Co-Opting Regulation: Professional Control Through Discretionary Mobilization of Legal Prescriptions and Expert Knowledge

The governance of front-line professionals is a persistent organizational problem. Regulations designed to make professional work more legible and responsive to both organizational and public expectations depend on these professionals’ willing implementation. This paper examines the important question of how professional control shapes regulatory compliance. Drawing on a seventeen-month ethnographic study of a bioscience laboratory, we show how professionals deploy their discretionary judgment to assemble environmental, health, and safety regulations with their own expert practices, explaining frequently observed differential rates of regulatory compliance. We find that professional scientists selectively implement and blend formal regulations with expert practice to respond to risks the law acknowledges (to workers’ bodies and the environment) and to risks the law does not acknowledge but professionals recognize as critical (to work tasks and collegiality). Some regulations are followed absolutely, others are adapted on a case-by-case basis; in other instances, new practices are produced to control threats not addressed by regulations. Such selective compliance, adaptation and invention enact professional expertise: interpretations of hazard and risk. The discretionary enactment of regulations, at a distance from formal agents, becomes part of the technical, practical, and tacit assemblage of situated practices. Thus, paradoxically, professional expert control is maintained and sometimes enhanced as professionals blend externally imposed regulations with expert practices. In essence, regulation is co-opted in the service of professional control. This research contributes to studies of professional expertise, the legal governance of professionals in organizations, regulatory compliance, and safety cultures.

Economic Design of Hybrid Pico-Hydraulic/Photovoltaic Generation System: A Case Study in Egypt

Clean and renewable energy sources are the preferable power system generations for the overall world. This research aims to present a very highly integrated, economic, professional, and simple construction, clean and natural resources usage of the renewable hybrid generation system. This research performs analysis, systematic representation, evaluation, and design of the hybrid proposed system—pico-hydraulic from home usage water and photovoltaic (PV)—to generate an optimal renewable generation system using a new professional control system. Applying this proposed technique in Egypt shows that the hybrid system successfully overcame Egypt’s energy crisis. Renewable energy will rise to 8.782% by increasing 7.323% (14,408.83 GWh/Y). Besides, this system increases the power supply reliability; it gives an additional emergency supply and reduces the exhausts from other generation stations (e.g., CO2). The saving from this hybrid system is very effective for; the residential sector (subscribes), which will be ranged from 9599.298 million E£/10Ys up to 86,393.68 million E£/10Ys that equals 5399.6 million $, government to use this extra generation energy to reduce the maximum loads from various stations. A practical model has been presented with results to verify the high efficiency of the proposed system that illustrates the effective performance of the used hybrid system.

To Co-Opt or To Be Co-Opted? The Role of Professional Elites in Strengthening Professional Control Vis-à-Vis Clients

This article studies how professional elites, as exemplified by first teachers (FTs)—a new prominent position for teachers in Sweden—respond to clashes between market and professional logics, and how this affects professional control vis-à-vis clients. Based on a collaborative ethnography, findings suggest that the professional elites use different responses to the clashes between the logics. Professional control can be strengthened by FTs co-opting the market logic strategically in the interest of the profession. However, FTs sometimes also succumb to cliental influence, becoming co-opted themselves by the market logic, which weakens professional control. Tentatively, context needs to be highlighted in order to understand why different responses are used, and in this identity work and relationships to managers seem essential to create a foundation for FTs to respond in ways that increase professional control vis-à-vis clients.

Development of the Magistrate’s Intime Conviction in the Context of Non-Verbal Communication

The author of this paper tackles the concept of intimate conviction of the magistrate (judge, prosecutor) and relevant aspects of the etiology and practical importance of its content, as a subjective basis for establishing judicial questioning tactics that help the magistrate in his/her decision-making. By approaching the process of intimate conviction development as part of an interpersonal communication system, the author analyses the contribution of interpreting nonverbal, extra-semantic clues given by the person being questioned and by all participants in courtroom debates, to the detection of feigned behaviors and the subsequent adjustment of questioning, paving the way for the development of an intimate conviction. Consequently, improving hearing and questioning practices for the accused, the investigated, and witnesses involves professional control and self-control in terms of eye contact, facial expression, gestures, stance, paralanguage, touching, proximity, and dress, in order to masterfully achieve specific goals in delivering justice.

Living a Meaningful Life While Struggling with Mental Health: Challenging Aspects Regarding Personal Recovery Encountered in the Mental Health System

Based upon academic and clinical experience from Denmark, this article aims to highlight international research-based knowledge concerning challenging aspects about the understanding and implementation of recovery-oriented practice. Three key points are located: (a) An integrative biopsychosocial approach considering both the clinical and personal recovery perspectives is relevant for research and practice. (b) Barriers in implementing a recovery-oriented approach include both individual and systemic challenges. This is well documented in the research-based literature, highlighting the need for changes. (c) A shift from professional control to a service-user orientation is seen as crucial. Examples of a positive shift are seen, helping the health professionals in their development and practicing of skills and competences through education and personal formation. Within these perspectives, a paradigm shift from a one-dimensional biomedical approach to a biopsychosocial approach is suggested. Instead of focusing on rapid stabilisation and symptom relief as a clinical outcome, a humanistic approach building on social- and person-oriented values is fundamental for social and personal recovery leading to a meaningful life.

TESTING IN MENTAL HEALTH RESEARCH: PROFESSIONAL HARDINESS QUESTIONNAIRE (ENGLISH-LANGUAGE VERSION)

The aim: To develop and validate the English-language version of the Professional Hardiness Questionnaire (PHQ). Materials and methods: A total of 425 skilled English-speaking respondents (188 men, 237 women; aged 19–75 years, M = 34.12 ± 13.18 years) from different countries of various professions participated in a remote online survey. The results were used to validate the English-language version of the PHQ. English-language versions of six other measures were also used to check the PHQ’s competitive validity. Results: The 24-item PHQ determines eight indicators of professional hardiness: general level of professional hardiness; professional commitment; professional control; professional challenge; and the emotional, motivational, social and namely professional aspects of professional hardiness. We calculated means and standard deviations for each indicator and determined normative data (in points) for general level of professional hardiness, sorted into five levels: low, below average, average, higher than average and high. The PHQ had sufficiently high internal consistency (α = 0.76–0.90) and competitive validity. General level of professional hardiness was significantly correlated (r = 0.17–0.45; р < 0.001) with the scales of all of the additional six measures used. Conclusions: The professional hardiness of specialists in different professions should be examined, both to strengthen specialists’ hardiness and to prevent negative consequences of occupational stress on their mental health. It is also necessary to test the PHQ in various professional fields to clarify the quantitative indicators of professional hardiness for skilled people in various professions.

”Konstnären”, ”fostraren”, ”tjänstemannen” och ”rebellen”: Musiklärares dramaturgiska framträdanden kring musikundervisning, social rättvisa och demokrati

This article intends to explore how some Swedish music teachers present their teaching in relation to democracy and social justice. Present-day social issues such as socio-economic vulnerability and ever more segregated schools have accentuated the need for critical reflection on social and democratic aspects in all teaching. This also has consequences for music educational practices. During two focus group interviews with Swedish music teachers from both the community school of music and arts and elementary school, the organisation of the teaching practice, as well as the teachers’ respective opportunities and challenges in relation to their specific contextual social and democratic issues are discussed. With the aid of dramaturgical theory and interview analysis it is shown how the teachers’ joint discussions make space for four social roles in relation to those themes: the artist, the fosterer, the civil servant and the rebel. In spite of some similarities in the staging opportunities of the two different music educational contexts, some differences appear in terms of the dramaturgical significance of the respective roles, as well as the force of the connections between them. In both contexts, still a common ambivalence is displayed in the perception of democracy and social justice in relation to the very practical task of teaching music. Following the article’s results in relation to social justice, the music teachers’ opportunities for internal professional control and joint negotiation of their teaching task are discussed. The article thus advocates further reflection on the institutional structures and basic philosophical assumptions that appear to govern perceptions of music teaching, democracy and social justice in music educational practices at large.

Financial Incentives and Professionals’ Work Tasks: The Moderating Effects of Jurisdictional Dominance and Prominence

This research addresses the important question of how organizations can use financial incentives to influence the work tasks of their professional workforce—a constituency that is notoriously difficult to manage because of their specialized knowledge, considerable autonomy, strong socialization, and powerful professional norms. In particular, I explore how a baseline incentive effect is moderated by two features of professionals’ tasks and jurisdictions: jurisdictional dominance (i.e., how much the profession controls the provision of the task relative to other professions) and jurisdictional prominence (i.e., how commonly provided the task is within a profession relative to other tasks). Using data on thousands of physician tasks from Ontario, Canada, and a difference-in-differences empirical design, I find that professionals’ incentive responses are smaller when a profession has higher jurisdictional dominance over a task, but are larger when the task has higher jurisdictional prominence within the profession. This research contributes to the literature on professions and professionals in multiple ways. First, I introduce the concepts of jurisdictional dominance and jurisdictional prominence, distinguishing them from each other and from existing conceptions of professional control. Second, this study shows that financial incentives can be an effective tool for influencing professionals, but highlights that their efficacy is shaped by a task’s jurisdictional dominance and jurisdictional prominence. Finally, I show that these new conceptions of jurisdictional control influence professionals’ behaviors in meaningful ways and should therefore be considered in future studies of professions.

OP0256-PARE A PAW? YES, THANK YOU AN ANIMAL ASSISTED INTERVENTION (AAI) PILOT PROJECT FOR CHILDREN WITH JUVENILE IDIOPATHIC ARTHRITIS (JIA)

Background:Animal-Assisted Interventions (AAI) is the new way to indicate what was previously known as “Pet Therapy”, as activities can be done either with the conventional “pets” (dogs, cats and rabbits) or with horses and donkeys.Children with JIA have several problems in terms of adherence both due to the atavistic fear of the needle and due to nausea and vomiting - the most important side effects of Methotrexate – often since the 2-3 days before the assumption to immediately after it.Sure that animals can help children to forget this fear and to avoid the psycological conditions which enhance nausea, for the first time in Italy (and probably in Europe) it was designed a specific AAI program for these children.Objectives:To promote a general state of psycho-physical well-being in children and families about:manage of therapy; reduce discomfort and anxiety caused by entering hospital; improve self-esteem and the response to the stress generated by the execution of therapy and disease management; strengthen communication and socialization; stimulate the affective area through the activities of animal care.Methods:Dogs and cats are part of the recreational activities once a week in an equipped area in the OIRM Hospital (no alternative gateway was needed).Paediatric Rheumatologists selected two different groups of children: the first one (5 children in the pilot study) every 15 days; the second one (5 children) every month; the selection was made looking at the therapeutic scheme.Every session, one hour, has 3 clearly distinct stages:Welcome and organization: children say hello to dogs and cats, open the toolkits specifically designed for the intervention, express their state of mind and are encouraged to tell their own stories.Therapy:parents prepare and inject the drug to their children under medical or Health Professional control without discontinuation of the activities with animals.Play and socializing:children are involved in petting and other activities with animals; they are also involved in manipulative activities (design, puppets shows, modelling clay, animal care, ball retriving, etc). This step has the aim to relieve stress and discomfort due to medical procedures.Visual Analogic Scales (VAS) were part of the toolkit, to let the researchers evaluate the effects of the activity directly from the children experience.For the first time, we will control also the animal health status and wellness condition monitoring behavioural parameters and salivary cortisol level during each session.Results:The pilot project started in October 2019 and nowaday we closed 12 meetings, 4 on October, 4 on November, 3 on December and 2 on January, with the participation of 2 dogs (Golden and Labrador Retriever) and 1 cat (Devon Rex) in each one.All children love to play with animals, seek their closeness at the time of therapy and enjoy playing all together with the dogs; no one cry or refuse therapy and, since the third session, no one has nausea before, during or after the injection. Parents have reached a certain level of confidence: they stay quietly in the waiting room or go away to have a drink or to run an errand (it becomes a moment of relaxing for them too).Animals remain in healthy and wellness conditions during the activity.Conclusion:These preliminary data seem that AAI to be useful in helping patients in JIA to overcome some problems related to their pathology.Disclosure of Interests:UGO VIORA: None declared, Patrizia Ponzio: None declared, Maria Teresa Mascarino: None declared, Barbara Picco: None declared, Paolo Guiso: None declared, Eleonora Battista: None declared, Silvana Martino: None declared, Davide Montin Speakers bureau: Not relevant for the topic, Marta Dellepiane: None declared, Germana Rosso: None declared