IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/scaman/v32y2016i1p10-19.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The arena of the professional body: Sport, autonomy and ambition in professional service firms

Author

Listed:
  • Costas, Jana
  • Blagoev, Blagoy
  • Kärreman, Dan

Abstract

This paper explores the interplay of sport, the professional body and the self in professional service firms. We draw on qualitative data collected at two large international management consulting firms to show how individuals use sport to construct and enact themselves as autonomous and ambitious professionals, as well as to escape from frustrations arising in their everyday work life. We develop how this turn to sport can be viewed as an attempt to deal with the conflicting discourses of autonomy and ambition prevalent in professional service firms. In so doing, the paper seeks to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the significance of the professional body for understanding the management and control regimes of professional service firms.

Suggested Citation

  • Costas, Jana & Blagoev, Blagoy & Kärreman, Dan, 2016. "The arena of the professional body: Sport, autonomy and ambition in professional service firms," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 10-19.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:scaman:v:32:y:2016:i:1:p:10-19
    DOI: 10.1016/j.scaman.2015.10.003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0956522115000688
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.scaman.2015.10.003?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anderson-Gough, Fiona & Grey, Christopher & Robson, Keith, 2005. ""Helping them to forget..": the organizational embedding of gender relations in public audit firms," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 469-490, July.
    2. Jörgen Sandberg & Ashly H. Pinnington, 2009. "Professional Competence as Ways of Being: An Existential Ontological Perspective," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(7), pages 1138-1170, November.
    3. Carol Wolkowitz, 2002. "The Social Relations of body Work," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 16(3), pages 497-510, September.
    4. Mats Alvesson & Dan Kärreman, 2007. "Unraveling HRM: Identity, Ceremony, and Control in a Management Consulting Firm," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 18(4), pages 711-723, August.
    5. Anderson-Gough, Fiona & Grey, Christopher & Robson, Keith, 2001. "Tests of time: organizational time-reckoning and the making of accountants in two multi-national accounting firms," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 26(2), pages 99-122, March.
    6. Karen Locke & Karen Golden-Biddle & Martha S. Feldman, 2008. "Perspective---Making Doubt Generative: Rethinking the Role of Doubt in the Research Process," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 19(6), pages 907-918, December.
    7. Bergström, Ola & Hasselbladh, Hans & Kärreman, Dan, 2009. "Organizing disciplinary power in a knowledge organization," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 25(2), pages 178-190, June.
    8. Mats Alvesson & Hugh Willmott, 2002. "Identity Regulation as Organizational Control: Producing the Appropriate Individual," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(5), pages 619-644, July.
    9. Susanne Ekman, 2012. "Authority and Autonomy," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-137-27288-1, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rebecca Scott & Julien Cayla & Bernard Cova, 2017. "Selling Pain to the Saturated Self," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 44(1), pages 22-43.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hamilton, Susan E., 2013. "Exploring professional identity: The perceptions of chartered accountant students," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 37-49.
    2. Lambert Jerman & Alaric Bourgoin, 2016. "L'identité négative de l'auditeur," Post-Print hal-01902594, HAL.
    3. Ioana Lupu & Joonas Rokka, 2022. "'Feeling in Control' : Optimal Busyness and the Temporality of Organizational Controls," Post-Print hal-04325533, HAL.
    4. Gendron, Yves & Spira, Laura F., 2010. "Identity narratives under threat: A study of former members of Arthur Andersen," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 275-300, April.
    5. Guénin-Paracini, Henri & Malsch, Bertrand & Paillé, Anne Marché, 2014. "Fear and risk in the audit process," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 264-288.
    6. Bitbol-Saba, Nathalie & Dambrin, Claire, 2019. "“It’s not often we get a visit from a beautiful woman!” The body in client-auditor interactions and the masculinity of accountancy," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    7. Ioana Lupu & Marie-Astrid Le Theule, 2012. "Les nouvelles frontières entre vie professionnelle et vie privée chez les femmes comptables professionnelles," Post-Print hal-00691104, HAL.
    8. Yves Gendron & Laura F. Spira, 2009. "What Went Wrong? The Downfall of Arthur Andersen and the Construction of Controllability Boundaries Surrounding Financial Auditing," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(4), pages 987-1027, December.
    9. Claire Garnier, 2017. "Comment devient-on associé d'audit ? Le fonctionnement des réseaux informels de promotion dans les cabinets Big 4 en France," Post-Print hal-01907518, HAL.
    10. Lambert Jerman & Julien Raone, 2014. "Dompter La Verite Dans L'Organisation : La Subjectivation Comme Production De L'Animal Confessant," Post-Print hal-01899765, HAL.
    11. Beau, Pauline & Jerman, Lambert, 2022. "Bonding forged in “auditing hell”: The emotional qualities of Big Four auditors," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    12. Marita Susanna Svane & Sanne Frandsen, 2024. "Formal Ethics, Content Ethics and Relational Ethics: Three Approaches to Constructing Ethical Sales Cultures and Identities in Retail Banking," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 189(2), pages 269-286, January.
    13. Claire Garnier, 2018. "L'associé est-il un auditeur comme les autres ? La construction de l'identité de l'associé dans les cabinets Big 4 en France," Post-Print hal-01907933, HAL.
    14. Guo, Ken H., 2018. "The odyssey of becoming: Professional identity and insecurity in the Canadian accounting field," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 20-45.
    15. Anderson-Gough, Fiona & Edgley, Carla & Robson, Keith & Sharma, Nina, 2022. "Organizational responses to multiple logics: Diversity, identity and the professional service firm," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    16. Martin Kornberger & Lise Justesen & Jan Mouritsen, 2011. "“When you make manager, we put a big mountain in front of you” : An ethnography of managers in a Big 4 Accounting Firm," Post-Print hal-02276736, HAL.
    17. Gammie, Elizabeth & Whiting, Rosalind, 2013. "Women accountants: Is the grass greener outside the profession?," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 45(2), pages 83-98.
    18. repec:dau:papers:123456789/13554 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Bagley, Penelope L. & Dalton, Derek W. & Eller, C.Kevin & Harp, Nancy L., 2021. "Preparing students for the future of work: Lessons learned from telecommuting in public accounting," Journal of Accounting Education, Elsevier, vol. 56(C).
    20. Kornberger, Martin & Justesen, Lise & Mouritsen, Jan, 2011. "“When you make manager, we put a big mountain in front of you”: An ethnography of managers in a Big 4 Accounting Firm," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 36(8), pages 514-533.
    21. Kornberger, Martin & Carter, Chris & Ross-Smith, Anne, 2010. "Changing gender domination in a Big Four accounting firm: Flexibility, performance and client service in practice," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 35(8), pages 775-791, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:scaman:v:32:y:2016:i:1:p:10-19. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/872/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.