Cutting dark matter: Professional practice after institutional reform

Cutting dark matter: Professional practice after institutional reform

Steenhuisen, B.M.

Technology, Policy and Management

Multi Actor Systems

2012-04-11

Purpose - We want to understand the effects of drastic institutional reform, in the realm of liberalization, on the provision of public services in rail infrastructure operations. Operational control is vital for the reliability of train services. In control rooms, controllers are trained and equipped to cope with a constant stream of real-time, discordant situations that require specialist skills, knowledge and judgment. We study this professional practice under changing conditions. Approach - In order to understand the possible impact of institutional reform – more particular the unbundling and re-bundling of control rooms – on the professional practice of controllers, we focus on what controllers actually do, how their professional practice works. Our in-depth ethnographic study of controllers results in a detailed, naturalistic account of their discretionary decision-making. Findings - We first show the difficulties in gaining a more explicit understanding of what these professionals essentially think and do. Next, we inductively conceptualize our findings. Our open-dynamic account of professional practice sharply contrasts with a private-cognitive account widespread in literature. Our account of professional practice has major implications for how susceptible it is to institutional reform and organizational change. Value - Only few studies empirically describe how professional practices, including judgment, tacit knowledge and tacit skills, work as a whole. We try to do so. This study encourages managers as well as scientists to get more sensitive to the import of professional practices in infrastructure operations, and its radical instability.

professional judgment
organizational change
focused go-alongs
infrastructure operations

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:3f7bb6b1-8bf1-49a0-bd4c-337d28615e9d

IRSPM XVI: 16th Annual Conference of the International Research Society for Public Management, Rome, Italy, 11-13 April 2012

Institutional Repository

conference paper

(c) 2012 The Author(s)