Mary L. Fennell – författare

Professional Work: A Sociological Approach is an introduction examining recent trends in the world of professional work.Authors Kevin Leicht and Mary Fennell review the history and theory of managerial and professional work, and then describe specific contemporary changes in professions and work-settings. Provides overview of recent organizational changes in the workplace.Analyzes current history and theory of managerial and professional work.Includes definitions of key terms, original tables and figures.

This book has several objectives. Most basically it presents an approach to assessing interorganizational innovation diffusion. To do this we have tried to link contempo­ rary organizational theory with more person-centered diffusion theory. We have also combined contingency theory with the resource dependence perspective to explain why organizations might choose to initially consider an innovation, re­ define it to suit their particular environmental context, and then implement it. Another objective has been to examine how environmental constraints can limit the ways in which diffusion channels form, and can determine when diffusion can be truly organizational and when it will depend upon individuals. In doing so, we have tried to indicate how organizational structures emerge to manage re­ sources in ways that are consistent with those environmental constraints. We have borrowed the notion of boundary management from resource dependence, and we have used it to examine how organizations use various boundary management strategies to preserve their autonomy in exchange relationships with other organi­ zations. We have done this both at the network level and at the level of individual organizations.