Identity on trial : occupational misfit and responses to felt public distrust
department or school: Business, Sauder School of
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCV
creator: Alonso, Natalya Mariel
issued: 2023-01-31T08:00:00Z
issued: 2020
related degree: Doctor of Philosophy - PhD
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: Like many occupations, police officers are facing rising public distrust of their occupation, a trend that has recently significantly worsened due to allegations of misconduct and widespread protests against police practices. Past research suggests occupational members respond uniformly and defensively to these types of external threats. However, in practice, we also see examples of occupational members acknowledging the validity of public distrust and the need for change. The current research explains these divergent responses, revealing why some members are more responsive to external threats from the public. Drawing on qualitative field data including interviews, observation, and archival documents, the findings demonstrate that police officers respond differently to felt public distrust depending on the type of relational frame they apply to understand their relationship as an officer to the public: the autonomous frame or the cooperative frame. The autonomous frame was associated with the occupation’s past, while the cooperative frame represented a new way of relating to the public. Officers’ relational frames were informed by the extent to which some officers experienced “occupational misfit.” Occupational (mis)fit describes a feeling of (mis)alignment based on the felt overlap between the individual’s own social identities (e.g., male, heterosexual, white, etc.) and the social identities figuratively associated with the occupation. Officers’ relational frames in turn served as a lens guiding their cognitive, affective, and behavioral responses to rising felt public distrust with implications for the ongoing relationship between the occupation and the public. This study contributes to the literature on occupational identity, diversity, and fit.
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/76878
note: IDENTITY ON TRIAL: OCCUPATIONAL MISFIT AND RESPONSES TO FELT PUBLIC DISTRUST by Natalya Mariel Alonso A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Business Administration) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) December 2020 © Natalya Mariel Alonso, 2020 ii The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, the dissertation entitled: Identity on trial: Occupational misfit and responses to felt public distrust submitted by Natalya Mariel Alonso in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Business Administration Examining Committee: Jennifer L. Berdahl, Sociology Supervisor Sandra Robinson, Business Administration Supervisory Committee Member Lakshmi Ramarajan, Business Administration Supervisory Committee Member Toni Schmader, Psychology University Examiner Sinikka Elliott, Sociology University Examiner Tracy Dumas, Business Administration External Examiner iii Abstract Like many occupations, police officers are facing rising public distrust of their occupation, a trend that has recently significantly worsened due to allegations of misconduct and widespread protests against police practices. Past research suggests occupational members respond uniformly and defensively to these types of external threats. However, in practice, we also see examples of occupational members acknowledging the validity of public distrust and the need for change. The current research explains these divergent responses, revealing why some members are more responsive to external threats from the public. Drawing on qualitative field data including interviews, observation, and archival documents, the findings demonstrate that police officers respond differently to felt public distrust depending on the type of relational frame they apply to understand…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2021-05
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0395364
language: eng
degree discipline: Business Administration - Organizational Behavior
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/76878