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Toward the construction of a profession’s boundaries: Creating a networking agenda

Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Hebrew University, amalyao{at}shum.cc.huji.ac.il

Kathleen Montgomery

Department of Management and Marketing in the Anderson Graduate School of Management at the University of California, Riverside, kmont{at}ucr.edu

Attention to the boundaries of an organization or profession is an essential precursor to facilitating boundary-spanning activities. We follow a four-stage process model of constructing boundaries to delimit a profession’s membership and domain prior to its recognition as an institutionalized entity. A set of networking activities forms the basis of boundary construction, yet identifying and prioritizing which activities to pursue is a challenge that can jeopardize the success of an aspiring group. We use a case study of the emerging Jewish legal profession in pre-state Israel to analyze how an agenda for creating membership and domain boundaries implicitly surfaces through interactions among members of the new group. We employ content analysis of a key meeting transcript and network analytical methods to reveal a shared cognitive map of priorities. The study adds to the literature on professional boundaries and demonstrates the utility of an innovative qualitative-quantitative research approach.

Key Words: agenda-setting • boundaries • centralities • network analysis • professions

Human Relations, Vol. 58, No. 9, 1167-1184 (2005)
DOI: 10.1177/0018726705058913


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