The impact of non-standard working practices on the accountancy and architecture professions.

This thesis explores professional work and professional career development from the perspective of those working non-standard hours. It considers the various forms of non-standard working practices current within the professional labour market and examines how the working identities of professionals are constructed and how non-standard working practices impact on a professional's plans for their career development. Drawing on empirical research, involving questionnaire surveys of, and face to face interviews with, accountants and architects in the UK, the thesis details the strategies adopted by a growing number of professionals in order to meet their home and work commitments. The thesis offers a further consideration of theories of non-standard working within the professions, examining theories of time deviance within the professional labour market. It develops and expands existing theories of professional development by exploring the development of the professional project from within professions as well as between professional groups. The study concludes from its exploration of data about professionals at different stages of their careers, that the 'traditional' notion, that a professional career is necessarily full time, involving long hours and high workplace visibility, is changing. The thesis argues that a better understanding of professional identity needs to be developed, taking into account the multi-faceted nature of contemporary working lives. It concludes that, until within the professions, recognition is given, to changing working practices, those working non-standard hours will continue both to be undervalued and to have their professional identities challenged and undermined.