We propose five distinct modes of client participation in jurisdictional contestation and theorize how clients come to enact them. Our model explains how ambivalence emerges and plays out in such episodes. Ambivalence is represented to varying degrees and in specific ways in the modes we call opposition, accommodation, and acquiescence. These modes foreground the role of ambivalence in creating conditions for the reconciliation of diverging institutional projects and negotiation of mutually satisfying arrangements despite divisions.

Also, while we have presented these modes separately from one another, empirical research indicates that they coexist and overlap in diverse ways across multiple clients in episodes of jurisdictional contestation. Indeed, empirical studies of social movements disrupting professions have vividly described the tensions between the segments of clientele who enact radical (i.e., escape and opposition), reformist (i.e., accommodation), and conservative (i.e., acquiescence and stewardship) modes of participation ( , (). Moving politics: emotion and act up’s fight against AIDS. The University of Chicago Press. ; , (). Talking Back to Psychiatry: the Psychiatric Consumer/Survivor/Ex-Patient Movement. Taylor & Francis. ; , (). Homosexuality and American psychiatry: the politics of diagnosis. Princeton University Press. ) . But these studies also showed synergies playing out between segments. Especially, many studies observe that the actions of clients enacting the escape and opposition modes created pressures that forced incumbents to yield, partially or entirely, to the aspirations for recognition and inclusion pursued by clients enacting accommodation ( , (). Unsettled: Discourse, practice, context, and collective identity among mad people in the United States, 1970-1999.  (Doctoral dissertation). York University, Faculty of environmental studies ; , & al., , & (). Institutional entrepreneurship in emerging fields: HIV/AIDS treatment advocacy in Canada.. Academy of Management Journal, 47(5). 657–679. https://doi.org/10.2307/20159610 ) . Our typology of modes enables an analysis of synergies and tensions between segments of a clientele led by different emotional experiences and pursuing different aspirations. It brings together insights from studies of radical contestation ( , (). Emotions and Social Movements: Twenty Years of Theory and Research. Annual Review of Sociology, 37(1). 285–303. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-soc-081309-150015 ; , (). Emotions and identity in women’s self-help movements. InStryker, S., Owens, T. & White, R. (Eds.), Self, identity, and social movements.. University of Minnesota Press. ) with those from studies of reformist collaboration ( , & al., , & (). Examining Anger’s Immobilizing Effect on Institutional Insiders’ Action Intentions in Social Movements. Administrative Science Quarterly, 65(4). 847–886. https://doi.org/10.1177/0001839219879646 ; & , & (). Passion with an umbrella: Grassroots activists in the workplace. In Research in the Sociology of Organizations. (pp. 125–168). Emerald (MCB UP ). Retrieved from https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1016/S0733-558X(02)19004-5/full/html ) to highlight how multiple clients may participate differently in a single episode of jurisdictional contestation by enacting a mode that corresponds to their emotional experience.

By conceptualizing these modes of participation of individual clients in collective action, our model suggests that embracing clients’ dissidence and ambivalence towards the profession can help professionals to engage clientele segments in constructive ways that mitigate tensions and tap into synergies. In this way, professionals can channel energy and innovation emerging from clients’ experiential knowledge to align professional practices with client needs. Our model therefore responds to growing practical interest across professionalized work domains, and especially in healthcare, for including clients in collaborative design, governance, delivery of, and research on, professional services ( , & al., , & (). Organizational Science and Health Care. Academy of Management Annals, 15(2). 537–576. https://doi.org/10.5465/annals.2019.0115 ; , & al., , , & (). Growing a Healthy Ecosystem for Patient and Citizen Partnerships. Healthcare Quarterly, 21(SP). 73–77. https://doi.org/10.12927/hcq.2018.25634 ; , (). “Dancing on Hot Coals”: How Emotion Work Facilitates Collective Sensemaking. Academy of Management Journal, 60(2). 642–670. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2014.0101 ; , & al., , & (). How Nascent Occupations Construct a Mandate: The Case of Service Designers’ Ethos. Administrative Science Quarterly, 62(2). 270–303. https://doi.org/10.1177/0001839216665805 ) . Similar to how professionals incorporate managerial knowledge into their work to defend against jurisdictional contestation by managers ( & , & (). Managing Expert Knowledge: Organizational Challenges and Managerial Futures for the UK Medical Profession. Organization Studies, 30(7). 755–778. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840609104819 ) , the incorporation of elements of clients’ experiential knowledge into professionals’ work could mitigate contestation while improving services to clients and shoring up trust in professions.