The Quest For Professionalism

Early pioneers in management thinking, such as Henri Fayol and Peter Drucker, conceived of management as a science-based professional activity that serves the greater good. Today, however, many organizations are managed by people demonstrating anything but professionalism, resulting in mismanagement of risks as well as a one-dimensional focus on short-term results. The key thesis in this book is that The Quest for Professionalism must be revitalized because the societal costs and damage caused by managerial amateurism are huge. The book is about how to address this grand challenge, for example by exploring whether and how a shared professional purpose, and a professional body of knowledge, can be developed. While most work in this area has previously focused on management education, The Quest for Professionalism adopts an inside-out approach, implying management scholarship is the driving force behind any intrinsic transformation of the profession at large. Without management scholars playing an active role in advancing 'science-based professionalism, ' in the mould of engineering and medicine, any attempt to professionalize management practice is doomed to fail. Moreover, Georges Romme demonstrates the professionalization quest has to move away from the idea of management being confined to a few people at the top toward management as a technology for distributing power and leadership throughout the organization

This book focuses on education and its relation to professional accountability as viewed from two different, but not unrelated, perspectives. First, the book is about the work of professionals in schools and colleges (teachers, head teachers, leaders, principals, directors and educational managers, etc.) and the detrimental effects which our present system of accountability – and the managerialism which this system creates – have had on education, its practice, its organization, its conduct and its content. It is also about the professional education (the occupational/professional formation and development) of practitioners in communities other than educational ones and how they, too, contend with the effects of this system on their practices. These different perspectives represent two sides of the same problem: that whatever one’s métier – whether a teacher, nurse, social worker, community officer, librarian, civil servant, etc – all who now work in institutions designed to serve the public are expected to reorganize their thoughts and practice in accordance with a "performance" management model of accountability which encourages a rigid bureaucracy, one which translates regulation and monitoring procedures, guidelines and advice into inflexible and obligatory compliance. A careful scrutiny of the underlying rationale of this "managerial" model shows how and why it may be expected, paradoxically, to make practices less accountable – and, in the case of education, less educative.

This book focuses on education and its relation to professional accountability as viewed from two different, but not unrelated, perspectives. First, the book is about the work of professionals in schools and colleges (teachers, head teachers, leaders, principals, directors and educational managers, etc.) and the detrimental effects which our present system of accountability – and the managerialism which this system creates – have had on education, its practice, its organization, its conduct and its content. It is also about the professional education (the occupational/professional formation and development) of practitioners in communities other than educational ones and how they, too, contend with the effects of this system on their practices. These different perspectives represent two sides of the same problem: that whatever one’s métier – whether a teacher, nurse, social worker, community officer, librarian, civil servant, etc – all who now work in institutions designed to serve the public are expected to reorganize their thoughts and practice in accordance with a "performance" management model of accountability which encourages a rigid bureaucracy, one which translates regulation and monitoring procedures, guidelines and advice into inflexible and obligatory compliance. A careful scrutiny of the underlying rationale of this "managerial" model shows how and why it may be expected, paradoxically, to make practices less accountable – and, in the case of education, less educative.

The International Handbook of Research in Professional and Practice-based Learning discusses what constitutes professionalism, examines the concepts and practices of professional and practice-based learning, including associated research traditions and educational provisions. It also explores professional learning in institutions of higher and vocational education as well the practice settings where professionals work and learn, focusing on both initial and ongoing development and how that learning is assessed. The Handbook features research from expert contributors in education, studies of the professions, and accounts of research methodologies from a range of informing disciplines. It is organized in two parts. The first part sets out conceptions of professionalism at work, how professions, work and learning can be understood, and examines the kinds of institutional practices organized for developing occupational capacities. The second part focuses on procedural issues associated with learning for and through professional practice, and how assessment of professional capacities might progress. The key premise of this Handbook is that during both initial and ongoing professional development, individual learning processes are influenced and shaped through their professional environment and practices. Moreover, in turn, the practice and processes of learning through practice are shaped by their development, all of which are required to be understood through a range of research orientations, methods and findings. This Handbook will appeal to academics working in fields of professional practice, including those who are concerned about developing these capacities in their students. In addition, students and research students will also find this Handbook a key reference resource to the field.

Marktwirtschaft / Beruf / Geschichte.

From the earliest "velocipedes" through the advent of the pneumatic tire to the rise of modern road and track competition, this history of the sport of bicycle racing traces its role in the development of bicycle technology between 1868 and 1903. Providing detailed technical information along with biographies of racers and other important personalities, the book explores this thirty-year period of early bicycle history as the social and technical precursor to later developments in the motorcycle and automobile industries.

Throughout the twentieth century, beauty shops have been places where women could enjoy the company of other women, exchange information, and share secrets. The female equivalent of barbershops, they have been institutions vital to community formation and social change. But while the beauty shop created community, it also reflected the racial segregation that has so profoundly shaped American society. Links between style, race, and identity were so intertwined that for much of the beauty shop's history, black and white hairdressing industries were largely separate entities with separate concerns. While African American hair-care workers embraced the chance to be independent from white control, negotiated the meanings of hair straightening, and joined in larger political struggles that challenged Jim Crow, white female hairdressers were embroiled in struggles over self-definition and opposition to their industry's emphasis on male achievement. Yet despite their differences, black and white hairdressers shared common stakes as battles were waged over issues of work, skill, and professionalism unique to women's service work. Permanent Waves traces the development of the American beauty shop, from its largely separate racial origins, through white recognition of the "ethnic market," to the present day.

40% of women earning $50,000 or more a year are childless at age 45--and these women have not chosen to be childless. A highly controversial book about American women & the bitter paradoxes of success. Data is based on a nationwide survey conducted specifically for the book.