Ganancia calculada a partir de valores VAN y TIR

The second key theme to emerge from the professional context in narrating experiences of change related to professional identity. This is evidenced within Zara’s story and most recent secondment. This position demonstrates an initial (albeit currently temporary) move away from her core professional field, from a clinical to corporate function. Consequently, at the time of interview, Zara was experiencing personal conflict in terms of her professional identity as a nurse and future careering. Her recent change had raised her awareness of the personal significance of this identity and how this could be further impacted through future change. Zara conveyed this through the following example;

“I’ve always found my career important, and it is that kudos thing as well, and that’s how I’ve lost my identity. You know I went to an appointment and they were oh what do you do for a living, and I found that I couldn’t say that I was a nurse, I was thinking oh god. I did because I am, but you know I was thinking well my title doesn’t say that anymore” (Zara).

A similar commitment towards maintaining a specific professional identity was also conveyed by Karen, a manager within Baycastle Trust; "I’m very proud of being a

nurse…. that’s what I put down on my passport and that’s, I am a nurse, yes I am a nurse" (Karen).

The significance of maintaining a specific professional identity encouraged continuity within work experiences, and therefore influenced responses to the frequency and impact of organisational change. Consequently, despite disillusionment at certain periods with an organisation, the ability to maintain a certain professional identity within this context was a key contributory factor in mediating any decision to seek change in their employing organisation, particularly if opportunities to pursue their professional work elsewhere were limited. A key component of professional identity which emerged within the stories was the association between professional role and clients or patients and this was particularly significant in considering a change between client facing and strategic opportunities. Different perspectives upon such a change and its potential implications upon individual careering and associated meaning were presented by interviewees. Lee’s story in the opening to Chapter Six highlights his desire to maintain regular contact with employees within his HR role. This underpins both his current dissatisfaction and forthcoming change to a new organisation. In addition, this determines the progression opportunities he will apply for as he does not wish to work within a strategic role. A similar outlook is exhibited by Paul who also wants to maintain regular client interaction and recognises that further hierarchical progression requires a move to strategic aspects of HR work. Alternatively, Paul narrates his satisfaction in supporting applicants through a recruitment process, within a range of organisations, including the Royal Air Force and the NHS;

“people are different, 99% of the people they just come in, it’s a standard formula that they follow, they have an interview, they’re successful, we do the background checks, they get the job and it’s done. But you have particularly challenged people, people who have issues and so on that they’ve overcome, and they get the job and just the sense that they have of achieving something.

And you know I haven’t really done anything other than steer them through the process but it’s me that they know that’s supported them doing it, and you see that, and you see them doing well, and you see them starting off as a healthcare but then going for nurse training and things like that. And you think good, I’m glad that we picked that person, I’m glad that I was part of that journey, it’s nice to do that” (Paul).

Conversely, others felt that they were able to make a greater contribution within a managerial or strategic role and therefore actively pursued such a change in their careering in order to achieve this.

Implicit within the above discussion is a suggestion that interviewees were able to exercise clear choice and control over changes in professional roles and identity. However, some interviewees described how a move away from direct client or patient contact was a progressive outcome of new roles and/or secondment opportunities, or as a consequence of organisational change and restructuring and therefore did not represent personal choice. In some instances, interviewees were able to initially retain a certain degree of patient contact, either through managing more complex cases or remaining in clinical practice for a certain number of days per week as a split role, described by Joan, an AHP, as having provided an ‘umbilical cord’ over a five-year period, before fully committing to non-clinical work.

Not all of the interviewees within the sample belonged to a particular professional group but were still located within a particular occupational group which was frequently aligned with certain professional roles within the organisational context. Particularly within the Baycastle Healthcare Trust such interviewees supported particular professional functions whether that be in a clinical or corporate capacity, and whilst some held aspirations to develop their future careering within the field, for others the organisational context remained the primary work context to their careering.

The research findings outlined above have demonstrated the significance of the professional context in influencing both change and continuity within individual experiences of careering, whilst also highlighting this as being closely interwoven with the organisational context. Significant reforms to professional qualifications and entry structures are evidenced to indirectly influence the careering of those already within the profession in interesting and insightful ways, predominantly in initiating a proactive

approach to careering, in response to the agency of others in relation to such changes. Furthermore, the maintenance of a professional identity is a key consideration in pursuing different opportunities and the contribution interviewees intend to offer through their professional role and demonstrates a diversity of perspectives.