Management styles and professional identities among UK podiatrists

Abstract

Interviews and observation of NHS state‐registered chiropody (podiatry) has been used to study the effects of NHS reforms on professional identity, which inevitably yielded information on management processes. This paper adapts and expands Hood's interpretation of Douglas's grid/group cultural theory model. Here it is expanded into a three‐dimensional model to reflect on local managers attitude to regulation; strength of allegiance to different stakeholder groups; and to the level of monitoring and accountability. This expanded model can be used in management evaluation by categorising attitudes in high‐order hierarchist, entrepreneurialist, covert fatalist or pseudo‐egalitarianist management trends. A manager drawn from a profession who identifies with the core professional ethos resents increased measures of monitoring and accountability retreating to the regulatory frameworks, pointing to inconsistencies between those of the organisation and the profession. Other profession based managers less inclined to worry about regulatory frameworks were more prepared to monitor staff often presenting a pseudo‐egalitarian environment where talk of “empowering” left staff feeling less empowered.

Citation

Blakeman, P.D. (2003), "Management styles and professional identities among UK podiatrists", International Journal of Public Sector Management, Vol. 16 No. 2, pp. 131-140. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513550310467984