Firefighters, nurses, teachers, military service members, and doctors are often regarded as esteemed occupations within our society. These professions frequently appear on lists of the most respected jobs, and they are often the first choices children mention when asked about their future careers. They are also frequently depicted in a positive light in popular culture, featured in children’s literature, and packaged as Halloween costumes.

However, a recent study conducted by Yale University highlights a potential downside to idealizing specific professional roles, particularly when it encourages children to solidify their career aspirations at an early age. The implications of this phenomenon extend to both professionals and organizations involved.

Heroic roles

Over a two-year period, the researcher observed and interviewed nurses in two medical surgical units at a renowned American hospital. The study identified a distinction between nurses who were drawn to a romanticized version of the nursing role from childhood—a calling—and those who entered the profession through a more practical, adult-oriented decision-making process. The former group, driven by an idealized professional identity, exhibited different behaviors in their job performance compared to the latter group.

Nurses who identified with an idealized professional identity displayed signs of strongly adhering to an image of a respected maternal caregiver deeply rooted in the history and gendered associations of the nursing profession.

The researcher observed how these nurses sought to embody and protect this identity, particularly in their interactions with patients. They did so by engaging in infantilizing behavior, such as using pet names when addressing patients. Furthermore, they demonstrated a preference for patients who reinforced the maternal-caregiver dynamic, while avoiding those who resisted it.

Protecting one’s identity

While this identity-protective behavior may have served as a coping mechanism for some nurses amidst the demanding nature of their work, it also had negative repercussions for certain patients and contradicted the broader goal of the healthcare organization to enhance patient satisfaction.

The implications of these findings reach beyond the healthcare sector and are relevant to any profession where discrepancies may arise between the idealized version of the job and the realities experienced on the ground.

The existence of idealized professional identities that go unchallenged in the workplace is a growing concern, exacerbated by a decline in on-the-job socialization practices. Understanding and addressing these misalignments are crucial for fostering healthier professional environments across various fields.

“There are a lot of compounding pressures that might make it such that more people start a job based on a fantasy that they do not get sufficient time to unlearn,” the author explains. “And that could later surface in various ways.”

Coping mechanisms

The author recognizes that the nurses in her study exhibit identity-protective behavior, which can be seen as a coping mechanism in response to the challenging nature of their work. However, she raises concerns about the potential drawbacks of excessively clinging to idealized professional identities, particularly when such behavior conflicts with the broader objective of the organization to empower patients as customers.

“Is this good for patients, professionals and the organization? I would say not in this case, if the majority of patients aren’t eliciting these identity-affirming practices,” she explains.

The author underscores the importance of organizations understanding idealized professional identities and how they are sustained. This understanding serves as a crucial starting point for harnessing the potential of these strong identities, rather than working against them.

Aligning identities

For instance, the hospital examined in the study could have taken steps to align the nurses’ idealized identities with the interests of both patients and the institution. One practical approach could involve reversing one of the hospital’s “patient-empowerment” policies. Instead of mandating nurses to express gratitude to patients, the hospital could leave thank-you cards in patients’ rooms, encouraging them to express gratitude towards nurses.

This policy would tap into patients’ inherent sense of appreciation while recognizing the desire for respect and acknowledgment that lies at the core of the idealized nurse identity.

Organizations in various industries must become more astute in understanding their employees’ idealized professional identities. This may involve exerting more effort to dispel new employees’ preconceived notions about a role, potentially by providing opportunities for more realistic job previews or simply allowing room for dispelling myths. In other cases, organizations may need to find ways, big or small, to bridge the gap between a job’s reality and its idealized version.

“It’s critical for managers to understand the images and ideals that attracted new hires into a profession,” the author concludes, “and to see whether they can create work environments that can deliver on some of those expectations.”