Balancing Professional Autonomy and Managerial Goals amid Broad Technology Adoption Pressures: Intraprofessional Segmentation at a Finnish School

Abstract

Managers often desire to see their organization adopt new technologies but depend on autonomous professionals to use such technologies in practice. In seeking technology adoption, organizations thus must find a middle ground between professional autonomy and managerial goals. Extant scholarship has examined such middle grounds but has focused on adoptions of specific technologies. However, amid broad technology adoption pressures—expectations on organizations lacking precise prescriptions, success criteria, and sanctions—novel middle-ground approaches might emerge. Our 16-month ethnography of a Finnish school indicates that intraprofessional segmentation—specialization of work tasks within a professional community—can allow organizations to navigate technology adoption while balancing professional autonomy and managerial goals. This segmentation supported managers’ and certain teachers’ enthusiasm about new technologies at work, without undermining other teachers’ autonomy. This segmentation emerged, persisted, and intensified through two processes. First, it emerged through differentiating practices, which allowed a divergence of what teachers said and did regarding technology. Second, this segmentation persisted and intensified through reinforcing practices, which furthered differentiation by formalizing, reorganizing, and strengthening it. Our study contributes to scholarship on occupations and technology by showing how intraprofessional segmentation can help organizations align technology with professional work amid broad technology adoption pressures.