Responding to professional knowledge disruptions of unmitigable uncertainty: the role of emotions, practices and moral duty among Covid-19 physicians

Drawing on an in-depth study of physicians facing the Covid-19 pandemic in Italy in 2020, we advance theory on how professionals in their workplace respond to knowledge disruptions that challenge the adequacy of the knowledge base of an entire profession. We show that, in the context of the uncertainty generated by the knowledge disruption and, unable to mitigate it through typical knowledge-based strategies, professionals experience a trail of negative epistemic emotions linked to the immitigability of this uncertainty. Our analysis shows that, despite these negative epistemic emotions, professionals, motivated by a heightened sense of moral duty, elaborate a viable response to the knowledge disruption by engaging in service-oriented practices of collegial and humanistic work that depart from the knowledge-centric practices of their usual work. We detail how the repeated development of positive moral emotions when performing such practices leads professionals to ultimately consolidate and embed service-oriented practices in their professional work. Our study contributes to the literature on professions and organizations by theorizing the distinctive category of knowledge disruptions of unmitigable uncertainty and by uncovering the micro-level dynamics and mechanisms that sustain professionals’ responses.