IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v386y2025ics0277953625009694.html

Inter-identity threats and opportunities shaping professional influence for the Allied Health Profession (AHP) healthcare workforce: a study of identity paradox

Author

Listed:
  • Crozier, Sarah E
  • Atkinson, Carol
  • Bresnen, Mike
  • Goodwin, Peter

Abstract

This paper extends our understanding of complexities in professional identity within healthcare by exploring a diverse group, UK allied health professionals (AHPs) working in clinical settings in public healthcare. Through qualitative thematic enquiry, we harness identity theory to highlight the threats and opportunities facing this workforce who contend with a multiplicity of identities. AHPs face an identity paradox, insofar as they hold both singular and collective professional identities that shift and change as they interact with different identity expectations within their work environment. We explore the impact of inter-identity threats and opportunities upon AHPs' professional identity, examining their impact upon AHPs’ capacity to address and resolve ever-increasing system healthcare challenges. Our contribution presents a process-oriented model that highlights the importance of inter-identity dynamics, showing the interconnectedness of AHP identity with a range of detrimental outcomes that hinder the contribution of these professions and perpetuate existing difficulties.

Suggested Citation

  • Crozier, Sarah E & Atkinson, Carol & Bresnen, Mike & Goodwin, Peter, 2025. "Inter-identity threats and opportunities shaping professional influence for the Allied Health Profession (AHP) healthcare workforce: a study of identity paradox," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 386(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:386:y:2025:i:c:s0277953625009694
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118638
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953625009694
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118638?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cascón-Pereira, Rosalía & Chillas, Shiona & Hallier, Jerry, 2016. "Role-meanings as a critical factor in understanding doctor managers' identity work and different role identities," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 170(C), pages 18-25.
    2. Waring, Justin & Bishop, Simon & Clarke, Jenelle & Roe, Bridget, 2023. "Becoming active in the micro-politics of healthcare re-organisation: The identity work and political activation of doctors, nurses and managers," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 333(C).
    3. Bertin, Giovanni & Pantalone, Marta, 2019. "Professional identity in community care: The case of specialist physicians in outpatient services in Italy," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 226(C), pages 21-28.
    4. Mats Alvesson & Hugh Willmott, 2002. "Identity Regulation as Organizational Control: Producing the Appropriate Individual," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(5), pages 619-644, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Croft, Charlotte & Reay, Trish, 2025. "Breaching the professional social contract to drive system innovation: Nurse managers and the emergence of a new professional group," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 373(C).
    2. Eveline Bruijn & Gail Whiteman, 2010. "That Which Doesn’t Break Us: Identity Work by Local Indigenous ‘Stakeholders’," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 96(3), pages 479-495, October.
    3. Carlos Martin-Rios, 2016. "Innovative management control systems in knowledge work: a middle manager perspective," Journal of Management Control: Zeitschrift für Planung und Unternehmenssteuerung, Springer, vol. 27(2), pages 181-204, May.
    4. repec:bcp:journl:v:9:y:2025:i:10:p:4092-4109 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Minbaeva, Dana & Rabbiosi, Larissa & Stahl, Günter K., 2018. "Not walking the talk? How host country cultural orientations may buffer the damage of corporate values’ misalignment in multinational corporations," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 53(6), pages 880-895.
    6. Suzan Lewis & Deirdre Anderson & Clare Lyonette & Nicola Payne & Stephen Wood, 2017. "Public sector austerity cuts in Britain and the changing discourse of work–life balance," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 31(4), pages 586-604, August.
    7. Nathan Wilmers & Letian Zhang, 2022. "Values and Inequality: Prosocial Jobs and the College Wage Premium," American Sociological Review, , vol. 87(3), pages 415-442, June.
    8. Sharon Koppman & Elisa Mattarelli & Amar Gupta, 2016. "Third-World “Sloggers” or Elite Global Professionals? Using Organizational Toolkits to Redefine Work Identity in Information Technology Offshore Outsourcing," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 27(4), pages 825-845, August.
    9. Gill, Michael J. & Naughton, Bernard D. & Field, Megan & Shaw, Sara E., 2024. "Perceptions of impure innovation: Health professionals’ experiences and management of stigmatization when working as digital innovators," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 360(C).
    10. Paul, Michael & Hennig-Thurau, Thorsten & Groth, Markus, 2015. "Tightening or loosening the “iron cage”? The impact of formal and informal display controls on service customers," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 68(5), pages 1062-1073.
    11. Karoline Strauss & Julija N. Mell & Frederik Anseel & Annemijn Loermans & David Sluss, 2026. "Complementarity in Future Selves: How Networks of Future-Oriented Cognitive Representations Influence Individuals’ Ability to Proactively and Adaptively Manage Their Career," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 37(1), pages 90-112, January.
    12. Yves Gendron & Laura F. Spira, 2009. "What Went Wrong? The Downfall of Arthur Andersen and the Construction of Controllability Boundaries Surrounding Financial Auditing," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(4), pages 987-1027, December.
    13. repec:bcp:journl:v:6:y:2022:i:8:p:447-453 is not listed on IDEAS
    14. Danielle Treiber & Lize A. E. Booysen, 2021. "Identity (Re)Construction of Female Adolescents with Substance Use Disorders," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(13), pages 1-19, June.
    15. Dentoni, Domenico & Pascucci, Stefano & Poldner, Kim & Gartner, William B., 2018. "Learning “who we are” by doing: Processes of co-constructing prosocial identities in community-based enterprises," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 603-622.
    16. Sörgärde, Nadja, 2020. "Story-dismantling, story-meandering, and story-confirming: Organizational identity work in times of public disgrace," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 36(3).
    17. Claudia Gross, 2010. "Spiritual Cleansing: A Case Study on how Spirituality Can Be Mis/used by a Company," management revue - Socio-Economic Studies, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 21(1), pages 60-81.
    18. Goretzki, Lukas & Messner, Martin, 2019. "Backstage and frontstage interactions in management accountants' identity work," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 1-20.
    19. Julian Marx & Stefan Stieglitz & Felix Brünker & Milad Mirbabaie, 2023. "Home (Office) is where your Heart is," Business & Information Systems Engineering: The International Journal of WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK, Springer;Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI), vol. 65(3), pages 293-308, June.
    20. Florence Allard-Poesi, 2015. "Dancing in the Dark: Making Sense of Managerial Roles during Strategic Conversations," Working Papers hal-01145772, HAL.
    21. Jeffrey S. Bednar & Benjamin M. Galvin & Blake E. Ashforth & Ella Hafermalz, 2020. "Putting Identification in Motion: A Dynamic View of Organizational Identification," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 31(1), pages 200-222, January.
    22. Shaheer, Noman & Chen, Yu & Kim, Hoik & Li, Sali, 2024. "Disguise or disclose? How identities of individual entrepreneurs on digital platforms influence their international success," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 30(2).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:386:y:2025:i:c:s0277953625009694. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.