Understanding Professional Culture in Organizational Context

TLDR

The study begins by examining how individual sense‑making, group beliefs, and culture interact to shape professional culture. The authors propose a new conceptual framework for understanding professional culture within organizational contexts. The framework describes the process of professionalization, the influence of professional belief systems, and the inter‑relationship among four types of professional subculture and organizational culture, illustrated through a case study of an Australian home‑care service. The study finds that an organization’s operating‑environment stability both facilitates and constrains the transformation of professional subcultures, and concludes that professional subculture is a key determinant of the organization’s cultural system.

Abstract

This paper formulates a new conceptual framework for understanding profes sional culture in organizational context. Our analysis begins with an attempt to identify the complex interplay between individual sense-making, group beliefs and culture. The process of professionalization and the development of profes sional cultures is described and the influence of professional belief systems on organizational culture is examined. The inter-relationship between four different types of professional subculture and organizational culture is illustrated in a case- study analysis of an Australian home-care service. The stability of an organiza tion's operating environment is identified as a major factor which facilitates and constrains the propensity for professional subcultures to radically transform or incrementally refine dominant organizational cultures. The paper concludes with a critical reappraisal of the significance of professional subculture as a determin ant of an organization's cultural system.