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EGOS Tallinn CfP: Careers and Institutions

  • 1.  EGOS Tallinn CfP: Careers and Institutions

    Posted 12-14-2017 17:56

    ***Apologies for cross-posting***

    EGOS July 5–7, 2018 in Tallinn, Estonia

    Call for Short Papers for Subtheme

    Careers and Institutions

    Conveners: Gina Dokko (UC Davis), Candace Jones (University of Edinburgh), Amit Nigam (Cass Business School, City University of London)

     

    Careers mediate between individuals and institutions. They are central to individuals' identity and their quotidian activities. Individuals are obsessed with their careers: managing them, planning them, comparing them to others.  At the same time, careers are conditioned by and given meaning by institutions (Gunz et al. 2011). Institutions structure the career choices individuals consider or see as legitimate. Given the central position of careers in individuals' lives and in institutional arrangements, it is surprising that careers are not more central in organization studies, generally (Arthur 2008; Jones and Dunn 2007).

     

    The intersection between careers and institutions creates the potential for surprise. Institutions can push people's careers into unexpected or surprising directions. Institutional changes can surprise us by opening up new potential careers, or making what we believed to be a stable career more precarious. Peoples' unique career experiences can expose them to surprising combinations of logics or institutional arrangements allowing them to envision institutional innovation.

     

    Despite periodic observations about the value of research linking careers and institutions, work on the topic has been relatively limited (Barley 1989; Jones and Dunn 2007; Peiperl et al. 2002). Instead, the literatures on careers and on institutions have largely evolved separately, with limited cross fertilization. In this sub-theme, we seek to gather scholars working at the intersection of careers and institutions. We invite careers researchers who are using a careers perspective to explore core theoretical themes in institutional theory (e.g. institutional logics, organizational fields). In addition, we invite institutional scholars who are beginning to consider the role of careers in institutional processes.  Our expectation is that sharing diverse work focused specifically on the intersection between careers and institutions will be generative in a way that is distinct from discourse focused on either careers or on institutions. We anticipate that discussions across distinct research communities in careers and in institutional theory, will stimulate new directions for theory and research.

     

    Some possible topics for papers in the subtheme include, but are not limited to:

    n  Exploring how people's career experiences can expose them to a multiplicity of institutional logics (e.g. how people carry new logics with them when they move between countries, industries, or societal sectors), leading to surprising institutional or career outcomes.

    n  Investigating why individuals  deviate from institutionally-sanctioned career paths and progressions 

    n  Showing how individuals cope with radical or surprising institutional change that disrupts their careers

    n  Examining how people craft careers or how institutionalized career templates form in new and emerging organizational fields

    n  Theorizing the bottom up processes by which diverse people's idiosyncratic careers can create new institutional actors or new institutional logics

    n  Considering career success implications for individuals who follow non-traditional career progressions

    We welcome theoretical and empirical submissions using qualitative or quantitative research methods that address these and related topics. Please submit a short paper (3000 word limit) before January 8, 2018, referencing the guidelines and criteria for submissions at https://www.egosnet.org/2018_tallinn/sub-themes_call_for_short_papers. The submission system opens on September 15.

     

    REFERENCES:

     

    Arthur, M.B. 2008. Examining contemporary careers: A call for interdisciplinary inquiry. Human Relations 61(2) 163-186.

    Barley, S.R. 1989. Careers, identities and institutions:  The legacy of the Chicago School of Sociology. M.B. Arthur, D.T. Hall, B.S. Lawrence, eds. Handbook of career theory. Harper Collins, New York, 41-65.

    Gunz, H., W. Mayrhofer, P. Tolbert. 2011. Career as a Social and Political Phenomenon in the Globalized Economy. Organ Stud 32(12) 1613-1620.

    Jones, C., M.B. Dunn. 2007. Careers and institutions: The centrality of careers to organizational studies. H. Gunz, M. Peiperl, eds. Handbook of career studies. SAGE Publications, Thousand Oaks, CA, 437-450.

    Peiperl, M., M. Arthur, N. Anand. 2002. Career creativity : explorations in the remaking of work. Oxford University Press, Oxford ; New York, NY.



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    Gina Dokko
    UC Davis
    Davis CA
    gdokko@ucdavis.edu
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