Organizational contexts of professional work in the third sector

Abstract

Recent developments in professional practice in organizations of the Third Sector in Portugal show a significant pressure regarding the adoption of management models which are close to the logic of the New Public Management (NPM). Our basic hypothesis will consider to what extent these trends of transformation in the governance models, based on increased flexibility of working relationships, fostering both professional instability and control, are articulated with the requirements of trust, initiative and improvisation of professional practice. Based on main results gathered on ongoing project "SARTPRO-knowledge, Autonomy and Reflexivity: Professional work in the Third Sector" (PTDC/CS-SOC/098459/2008), this presentation is structured from the relevant analytical parameters in understanding the inter-professional changes and of the occupational structure and the result of the increasing heterogeneity of professional degrees in nearby areas, particularly in Social Sciences and Humanities. We will resort to structured interview data obtained of empirical work (interviews conducted to 63 professionals working in organizations of the Third Sector). Therefore, We will focus on: 1) organizational contexts of professional development (location, size, type of services, socio-demographic profile), 2) processes of domination/ rationalization in the daily professional work (increasing wage, stepping up the pace of work, variability of the organizational contexts of action, including teamwork and different composition), 3) non-linearity and homogeneity of processes of professionalization (vs. technicality. responsibility and management of teams, autonomy vs. fulfilling of goals and bureaucratic-administrative control).