Trinity Business School, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland
Winner of the Benedictine University Scholar-Practitioner Collaboration Award
Over the last three decades, the traditional professional logic valuing autonomy and commitment to public good has gradually come under the pressure from the managerial logic that focuses on efficiency and profits. In response, traditional professional practice of accounting, engineering, healthcare, and law became dominated by large, knowledge-intensive organizations. These developments led to the emergence of hybrid professional roles, including audit managers, nurse managers, or clinical directors whose goal is to balance and reconcile the competing logics of professionalism and managerialism. To provide a coherent overview of the current knowledge about professional hybrids and their work, we conducted the systematic review of 61 papers published across 33 academic journals, between 1998 and 2022. Based on thematic analysis of these papers, the review identified a broad spectrum of behaviours displayed by professionals in response to the challenges of hybrid work and reasons underpinning these behaviours. The findings reveal a complex web of multiple factors impacting professional hybridization, including institutional environment, organizational structures, and individual characteristics. An agenda is also offered for the future research.
