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This article engages with a critique of dominant conceptualizations of competence in the studies of work and organization, in particular, the common belief that competence is a stable category, reflecting a specific content. The article puts forward a conception of competence, envisaged as a mutable and fragmented construct, evolving in response to shifts in the regulatory structures and market conditions within a particular domain of the professional service firms, involved in consultancy and assurance work. Drawing on Jacques Lacan's theory of discourse, the article attends to some of the micro-processes associated with competence construction and maintenance in the realms of material practice. Empirical insights illustrate the possible ways in which employees attempt to script competence in the context of the socialized frames they are situated in and conforming to the regulatory standards, supporting the sense of their working life through effective performance. The possible rotations around the discourses, as conceptualized by Lacan, represent movements in the position of the subjects with respect to their own ways of experiencing lack through which ethically-driven responses can be taken up, subsequently leading to reproduction.

Drawing on the work of Ricoeur, this paper contributes to theorisation of the organisational field in understanding of how structural power operates through professional langue in shaping a construction of individual judgement in professional service firms. As Ricoeur argued that judicial sense may be envisaged as one of the best examples of hermeneutic application (1991: 493), I explore practitioners' sense making and their interaction with the surrounding structures and its discourse, learned and assimilated during the formative years in the context of audit practice. The interviews-based story provides an illustration of (1) the processes of socialisation that are geared towards conceptions of what constitutes professional best practice, where the professional learns to use judgement and follow structure in particular ways (a perpetuated myth of best practice), and (2) the effects of such formation on the working process. The paper contributes insights into organisational theory in areas of negotiating a balance between institutional requirements (structural conditioning of professional epistemology) and technical demands of hermeneutic function (purposive expert activities) in decision making process. The paper concludes that practitioners assume the appearance of professionalism by adopting a particular professional langue where judgement becomes normative in its own terms. These re-production processes in accordance with organisational frames of references for action may be in opposition to the decisional autonomy, where there may be a space for simultaneously creating (agency) and sharing (structure) on the job. The study reveals that professional langue itself is a place of prejudice and bias on the job.

This article explores how identity is self-managed in professional services firms, illustrated by the Big Four audit firms. We examine both identification and distancing processes with several identity attributes of professionalism, viewed here as outcomes of technologies of the self. We argue that the ambivalence inherent in these attributes enables auditors to more or less cynically distance themselves from the regulatory structures of their environment, forming jouissance with rules and regulation. The study, empirical in nature, contributes to an understanding of the mutual constitution of power and identity in the area of employee resistance to organizational control. As distancing from the organizational culture and the professional ideology appears to be more symbolic of individual agency than truly harmful, we conclude that jouissance may potentially enhance the firms' performance in the short term. Yet, prolonged cynical attitudes may transform professionals into 'compliant' employees, who may not be inclined to challenge issues that can have negative consequences for the firm/profession and/or the public.

Understanding how creative interventions can help develop social connectivity and resilience for older people is vital in developing a holistic cross-sector approach towards ageing well. Academics with a wide range of expertise critically reflect on how the built environment, community living, cultural participation, lifelong learning, and artist-led interventions encourage older people to thrive and overcome both challenging life events and the everyday changes associated with ageing. The book uses a range of approaches, including participatory research methods, to bring the voices of older people themselves to the foreground. It looks at how taking part in creative interventions develops different types of social relationships and fosters resilience