TY - JOUR

T1 - NAVIGATING PROFESSIONAL CAREERS AND INTERNAL ACTIVISM

T2 - 85th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management - AOM 2025

AU - Hug, Katharina

AU - Chudzikowski, Katharina

AU - Gustafsson, Stefanie

N1 - Conference code: 85

PY - 2025

Y1 - 2025

N2 - Studies of careers and professions suggest that professionals increasingly seek to positively impact society through internal activism but offer limited insights into how they integrate activism in their highly structured and normative professional careers. To address this, we draw on Bourdieu’s theoretical ideas and theorise the different ways professionals construe internal activism in relation to professional career fields. We interviewed 58 consultants who engage in internal climate change activism in one globally operating professional service firm (PSF). Our analysis identifies two groups: Instrumental careerists, who translate internal activism into symbolic capital for internal career progression, and societal activists, who accumulate career capital but rarely transform it into symbolic career capital valued in the field. Our analysis reveals how differences in individuals’ dispositions and career practices underlie this distinction. These findings contribute to scholarship on careers and internal activism by offering a socially situated perspective grounded in Bourdieu’s work and developing insights into the construal of responsible careers in professional organizations through internal activism. We also illustrate why, although internal activism can offer a space for agency for professionals to engage in societal issues, it rarely challenges the rules of the game in PSFs.

AB - Studies of careers and professions suggest that professionals increasingly seek to positively impact society through internal activism but offer limited insights into how they integrate activism in their highly structured and normative professional careers. To address this, we draw on Bourdieu’s theoretical ideas and theorise the different ways professionals construe internal activism in relation to professional career fields. We interviewed 58 consultants who engage in internal climate change activism in one globally operating professional service firm (PSF). Our analysis identifies two groups: Instrumental careerists, who translate internal activism into symbolic capital for internal career progression, and societal activists, who accumulate career capital but rarely transform it into symbolic career capital valued in the field. Our analysis reveals how differences in individuals’ dispositions and career practices underlie this distinction. These findings contribute to scholarship on careers and internal activism by offering a socially situated perspective grounded in Bourdieu’s work and developing insights into the construal of responsible careers in professional organizations through internal activism. We also illustrate why, although internal activism can offer a space for agency for professionals to engage in societal issues, it rarely challenges the rules of the game in PSFs.

KW - Management studies

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=105009406456&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.5465/AMPROC.2025.247bp

DO - 10.5465/AMPROC.2025.247bp

M3 - Conference article in journal

AN - SCOPUS:105009406456

VL - 2025

JO - Academy of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings

JF - Academy of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings

SN - 0065-0668

IS - 1

Y2 - 25 July 2025 through 29 July 2025

ER -