Professional identity and organization development

Our circle of knowledge consists of six researchers. Two are from Aeres University of Applied Sciences Wageningen (Tom van Oeffelt and Niek van Benthum) and four are from elsewhere (Cees den Hartog, Elly van den Berg Thomassen (CHE), Floor Driessen and Valerie Braakman). The overlap in our research lies in the fact that we all carry out research on themes related to professionalism and professional identity. The content of our work also forms a basis in other related research groups, but together we want to get a better grip on our own research paradigm of work-based research. For example, in the way we deal with the subject of consent. How we name things and roles (dialogue and interviews evoke something else) and how we deal with definitions of what good research actually is.

The Professional Identity research group (PI research group) forms the permanent core of research on professional identity. After the publication of the beginners book ‘Je Binnenste Buiten’ (translation: Your Inside Out) and the workbook ‘Mijn Binnenste Buiten’ (translation: My Inside Out), this research group now focuses on identity work and its translation to organizations. We want to discover whether it is possible to map how much pressure a specific organization puts on identity work and if an analysis of this may contribute to great work – work that is ethical, excellent and energetic.

That key question of ‘When am I doing it right?’ is not just a question for the individual professional. More and more, great work is work done by teams, including that in vocational education practice. The question of ‘When am I doing it right?’ has become a collective question. A question that is also contextual, that is connected to an assignment, to a job that really matters. In order to do great work, a direct combination of learning and realization is required. Action and reflection are very important here, but reflection is impossible without standards. So, how do we mutually define standards, how do we define great work (this is what we call: professional frames)? This is what this research focuses on. Our goal is to help the organizations where we carry out our research to progress.

After the publication of Je Binnenste Buiten, the question arose from initial vocational training organizations of whether we wanted to work on professional identity in education. We left this question unanswered for a while, because we thought it was important that teachers worked on their professional identity themselves. Our idea was, that as soon as teachers began to view this subject as material for their students, the relevance for themselves would lessen. Meanwhile, the large number of questions that we have been asked on the subject, has induced us to form a new research group together with Artevelde Hogeschool, Hanze Hogeschool and the Christelijke Hogeschool Ede. The group is expanding as we speak. Now we have embraced this issue and believe that it is important that professionals are prepared in vocational training for the identity work that they will come across. At the moment, we are developing a conceptual framework in which we dissect professional identity into: occupational identity, student identity, professional identity and leadership identity. Also, we are working on our first publication.

The Research Practice Partnership that is working on Great Work has, in the meantime, expanded into a strong network of 40 people (professionals and managers) from 15 organizations, with the support of 7 ‘travel guides’. Together we work in the divide between theory and practice. There, we focus on four themes:

• How do you help professionals to develop, rediscover, utilize and nuance their own self-willedness?
• What issues are professional leaders dealing with? How can we support them in their development? And how can we help them to apply their potential more in organizations?
• What is good teamwork and how do you develop great work in teams?
• What do new developments on the subject of self-leading professionals require of formal leadership?

The key question for professionals is still: When am I doing it right? Throughout history, there have been many ways of getting to grips with this, with rules and protocols, certification and registration, points systems and so on. Each with its own degree of success. What is the hidden dynamic of these quality management systems and what is doable for modern-day professionals?