WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU CAN’T

BE WHO YOU ARE: PROFESSIONAL IDENTITIES AT THE

INSTITUTIONAL PERIPHERY Prof. Jelena Zikic

School of Human Resource Management York University

September 18th 2014

9/18/2014 © Jelena Zikic 2014 1

Career Transitions & Identity

• Career Transition Barriers: Regulatory/policy issues, human/social capital barriers, discrimination, settlement issues (e.g., Zikic, Bonache, Cerdin, 2010; Fang, Zikic & Novicevic, 2009)

• Migrant Career Transition may involve coming

to terms both with what they can no longer do & with who they can no longer be. 9/18/2014 © Jelena Zikic 2014 2

When you can’t be who you are…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9r9jdKHD3vQ

9/18/2014 © Jelena Zikic 2014 3

Research Question:

• How individuals with established professional identities respond to institutional barriers to entry?

• Professional identity is the relatively stable

and enduring set of attributes, beliefs, values, motives and experiences that people use to define themselves in a professional role (Schein, 1978; Ibarra, 1999).

9/18/2014 © Jelena Zikic 2014 4

Migrant Professionals = Foreign Job Seekers

• Organizational & Institutional Outsiders

• Face structural barriers/macro forces = local rules and procedures - local institutional scripts (Barley, 1989; Gioia & Poole, 1984)

May have a significant impact on their

established professional identities. 9/18/2014 © Jelena Zikic 2014 5

Identity Threat & Identity Work

• Labour market barriers may threaten existing Professional Identities of Migrant Professionals affect the value, meaning and enactment of their professional identity (Petriglieri, 2011).

• Perception of Identity Threat will trigger Identity

Work = defending, revising and possibly even altering their identities; seeking to maintain a sense of continuity.

9/18/2014 © Jelena Zikic 2014 6

Methodology:

• Final sample: 58 in depth semi-structured interviews (32 International Medical Professionals (IMPs) & 26 International IT Professionals (IITPs))

• Comparison of extreme cases: Doctors vs. IT professionals

• Differing professional history & structural barriers • Nvivo9 to code the data thematically (King, 2004)

and with reference to the existing literature on career scripts and identity work

9/18/2014 © Jelena Zikic 2014 7

Context of IITP vs. IMP Job Search: Gatekeeper Barriers

• Power of local employers as gatekeepers for IITPs. IITPs could enter local institutions provided that they were willing to ‘downshift’ (i.e. make a downward career move).

• IMPs had to face multiple gatekeepers (e.g., local regulatory bodies, professional associations, employers) all driven by profession’s strong regulatory & institutional requirements.

9/18/2014 © Jelena Zikic 2014 8

IMP: Barriers

• I felt confident that if I passed all the exams there would be no barrier to get into residency but after coming here, yes I didn’t get the real picture, because after coming here I passed all the exams with pretty good scores. The scores are excellent but still I’m here, still I’m an International Medical Graduate and the main thing is they don’t believe us. (Robin, IMP)

9/18/2014 © Jelena Zikic 2014 9

IMP: Power of Local Gatekeepers

• The final decision is by the program directors in each university, in each setting …The program director regulates – so who regulates [the] program director? Nobody. They just keep pushing the responsibility to the other one. That’s why I’m telling you it’s a closed circle and they don’t want us to get into the circle because they want to have high demand and low supply. As long as this is the way – with high demand and low supply – they are winning. They don’t care if we lose. (Zita, IMP)

9/18/2014 © Jelena Zikic 2014 10

IITPs: Facilitators vs. Barriers

• Internalize blame for not being able to find employment, believing that they had been overly optimistic and ‘unrealistic’.

• Barriers to entering the local labour market

related to the lack of ‘soft skills’/learning about new business culture/norms or linguistic capability, rather than a lack of technical knowledge.

9/18/2014 © Jelena Zikic 2014 11

IITP: ‘Softer’ Barriers

• And the people, they ---It is only like behavioral issue. Or kind of a social---you know, understanding the company culture or the people behavior. It is more on that side than on the technology. They (employers) won’t accept you on that front. And they can’t---because they can’t visualize what kind of experience you have. They (employers) cannot see that. They cannot compare it with anything else. (Mark, IITP)

9/18/2014 © Jelena Zikic 2014 12

9/18/2014 © Jelena Zikic 2014 13

Professional identity on hold

Identity shadowing Reactive identity customisation

Identity Struggle

Professional identity on hold

Proactive identity customization

Identity enrichment

IMPs’ Identity Work

IITPs’ Identity Work

Identity Crisis

Identity Growth

Barriers to engagement with and fulfillment of local pre-entry scripts

Facilitators to engagement with and fulfillment of local pre-entry scripts

Need to maintain self/family

CONTEXT OF IMP/IITP IDENTITY THREATS

9/18/2014 © Jelena Zikic 2014 14

Identity Work Tactics Identity Customization

IITPs: Wide range of options; adapting to new roles easily (e.g., downshifting; technical vs. managerial). IMPs: Limited options; reactive & permanent change to their professional identity (e.g., becoming an ultrasound technician & renouncing to becoming doctor again)

Identity on Hold

IITPs: temporary state, survival jobs as a step on the way to entering the local IT profession. IMPs: survival jobs do not facilitate entry to the medical profession in Canada; expressed serious concerns about the need to ‘protect’ or ‘guard’ their professional identities on hold. 9/18/2014 © Jelena Zikic 2014 15

IMP: Identity Shadowing • Identity shadowing taking on lower level jobs or

volunteering positions in the medical field. Expecting that it might at least bring them ‘closer’ to the local medical profession and more in touch with who they are.

I volunteered at different clinics… I learned many things – the working area, the working techniques here. Everything was good but I can’t do anything. I know all those things, I know all the techniques. Patients are the same, but I am not allowed to [practice]. This was hurting – I can’t do anything. (Sam, IMP)

9/18/2014 © Jelena Zikic 2014 16

Identity Struggle vs. Identity Enrichment

• IMPs struggled to identify logical links between what many described as their ‘old selves’ (i.e., fully practicing doctors) and their ‘new selves’ (i.e., fully trained doctors unable to re-enter the medical profession).

• IITPs’ feeling of accomplishment and positive

reflections on what their efforts to enter the local labour market & migration experience had done for them.

9/18/2014 © Jelena Zikic 2014 17

IMP: Identity Struggle & Crisis

If I said that I am a fish out of water, so I was a physician back home. I can serve people and I can help people. Here I am nothing. Just a person who came from Bangladesh to this country. (Mirza, IMP)

9/18/2014 © Jelena Zikic 2014 18

IITP: Identity Enrichment & Growth

I don’t regret having come to Canada. And I feel that Canada has a lot to offer. It is very promising. It is a struggle, landing a job, moving up. But it is not impossible. So if you keep at it and if you have the possibility in sight, it will happen... (Adriana, IITP)

9/18/2014 © Jelena Zikic 2014 19

1st Order Themes

• Unable to satisfy local professional labour market requirements

• Mounting financial pressures & Taking survival jobs

• Perceived hopelessness of professional opportunities

• Feeling professional rejection • Strong attachment to the medical

profession

• Professional identity on hold (unwilling & complete compartmentalization)

• Identity shadowing • Reactive identity customization • Identity struggle

Identity Crisis

IMPs:

• Active engagement with local professional labour market (e.g., downshifting, survival jobs)

• Success in navigating local professional labour market requirements

• Awareness of opportunities to gain new skills and experience

• Accepting of limitations of pre-migration knowledge and experience

IITPs:

• Professional identity on hold (instrumental & temporarily)

• Proactive identity customization • Identity enrichment/expansion

Identity Growth

2nd Order Themes Aggregate Dimensions

9/18/2014 © Jelena Zikic 2014 20

Conclusions • Both IMPs’ & IITPs’ professional identities were

‘destabilised’ due so some level of Identity Threat. • IMPs – Strong links to doctor ID; highly affected by

regulation and ‘credentialism’; occupational device to sustain the current monopoly thus favouring individuals with local credentials and experience. May lead to Identity Crisis.

• IITPs – Could manage entry into local labour market;

may need to downshift but no major negative impact on Identity rather potential for Identity Growth.

9/18/2014 © Jelena Zikic 2014 21

Implications:

• Identity Threat due to structural labour market barriers may be damaging to individuals psychological & professional wellbeing and may thus affect their subsequent achievements in the local labor market.

• Policy makers to reconsider the extent of structural barriers vs. loss of human capital as well as local health care system needs (see The Big Wait)

9/18/2014 © Jelena Zikic 2014 22

Implications cont’d

• Career/Job Search Consultants/Community settlement agencies focus on:

- Canadian Business Culture/Communication - Internships for 1st Canadian experience &

relevant bridging opportunities. - Understanding their expectations and

assisting them to avoid further career downshifting.

9/18/2014 © Jelena Zikic 2014 23

THANK YOU!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tp7UERqkkNI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAAw1K3FVZw

9/18/2014 © Jelena Zikic 2014 24