RATIONALIZING KNOWLEDGE - IT SYSTEMS, PROFESSIONAL IDENTITIES AND POWER

This paper explores the impact of a new IT system on the knowledge cla ims and occupational boundaries made by professional groups within a h ospital laboratory setting. Within organizational settings professiona l groups enjoy considerable power and status through the specialised k nowledge claims they make, deploying a variety of material and discurs ive resources to secure these. However, when organizations introduce n ew technologies to manage information needs, professional boundaries a nd claims to expertise may be threatened. This paper examines the stra tegies deployed by two key professional groups - Medical Laboratory Sc ientific Officers and medics - to secure their knowledge claims and st atuses within the new organizational context shaped in part by an IT s ystem. Though medics were more successful here, they had to accommodat e to new demands within the organization. The professional identity an d organizational space of the MLSOs were also redefined but, in contra st, by being narrowed. The different experiences and strategies of the two groups reflect their unequal holding of cultural capital and thei r differential capacity to define their status relative to the organiz ation itself.