in our town into my own hands.’
Interplay of personal and ‘At that time, I accepted the role of leader,
situational factors because nobody was there and because I
thought I could gather some experiences.’
Personal decisions ‘Actually I had the idea of making the technical
depending on situation school after the [apprenticeship as a] draftsman.
factors But family came in between.’
Personal decisions ‘I come to a decision myself, but I like to
coordinated with other coordinate myself with others.’
people
Personal decisions ‘It was a period during which I would have
adapted to other people wanted to set up a family and have children, but
my partner never wanted to.’
Career Changes and Identity Continuities: Switzerland 165
Biographical Continuity
Ecological consistency
Locus of Control
Self-Esteem
6.6 Results
subcategories. We, therefore, present the data for the whole sample
along the categories ‘biographical continuity’, ‘ecological consistency’,
‘locus of control’ and ‘self-esteem’ based on the respective subcate-
gories. The results are illustrated with the examples of seven individuals
focusing on the most frequently assigned subcategories.
In visualising their identity in the process of communicative valida-
tion, the participants seemed to look for a balanced image of their iden-
tity. They laid emphasis on the pattern of all their statements and not on
the exact position of each card. The participants made use of a broad
range of interpretations. They reinterpreted episodes of their biography
and decided upon the importance they should assign to the different
aspects of one story. They, therefore, assigned their statements differ-
ently than we did. An interviewee, for instance, told that he got his first
job by chance after having obtained his doctorate. In the process of
communicative validation, he assigned this card to the category inter-
nal control instead of external or fatalistic control.
to look for a job in the city where she was living (clear-cut phases in
private life).
6.6.4 Self-Esteem
6.7 Discussion
Acknowledgments
References
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© 2007 Springer.
184 Stephen Billett
exercise significant agency and pride in their work, and in ways asso-
ciated with localised recognition and personal satisfaction (Billett,
2003a). This suggests powerful personal motivations for participation
in work that might not be highly regarded in the wider community. One
way to understand the importance of and links between self and work
is that the process of engagement in activities is central to ongoing and
moment by moment individual learning (Rogoff, 1990). The engage-
ment in work of any kind leads to particular and possibly significant
legacies in terms of individuals’ development, in ways that are genera-
tive of close links between individuals’ sense of self and their work.
Consequently, work and learning are so intertwined as to almost
inevitably link individuals to their work activities in some way.
Concepts, procedures and values are often learnt, reinforced and
transformed through engagement in work activities. The workplace
provides an environment that is rich in its contributions to individuals’
learning as they engage in work activities and, in doing so, remake the
cultural practices that comprise paid work (Hodkinson and Hodkinson,
2003; Somerville and Bernoth, 2001). The privileging of environments
in which learning takes place should not be according to whether they
are sites claiming to promote learning as their key purpose. Instead, it
should be according to the degree to which they provide the inter-
psychological experiences of activities and interactions that underpin
substantive learning. It is through these that knowledge is experienced,
accessed, engaged with and constructed. Development of knowledge
and understanding is perhaps most effectively achieved when supported
by the assistance of a more experienced partner who understands that
knowledge and can make accessible what is otherwise inaccessible, and
support and monitor learning and development (Billett, 2006a). Such
affordances or invitational qualities are central to what constitutes a
learning environment.
Nevertheless, central to this process of learning and what constitutes
a learning environment is also the degree to which individuals act agen-
tically in the process of constructing knowledge (Billett, 2005b). This
epistemological agency likely comprises individuals’ construal of what
they experience (e.g. what constitutes welcome or unwelcome affor-
dances), the degree of, and intent in, their engagement with those
affordances (e.g. activities and interactions) and their construction of
meaning, procedures and values. This process is shaped by and
premised upon individuals’ agency, through the focus and expenditure of
conscious thought and action, and their intents—the particular focus
and direction of that agency. These processes are shaped by individuals’
Exercising Self: Learning, Work and Identity 189
sense of self and their subjectivity: how they view the world. The con-
cept of individuals’ gaze can be seen as a metaphor for the enactment
of a sense of self and subjectivity. It is this gaze that shapes how indi-
viduals construe and construct the immediate experience they
encounter at work. So individuals’ learning, albeit the refinement of
what is already known or its reinforcement, arises through their engage-
ment in everyday conscious thought through what constitutes their per-
sonal epistemology (Bauer et al., 2004; Smith, 2004), notwithstanding
that epistemology is itself being shaped iteratively and relationally
through a history of engagements with the social world.
Transformational learning can also arise through engaging in new
activities and interactions. These are particularly plentiful in turbulent
times of employment, or when other experiences confront individuals
with perturbations requiring new insights (Rogoff, 1990), novel proce-
dures or diverse values (Somerville, 2002). These learning processes
have parallel and analogous consequences for the cultural practices that
comprise paid work. That is, as individuals engage in even the most
routine form of learning they are participating in the active process of
remaking cultural practices. Culture and society are remade and trans-
formed as individuals engage with their practices, learn and construct
them at particular points in their personal histories and points in time
as they engage with a battery of social suggestions and norms (Billett
and Somerville, 2004). It follows that central to individuals’ learning
and their remaking of culture is the degree to which their agency
directs, engages and constructs what they experience: their epistemo-
logical agency which both shapes and is shaped by their sense of self
(Billett and Pavlova, 2005). Consequently, both continuities and trans-
formations in work and individuals’ learning are linked to how individ-
uals construe, engage in and construct the activities and interaction that
comprise the historical, cultural and situational contributions that col-
lectively constitute the gift of the social (Archer, 2000): that is, the
norms, values and practices that are accessible in and projected by the
social world.
this knowledge does not arise from within the individual. Rather when
individuals engage with this knowledge and reconstruct it, in addition
to their individual development, they are also remaking these cultural
practices at a particular point in time and through particular relation-
ships to the social suggestion.
From the ideas advanced above, the remaking of cultural practice
and individual learning is not through some faithful process of repro-
duction. Instead, there is a remaking through individual’s engagement
with and construction of those practices, albeit mediated by the exer-
cise of social and cultural norms and practices whose needs have to be
met at particular points in time in individuals’ personal histories.
Moreover, the exercise of this personal agency is essential in trans-
forming cultural practices as new cultural needs arise, such as those
brought about by changing times or technologies. Wertsch (1998) dis-
tinguishes between mastery (i.e. compliant) learning and appropriation.
Compliant learning is superficial and may well be the product of force-
ful or compelling social suggestion of the kind which Valsiner (1998)
identifies. Appropriation is the socially derived learning in which indi-
viduals engage willingly that leads to a concurrence between what is
experienced and individuals’ values and beliefs. In this way, compliant
learning may be superficial or appropriated depending upon the degree
to which they are aligned with individuals’ beliefs and values. Given
that richer or deeper kinds of learning likely require effortful engage-
ment buoyed by interests and intentionality (Malle et al., 2001), this
kind of learning may arise more frequently when it engages individuals’
interests and agentic action.
The second central role of individuals’ agency in learning and the
remaking of culture is that there is likely to be some degree of person-
dependence in these processes. Individuals’ construal of what they
encounter is socially shaped, through a personally unique set of negoti-
ations with the social suggestion, in a way that comprises their organic
growth or life histories. These negotiations are encountered continu-
ously through the myriad forms of social practices that individuals
engage in throughout their lives that contribute microgenetically—
moment-by-moment—to their ontogenetic development. From the ear-
liest age, those processes that Piaget (1968) referred to as securing
equilibrium, and more recently von Glasersfeld (1987) refers to as
maintaining viability, comprise an enduring personal epistemological
venture. As well as confronting novel experiences, individuals’ con-
struals are premised on an expectation of variability and inconsistency
in the response from the social world as well as aspects of certainty and
192 Stephen Billett
consistency. For instance, Baldwin (1894) noted that from the earliest
age, children learn to expect inconsistency in their dealings with the
social world. He notes how a request for a biscuit will be fulfilled on
one day, but rejected on the next, by the same person. In this way, indi-
viduals’ ontogenetic development arises through a personally agentic
epistemological process that is shaped through ongoing interactions
with the social world, whereby individuals come to expect and therefore
monitor for inconsistency. In turn, this process subsequently influences
how they engage with new experiences. These experiences are likely to
be in some ways unique to individuals, are highly formative in ways that
Vygotskians describe as inter-psychological, and link to intra-psychological
attributes. As a consequence there will inevitably be personally distinct
conceptions as well as areas of commonality or shared understanding
with others in their process of knowledge construction and remaking of
cultural practices (Billett, 2003b).
The third premise then is that, because of the ontogenetic legacy and
personal epistemology, consideration needs to be given to individuals’
pre-mediate experiences—those that come earlier and, in turn, shape
subsequent construals. These construals shape their conceptions and
subjectivities—gaze, if you like—and, consequently, how they con-
struct subsequent experiences. It is these conceptions and subjectivities
that shape individuals’ intentionality and agency in the processes of
their learning and the remaking and transformation of cultural prac-
tices. Because these pre-mediate experiences are themselves shaped by,
yet contribute to, unique personal epistemologies, even the most appar-
ently uniform social experience, which affords its contributions seem-
ingly equally to all parties, will be the subject of a partly individualised
process of interpretation, construal and construction. This leads to par-
ticular and possibly unique personal kinds of epistemological bases,
albeit that they are socially shaped. So life histories comprising indi-
viduals’ prior social experiences stand as an important premise on to
how they engage with the contributions of the social that they
encounter in the immediate experience (i.e. workplace activities and
interactions).
The final premise is that the relationship between individual and
social agency is not mutual or reciprocal, it is relational. Just as the
social suggestion can be either weaker or stronger, so too can be indi-
viduals’ engagement with a particular social suggestion (e.g. situated
practice, cultural norm or cultural practice). The prospects for the com-
ing together and contributions of the individual and social being
enacted in equal parts or ways that are equally shared is quite remote.
Exercising Self: Learning, Work and Identity 193
So, of the five participants, only Mike has had a continuous vocational
focus as a car mechanic, although his interests in customer servicing saw
him engage in roadside emergency assistance work. The others, by dif-
ferent degree, have experienced discontinuities or transformations in
their working lives and occupational identities. For Lyn, who works part-
time in the fruit market, unlike the others, that work identity still remains
unclear, uncertain and immature. Yet, she is quite intentional in working
to transform her identity from that of a caregiver to her children to that
of a worker. These diverse and meandering working life trajectories sug-
gest that lifelong learning and learning throughout working life are
focused on more than the development of skills. These processes also
included the making and remaking of occupational identities and sub-
jectivities through uncertain pathways that comprise these individuals’
work life histories. As will be elaborated below, each pathway is marked
by evidence of intentions and the exercise of their agency in attempts to
secure those goals. Noteworthy in these pathways is the contrast with the
linear developmental journey that was advanced by Erikson (1968).
Rather than negotiating psycho-social crises that were primarily sourced
within individuals as they negotiate their sense of identity and worth at
socially sanctioned life stages, these five workers’ trajectories empha-
sise the need to secure their sense of identity or self through disruptive
and uncertain working lives. To understand the context in which these
negotiations occurred, it is helpful to elaborate the changes to work and
work practices and their consequences for these individuals.
and the rail transport division was given primacy, thereby securing his
employment.
Lyn is a relatively new employee at the fruit and vegetable market,
and is aiming to secure and develop a niche role for herself. Yet her
workplace, like the other wholesale businesses in the fruit and veg-
etable market, tends to have high employee turnover. Changes in this
workplace include staff leaving or going on holidays and a new task of
exporting fruit and vegetables by airfreight to retailers in Papua New
Guinea. Lyn’s employment seems buoyed by her interest in, and the
capacity to undertake, new tasks and those conducted by others during
their periods of leave. This has been exercised through her interest in
managing the export orders, which includes her becoming solely profi-
cient in customs processes. As Lyn is in the process of seeking and
forming an occupational identity based upon her work in the fruit and
vegetable wholesaler, opportunities afforded by new requirements in
the workplace (i.e. export orders) to bolster her place in the work team
and make more secure her position are greatly welcomed.
Mike works as a supervisor in a large vehicle dealership, coordinat-
ing relations between clients and the workshops. This position exists in
large part as a response to the extended warranty periods offered by
automotive manufacturers to customers purchasing new vehicles.
These warranties tend to wed customers to the dealership. The purchase
of a new vehicle is now the beginning, not the end, of the relationship
between the customer and the dealership. Nevertheless, this change has
particular consequences for workshop staff. Interacting with and main-
taining clients have become a key focus for dealerships, because clients
might purchase another new vehicle at the end of the warranty period.
Mike, it seems, possesses the combination of automotive and inter-
personal skills and values required to address customers’ needs and
coordinate work activities to support the continuity of positive relation-
ships between the dealership and its customers. Moreover, he enjoys this
kind of work as it brings together a range of professional interests asso-
ciated with automotive engineering, customer service and some per-
sonal preferences about dealing with people and precision in one’s work.
So these changes to his work have directly served to meet his needs.
Although changes to work bring about challenges for those seeking
to meet these requirements, in the case of these five workers it has also
supported the continuity and development of their work-related goals.
Only one participant experienced major disappointment over the
twelve-month period of the study. This arose when Lev, the electrical
engineer, on returning from a training course, became highly proactive
200 Stephen Billett
and corresponded with each of three departmental heads about how his
newly developed skills could transform the profitability of their
departments. His invitations were treated with silent dismissal, not even
acknowledgement. This suggests his agency had brushed up against
and possibly contravened the workplace’s regulatory practices and set
himself outside of these practices. He also recounted angrily how the
national human resources manager had failed to acknowledge his exis-
tence on a visit to the office where Lev worked. These incidents threat-
ened his sense of self, and he responded accordingly. He resented the
status afforded to others, such as his manager, while his own contribu-
tions went unrecognised. This may well have been the motivation for
his pro-activity in promoting his services to senior management. Yet,
his exuberant agency led not to his desired promotion, but to him being
reassigned to other work duties.
In sum, against the researchers’ expectations and predictions in the
literature, the churning and transformations that have impacted these
five individuals’ work have broadly served to buttress their employment
and standing. That is, changes in work assisted rather than inhibited
these individuals’ work goals. In at least three instances, there is a clear
coincidence between their work goals and the changing requirements of
their workplaces. Moreover, as discussed below, these changes permit
the projection of their personal values into their work. Certainly, else-
where in the transport corporation, for whom Lev the electronics engi-
neer works, there have been significant job losses, career truncation
and dislocations. Still, the experience of these five randomly selected
participants suggests that generalised claims about changes in work
leading to disempowerment, marginalisation and the generation of anx-
iety are not supported. Instead, a more nuanced and less prescriptive
account of the relationships between changes in work and individuals’
continuity and identity may be required. This account should comprise
an engagement between both individual and social agency in the con-
duct of their work. To consider this relationship in more detail it is use-
ful to identify the role that these individuals’ identity, motivation and
goals played in how they engage with changing workplaces, and how
that affected their sense of selves.
insurance broker Carl emphasised the importance of his family life, his
good relationship with his wife and his interest in his children and their
development, and involvement in coaching junior sports teams. He
noted the need for a balance between work and family life. Carl
referred to some colleagues’ divorces that were a product of focusing
too much time and energy upon their work and neglecting their home
life. Ken, the manager of the information technology unit, was quite
insistent that his family and church represented the key goals towards
which his work efforts were directed. This commitment was evident in
the weekly tithe he pays to his church and the senior role he plays in its
governance. He stated that upon retirement he would never think about
his paid work. For Lev, family life, aesthetic pursuits and a small busi-
ness installing security equipment were claimed as important goals
beyond the corporate transport workplace in which he worked as an
engineer. He directed efforts into his small business, and looked to this
and his salary to generate the income he required to maintain his life-
style and to educate his son. He stated that he would readily change
jobs if it could secure him greater financial benefit. As a single parent,
Lyn’s goal for her work in the produce market was to provide more for
her family through work. Her existing rental home was too noisy and
she needed to move somewhere far quieter for the sake of herself and
her children. She was also hoping to secure enough money to take her
children on a holiday to the beach. Rather than working in the automo-
tive dealership, Mike stated that he would much prefer to spend his time
messing around with computers. His home life was claimed, in part,
with working on computers and he referred to purchasing two exotic
spiders, for which he cared and had established video technology links
to monitor and record their lives. His home life was used to exercise
other vocations. These activities were taken seriously. These, and his
family, were the ends to which his work efforts were directed.
In this way, all five participants stated that life outside work was the
major focus point of their lives. That is, work was not the only source
of securing individuals’ sense of identity and self. The participants
referred to specific cultural activities, interests and communities that
played a significant role in who they are, in how they see themselves,
and provided evidence of the exercise of agentic action in their lives
outside work. This is akin to them wanting to ‘be themselves’. Dewey
(1916) held that vocations are individuals’ directions in life and not
constrained to paid employment, however high or low in societal stand-
ing. The opposite of vocations, from the Deweyian perspective, is not
leisure, but activity that is aimless, capricious and involves dependence
202 Stephen Billett
upon others (Quickie, 1999). In their lives outside work, the partici-
pants demonstrated the exercise of their vocation as parents, local sport
coach, church leader, technology enthusiast, entrepreneur, etc.
However, Dewey (1916) argued that each of us is not restricted to just
one vocation. This seemed to be the case here. Their engagement with
work was premised on different goals and as such was relational.
Yet, while emphasising their life outside of work, each participant
also acknowledged the significance of their working lives to their iden-
tity and sense of fulfilment: their sense of self. Commonly, each referred
to being required to be competent at their work, in order to secure their
employment. Each also referred to the importance of being respected as
being effective and valued by their peers and other workers, and being
identified as a person from whom others would seek advice and be val-
ued for their counsel. Underlining this concern about respect were
issues associated with identity and sense of self. There was also a rich
intertwining between individuals’ sense of self in the workplace and
outside of it and that elaborated the significance of its exercise. Their
work roles provided quite diverse bases for the exercise of their sense
of self.
After a successful career as a professional sportsman, Carl now
views himself as a successful insurance broker. He enjoys the interac-
tions with people his work brings, the freedom to develop his clientele
and contacts, to manage his own time and capacity to watch his busi-
ness grow. So, aspects of his working life were claimed to be highly
consistent with his sense of self and through his interactions with
clients he is often able to get close to ‘being himself’. Given the free-
dom he enjoys in his job and his indebtedness to the brokerage com-
pany in making this opportunity possible, Carl is in no hurry to achieve
his ultimate goal of owning his own brokerage. Ken finds his work in
the information technology unit rewarding, because it is an area of
growth and employment security and stability, elements that did form
part of his earlier working life. His current employment stands to pro-
vide him with engaging and well-paid work until retirement. He claims
that any stable, well-paid work will suit his needs, because he does not
associate his identity with work. Nevertheless, he takes pride in his
efficient management of a unit within a government department, which
reinforces his sense of self. So his work identity is shaped by a more
general employment goal of security of employment, not the particular
kind of work. His working life in the public sector is positioning him to
support and direct his energies towards his church community and family.
Yet, he works hard to secure this goal.
Exercising Self: Learning, Work and Identity 203
working life and that outside of it; this is reflected in seeking to secure
the self, and possibly ‘be themselves’. The degree of relative or partic-
ular importance of ‘being themselves’ differs across these individuals
and possibly fluctuates over time as particular events or priorities arise
in their lives. For instance, Ken is not interested in securing his self
through work in the public sector information technology role, although
he wants to exercise a ‘sense of self’. Yet, he is not alone. Common to
all participants was a strong desire to exercise their sense of self in the
workplace; and where possible for these individuals to ‘be themselves’,
which encompassed both life inside and outside work, which is edging
closer to the humanistic conception that O’Doherty and Willmott
(2001) so strongly deny. There were differences between the role work
plays for male and female participants.
However, for each of the five individuals work relates to their identity:
they are identified as an engineer, supervising mechanic, effective worker,
diligent and trusted insurance broker and manager. Moreover, all five
participants were able to exercise in part personal agency. If the exercise
of individual agency through personally fulfilling activities is a measure
of the link between individuals’ identity and their work, it might be con-
cluded that all five individuals were exercising their ‘sense of self’ and
engaged willingly and interdependently in their work. That is, part of
their identity and construction of self and the exercise of agentic action is
being directed and remade through interdependence with their work. This
sentiment reflects what Pusey (2003) concludes is the role of work for
middle Australia: ‘For nearly everyone work is a social protein, a buttress
for identity and not a tradable commodity’ (p. 2). Each participant
referred to the importance of being able to exercise their agency in their
work activities. Perhaps Lev over exercised his. Whether it was the own-
ership of the work undertaken, the possibilities of trying to do new things,
being able to manage oneself, being able to exercise standards of work
and discretion that reflect individual goals, or the exercise of personal
licence, the significance of the exercise of agency was amplified by each
informant. So while they claimed work not to be as important as their life
outside work, the evidence holds that these five workers’ sense of self is
negotiated, shaped and sustained in the workplace.
All this suggests the significance of agentic action in assisting and
directing individuals to exercise their ‘sense of self’ through their work,
with a goal beyond that of being able to ‘be oneself’, albeit through work
or life outside work. Moreover, that sense of self changes over time and
through negotiation with work. Somerville notes how aged care workers
often engage in aged care work through convenience, rather than particular
206 Stephen Billett
Acknowledgements
Alan Brown and Simone Kirpal assisted the revision of the chapter.
This research was funded through the small grants scheme of the
Australian Research Council.
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210 Stephen Billett
8.1 Introduction
Work identities vary in the intensity with which they are held and in
the significance individuals ascribe to them. They may have more or
less significance for an individual at different times depending upon
other interests as identities change in their meaning for the individual
over the life course and depending upon the personal occupational tra-
jectory (Heinz, 2003). This perspective, on the one hand, underlines
that work identities are highly dynamic (Brown, 1997) and dependent
upon a variety of factors and conditions. On the other hand, as work
identities closely interlink with aspects and elements of work with
which individuals identify (Kirpal, 2004b) we can assume that some
level of identification with work is inherent to any kind of successful
job performance. As research has shown, even under the most severe
and restrictive working conditions a certain level of identification with
work is still recognisable despite the ambiguity the experience might
entail (Hoff et al., 1985). It is primarily identification with the work
environment, the company, the company’s objectives or the work-based
tasks which individuals perform that make individual and collective
productivity possible and functional, not only for the company, but also
for the individual. These forms of identification with work typically
generate some kind of work-related identity.
In countries with occupational labour markets such as Germany, occu-
pational socialisation through apprenticeship training typically used to
attach employees to specific occupational specialisations and largely
211
A. Brown, S. Kirpal and F. Rauner (eds.), Identities at Work, 211–238.
© 2007 Springer.
212 Simone Kirpal and Alan Brown
all of which may change over time, as may the significance individuals
ascribe to them (Brown, 1997; Ibarra, 2003).
Connecting to Giddens’ (1984) structuration theory, the project
emphasised the reciprocal relationship between social structure and
individual agency in particular work settings. The project partners
anticipated that, at the individual level, emerging new demands, with
their implications for shifting skill needs, generate a potential for con-
flict with traditional work orientations and associated values, norms,
work ethics and work identity patterns of employees. One focus of the
analysis was therefore placed on identifying individuals’ strategies for
dealing with such conflicts. In those contexts where work-related iden-
tities are becoming increasingly unstable and disrupted (Carruthers and
Uzzi, 2000), what kind of mechanisms and strategies do individuals
develop in order to compensate for instabilities, fragmentation and
uncertainties of work and employment structures? In which way do
structural changes and individual strategies interact in the work context
and what role does this interaction play in occupational identity forma-
tion processes? Are some individuals better equipped than others to
handle instabilities and uncertain working conditions?
In line with theories of socialisation and identity formation (see Heinz,
1988; Wahler and Witzel, 1985; Heinz and Witzel, 1995; Heinz, 2002a),
the process of developing forms of work-related identities was regarded as
dynamic, influenced by structural conditions on the one hand, and indi-
vidual orientations and resources on the other hand. This means that work
identities develop in the course of complex negotiation processes at the
interface between personal resources, attitudes and values and structural
variables of the work setting. As they manifest themselves in the interplay
between individual dispositions and structural conditions of the work con-
text, they influence an individual’s concept of work and relationship to, for
example, his or her job, the work environment and the employing organi-
zation. If we look at the individual variables, these encompass ascribed
attributes such as socio-economic background, gender and age, but also
achievements like qualifications, skills and the capacity to learn and to
cope with changing work requirements. The individual employment
trajectories, part of the individual’s ‘strategic biography’ (Brown, 2004),
integrate and structure these variables in very specific ways by further
incorporating personal interests, commitments and career plans. Taking
into account individuals’ responses and adaptations to, and interpretations
of, work situations one major objective of the research project was to iden-
tify individuals’ strategies for coping with changes and new demands at
work and how these affect their work identities.
216 Simone Kirpal and Alan Brown
8.3 Methods
1
For more detailed information about the project see Kirpal; Brown and Dif in this
volume, FAME Consortium (2003) and Kirpal (2004b).
218 Simone Kirpal and Alan Brown
2
The findings structured along sectoral analyses are published in Career Development
International, vol. 9, no. 3.
The ‘Flexible Employee’—What Does it Take? 219
something that was not very common for girls at that time
(in 1977). Since her father was working at a bank, she decided to do an
apprenticeship as a bank clerk. After having completed the apprentice-
ship she stayed on working with the bank for a couple of years to gain
some initial work experience. She attained a small promotion during
that time, but it was clear to her that women did not have great possi-
bilities to make a career in the bank. In the beginning, she liked her
work but became bored when work tasks became routine. She finally
quit the job without having any other job offer. Her friends and col-
leagues could not understand that move, because working at a bank pro-
vided a well paid, relatively secure job, which at that time was thought
to guarantee lifelong employment.
For the following eighteen months Martina worked and lived on a
farm that was producing textiles in a traditional way. Initially she only
intended to work there for a few months to take a break and to think
about her vocational interests, but with time she developed a deeper
interest in textiles and fabrics and decided to stay on. She particularly
enjoyed the work atmosphere that was breaking with the common divi-
sion between work and private life. This was a new experience and a
very contrasting way of working compared to the job at the bank.
Following her interest in textiles and fabrics, Martina studied for five
years on a university course on textile and clothing technology with a
specialisation in threads and fabric development. The course had a very
technical orientation and, as a consequence, had only a very small pro-
portion of female students (most women at that time preferred to study
textile design). After completion of the course in 1988, it took some
time before Martina finally found a job with a textile company. She
stated that it was very difficult to find something corresponding to her
qualification and that she felt discriminated against as a woman who
wanted technical work in the textile industry.
The textile company hired her to work with the new, and at that time
innovative, Computer Aided Design (CAD) systems, which started to
revolutionise the whole textile industry. Working with the new computer
systems and introducing them in the different departments presented a
real challenge. Martina found this task very interesting and enjoyed her
work, but soon started to encounter problems with the rather conserva-
tive and inflexible attitudes of staff reluctant to accept the new technol-
ogy. She was struggling against a lot of resistance and felt that things
were not moving fast enough leading to dissatisfaction with her work. In
addition, after some years most work processes became routine once she
had become familiar with the CAD systems, which became gradually
222 Simone Kirpal and Alan Brown
subordinated to work content or the actual work tasks. For example, she
is now working in tourism and had to acquire a lot of knowledge about
the tourist sector although she does not have a particular interest in it.
But she likes the sector, because it is dynamic and gives room for bring-
ing in new ideas. She feels that she could easily and flexibly adapt to dif-
ferent kinds of work structures, processes, or sectors as long as the work
situation provides room for creativity and professional self-realisation.
To be able to change is a key aspect here. In her perspective it only
takes 1–2 years of work experience to be more or less able to master a
new job. After having reached the level of mastering a job, Martina usu-
ally very soon comes to a point where she wants to optimise processes
and bring in her own ideas. She experienced that if the structures are
too rigid for innovation or the staff are not open and flexible so that
progress cannot really be achieved, she will soon become frustrated and
dissatisfied. She may then still continue for some time, but if she feels
that things are not moving, she would rather leave the job and, if nec-
essary, the profession and look for something else.
The aim for professional self-realisation is the key element of her
occupational identity and ranks higher than her commitment to a par-
ticular company, an occupation, a professional community or the per-
spective of making a career. And it also ranks higher than her personal
life, social ties, family or being bound geographically. Thus, she does
not only feel that she is a flexible person who can easily adapt to dif-
ferent work settings and tasks, but she needs the challenge of changes
and flexibility in order to be satisfied at work. ‘When I like what I’m
doing, it is not important if I work 8, 10, or 14 hours’.
She does not see herself remaining with her current employer or in
the sector, but thinks that she will soon move on. She can imagine her-
self starting again in a totally new field and from her side she is not tired
or lacking the energy to start something new. It is only that she feels that
with increasing age the opportunities become less as employers are
more critical and reluctant to recruit employees who are older than forty.
She would like to start again working in a smaller company with maybe
20–30 employees and striving to grow. She would also prefer to work in
a dynamic sector like, for example, IT or tourism, because here things
are moving and structures are still open and easier to modify. People
working in these sectors are younger giving generally more room for
innovation and developing new ideas.
The original wish for job security that once guided her when opting
for an apprenticeship in the bank has been replaced by accepting a high
risk level when leaving a job in order to find something more suitable.
224 Simone Kirpal and Alan Brown
She is now trusting in her skills and competencies and feels that she can
always find a new job, only that maybe the time between two employ-
ment situations will become longer with increasing age. Martina is
aware that her attitude towards work and employment is not and never
has been compatible with building a family. The high level of personal
flexibility and risk taking is probably only possible, because Martina
has no family responsibilities, but is only responsible for herself.
she wanted. After three years, she was offered promotion to the post of
‘Head of Logistics’—‘which was not as grand as it sounds’. In this post,
she managed the work of the clerical staff doing the jobs she had previ-
ously been doing herself. She managed six people. The only company
training she received at this time was at her own instigation; she asked
to go to Head Office abroad for a two-week period to orientate to the
work of the company. They gave her this time, but it was left to her to
structure this period for herself. She spent the time walking around the
factory and talking to people, finding out for herself what was being
done by whom and why. She found this period very informative and
helpful.
After four years with the company, it was reorganising, and she was
offered another promotion—as a ‘Logistics Specialist’, ‘which was a
non-job; I had no role’. Her salary for this ‘non-job’ was now double her
initial salary. The following year she was given a further promotion to
‘Production Manager’ for a major customer group. Her job involved
complete responsibility for resourcing the production and delivery of
orders for this car manufacturer. In this job, she manages 100 perma-
nent, mostly full-time, staff on a three shift system, plus 7 support work-
ers based in the office. Her work involves the ordering and control of all
materials, and responsibility for the production process itself, health and
safety issues, staff management and customer liaison.
When the post became vacant, she had been encouraged to apply for
it by her then bosses, and Sally was pleased to get this promotion. ‘It
was a proper job with a decent salary, and it was a challenge. (. . .) Did
I encounter any difficulties? Huge difficulties. I had no knowledge of
engineering production whatsoever. I knew nothing of production plan-
ning or engineering prioritising. Nothing.’ She also had problems with
managing the hourly paid non-staff employees who operated on a com-
pletely different basis from the permanent shop-floor staff, and there
were difficulties for her in integrating the work of the two groups. Sally
had had no university training relevant specifically to her new job;
nothing to fall back on: ‘my skills acquisition at this time was mainly
on-the-job training; finding out as I went along.’ The company did pro-
vide training opportunities over time to help her to cope with her new
responsibilities. These included courses on interviewing skills, Health
and Safety, disciplinary procedures, time management, IT, work study
time and motion processes and procedures.
She found all this training very relevant and of good quality, and it
helped her to build skills to tackle her job. It was as she began to ‘get a
handle’ on her job that she decided to do a Master’s degree so as to gain
226 Simone Kirpal and Alan Brown
feels she has learned a lot through her various experiences, and whilst
things have gone differently than she might have expected, she is fairly
happy with where she is now.
Sally has been successful undertaking very different types of work,
but feels that after mastering the work she needs to take on fresh chal-
lenges in relation to work and this is also reflected in a willingness to
commit to further education and training. In her current organisational
context it has proved possible to move both vertically and horizontally to
take on new challenges. That she was able to do so without initial tech-
nical training demonstrates her flexibility, the extent of her organisational
and communication skills and the value of these in the co-ordination that
is at the heart of modern management manufacturing processes.
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242 Yehuda Baruch and Aaron Cohen
246
Conceptual Approach
Characteristics
Term Side-bet theory approach Organizational Commitment Affective, normative, continuance
Questionnaire (OCQ)
continuance commitment scale was low. The three scales had acceptable
convergent validity, but the affective and the normative scales lacked dis-
criminant validity. The construct validity of the affective commitment
was supported, whereas the construct validities of the continuance com-
mitment and the normative commitment scales were questionable. These
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or organisation. Of course, there are other work attitudes that shape the
way people approach their careers and working life, for example work role
centrality (Mannheim et al., 1997). Other types of attachments exist, for
example, to the trade union (Cohen, 2003; Kelly and Kelly, 1994). These
might account for a decline in the commitment to and in the identification
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compared with that conducted by organisations (Baruch, 2004).
Two of the most prominent social groups that working people belong
to are their organisation and their professional group or community of
practice. Hence organisational and professional identity are major
social identities, and are of major importance within the realm of work
and career. Jenkins (1996, p. 142) emphasises how both organisational
identity and professional identity are ‘achieved’ identities, i.e. identities
acquired or assumed through life development (as opposed to
‘ascribed’ identities, which are identities socially constructed on the
basis of birth—see later for elaboration).
Organisational identification consists of the members’ shared beliefs
about the central, enduring and distinctive characteristics of the organisa-
tion (Golden-Biddle and Hayagreeva, 1997). It is one of the important
forms of employees’ attachment to organisations (Brown, 1969; Rotondi,
1975). Mael and Ashforth (1995) argue that organisational identification is
a specific form of social identification by which individuals define them-
selves in terms of their membership of a particular organisation. Research
establishes organisational identification as a perceptual cognitive construct
that is different, both conceptually and empirically, from organisational
commitment as well as from other related work and job attitudes (Mael and
Tetrick, 1992). Mael and Ashforth (1995) distinguish organisational
identification from organisational commitment as follows:
Although identification is necessarily organization-specific,
commitment may not be. The focal organization’s goals and val-
ues may be shared by other organizations, such that one could
score high on commitment without perceiving a shared destiny
Organisational Commitment and Professional Identity 249
Organisational
Organisational
commitment
identity
Professional Performance
Professional commitment
identity
Team Intention to
commitment quit
Team identity
Union
OCB
commitment
Social
identity Career
commitment
Justice
Social learning Trust
Time, Role conflict/
Interaction ambiguity (-)
Value-fit
S. Efficacy
J. Satisfaction
J. Involvement
Emotions
Stress (-)
Mental &
physical ability
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260 Yehuda Baruch and Aaron Cohen
Apprentices’ Experiences of
Occupational and Organisational
Commitment: An Empirical
Investigation in a German
Automobile Company
Bernd Haasler
University of Bremen, Germany
10.1 Introduction
261
A. Brown, S. Kirpal and F. Rauner (eds.), Identities at Work, 261–284.
© 2007 Springer.
262 Bernd Haasler
1
The research project was conducted in Germany between 1999 and 2003 and funded
by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Bund-Länder
Commission for Educational Planning and Research Promotion (BLK).
Apprentices’ Experiences: Germany 263
there are currently around 18,000 young people in trade and industry
undergoing vocational training to become toolmakers (cf. Bundesinstitut
für Berufsbildung (BIBB), 2000).
The first question of the survey dealt with motivations for choosing
to train as toolmaker. Only 15 per cent of the participants chose ‘I always
wanted to be a toolmaker’ as their primary motivation (see Figure 10.1).
This means that only a rather small proportion of the young people con-
sider their chosen occupational specialisation also to be their dream job.
42 per cent admitted that they actually wanted to learn a different trade,
but Volkswagen only offered them to train as toolmaker. In the choice
of occupational specialisation, the trend of preference for business/
administrative over industrial/technical jobs is demonstrated here too:
for 17 per cent of those who actually wanted to learn a different spe-
cialisation, training in a commercial field at Volkswagen was their first
I’m interested in
48%
engineering in general.
I have already
dismantled and repaired
technical equipment 49%
(e.g. washing machine,
moped, computer).
At school I was
interested in all lessons
that had something to do 44%
with engineering (e.g.
physics lessons).
That about half of the young people have gained previous practical
experience through dabbling with technical equipment (repairs to house-
hold appliances, vehicles, computers) corresponds with an interest in
engineering as the main reason behind their occupational choice.
However, the fact that fewer than half of the apprentices state interest
in engineering or previous technical experience as their motivation is
surprising, considering they are choosing to train in a rather demanding
occupational area in the high-technology sector following a 31⁄2-year
apprenticeship programme.
For this question, the range of response categories in the survey was
of a four-level gradation. The scale ranged from complete agreement
(‘correct’), via a toning down (‘more correct than incorrect’) through to
the opposite pole of rejection (‘more incorrect than correct’ and ‘incor-
rect’). For clearer presentation purposes, the following illustrations
bring together both positive assessments and both negative assessments
respectively. This section revealed the following: most of the young
people (the overwhelming majority of those who did not yet have a dri-
ver’s licence at the time the survey was performed) agreed that the car
268 Bernd Haasler
The company is a
47% 53%
bureaucratic shop.
I feel as though I am
among friends and 95% 5%
acquaintances here.
As acquiring basic knowledge and skills during the first year mainly
takes place in the company’s training workshops, training centres and
laboratories, 27 per cent of the young people agree with the statement
that elements related to automobile production hardly appear in the first
three months of their vocational training. Instead, the young apprentices
mainly produce practice pieces and, according to the results of the sur-
vey, many of them are not sure of the connection between those work-
shop tasks and the occupational specialisation they are training for. The
mainly context-free basic technical skills training in metal engineering
led half of the trainees to believe that they have not been given mean-
ingful tasks in the first three months at the company (see Figure 10.7).
The trainees’ feeling of being integrated in the social milieu at the com-
pany scored the highest level of agreement. Due to their positive social
experiences, 95 per cent of the new apprentices feel ‘as though they are
among friends and acquaintances’ after just three months at the company.
the occupation is not present in the solutions offered. Here, the presented
solution reflects the experiences the trainees gained at the training work-
shop. They provide a workable model of how the depressions can be
made. They fail, however, to understand that the toolmaker does
not manufacture the final product, but that the occupational profile
essentially consists of making the tools to produce parts. Thus, the
trainees present a solution that does not correspond with the occupa-
tional profile, because the solution may only work if the task was to con-
sist of producing one single dice, but not for mass production.
The most obvious result is that a large number of trainees fail to realise
that essentially the tool making occupation is an ‘implementer of mass
production’. This gross misunderstanding may be explained by the nature
of the vocational training during the first year. Basic training in all aspects
of the metal engineering trade in the first year—which in the field under
investigation is mainly organised in training workshops and laboratories
and taking forms of general instead of domain-specific teaching—does
not seem to contribute to an understanding of the domain-specific problem
solving processes at the level of skilled work. The learning and working
strategies of the training workshop (embodied here by the manual pro-
duction of units) are for the most part transferred directly by the trainees
to practice-based professional problems and challenges. This is revealed
clearly in the young people’s obvious lack of general knowledge about the
tool making sector. Knowledge from context-free basic training in the area
of metal engineering is applied and characterises the various solutions
276 Bernd Haasler
Evasion
13% Machine unit
production
Toolmaker 28%
solutions
9%
Unit production by
Production line
hand
34%
16%
As, in this sense, we cannot take for granted that they are ‘experts on
communication’, there remains the suspicion that their ability to reveal
their own learning and work strategies may be less developed than their
actual ability to apply those strategies in a real work setting (cf. Hacker,
1996, p. 9). In this respect, it is worth taking this view into account
when interpreting the presented solutions of the evaluation tasks. An
appropriately sensitised investigation design and intelligently devel-
oped items for the accompanying written surveys can, however, limit
the risk of misinterpretations.
10.4 Reflections
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11
The Individualisation
of Identification with Work in
a European Perspective
285
A. Brown, S. Kirpal and F. Rauner (eds.), Identities at Work, 285–314.
© 2007 Springer.
286 Simone Kirpal, Alan Brown, and M’Hamed Dif
11.1 Methods
France 8 30 7 25 6 30 106
Germany 10 33 8 35 7 31 124
UK 10 38 10 24 8 25 115
N 28 101 25 84 21 86 345
Identification with Work in a European Perspective 289
11.2.1 Engineering
The extent of changes in the structural context means that patterns
of identification with work in engineering are undergoing significant
290 Simone Kirpal, Alan Brown, and M’Hamed Dif
under pressure in relation to the need for new forms of interaction with
customers and working teams, and this has consequences for learning and
development in relation to communication skills and multi-disciplinary
cooperation.
In France, the attempts of employers to make greater use of more
highly qualified labour, including graduates, seem to align with the
efforts of the national training system. This includes the development of
the vocational baccalaureate, the strengthening of technical education
and training and giving more attention to both employer-directed con-
tinuing vocational training and employee self-directed continuing learn-
ing and development (including through the process of skills review
contained within ‘bilán de competences’). The UK shows a somewhat
different picture. As apprenticeship and other intermediate skills devel-
opment routes remain under-developed compared with most other coun-
tries, employers need to develop different strategies than their German
and French counterparts in terms of product market and work organisa-
tion. Even where they are trying to follow a ‘high value added strategy’
or upgrade their skill base they have been making use of the expanded
pool of graduates and/or using work-based development strategies,
sometimes based around formulaic approaches to continuous improve-
ment derived from Japanese manufacturing practices (Brown, 2004a).
A question of wider interest and significance arising from the
research undertaken in engineering deals with the issue of congruence
or divergence of different expectations, for example between employ-
ers and employees. One issue is whether employers’ expectations in
terms of levels of identification and commitment of their employees
align with societal ‘offers’ and individual perspectives in a sustainable
way. For example, should employees’ identification with work in
Germany be based around a more fully developed (graduate) knowl-
edge base rather than building on the traditional strengths of ‘incre-
mental’ innovation, built around specialised knowledge of work
processes and practices based upon advanced craft skills up to Meister
level? The model of incremental innovation is itself linked to powerful
societal and institutional support, including employer networks, related
to the use of medium-level technology and the production of high qual-
ity products in established industries. The old skill formation system,
however, was also highly gendered and slow to respond to the increas-
ing cultural diversity of the workforce (Krüger, 1999). In this sense
patterns of identification and commitment have to be linked to related
systemic and institutionalised mechanisms in the wider society. Some
of the employee interviews though indicated the extent of resistance
294 Simone Kirpal, Alan Brown, and M’Hamed Dif
11.2.2 Nursing
the professional exchange with colleagues and balances the daily work
routine with new options for learning and professional development. In
addition, continuing training facilitates horizontal mobility and, to a
much lesser degree and depending on the specific training, also verti-
cal mobility. Since most training is not systematically linked to career
progression, it is regarded as an individual choice rather than as a
requirement for good work performance. Particularly in Germany and
France, the predominant mode observed in nursing is internal horizon-
tal mobility and not vertical mobility. Some hospital nurses may choose
to change wards within the same hospital every couple of years,
because it can be one way of gaining more expertise and fostering one’s
own professional development. This choice may sometimes be regard-
ed as an alternative option or strategy for nurses who do not wish to
assume a team leading position and who are keen not to lose responsi-
bility for providing direct patient care.
Across all three countries nurses were expected to have highly
developed interpersonal and communication skills, particularly with
regards to working directly with patients. However, nurses stated that
they often felt overwhelmed with performing a variety of caring tasks
that, from a professional point of view, did not form part of their
responsibilities. It was also perceived that this reality contributes
towards lowering their professional status, particularly compared to
other medical staff like doctors, who are not expected to perform such
roles. Other conflicts arose between providing patient-oriented servic-
es and new forms of work organisation that increasingly allocate time
and energy of nurses to more technical, instrumental, administrative or
coordinating tasks. While major reasons for choosing the nursing pro-
fession relate to an almost intrinsic motivation of helping and caring for
others, new pressures for cost control, time efficiency and documenta-
tion for quality assurance purposes lead to nurses finding themselves
torn between caring and complying with efficiency demands (Kirpal,
2004b). Not being able to resolve those conflicts in a satisfactory way
and having the feeling of not performing to the expected standards
leads to the danger of a nurse becoming ‘burned-out’, loosening fun-
damental work motivation or even causing the individual to abandon
the nursing profession after having been in the profession for a consid-
erable length of time.
In summary, structural reforms, changes in work organisation and
division of tasks, higher demands for flexibility and mobility and med-
ical innovations considerably affect nurses’ daily work routine, skills
development and time allocation to different tasks, including direct
298 Simone Kirpal, Alan Brown, and M’Hamed Dif
11.2.3 Telecommunications
Classical forms of
identification Long- Short- Re-
term term Flexible/ definition/
Classical Adjust- Adjust- indivi- nego-
Individual Reactions Retreat progressive ment ment dualised tiation
At the opposite end of the continuum were those employees who had
developed a highly ‘flexible’ type of identification with work. This had
a much more individualist basis than any occupational and organisa-
tional commitment. One typical characteristic of these employees was
that they were willing and able to actively use flexibility, mobility and
learning as tools to achieve their broader goals, and in doing so they
were ready to change organisations and/or their occupation, if neces-
sary. Flexible employees anticipate and internalise requirements for
change, while making continuous adjustments in the workplace could
lead to more transitory forms of work attachment for the less qualified,
and highly individualised patterns of commitment and identification
for the higher qualified. The key feature here is that the individual is
active in pursuit of her or his own goals, professional development and
self-realisation based on personal skills, the capacity for continuous
learning and a rather project-oriented work attitude. A variation of this
flexible type of identification with work would be the ‘strategic
careerists’ who see their current occupational position and/or organisa-
tional attachment as one phase of a career that involves relatively
frequent changes in the nature of work they do. They are committed to
‘moving on’ and see their careers as something that they actively con-
struct. Their attachment to their current role is partly influenced by the
knowledge that they are only ‘passing through’.
The largest group of interviewees, however, developed different
forms of adaptation that resulted in various, very complex forms of
responses along this continuum. The changing nature of their attach-
ment to work could be more or less intense and transitional and often
depended on re-definition processes. For example, adaptation and
adjustment to work may be long-term or short-term; be passive (accept-
ing) or involve the individual in an active search for resolution of prob-
lems or conflicts. The pressures external to the individual to adapt may
be high or low and they may be general (relating to all those involved
in an organisation or occupation) or specific (relating to an individual
or small group).
In any case, forms of those kinds of ‘re-definition strategies’ gener-
ally represented a more conditional form of adaptation—the individual
may remain in an occupation and/or with a particular employer, but he
or she recognises that this represents a compromise rather than an ideal
situation. Typically, factors from outside work (family commitments,
personal networks, attachment to a particular location) may ‘hold’ an
individual in place. The individual may still seek to satisfy expectations
(of employer, colleagues and customers or clients) with regards to role
306 Simone Kirpal, Alan Brown, and M’Hamed Dif
but which was now encountering severe problems. However, age was
not always the critical factor as we also interviewed highly dynamic
‘older’ and less flexible ‘younger’ employees across all occupational
groups. In terms of learning, the national embedding and workplace
specific conditions also played a decisive role. For example, UK and
French employees generally seemed to be better prepared to anticipate
and deal with changing work demands than German employees. The
same was true for employees working in dynamic segments of engi-
neering, for example, versus employees working in large institutions or
companies.
11.4 Conclusions
1
Notably, the employee sample of this investigation represented a privileged segment
of the workforce by only including individuals currently employed and with at least
some level of basic vocational training. Individuals, who are already excluded like the
large number of unemployed workers, were not represented in the study.
310 Simone Kirpal, Alan Brown, and M’Hamed Dif
processes, then this trend may create new opportunities for employees.
However, to the extent that this approach transfers the responsibility for
skills acquisition from the company to the individual, it may also cause
a high level of stress. Employees increasingly experienced a constant
pressure for learning while working and self-study, in which they felt
were not sufficiently supported by their employer and without such
support they felt the pressure to continue learning was unsustainable
over a longer period. Combined with lack of training support and high
demands on flexibility, for many employees this also resulted in an
imbalance and conflict between work and private or family life.
Employees who are equipped with the right set of skills and suffi-
cient self-confidence are also usually willing and able to deal with new
demands at their workplace. Some even actively use new concepts of
flexibility and mobility at work as instruments to adjust their work to
their personal needs. Given enough support they may also feel com-
fortable that in changing contexts earlier forms of identification and
commitment are loosening their former role and significance and are
being re-defined. This may be particularly the case where hybrid skills
are in great demand involving a combination of business and technical
skills, as well as ‘soft’ skills of communication and team working. In
such environments employees could perform a wide variety of roles
and there were examples of companies being very flexible in deploy-
ing the skills of such people. Indeed, that employers saw these indi-
viduals as capable of fulfilling a variety of roles was a key part of their
attraction.
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structure and implications of career forms. In M.B. Arthur, D.T. Hall and B.S. Lawrence
(Eds.), Handbook of career theory (pp. 506–522). Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
312 Simone Kirpal, Alan Brown, and M’Hamed Dif
12.1 Introduction
12.1.1 Background
315
A. Brown, S. Kirpal and F. Rauner (eds.), Identities at Work, 315–336.
© 2007 Springer.
316 Akihiro Ishikawa
Data from two research studies which applied the same scale for
measuring work centrality were available for this analysis. Some of the
most important research on work centrality is provided by an interna-
tional study on the ‘Meaning of Work’ (MOW research conducted
between 1981–1983 which drew its data from samples which were
nationally representative (Misumi, 1987). Therefore, this study pro-
vides an excellent illustration of the differences in WC between coun-
tries, as shown in Table 12.1.
318 Akihiro Ishikawa
Japan 61 38 1
Israel 55 43 2
USA 54 44 2
Netherlands 40 57 3
Belgium 39 59 2
Germany 38 56 6
(West)
UK 36 59 5
1
Denki Rengo is the Japanese abridged name of the Japanese Electrical, Electronic
and Information Union. Previously it was called Denki Roren, and its English name
was ‘Japanese Federation of Electric Machine Workers’ Unions’. It is the largest
trade union federation at branch level in Japan.
Work Identity in Japan: Stereotype and Reality 319
1
The two figures are the numbers in the samples of 1994/1996 and
1999/2001 respectively.
More or less
Satisfied satisfied Dissatisfied
1994/1996 1994/1996 1994/1996
Country 1999/2001 1999/2001 1999/2001
Japan 44 47 30 28 26 22
France 62 53 17 27 11 17
Italy 65 72 11 12 25 13
Finland 67 78 27 16 6 6
Sweden 57 – 28 – 15 –
Poland 17 41 53 49 29 8
Czech 45 64 30 21 25 14
Republic
Slovakia 47 65 35 31 18 4
Hungary 41 58 47 36 11 6
Slovenia 35 65 38 30 24 4
China 63 36 20 35 16 27
Japan 19 26 54 49 24 20
France 24 34 49 42 26 20
Italy 33 39 44 42 19 15
Finland 62 69 32 22 4 2
Sweden 41 – 49 – 8 –
Poland 40 30 42 48 16 9
Czech 36 44 55 51 8 4
Republic
Slovakia 44 49 46 47 11 4
Hungary 28 35 57 51 14 13
Slovenia 44 51 50 44 4 2
China 49 70 24 17 9 7
1
Self-devoting: ‘I would like to put my best efforts toward the company’s
success’.
2
Calculative: ‘I would like to give as much effort to the company as the com-
pany gives to me in reward’.
3
Indifferent: ‘I do not have much feeling toward the company’ and ‘I am indif-
ferent to any matters concerning the company’.
have been hypothesized from two viewpoints. One points to the partic-
ular Japanese mentality of preferring a moderate reaction like ‘in
between’, and therefore the responses gather somewhere in the medium,
but not at the extreme poles. This trait of Japanese respondents is
revealed by Hayashi and his research group in the study of the method-
ology of international comparison (Hayashi et al., 1991: Part III). The
other explanation considers that the figures in the table represent a real-
ity, referring to managerial experiences that 20 per cent of ‘self-
devoting’ employees would be enough for a company. These 20 per cent
would promote the activities of business and production and
others would follow their example. From this viewpoint, what should be
stressed is not the proportion of active employees, but the managerial
Work Identity in Japan: Stereotype and Reality 323
2
This viewpoint was presented by audiences at a conference for Japanese managers,
where the author gave a speech on employees’ corporate identity.
324 Akihiro Ishikawa
Now, let us shift the concern from the degree of WC to what it means.
In the research of 1999/2001 six items were available for the analysis of
the meaning of WC. These were: ‘Working gives you status and prestige’,
‘Working provides you with an income that is needed’, ‘Working keeps
you occupied’, ‘Working permits you to have interesting contacts with
other people’, ‘Working is a useful way for you to serve society’, and
‘Working itself is basically interesting and satisfying for you’.The answer
for each item was chosen from a five-point scale. A regression analysis,
putting WC as the dependent valuable, reveals the figures in Table 12 6.
The data in Table 12.6 indicate that the most meaningful factors con-
nected with WC are ‘status and prestige’ and ‘keeping occupied’ and
then ‘work in itself’, while ‘income’ is not correlated to work centrality
at all. In other words, those who attach an importance to work (WC)
perceive ‘working’ as a source of social recognition and belonging, giv-
ing you something to do and insofar as it is interesting and satisfying
then as a place for self-actualization, rather than the centrality of work
being related to income. More generally, attitudes to WC appear to be
related more to moral and self-realizing values of work than to materi-
alistic ones. However, the meaning of ‘working’ is significantly differ-
entiated between job strata, as shown in Table 12.7.
In the case of manual workers in particular, the factor most related to
WC is ‘income’. It means that the most work-centred manual workers
Standardized Significant
B T Probability
The data outlined and analyzed above are concerned only with per-
manent full-time employees of large-scale enterprises. Now, let us look
into the traits of workers in small- and medium-sized enterprises
(SME) compared to large-scale enterprises (LE). There is, however, a
lack of data available to be able to make a direct comparison between
enterprises of different sizes. Therefore, at first, some traits of SME
employees will be drawn in an indirect way.
Denki Roren research in 1984 (Denki Roren, 1986), close in time to
the MOW research considered earlier, did not use the tool of a seven-
point scale for measuring WC that was used in their research in the
1990s, but another tool was applied which makes a comparison with the
data of MOW more meaningful. This tool considered five areas of life,
namely ‘work’, ‘leisure’, ‘community’, ‘religion’ and the ‘family’. The
MOW respondents were asked to give points to each of these categories
in order for the total number of points to be 100, while the Denki Roren
respondents were asked to rate two fields as most important. From both
sets of answers in aggregate it was then possible to calculate the aver-
age relative importance of each area in percentage terms. The average
point score (from a possible total of 100) for each of the five fields for
the two sets of data is illustrated in Table 12.8.
As seen in Table 12.8, MOW data that included working people from
SMEs show a comparatively higher percentage defining ‘work’ as more
important than those of Denki Roren drawn exclusively from LEs.
From this we can assume that WC would be a little higher among SME
employees than LE ones, though the difference between the two groups
is not great. In contrast, a stronger ‘leisure’ orientation of employees
can be surmised to exist among LE employees than SME ones. This
Work Identity in Japan: Stereotype and Reality 329
could be understood from the fact that income and living conditions
among SME workers are not so favorable than for LE employees,
whose wage level on average is higher and employment situation more
secure, thus giving them a stronger base from which to enjoy their
leisure.
The preceding part of this chapter pointed out that the degree of WC
of Japanese employees in the Denki Rengo research of the 1990s was
recorded as lower than for those employees involved in the MOW
research in 1981–1983. Two reasons may account for this. First,
changes of the work value structure might have occurred accompany-
ing the decline of WC; and second, the different sample structure of the
two research studies may account for the difference, since WC is gen-
erally lower for permanent employees of LEs than for all other cate-
gories of employees, including those of SMEs. The first assumption
will be examined later, but the second one can be considered to be more
or less valid.
Another comparison between LEs and SMEs employees is possible
by looking at data obtained from two research studies that applied com-
mon variables of Work Satisfaction (WS) and Company Commitment
(CC). One is the study on SMEs conducted by the Tokyo Metropolitan
Labor Research Institute in 1999 (Okunishi, et al., 2000), and the other
is the Denki Rengo research conducted in the same year (Denki Rengo,
2000). For reference, as mentioned earlier, there is incidentally a posi-
tive correlation between WC, WS and CC. Therefore, the trait of WC
can be presumed from findings on the situation or condition of WS and
CC. The outcomes of both researches are outlined in Table 12.9.
The figures in this table point to a higher degree of work satisfaction
of employees in LEs compared to those working in SMEs. This trait was
found also in the research on employees working in the chemical indus-
try (Ishikawa, 2002, p. 147). This research revealed a larger satisfaction
330 Akihiro Ishikawa
SME (Tokyo) 42 8 32
LE (Denki 47 28 22
Rengo)
SME (Tokyo) 29 42 18
LE (Denki Rengo) 26 49 20
by LE employees not only with their work, but also with their compa-
nies. It is noteworthy, however, that ‘satisfied’ employees outnumber
‘dissatisfied’ ones not only in LEs but also in SMEs. In summary, one
could conclude that SME employees are more work oriented, but less
satisfied with work than employees working for LE, though the differ-
ence between those two groups is not large in these respects.
Additional data is also available that allows us to make a compari-
son of work satisfaction between full-time permanent and part-time
temporary employees. According to this data, ‘satisfied’ people among
the permanent employees are rated at 61 per cent (male) and 66 per cent
(female), while satisfaction among temporary employees scores 51 per
cent (male) and 59 per cent (female) respectively (Iwai and Sato, 2002,
p. 85). This indicates a higher satisfaction with work for permanent
employees than temporary ones, but the difference between them in this
respect is not great. In both groups the ‘satisfied’ account for more than
half of those surveyed. With respect to company commitment, as seen
Table 12.10, there is comparatively little difference between employees
in SMEs and LEs. This means that CC in SME is not necessarily weak.
However, a component of CC does vary between the two groups.
According to the research in the chemical industry (Ishikawa, 2002), a
wish for a security of employment up to the retirement age is larger in
SMEs, while a wish for actualizing one’s own professional potentiality
is greater in LEs. This in part reflects the greater prevalence for securi-
ty of employment in large companies compared to smaller enterprises,
such that employees in the latter case are more likely to aspire to greater
Work Identity in Japan: Stereotype and Reality 331
Work-oriented 43 39 31 26 26
Both-oriented 25 28 32 35 35
Leisure-oriented 29 31 34 36 37
332 Akihiro Ishikawa
average amount of 39.2 overtime hours, while the figure for marketing and
sales employees is 36.4 hours a month (Fujimoto, 2005). In spite of such
overtime work, their WS is significantly high (Ishikawa, 2002). This is
supposedly because their main concern is focused on ‘work itself’ related
to a desire for self-actualization at work, and this concern is often realized.
On the other hand, dissatisfaction with their working time and workload is
high as well, as revealed by technical staff in the Denki Rengo research
(Denki Rengo, 2000). In their case, presumably, dissatisfaction with
working time does not always damage the satsifaction at work as a whole.
As has been shown, work centrality (WC) is rated higher by manual
workers and employees with lower levels of education, whose main concern
is ‘income’ and ‘employment security’. These groups of workers, however,
are decreasing in both proportion and number. Instead, the ratio of techni-
cal staff and sales workers with a higher educational level has increased, and
this trend is continuing. They are bound to devote a considerable amount of
their time to work leaving little spare time for other activities in life,
although their concerns and values are largely diversified today.
Unsurprisingly, they are mostly dissatisfied with the extent of their work-
ing time and workload, but they still keep a certain degree of WC as the
interesting and satisfying nature of ‘work itself’is often their main concern
in work. Their attachment to the company could be maintained and devel-
oped, as long as they are provided with work they consider interesting and
that gives them the possibility for self-actualization at work, while seeking
a balance between work and other spheres of life such as family and leisure.
Apart from those employee groups considered above, we can observe
an increase of irregular workers such as part-time, casual or remote
workers, due to the diversification in the structure of employment.
Workers with a working time of less than 35 hours a week were rated 13
per cent of the total number of the workforce in 1990, and this figure
increased to 23 per cent in 2003 (Ministry of Welfare and Labor, 2003),
though the real figure might be much higher if illegal foreign workers
were included in the count.
Those irregular employees receive much lower wages than regular
employees. Reasons why people have the status of an irregular employee
vary (Ishima, 2003). On the one hand, there are those workers, who do not
have any other choice because they have difficulties in finding regular
employment in the labour market. This, however, is not always the major
reason. On the other hand, many workers also choose irregular positions
willingly, because they are combining their work with other obligations
they have at home (mainly women) or at school (mainly students), or
because they prefer not to be bound to an organization as a regular staff
Work Identity in Japan: Stereotype and Reality 333
3
‘Fleeter’ comes from the English word ‘fleet’ which means ‘swift’. The Japanese gov-
ernment defines ‘fleeters’ as people of the age between 15 and 34 (except students
and housewives) who are engaged with part-time or casual jobs or are jobless in spite
of a will to work (Cabinet Office, 2003).
334 Akihiro Ishikawa
References
Cabinet Office (2003). White paper on the national life-style. Tokyo: Gyosei (in
Japanese).
Denki Rengo (1996). Research report of electrical machine workers’ consciousness in
14 countries (Chosa Jiho No. 287). Tokyo: Denki Rengo (in Japanese).
Denki Rengo (2000). Research report of electrical machine workers’ consciousness in
14 countries (Chosa Jiho No. 315). Tokyo: Denki Rengo (in Japanese).
Denki Roren (1986). Research report of electrical machine workers’ consciousness in
10 countries (Chosa Jiho No. 212). Tokyo: Denki Roren (in Japanese).
Fujimoto, T. (2005). Overtime work by white-collar employees. Business Labor Trend,
6, 2–6 (in Japanese).
Hayashi, Ch. et al. (1991). Cultural link analysis for comparative social research.
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Hazama, H. (1979). Toward managerial welfarism. Toyokeizaishinpo-sha (in
Japanese).
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social function of the company. International Revue of Sociology, 2, 105–118.
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(in Japanese).
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industry. In A. Ishikawa (Ed.), Employment and work in the transitory period of the
Czech Republic (pp. 129–149). Tokyo: Chuo University Press (in Japanese).
Ishikawa, A. and T. Shiraishi (Eds.) (2005). Japanese workplace and working life: An
international comparative perspective. Tokyo: Gakub un-sha (in Japanese).
Ishikawa, A., R. Martin, W. Morawski and V. Rus (Eds.) (2000). Workers, firms and
unions Part 2: The Development of dual commitment. Frankfurt: Peter Lang.
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12, 19–21 (in Japanese).
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Japanese general social survey. Tokyo: Yuhikaku (in Japanese).
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Maslow, A.H. (1954). Motivation and personality. New York: Harper and Row.
Matsushima, S. (1962). Japanese characteristics of personnel management and their
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(in Japanese).
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ment and employees’ consciousness in transition. Tokyo Metropolitan Labor
Research Institute (in Japanese).
Part Four
13.1 Introduction
1
This chapter is written as part of the project Professional Learning in a Changing
Society, which is being carried out at the University of Oslo, Institute for Educational
Research. For more information, see Jensen and Lahn (2003).
339
A. Brown, S. Kirpal and F. Rauner (eds.), Identities at Work, 339–360.
© 2007 Springer.
340 Monika Nerland and Karen Jensen
theme that has been less discussed, namely how new notions of the self
are envisioned and realized within the framework of formal education.
What is done to enhance the development of this new professional self,
and how do these efforts play out in the current policy reform of the
education and training of professionals?
Focusing on how qualities of the self are sought and inscribed in the
curricula for initial professional education2 in Norway, we approach
these questions by way of several steps. First we provide a theoretical
and methodological ground for exploring the role of policy documents
in the construction of professional selves. Using concepts and ideas
introduced by Foucault and his followers, we point to how curricular
documents serve as governing technologies that seek to ‘transform’ the
students and shape their subjectivity in accordance with dominant dis-
courses in contemporary society. Then we use these insights to analyze
notions of the self in recent policy documents, first within the field of
Norwegian higher education in general, and thereafter delving into the
particulars of two professional groups to point out ways in which the
self is constructed in the new curricula for these groups. The groups on
which we are focusing are nurses and computer engineers.
2
Throughout this chapter we restrict the concept of professional education to the three-
year initial professional education qualifying for the bachelor’s degree.
The Construction of a New Professional Self 341
3
Popkewitz borrows the concept of ‘truth games’ from Foucault (1994a, b), who uses
it to explore the way sciences and disciplines operate as social games in which the
production of knowledge is regulated through certain rules, standards, and techniques
that human beings use to understand themselves.
342 Monika Nerland and Karen Jensen
4
FEANI is an international federation for engineering organizations in Europe,
‘Fédération Européenne d’ Associations Nationales d’Ingénieurs’.
5
A survey among leaders in the public community sector in Norway showed that
between 75 and 90 per cent of the leaders regard the competence of recently educat-
ed nurses and engineers as satisfactory, and express trust in the educational programs
when it comes to preparing students for working as a nurse or engineer (Folkenborg
and Jordfald, 2003). However, they also point to needs for curricular changes at the
time when the survey was conducted (2002). Among the competences they would
like to be strengthened are practical skills for the nurses and knowledge about legis-
lation and community organization for the engineers.
344 Monika Nerland and Karen Jensen
every 5th woman, who applied for higher education in 2003, listed the
program in nursing as her first choice (Abrahamsen and Smeby, 2004;
Christiansen et al., 2005). Further, the two professions have different
traditions of knowledge. While nurses traditionally exhibit a strong
commitment towards moral obligations and the concept of care, the
engineering traditions are based on technological knowledge and pro-
cedures for problem solving. Although this division of knowledge is
currently somewhat diffuse, as we will show later, the differences in
knowledge cultures may produce different manifestations of the policy
trends in the respective educational programs.
In our analysis of the curricular documents we employed a decon-
structive approach inspired by Foucauldian perspectives (Popkewitz and
Brennan, 1998; Burr, 1995). This approach entails a back and forth read-
ing of central documents, focusing on specific statements as well as
their interrelational context. The aim of the analysis was to explore how
the organization of knowledge and learning activities, as well as the
aims and goals of the program, contribute to the production of a new
professional self, both implicitly and explicitly. In line with the three
dimensions of governmentality described above, the documents we have
examined represent diverse ‘levels’ of educational governance. At the
level of political technologies we have looked into national policy doc-
uments related to reforms in higher education carried out in 2003 and
2004, which again are related to the Bologna process aiming at creating
a common framework for higher education in Europe. At the level of
institutional technologies we examined the national curricula for nurses
and engineers as well as the local curricula within one university col-
lege. The main documents selected for analysis are thus as follows:
In 1994 the vocational programs, along with the rest of the non-
university sector, were integrated into a unified system for higher
education. The aim of the merger was to improve qualities related to
management and governance and to make the programs more cost
effective. Although these goals have to some degree been achieved, the
merger has had dramatic side-effects. It has led to increased bureaucra-
tization and, even more importantly, to what researchers describe as an
academic drift and a weakening of the distinctiveness of the programs
(Kyvik, 2002).
In 2001, a Government white paper (Report No. 27 [2000–2001] to
the Storting) entitled ‘Do your duty—demand your rights’6 called for
massive reforms within the field of higher education. Driven by a
desire to partake in what the Bologna Declaration (1999) describes as
‘a European area of higher education’ (p. 1), Norway agreed to amend
its degree and credit systems to conform to a common European
framework. This implied implementing a more flexible study structure
and, ultimately, also contributed to a fragmentation of the students’
learning environment. Guided by the wish to promote an educational
system that ensures ‘mobility, flexibility and employability’, a modu-
larized system has been developed and a new pedagogy involving
teaching methods aimed at ensuring a high level of student activity and
more regular forms of feedback has been introduced.
In order to underline the responsibility the students themselves have
for their own learning process, the Ministry of Education also stipulates
that contracts be drawn up defining not only the rights but also the obli-
gations entailed in participating in a European network of learning:
In order to enhance learning . . . and progression, emphasis shall
be placed on teaching methods involving a high level of student
activity combined with assessments that promote learning by
means of regular feedback. Educational institutions are to enter
into agreements with students clearly outlining the rights and obli-
gations of the institutions and students in relation to each other
(Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research, 2002, p. 2).
6
An English summary of the white paper was provided by the Ministry of Education
in 2002. The quotations we have included are taken from this summary.
346 Monika Nerland and Karen Jensen
In this section we illustrate how these overall trends play out within
the curriculum for nurses and computer engineers. The national curric-
ula for nurses (2004) and engineers (2003) have similar structures,
consisting of the descriptions of aims, goals, content, organization of
subjects and learning activities, and assessment procedures. Further,
both plans conclude by quoting the regulations for the programs in
question, underlining the formal character of the documents. While the
curriculum for nurses applies exclusively for nurses, the program for
engineers comprises several specialties. At the local level, however,
both programs are specific.7
For the sake of comparison we have chosen not to present the two
groups separately, but rather to portray four common attributes of the
self that emerge as implicitly stipulated qualities in our analysis of both
curricula. The attributes relate in various ways to the above-described
changes in higher education, and represent nuances of what it implies to
be a ‘self-driven student’ within the new ‘quality assurance regime’.
New dimensions are, for instance, brought to the learning self as a result
of the new ways of organizing knowledge and the individualization of
responsibility for learning. A joint thematic organization of the discussion
allows us to elucidate how these tendencies manifest themselves in the
current curricula for nurses and computer engineers: How do contemporary
7
Quotations from the national and local curricula have been translated by the authors.
348 Monika Nerland and Karen Jensen
notions of the professional self come into play in these documents? And
which corresponding demands are raised for the students to master in
order to regulate themselves as ‘good professionals’?
8
From the 180 credits which comprise a bachelor’s degree in nursing, 90 credits are to
be earned in practice and 90 in the school (General plan for bachelor’s programme in
nursing 2004).
The Construction of a New Professional Self 349
13.6 Discussion
reform policies as well as in the national and local curricula. The cur-
ricular constructions at both levels forge a vision of the individual as
self-motivated, self-regulated, and self-driven: able to bear the brunt of
setting boundaries and constructing meanings in a fragmented and
complex learning ecology.
In these ways the Norwegian curricula for nursing and computer
engineering reflect general trends in curricular documents worldwide,
often described in terms of increased organization around choice and
expanded formulations of goals (McEneaney and Meyer, 2000).
Although the curricula do not provide the students with fixed profes-
sional identities, their formulation of goals and ways of organizing
knowledge implicitly require a certain mentality where the ‘good stu-
dent’ is requested to show ‘commitment to a particular view of self in
environment’ (McEneaney and Meyer, 2000 p. 200). Above all the curric-
ula help to shape a self who is requested to understand himself/herself
as an active member of a professional community, responsible for man-
aging knowledge, making good choices, and for keeping involved in a
process of continuous learning and self-improvement. This notion of
the professional is part of a wider trend whereby government authori-
ties seek to empower their populations to become more responsible for
their own life courses (Edwards and Usher, 2001). It could be described
as a variant of the enterprising self, who is responsible for carrying out
best practice, for overriding existing structures and for producing new
insights. Further, becoming such a self implies notions of a search for
autonomy, freedom and personal fulfillment, where the self is to find
meaning in existence by shaping its life through acts of choice’ (Rose,
1996, p. 151).
Viewed together, the current movements imply a shift in the govern-
ing mechanisms, where the self emerges as the core object for regula-
tion and change. Regulation has become ‘transferred’ in the way that
practices at the micro-level have emerged as increasingly important
sites for regulation (cf. also Martínez Lucio and MacKenzie, 2004).
Governmentality in the mode of self-formation seems to be brought to
the fore, apparently taking the place of previously powerful institutions.
At this point our analysis of the two curricula corresponds to other
findings in contemporary research on governmentality and education,
which describe how the inner self becomes the core object for regula-
tion, and how the individual is positioned as the central ‘place’ where
societal paradoxes and complex relations are expected to be managed
(Fendler, 1998; Krüger and Trippestad, 2003; Miller, 1993; Rose, 1989).
As Fendler (1998, p. 55) puts it, ‘Becoming educated, in the current
The Construction of a New Professional Self 355
many students in higher education are not provided with the supervision
needed to develop flexible and generic skills (e.g. Bråten et al. 2003).
It is thus crucial for the educational institutions to avoid over-adapting
in their response to the new needs and demands. If the educational
institutions withdraw themselves as agents of knowledge, for instance
by avoiding developing standards for ethical responsibility, this may
create an opening for societal and neo-liberal forces to act directly upon
the individual. At the next juncture, this could have a dramatic under-
mining effect upon the professions as autonomous and self-regulating
communities.
The current forms of regulation thus represent ambivalent and multi-
signifying forces that could assume a myriad of forms, as is the case for
constructions in the postmodern world in general. As we see it, they
could take at least two imagined directions where the professions are
concerned. They could have an emancipatory effect upon the individu-
als, laying the groundwork for the growth of revitalized and strong
communities. At the same time however, there is a risk that they could
have a paralysing effect upon the overloaded selves, thus resulting in an
undermining of collective structures in the professions. Such scenarios
need to be investigated empirically, a task that goes beyond the scope
of this chapter.
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14
14.1 Introduction
361
A. Brown, S. Kirpal and F. Rauner (eds.), Identities at Work, 361–390.
© 2007 Springer.
362 David Finegold and Robert Matousek
1011
1010
109
108
DNA
Log
sequence
(log 107 transistor
density
base-pairs)
106
Base pairs
105
Moore's law
104
103
1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005
Year
had grown to approximately 1500 firms. Today the European Union also
has approximately 1500 biotech companies, and Asia has another 1900
and is growing rapidly (although these newer firms tend to be much
smaller than their US counterparts and have thus far brought fewer prod-
ucts to market) (Shahi, 2004). Virtually all of the industrialized countries
and many industrializing nations are investing heavily to grow their own
biotechnology industry (Cooke, 2003).
To fill the growing number of positions in the biotech industry and to
turn the rich new genetic knowledge and other advances in biotechno-
logical research into beneficial products and processes requires new
types of professionals with new skill sets. Historically, the diverse
knowledge and skills required were embodied in specialists trained in
different disciplines (e.g. biology, chemistry, computer science, busi-
ness), who spoke different technical languages, and had very different
mindsets and approaches to solving problems. As the technology and
biotech industry have continued to evolve, it became apparent that new
types of professionals who could integrate these different disciplines
were needed (Riggs, 1999). Specifically, this chapter will focus on
US efforts to develop two new types of bioscience professionals: bioin-
formaticists or computational biologists who are able to integrate pro-
gramming skills and biological knowledge to come up with new
scientific discoveries or tools to enable them, and bioscience business
professionals who can integrate science and business to help commer-
cialize these new innovations.
Although our primary focus is on understanding the evolution of
these new professional identities in the biosciences and the wider insti-
tutional context in which these new identities are developing in the US,
the insights from this field may apply to the creation of new profes-
sional identities involved in other forms of complex knowledge work.
As in the biosciences, many of the most challenging problems facing
contemporary society—such as climate change, educational under-
achievement in the inner cities, and sustainable development—are
systemic in nature, and hence beyond the scope of a single discipline.
Likewise, many of the most important discoveries and innovations—
ranging from the Manhattan Project and the discovery of the structure
of DNA to the development of the IBM personal computer (PC)—were
produced through cross-functional work.
The need for interdisciplinary work is at odds with the growing
division of labor among academic disciplines brought about by the
explosion in new knowledge creation and the accompanying need for
individuals to specialize in order to develop and maintain an area of
364 David Finegold and Robert Matousek
business may appear daunting, a recent example from within the bio-
sciences suggests it may be possible—the case of bioengineering.
Bioengineering is the application of systematic, quantitative and inte-
grative way of thinking about and approaching the solutions important
to biology and medicine (NIH, 1997). The last two centuries have laid
the groundwork in physics needed for understanding biology and medi-
cine from an engineering perspective. Many of the early engineering
concepts and instruments found applications in biomedical research,
such as X-ray imaging. This prompted more and more investigators to
start using the concepts of physics and engineering in biological and
medical research, but it was due to a number of radical breakthroughs in
medicine, such as the cardiac pacemaker and heart-lung machine, that
engineering has been able to establish a prominent position in medicine.
The 1950’s saw the first steps towards bioengineering as a disci-
pline, with professional societies, regular meetings and publica-
tions, and formalized training programs (Nebeker, 2002, p. 10).
Before assuming a distinct identity, bioengineering had been inter-
twined with biophysics and medical physics, but since then it has moved
from being an inter- and multi-disciplinary activity to a discipline in its
own right (Nebeker, 2002). This has required significant changes to the
engineering profession as well as the professional educational curricu-
lum of engineering students in universities. In the process, it has changed
the context in which engineering is defined and put to use—what are the
tasks of a bioengineer and what is her or his relationship with others. This
change has been driven in part by the demand for innovative approaches
to solve problems in biology and medicine as well as the numerous
opportunities for the application of engineering to the biological
sciences and for commercial development (Nerem, 1997).
In contrast, the US has a variety of public and private colleges and uni-
versities, including for-profit HE institutions, operating in a market
environment. The stiff competition and lack of regulatory barriers gen-
erates a high degree of responsiveness to student and company needs
and to economic and technological changes. The free market for HE,
however, also results in very uneven quality across institutions, making
it difficult to know in many cases what completion of a degree signifies.
The US HE system benefits from a greater diversity of funding
sources for new educational innovations, such as the development of
courses for new professionals. While individuals and the government
pay for basic tuition and student living costs, research universities rely
heavily on their often substantial endowments, raised predominantly
through alumni contributions, to invest in new programs. In addition, a
very large and growing set of private foundations, each with a distinc-
tive mission, provides a major, flexible source of funding for new pro-
gram development that is largely absent in other advanced industrial
countries. The Gates Foundation, for example, has been in existence
less than a decade but, with an endowment of over $30 billion, is
already providing more money to fund innovations in global health than
most national governments. In addition, US universities are able to
leverage their own endowment funds to invest in new courses that are
seen to have promise for the future.
The US experience with creating new qualifications for bioscience
professionals reveals both the advantages and some of the dangers of
this very flexible HE system. Until very recently, the educational
options for students interested in entering this sector in the US were
very limited. They could enroll for a science PhD—which is designed
to prepare people to conduct research in a narrow scientific disci-
pline—or become a medical doctor or pharmacologist. These educa-
tional routes are very costly to deliver and time-consuming, with
Biology PhDs averaging more than 7 years to completion and medical
students typically completing an internship and three or four-year resi-
dency after their MD (Doctor of Medicine or Medical Doctor) if they
want to enter a specialty. Unlike engineering, biology and chemistry
have not had well-established and respected career paths for individu-
als to obtain a master’s degree and then to put their new specialized
skills to use in industry. Typically, a student only got a master’s in biol-
ogy if he or she decided to drop out of a PhD program.
Although the Bayh-Dole Act significantly altered the relationships
between academia and industry, bringing universities and companies
much closer together, traditional PhD programs still did little or nothing
370 David Finegold and Robert Matousek
371
faster than average for all average for all occupations genetics and biotech research, development
Continued
372
Table 14.1 Continued
1980 1985 1990 1996–97 2004–05
occupations through the occupations through 2000 growth due to efforts to clean Doctoral degree holders can expect to
1980s because of increased through the mostly in private and preserve environment, face considerable competition for
attention to preserving the mid-1990s industry, expected expansion in research independent research positions
natural environment, medical due to recent continued growth related to health issues, such as particularly in universities increase in
35
30
25
20
15
10
0
Bachelor's Masters Doctorate Post-doctorate
1999 2003
The Keck Graduate Institute of Applied Life Sciences (KGI) was the
first new HE institution created specifically to offer a PSM. Launched
in 1997 with a $50 million grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation, KGI
is the newest of the Claremont Colleges, a collection of institutions that
operate on a similar model to Oxford and Cambridge Universities in the
UK. There are seven independent Claremont Colleges, each with its
own faculty, endowment, and distinctive identity—e.g. Harvey Mudd
College specializing in undergraduate science and engineering or all-
women’s Scripps College. The colleges are physically co-located, allow
students to cross-register for free in each other’s courses, and share
some collective resources (such as a central library, payroll, benefits
administration, etc.). KGI is the second graduate college in Claremont,
joining Claremont Graduate University, which contains the Drucker
School of Management.
KGI was created without traditional academic departments to foster
interdisciplinary collaboration in research and teaching among its fac-
ulty. It offers a new two-year Masters of Bioscience (MBS) degree. The
MBS combines computational biology, systems biology and bioengi-
neering in project-based learning oriented around the key tasks facing
bioscience companies in fields such as drug development, diagnostics,
medical devices, bioprocessing and industrial biotechnology, along
374 David Finegold and Robert Matousek
Our research on KGI and PSM programs more broadly suggests that
there are a number of barriers that must be overcome to establish a new
professional identity in the biological sciences. These challenges occur
at three levels: labor market and technological trends, organizational,
and individual and inter-personal.
1
Ionian was recently awarded two of the first dozen contracts granted by the US
Department of Homeland Security and a major contract from the Defense Advanced
Research and Planning Agency (DARPA) to use its technology to develop detection
devices to combat bioterrorism.
376 David Finegold and Robert Matousek
still very early in their development and after encouraging starts, both
the Computational Biology and PSM programs have faced issues with
attracting a supply of top students to enter the programs and with estab-
lishing clear career pathways for their graduates. On the supply side,
the new PSMs are competing for the best applicants from a limited
talent pool of science undergraduates whose alternative is a free educa-
tion: the PhD. They must convince individuals who want to remain in
the biosciences, but are not seeking a career in basic research, that the
upfront costs of paying for a two-year professional degree offer sub-
stantial benefits compared to the substantial opportunity cost of many
years of study required to complete a PhD and subsequent post docs.
A key to making this case is demonstrating that a high percentage
of graduates in the new field area are able to secure well-paying jobs.
A comparison of job advertisements for bioinformatics graduates
that appeared in Science from 1996–2002 (Black and Stephan, 2004,
pp. 21–24) indicates that at the time the new Masters and PhD cours-
es in computational biology were being created the demand for their
graduates was rising rapidly, from 209 positions in 1996 to 443 in
2000. By the time the flow of graduates from these new programs
was beginning to enter the job market, however, demand had fallen
substantially, with the number of positions declining to 254 by 2002.
In addition, there was a shift in the type of employer—industry
accounted for the majority of jobs in 1996–97, but by 2002 nearly 80
per cent of the openings were in academia. The job picture was even
worse for Masters graduates, as the number of openings dropped
from 42 to just 6.
This sharp decline in the labor market for bioinformatics graduates
reflected a broader shift in the industry, as many of the leading compa-
nies created to capitalize on the decoding of the human genome—
Incyte, Celera, Human Genome Sciences—ran into trouble in 2000–01.
After the initial exuberance surrounding the HGP, it became clear that
once this genomic information was placed in the public domain these
firms did not have a sustainable business model to go with their excit-
ing technological capabilities. Combined with the more general down-
turn in high-tech stocks following the dot-com collapse and 9/11, the
failure of many bioinformatics companies created a double blow for the
new programs: some of the firms that were fueling the demand not only
stopped hiring, but also were laying off experienced personnel who
were competing with new graduates for jobs. This suggests a broader
difficulty with trying to prepare individuals for a still emerging, rapidly
changing new professional field—because of the inevitable time lag in
Creating a New Professional Identity for the Biosciences 377
2
The names of KGI professors, researchers and students have been changed to protect
their confidentiality.
378 David Finegold and Robert Matousek
turned down a good job offer when she graduated from KGI in order
to complete her MBA. She explained her rationale for staying on in the
2-plus-1 program:
So much of my reason for doing it was credibility. When my boss
introduces me, he mentions my MBA, which doesn’t go unnoticed.
The title is more important than the content . . . My hope is that
in 10 years KGI grads won’t require an MBA. But my decision
was driven by the current circumstances in a very competitive
market. I wanted the best job I could find. You’re always going to
find MBAs are in a higher salary bracket.
Ironically, McClintock notes that while the position she was able to
secure as a Product Manager and her salary were heavily influenced by
the MBA qualification,
“my contributions are valued more for my science and what I
learned at KGI than at Drucker.” David Crick, one of Sawyer’s
classmates who elected not to pursue the MBA, echoes her senti-
ments: “The problem is the brand name. I feel we’re very qualified
for many jobs, but the firms don’t know who we are. They might
just want to go to a place they know like Harvard (Business
School).”
His solution to secure a job as a Program Systems Analyst at Amgen
was, like many KGI grads, to try to differentiate his skill set, rather than
compete head-to-head with MBAs. Crick remarked that:
You try to sell yourself as someone specialized, who can under-
stand science and the business. You don’t want to compete against
MBAs for finance jobs, go for more integrator roles then move
up from there.
Even one of KGI’s top-earning graduates, Dr. Tom Salk, who lever-
aged his prior medical training in India to join Amgen’s Medical Affairs
Department, has elected to enroll part-time in UCLA’s Anderson School
of Management to obtain an MBA. He described his motivation:
I would eventually like to move from my current department into
a more general leadership position, and when I look around the
company I see that the people being chosen for these roles all
have an MBA.
Creating a New Professional Identity for the Biosciences 381
14.6.2 Organizational
Several faculties cited the need for scientific leadership that can help
identify exciting problems that require close collaboration among
researchers from different disciplines and secure the resources needed
to enable them to work together.
The organizational environment within bioscience companies
appears to closely parallel higher education when it comes to impeding
new cross-disciplinary work and professional identities. The tradition-
al functional departments within large pharmaceutical companies can
discourage these new approaches. As KGI Prof. Nancy Franklin noted
to work in this new way,
14.7 Conclusions
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Index
adjustment, 33, 107, 219, 232, 234, 302, 75–77, 86–87, 98, 154, 156, 161,
304–06, 309 166–7, 170, 172, 176, 179, 184,
agency, 7, 148–9, 183–95, 197, 200, 189–90, 197–9, 201, 206,
203–07, 214–16, 341, 347, 400 211–12, 215–17, 219–20, 223,
apprenticeship, 3, 8, 14–16, 25–26, 29, 227, 229–31, 233–4, 250–51,
37, 70, 75, 119–21, 124, 126, 269, 290, 295, 297–301, 303–08,
128–30, 132, 135–6, 138, 140, 316, 319, 325, 333, 352–6, 363,
155–6, 161, 163–4, 166, 170–4, 365, 367–8, 391–2, 395–6,
211, 221, 223, 261–4, 266–7, 272, 398, 400–01
274, 281, 293, 300, 397 collective identities, 22, 46, 287, 356
commitment, 2–4, 8–9, 33, 36, 62, 77,
banking, 5, 31, 45–8, 51, 53, 64 82, 101, 107, 118, 128, 139–40,
biographical continuity, 7, 152, 154–5, 201, 204, 212, 216–18, 223, 230,
158–61, 167–70, 175, 393–4, 241, 244–50, 253–5, 285, 287–9,
400–01 291–4, 296, 298–9, 301–04, 306,
bioscience industry, 10, 364, 366, 375, 308, 310, 315–17, 321, 323, 330,
378, 389, 399 339, 344, 354, 364, 391, 397,
399, 401
career, 1–4, 7–8, 19–20, 32, 37, 49, 70, community of practice, 3, 14–15, 17, 19,
73, 76, 85–87, 109, 117, 122, 124, 22, 31, 35, 38–40, 55, 57–9, 64–5,
133–4, 149–50, 155–6, 170–2, 83, 87, 121, 132, 136, 214, 216,
174–8, 186, 196–7, 200, 202, 204, 248, 278, 280, 296, 365, 392
212–16, 218, 220–2, 223, 226–32, computer science, 10, 363, 377, 381,
241, 247–8, 251–2, 261–2, 265–8, 385, 387
271–2, 285–6, 288–9, 292, 295–7, conceptual framework, 5, 8, 241
301–06, 308, 323, 353, 365, 367, consistency, 7, 81, 150, 152–5, 167,
369–70, 374, 376–7, 388, 391, 171–2, 175, 192 see also ecological
394–6, 398, 400–02 consistency
career change(s), 7, 147–50, 169, 171, curriculum, 73, 76, 78, 83, 104, 340–4,
175, 177, 181, 220, 222, 394 347–51, 353, 356, 368, 374
career orientation, 8, 148–50, 216
careers, 7, 23, 25, 155, 214, 231, 241, Denmark, 5, 45, 119, 132
248, 251–2, 269, 285–7, 305, 364,
370, 395–6, 399–402 ecological consistency, 7, 152, 154–5,
change, 1–3, 7, 21–23, 25, 30–32, 35, 39, 158, 162–3, 168–9, 171–2, 175,
41, 47, 53, 56, 62, 64–65, 70, 394, 400–01 see also consistency
403
404 Index
employability, 6, 119–120, 122, 131, 292, 296, 340, 343–8, 355, 357,
134, 212, 345 364, 368, 383, 388
employee commitment, 9, 214, 398 hybrid skills, 299, 310
engineering, 129, 136, 199, 203, 217,
220, 225–8, 230, 264–6, 271–2, identification, 2–4, 8–9, 14, 17, 33–34,
275, 279, 280–81, 286–7, 289–90, 40, 47–8, 54, 55, 62–3, 74, 83, 88,
292–3, 307–08, 343–4, 348–54, 149, 151, 211–14, 218, 230–4,
362, 368–9, 373, 375, 379, 381, 245–50, 252, 254, 262, 273, 282,
388, 394, 397 287, 289, 291, 293–4, 296, 299,
‘entrepreneurial’, 9, 32, 212, 233, 308, 301–10, 391, 395–7, 399–401
309, 398 identification with work, 211, 234, 287,
Europe, 5–6, 9, 13–14, 17, 74, 91, 93, 301, 305, 308, 395–6, 399–400
115–19, 121, 123, 127, 129–31, identity, 1–7, 9, 13–25, 30–7, 39–41,
133, 135, 137, 139–41, 143, 214, 48, 49, 55–59, 61–5, 73, 77, 80–2,
218, 234, 267, 292, 296, 299, 309, 86, 91–4, 98–103, 105–06, 117–18,
318, 320, 343–4, 139, 141, 147–58, 169, 174–8, 184,
366, 396 187, 193–4, 197, 200–03, 205, 207,
evaluation tasks, 262, 272–3, 279–81 211–12, 215–17, 219, 231, 233–4,
241–2, 247–8, 249–55, 261–3, 288,
flexibility, 1, 4–9, 15–17, 19, 30, 32, 41, 307, 316, 323–4, 333, 365, 368,
49, 72, 82, 93, 116, 119, 147–52, 373, 391–3, 395–401
174, 178, 213–14, 219, 223–4, 228, identity concepts, 152
230–4, 285–90, 295, 297, 299, identity research, 153
301–03, 305–10, 345, 356, 388, in-company training, 71, 78, 120, 126, 132
394–6, 398, 400 see also work individual agency, 3, 4, 21, 24, 39,
flexibility 184–5, 190, 193–4, 205, 401
Foucault, M.10, 340–2, 347 Individualisation of Identification, 285
Freidson, E, 355 initial vocational education, 38, 120–21,
124–6, 129, 136, 139, 393
gender, 21, 73–4, 77, 215, 220, 226–7,
249, 288, 303, 324, 343 Japan, 9, 134, 315, 317–23, 325, 327–9,
Germany, 5, 7, 13, 16, 38, 69, 72–75, 86, 331, 333, 335, 398
88, 115, 119–20, 125–6, 129–30,
132–3, 134–5, 211, 214, 218, 220, knowledge, 10, 16, 23, 28–29, 34, 37, 49,
261–3, 265, 267, 269, 271, 273, 53–5, 57, 60, 65, 78, 87, 97–98, 103,
275, 277, 279–81, 283, 285, 105, 115, 121, 129, 135, 137, 161,
286, 288, 290–7, 300, 188, 190–92, 203, 223, 225, 231,
393–5, 397 251, 267, 269, 271, 273, 275, 282,
governing technologies, 340, 346 290, 292–3, 296, 299–302, 305, 339,
governmentality, 341–2, 344, 354–5 340–4, 346–50, 352–4, 356–7,
graduates, 32, 97–8, 120, 124, 133–4, 363–5, 384, 387, 393–4, 396, 398–9
290, 292–3, 296, 300, 367, 370,
374–80, 388–9 labour market participation, 1, 3–4, 9–10,
Greece, 5, 13, 25, 28, 91–7, 99, 101–05, 15–17, 19, 26, 31, 34, 41, 49, 71,
107, 109–11, 113, 125–6, 214, 218 73, 88, 96, 117, 121–2, 124–6, 135,
139, 141, 150, 155, 176, 212, 214,
higher education, 117, 120–21, 124, 216, 265, 282, 301, 309, 315, 323,
127, 129, 133–4, 136, 150, 156, 332, 334, 391, 393, 398–9
Index 405
learning, 1, 4, 6–10, 16–17, 21, 25–26, 257, 259, 261, 286, 290, 296, 305,
28, 36, 38–40, 49, 52, 56–9, 64–5, 395–8
70, 83, 120–21, 129–30, 132,
135–9, 150, 162, 165, 172, performance, 2–3, 7, 17, 20, 24, 26, 52,
183–92, 194, 207, 216, 218, 84–85, 118–19, 128, 131, 139–40,
222, 226–8, 230–4, 251, 253–4, 166, 187, 196, 211, 214, 218, 222,
262–3, 266, 269, 273, 275–6, 227, 232, 234, 242, 245, 251,
279–82, 285, 287–9, 291–7, 255, 262, 273, 279, 288, 290,
299–305, 307–10, 340–2, 344–9, 294, 296–8, 306, 308, 315,
351–4, 356, 373, 375, 385, 393, 394
392–3, 395–6, 398–400 personal identity, 3, 7, 18–19, 147, 149,
lifelong learning, 65, 184, 197, 207, 151–3, 155–6, 175–8, 247, 394,
346, 395 396–7
locus of control, 7, 148, 150–2, 154–5, Popkewitz, T., 340, 341, 344
157–8, 164–9, 172–7 professional identification, 33, 249,
250, 254
Meaning of Work, 317, 326 professional identity, 8, 241–3, 245,
‘modern’ skill sets, 291–2, 399 247–5, 257, 259, 349, 355, 361,
motivation, 2, 4, 65, 77, 82, 84, 101, 363–5, 367, 369, 371, 373, 375,
139, 149, 170, 200, 214, 222, 377, 379, 381, 383, 385, 387–9
230, 251, 263–6, 272, 281, professional role, 45, 117, 398
288, 297, 303, 353, professional self, 10, 223, 340, 342, 344,
380, 397 346, 348, 352–3, 356
multiple commitment, 253 professionalism, 140, 250, 273, 294,
multiple identities, 253–4, 393 298, 351
multi-skilling, 9, 233, 301, 308, 398
qualification framework, 116, 118
190, 211, 212, 215–16, 233–4, 286, 117, 120–2, 124–7, 129–30, 132,
302, 307, 309, 399 134–5, 137–8, 141, 151, 159, 165,
Switzerland, 7, 16, 119, 129–30, 132, 174, 176, 212, 234, 261, 263–7,
133–4, 147, 149, 151, 153, 155, 269–75, 278–9, 281–2, 293,
157, 159, 161, 163, 165, 167, 169, 309, 399
171, 173, 175, 177, 179, 181
work, 1–10, 13–17, 18, 21–6, 29–32,
telecommunications, 39, 218, 230, 34–41, 45, 47–51, 53–7, 59–60,
286–7, 298, 301, 304 62–5, 70, 72, 76, 79, 80–81, 83–8,
tourism, 5, 91–8, 100–12, 164, 218, 92, 95, 97, 101–11, 118, 120–21,
222–3, 231 126–41, 147–53, 156, 158–63,
training, 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 13–14, 16–17, 166, 168–79, 183–90, 193–207,
25–29, 33, 35–36, 41, 55, 64, 211–34, 241–50, 252–3, 255,
69–75, 77–88, 97, 102, 105–10, 262–3, 265–6, 269–70, 273–82,
112, 115, 117–18, 120–4, 126–40, 285–310, 315–20, 323–4,
149–50, 159, 161, 165, 175, 186, 326–34, 343, 346–9, 351–3,
196, 199, 211–12, 214, 216, 224–5, 355–6, 363–5, 367, 371, 375,
227–8, 232, 261–82, 288–9, 377–9, 381–7, 391– 401
291–302, 309–10, 315, 333, 340, work attitude, 9, 213, 218, 231, 298, 301,
343, 348, 356, 364–5, 368, 374, 302, 305, 308, 398
380, 388, 392–3, 397, 399, 400 work biography, 150
work centrality, 316, 317, 318, 319, 324,
vocational competence, 117, 118, 121, 325, 326
127–8, 135, 137–9, 141, 262 work commitment, 1, 2, 3, 4, 213, 234,
vocational education and training (VET), 324, 331
6, 19, 25, 38, 103, 115, 118, 120, work flexibility, 7, 147, 148, 178, 286,
124, 131, 134–6, 393 294, 394 see also flexibility
vocational skills, 21, 49, 122, 127, work organisation, 3, 16, 22, 230, 234,
132, 134, 136, 230, 234, 262, 273, 287, 288, 290, 295, 308, 391
280, 282 work satisfaction, 316, 317, 320,
vocational training, 3, 6–7, 9, 16–17, 20, 321, 329
23, 26–7, 30, 59–60, 62, 64, 69–79, working lives, 184, 185, 187, 195, 196,
81, 83–6, 88, 98, 103, 105, 115, 197, 200, 202, 219, 286
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