Orientation of professionals in family-owned/managed organizations: the case of engineers

Abstract

The industrial revolution has led to emergence of the new occupational class which in popular business literature as well as research journals, has been referred to as professionals. Engineers and accountants are typical examples. Early studies focused on traditional professionals like doctors, lawyers and priests. Unlike earlier professionals, the new professionals are part of formal work organizations. Researchers on the professionals in organizational settings have focused on their orientation to work and conflicts that result due the interaction between the professionals, experienced employees and organizational tasks. Most of these studies have been reported from developed countries. However, Studies in India about professionals have not addressed issues that typically arise due to socio-cultural and occupational context of developing countries. This is an exploratory study which focuses on the behavior of engineers as professionals. Family owned and managed organizations were chosen as a context for the study because (i) they are expected to display high centralization and therefore, are perceived to be dichotomous to the presence of professionals; and (ii) no studies of professionals have been reported in such context. Research questions are as follows: 1. What is the nature of orientation of engineers at work in family owned and managed organizations? How does this orientation compare with orientation of the professional as set forth by the definition of the ideal type? 2. How does the organizational context of engineer's work affect the orientation of engineers at work in family owned and managed organizations? Due to unexplored nature of the subject, a pilot study was taken up in one family owned and managed, manufacturing organization consisting of in-depth interviews, field observations and documented data. It was felt necessary to administer an instrument to find convergence with the data collected from interviews, documents and observations. Subsequently, three more medium sized, manufacturing organizations were selected and data was collected through interviews conducted with the top and senior level of management as well as the administration of the instrument. The instrument used was developed earlier in lndia (Parikh, 1979) to measure the orientation of the individual at work in a matrix form with 5x4 variables.lt measures the orientation for five acts i.e. decision making exercise of authority, communication, evaluation, and reward and punishment; and for each act with respect to responsibility, authority, equality (peer orientation) and identity. Data analysis showed that: 1. Family owned and managed organizations inducted engineers when they entered into manufacturing or diversified into unrelated areas, involving new and complex technology. Engineers‘work, the knowledge and skills required their work varied widely across functions, levels and organizations. 2. Their orientation with respect to professional characteristics showed variance with respect to a variety of components of their work. They accepted the centralization decision-making with respect to their responsibility in the family owned and managed organizations. Their authority orientation with respect to exercise of authority, failed to show significant work orientation, a characteristic expected from the professionals. Similarly, peer orientation varied across different aspects of actions required at work. Professional orientation was observed for decision making with peers. , however, social orientation was observed for evaluation, another characteristic of professionals. The identification with fellow professionals was influenced by their social identity. 3. Orientation of engineers was influenced by the standardization and routinization of organizational task. It was also seen to be influenced by nature of the task environment, autonomy and relational dynamics of the top management, and socio-cultural background of the engineers.

Propositions linking organizational variables with the orientation at work are developed. Implication for practicing managers and issues for further research are identified.