Profession

For other uses, seeProfession (disambiguation).

Aprofessionis a field ofworkthat has been successfullyprofessionalized.It can be defined as a disciplined group of individuals,professionals,who adhere to ethical standards and who hold themselves out as, and are accepted by the public as possessing special knowledge and skills in a widely recognised body of learning derived from research, education and training at a high level, and who are prepared to apply this knowledge and exercise these skills in the interest of others.

A 19th century etching of a farmer consulting with his doctor, vicar and lawyer

Professional occupations are founded upon specializededucationaltraining,the purpose of which is to supply disinterested objective counsel and service to others, for a direct and definite compensation, wholly apart from expectation of other business gain.Medieval and early modern tradition recognized only three professions:divinity,medicine,andlaw,which were called thelearned professions.In some legal definitions, profession is not atradenor an industry.

Some professions change slightly in status and power, but their prestige generally remains stable over time, even if the profession begins to have more required study and formal education.Disciplines formalized more recently, such as architecture, now have equally long periods of study associated with them.

Although professions may enjoy relatively high status and public prestige, not all professionals earn high salaries, and even within specific professions there exist significant differences in salary. In law, for example, a corporatedefense lawyerworking on an hourly basis may earn several times what aprosecutororpublic defenderearns.

Etymology

The term "profession" is a truncation of the term "liberal profession", which is, in turn, anAnglicizationof the French termprofession libérale.Originally borrowed by English users in the 19th century, it has been re-borrowed by international users from the late 20th, though the (upper-middle) class overtones of the term do not seem to survive re-translation: "liberal professions" are, according to theEuropean Union's Directive on Recognition of Professional Qualifications (2005/36/EC), "those practised on the basis of relevant professional qualifications in a personal, responsible and professionally independent capacity by those providing intellectual and conceptual services in the interest of the client and the public". Under theEuropean Commission,liberal professions are professions that require specialized training and that are regulated by "national governments or professional bodies".

Formation

A profession arises through the process ofprofessionalizationwhen any trade or occupation transforms itself:

"... [through] the development of formal qualifications based upon education, apprenticeship, and examinations, the emergence of regulatory bodies with powers to admit and discipline members, and some degree ofmonopolyrights.

Major milestones which may mark an occupation being identified as a profession include:

1. an occupation becomes a full-time occupation
2. the establishment of atrainingschool
3. the establishment of auniversityschool
4. the establishment of a localassociation
5. the establishment of a national association ofprofessional ethics
6. the establishment of statelicensinglaws

Applying these milestones to the historical sequence of development in the United States showssurveyingachieving professional status first (George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln all worked as land surveyors before entering politics), followed bymedicine,actuarial science,law,dentistry,civil engineering,logistics,architectureandaccounting.

With the rise of technology and occupational specialization in the 19th century, other bodies began to claim professional status:mechanical engineering,pharmacy,veterinary medicine,psychology,nursing,teaching,librarianship,optometryandsocial work,each of which could claim, using these milestones, to have become professions by 1900.

Regulation

Regulatory organisations are typically charged with overseeing a defined industry. Usually they will have two general tasks:

1. creating, reviewing and amending standards expected of individuals and organisations within the industry.
2. Intervening when there is a reasonable suspicion that a regulated individual or organisationmay not be complyingwith its obligations.

Originally, any regulation of the professions wasself-regulationthrough bodies such as theCollege of Physiciansor theInns of Court.With the growing role of government,statutory bodieshave increasingly taken on this role, their members being appointed either by the profession or (increasingly) by the government. Proposals for the introduction or enhancement of statutory regulation may be welcomed by a profession as protecting clients and enhancing its quality and reputation, or as restricting access to the profession and hence enabling higher fees to be charged. It may be resisted as limiting the members' freedom to innovate or to practice as in their professional judgement they consider best.

An example was in 2008, when the British government proposed wide statutory regulation of psychologists. The inspiration for the change was a number of problems in thepsychotherapyfield, but there are various kinds of psychologists including many who have no clinical role, and where the case for regulation was not so clear.Work psychologybrought especial disagreement, with theBritish Psychological Societyfavoring statutory regulation of "occupational psychologists" and theAssociation of Business Psychologistsresisting the statutory regulation of "business psychologists" – descriptions of professional activity which it may not be easy to distinguish.

Besides regulating access to a profession, professional bodies may setexaminationsof competence and enforce adherence to anethical code.There may be several such bodies for one profession in a single country, an example being theaccountancy bodiesof theUnited Kingdom(ACCA,CAI,CIMA,CIPFA,ICAEWandICAS), all of which have been given aRoyal Charter,although their members are not necessarily considered to hold equivalent qualifications, and which operate alongside further bodies (AAPA,IFA,CPAA). Another example of a regulatory body that governs a profession is the Hong Kong Professional Teachers Union, which governs the conduct, rights, obligations, and duties of salaried teachers working in educational institutions in Hong Kong.

Theengineeringprofession is highly regulated in some countries (Canada and the United States) with a strict licensing system forProfessional Engineerthat controls the practice but not in others (UK) where titles and qualifications are regulatedChartered Engineerbut the practice is not regulated.

Typically, individuals are required by law to be qualified by a local professional body before they are permitted to practice in that profession. However, in some countries, individuals may not be required by law to be qualified by such a professional body in order to practice, as is the case for accountancy in theUnited Kingdom(except for auditing and insolvency work which legally require qualification by a professional body). In such cases, qualification by the professional bodies is effectively still considered a prerequisite to practice as most employers and clients stipulate that the individual hold such qualifications before hiring their services. For example, in order to become a fully qualified teaching professional in Hong Kong working in a state or government-funded school, one needs to have successfully completed aPostgraduate Diploma in Education( "PGDE" ) or a bachelor's degree inEducation( "BEd" ) at an approved tertiary educational institution or university. This requirement is set out by the Educational Department Bureau of Hong Kong, which is the governmental department that governs the Hong Kong education sector.

Autonomy

Professions tend to be autonomous, which means they have a high degree of control of their own affairs: "professionals are autonomous insofar as they can make independent judgments about their work".This usually means "the freedom to exercise their professional judgement."

However, it also has other meanings. "Professional autonomy is often described as a claim of professionals that has to serve primarily their own interests...this professional autonomy can only be maintained if members of the profession subject their activities and decisions to a critical evaluation by other members of the profession."The concept of autonomy can therefore be seen to embrace not only judgement, but also self-interest and a continuous process of critical evaluation of ethics and procedures from within the profession itself.

One major implication of professional autonomy is the traditional ban on corporate practice of the professions, especially accounting, architecture, engineering, medicine, and law. This means that in many jurisdictions, these professionals cannot do business through regular for-profit corporations and raise capital rapidly throughinitial public offerings or flotations.Instead, if they wish to practice collectively they must form special business entities such as partnerships orprofessional corporations,which feature (1) reduced protection against liability for professional negligence and (2) severe limitations or outright prohibitions on ownership by non-professionals. The obvious implication of this is that all equity owners of the professional business entity must be professionals themselves. This avoids the possibility of a non-professional owner of the firm telling a professional how to do his or her job and thereby protects professional autonomy. The idea is that theonlynon-professional person who should be telling the professional what to do is theclient;in other words, professional autonomy preserves the integrity of the two-party professional-client relationship. Above this client-professional relationship the profession requires the professional to use their autonomy to follow the rules of ethics that the profession requires. But because professional business entities are effectively locked out of the stock market, they tend to grow relatively slowly compared to public corporations.

Status, prestige, and power

Main article:Occupational prestige

Professions tend to have a highsocial status,regarded by society as highly important.This high esteem arises primarily from the higher social function of their work. The typical profession involves technical, specialized, and highly skilled work. This skill and experience is often referred to as "professionalexpertise."In the modern era, training for a profession involves obtaining degrees and certifications. Often, entry to the profession is barred withoutlicensure.Learning new skills that are required as a profession evolves is calledcontinuing education.Standards are set bystatesand associations. Leading professionals tend to police and protect their area of expertise and monitor the conduct of their fellow professionals through associations, national or otherwise. Professionals often exercise a dominating influence over related trades, setting guidelines and standards.Socially powerful professionals consolidate their power in organizations for specific goals. Working together, they can reduce bureaucratic entanglements and increase a profession's adaptability to the changing conditions of the world.

Sociology

Émile Durkheimargued that professions created a stable society by providing structure separate from the state and the military that was less inclined to createauthoritarianismoranomieand could create altruism and encourage social responsibility and altruism. Thisfunctionalistperspective was extended byTalcott Parsonswho considered how the function of a profession could change in responses to changes in society.

Esther Lucile Brown,an anthropologist, studied various professions starting the 1930s while working with Ralph Hurlin at theRussell Sage Foundation.She publishedSocial Work as a Professionin 1935, and following this publications studying the work of engineers, nurses, medical physicians and lawyers. In 1944, the Department of Studies in the Professions was created at the Russell Sage Foundation with Brown as its head.

Theories based onconflict theoriesfollowingMarxandWeberconsider how professions can act in the interest of their own group to secure social and financial benefits were espoused by Johnson (Professions and Powers,1972) and Larson (The Rise of Professionalism,1977). One way that a profession can derive financial benefits is limiting the supply of services.

Theories based on discourse, followingMeadand applying ideas ofSartreandHeideggerlook at how the individual's understanding of reality influence the role of professions. These viewpoints were espoused byBergerandLuckmann(The Social Construction of Reality,1966).

System of professions

Andrew Abbottconstructed a sociological model of professions in his bookThe System of Professions.Abbott views professions as havingjurisdictionover the right to carry out tasks with different possession vying for control of jurisdiction over tasks.

A profession often possesses anexpert knowledge systemwhich is distinct from the profession itself. This abstract system is often not of direct practical use but is rather optimized for logical consistency and rationality, and to some degree acts to increase the status of the entire profession. One profession may seek control of another profession's jurisdiction by challenging it at this academic level. Abbott argues that in the 1920s thepsychiatricprofession tried to challenge the legal profession for control over society's response to criminal behavior. Abbott argues the formalization of a profession often serves to make a jurisdiction easier or harder to protect from other jurisdictions: general principles making it harder for other professions to gain jurisdiction over one area, clear boundaries preventing encroachment, fuzzy boundaries making it easier for one profession to take jurisdiction over other tasks.

Professions may expand their jurisdiction by other means. Lay education on the part of professions as in part an attempt to expand jurisdiction by imposing a particular understanding on the world (one in which the profession has expertise). He terms this sort of jurisdictionpublic jurisdiction.Legal jurisdictionis a monopoly created by the state legislation, as applies to law in many nations.

Characteristics

There is considerable agreement about defining the characteristic features of a profession. They have a "professional association, cognitive base, institutionalized training, licensing,work autonomy,colleague control... (and) code of ethics ",to which Larson then also adds, "high standards of professional and intellectual excellence," (Larson, p. 221) that "professions are occupations with special power and prestige", (Larson, p.x) and that they comprise "an exclusiveelitegroup, "(Larson, p. 20) in all societies. Members of a profession have also been defined as" workers whose qualities of detachment, autonomy, and group allegiance are more extensive than those found among other groups...their attributes include a high degree of systematic knowledge; strong community orientation andloyalty;self-regulation; and a system of rewards defined and administered by the community of workers. "

A profession has been further defined as: "a special type of occupation...(possessing) corporate solidarity...prolonged specialized training in a body of abstract knowledge, and a collectivity or service orientation...a vocational sub-culture which comprises implicit codes of behavior, generates anesprit de corpsamong members of the same profession, and ensures them certain occupational advantages...(also) bureaucratic structures and monopolistic privileges to perform certain types of work...professional literature, legislation, etc. "

A critical characteristic of a profession is the need to cultivate and exercise professionaldiscretion- that is, the ability to make case by casejudgementsthat cannot be determined by an absolute rule or instruction.

See also

• Anticipatory socialization
• Professional
• First professional degree
• Professional association(or body)
• Professional boundaries
• Professional class
• Professional degree
• Professional development
• Professional responsibility
• Professional ethics
• Professionalization
• Semiprofession
• NorwegianCentre for the Study of Professions
• List of occupations

References

Cruess, S. R., Johnston, S. & Cruess R. L. (2004). "Profession": a working definition for medical educators. Teaching and learning in Medicine,16(1): 74–76.

Freidson, E. (1994). Professionalism reborn: Theory, prophecyand policy. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Gailmard, S. & Patty, J. W. (2007). Slackers and zealots: Civil service, policy discretion, and bureaucratic expertise. American Journal of Political Science, 51(4), 873–889. doi: 10.1111/j.1540-5907.2007.00286.x

Gulick, L. (1937). Notes on the theory of organization. In J. Shafritz & A. Hyde (Eds.), Classics of public administration, eighth edition (pp. 105–114). Boston, Massachusetts: Cengage Learning.

Howlett, M., McConnell, A., and Pearl, A. (2014). Streams and stages: Reconciling Kingdon and policy process theory. European Journal of Political Research, 54(3) 419–434. doi: 10.1111/1475-6765.12064

Lindblom, C. E. (1959). The science of "muddling through". In J. Shafritz and A. Hyde (Eds.), Classics of public administration, eighth edition, (pp. 172–182). Boston, Massachusetts: Cengage Learning.

Niskanen, Jr. (1971). Bureaucracy and Representative Government. New York: Imprint Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781315081878

Sinek, S. (2019). The Infinite Game. New York: Random House

Surowiecki, J. (2005). The wisdom of crowds. New York: Random House.

Taylor, F. W. (1912). The principles of scientific management. New York: Harper and Brothers.

Taylor, E. B. (1878). Researches into the early history of mankind and the development of civilization. Boston: Estes and Lauriat.

Further reading

• .Abbott, Andrew (1988).The System of Professions: An Essay on the Division of Expert Labor.Chicago:University of Chicago Press.ISBN9780226000688.
• Brint, Steven G (1994).In an Age of Experts: The Changing Role of Professionals in Politics and Public Life.Princeton University Press.ISBN9780691033990.
• .Corfield, P. J. (1995).Power and the Professions in Britain, 1700-1850.London:Routledge.ISBN9780415097567.
• Dezalay, Yves; Sugarman, David (1995).Professional Competition and Professional Power: Lawyers, Accountants and the Social Construction of Markets.Routledge.ISBN9780415093620.
• Freidson, Eliot (15 May 1988).Professional Powers: A Study of the Institutionalization of Formal Knowledge.University of Chicago Press.ISBN9780226262253.OCLC26287874.
• .Jacob, Joseph M (1999).Doctors & Rules: A Sociology of Professional Values(2nd ed.). New Brunswick and London:Transaction Publishers.ISBN9780765804778.OCLC39313497.OL1914768W.
• Montgomery, Jonathan (1989). "Medicine, Accountability, and Professionalism".Journal of Law and Society.16(3): 319–39.doi:10.2307/1409987.hdl:10822/833082.JSTOR1409987.