Vulnerability Practices among Professionals in Multidisciplinary Settings

Professional workers are expected to display confidence and mastery in their work roles, and may be hesitant to reveal their doubts and insecurities, especially in multidisciplinary settings characterized by status differences. However, scholars have recognized the benefits of sharing vulnerabilities to create opportunities for social support. We contribute to the literature by revealing how this might be achieved through a ritualized sequence of “vulnerability practices” in a dedicated setting. Based on a qualitative study of a weekly meeting where a multidisciplinary group of professionals shares experiences, we develop a process model that explains how vulnerability practices evolve through phases of individual disclosure and communal reflection bridged by theorizing from experiences. We reveal how a delicate tension between social pressure (to display vulnerabilities) and social support (to contain them) underpins these practices, and how this tension is influenced by power relations associated with multidisciplinarity. We show how participants’ appraisals of past episodes shape their willingness to engage in subsequent episodes, reinforcing or undermining the capacity of the setting to serve as a “holding environment” offering interpretation and containment. We thus reveal holding environments at work to be precarious accomplishments, created and maintained through ritualized vulnerability practices, and imbued by power relations.