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The construction of career aspirations amongst healthcare support workers: beyond the rational and the mundane?

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  • Ian Kessler
  • Stephen Bach
  • Vandana Nath

Abstract

This article engages with a literature that views the limited career aspirations of low‐paid, low‐status workers as a reasonable response to material and structural constraints. Based on four hospital trust cases studies, the article contests this view, revealing how healthcare support workers in NHS England have retained the cognitive capacity to override such constraints to develop a strong and authentic career goal to become a nurse. This goal is acknowledged by the healthcare support workers themselves as unlikely to be achieved and is therefore presented as a flight from rationality. Its emergence is explained by workplace interactions that allow such an ambition to become taken‐for‐granted. The article deepens understanding of career ambitions amongst low‐paid, low‐status workers, while adding weight to a literature suggesting that career aspirations can be driven by values and norms, not only by a means‐end rationality.

Suggested Citation

  • Ian Kessler & Stephen Bach & Vandana Nath, 2019. "The construction of career aspirations amongst healthcare support workers: beyond the rational and the mundane?," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(2), pages 150-167, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:indrel:v:50:y:2019:i:2:p:150-167
    DOI: 10.1111/irj.12245
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Jérôme Gautié & Schmitt John, 2010. "Low-Wage Work in the Wealthy World," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-00464352, HAL.
    2. Ian Clark, 2014. "Health-care assistants, aspiration, frustration and job satisfaction in the workplace," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(4), pages 300-312, July.
    3. Gail Hebson & Jill Rubery & Damian Grimshaw, 2015. "Rethinking job satisfaction in care work: looking beyond the care debates," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 29(2), pages 314-330, April.
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    Cited by:

    1. Xy Za Marie De Gulan & Hector Aguiling, 2021. "Career adaptability and career intention on government employees’ years of service and job level," International Journal of Research in Business and Social Science (2147-4478), Center for the Strategic Studies in Business and Finance, vol. 10(7), pages 170-174, October.

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