profession

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A profession is a vocation founded upon specialized educational training, the purpose of which is to supply objective counsel and service to others, for a direct and definite compensation, wholly apart from expectation of other business gain.^[1]

History

Jesus and the doctors of the Faith,
by the entourage of Giuseppe Ribera

Classically, there were only three : divinity, medicine, and law^[2]—the so-called "learned professions." The main milestones which mark an occupation being identified as a profession are:

1. It became a full-time occupation;
2. The first training school was established;
3. The first university school was established;
4. The first local association was established;
5. The first national association was established;
6. The codes of professional ethics were introduced;
7. State licensing laws were established.^[2]

With the rise of technology and occupational specialization in the 19th century, other bodies began to claim professional status: pharmacy, veterinary medicine, nursing, teaching, librarianship, optometry and social work, all of which could claim, using these milestones, to be professions by 1900.^[3]

Just as some professions rise in status and power through various stages, so others may decline. This is characterized by the red cloaks of bishops giving way to the black cloaks of lawyers and then to the white cloaks of doctors.^{[clarification needed][4]} More recently formalized disciplines, such as architecture, now have equally long periods of study associated with them.^[5]

Although professions enjoy high status and public prestige, not all professionals earn high salaries, and even within specific professions there exist significant inequalities of compensation; for example, a trial lawyer specializing in tort litigation on a contingent-fee basis may earn several times what a prosecutor or public defender earns.

Provincial color

The ranking of established professions in the United States based on the above milestones shows surveying first (George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Abraham Lincoln were all land surveyors before entering politics), followed by medicine, actuarial science, law, dentistry, civil engineering, logistics, architecture and accounting.^[6]

List of professions

Professions include:^[7][8]

• Accountants
• Actuaries
• Advocates
• Architects
• Archivists
• Pilots
• Audiologists
• Chefs (does not fulfill criteria 5-7, thus does not qualify as a profession as described above)
• Dentists
• Diplomats (career diplomats only)
• Doctors
• Engineers
• Financial analysts
• Journalists
• Lawyers
• Military Officers
• Optometrists
• Nurses
• Pharmacists
• Philosophers (does not fulfill criterion 7, thus does not qualify as a profession as described above; also does not fulfill criterion 6, but 6 may be uniquely inapplicable in this case since ethics is a subject in philosophy)
• Physicians
• Professors
• Psychologists
• Scientists (does not fulfill criteria 5-7, thus does not qualify as a profession as described above)
• Social Workers
• Speech Language Pathologists
• Surgeons
• Veterinarians

Formation of a profession

A profession arises when 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 of monopoly rights."^[9]

Regulation

Professions are typically regulated by statute, with the responsibilities of enforcement delegated to respective professional bodies, whose function is to define, promote, oversee, support and regulate the affairs of its members. These bodies are responsible for the licensure of professionals, and may additionally set examinations of competence and enforce adherence to an ethical code of practice. However, they all require that the individual hold at least a first professional degree before licensure. There may be several such bodies for one profession in a single country, an example being the accountancy bodies (ACCA, ICAEW, ICAI, ICAS, CIPFA, AAPA, CIMA, IFA, CPA) of the United Kingdom, all of which have been given a Royal Charter although not necessarily considered to hold equivalent-level qualifications. 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.

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 the United 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 a Postgraduate Diploma in Education ("PGDE") or a Bachelor's degree in Education ("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".^[10] This usually means "the freedom to exercise their professional judgement."^[11]

However, it 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 "^[12] 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.

Status and prestige

Professions enjoy a high social status, regard and esteem ^[13][14] conferred upon them by society. This high esteem arises primarily from the higher social function of their work, which is regarded as vital to society as a whole and thus of having a special and valuable nature. All professions involve technical, specialised and highly skilled work often referred to as "professional expertise." ^[15] Training for this work involves obtaining degrees and professional qualifications (see Licensure) without which entry to the profession is barred (occupational closure). Training also requires regular updating of skills through continuing education.

Power

All professions have power.^[16] This power is used to control its own members, and also its area of expertise and interests. A profession tends to dominate, police and protect its area of expertise and the conduct of its members, and exercises a dominating influence over its entire field which means that professions can act monopolist,^[17] rebuffing competition from ancillary trades and occupations, as well as subordinating and controlling lesser but related trades.^[18] A profession is characterised by the power and high prestige it has in society as a whole. It is the power, prestige and value that society confers upon a profession that more clearly defines it.

Characteristics of a profession

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,"^[19] 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 exclusive elite group," (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 and loyalty; self-regulation; and a system of rewards defined and administered by the community of workers."^[20]

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 behaviour, generates an esprit de corps among 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." ^[21]

See also

• Professional
• First professional degree
• Professional body
• Professional class
• Professional development
• Professional responsibility
• Professional ethics
• Professionalization
• Semiprofession
• Centre for the Study of Professions

References

• P.J. Corfield, Power and the Professions in Britain, 1700–1850, Routledge, London, 1995.
• Yves Dezalay and David Sugarman, Professional Competition and Professional Power, Routledge, 1995, ISBN 0-203-97721-1.
• Eliot Freidson, Professional Powers: A Study of the Institutionalization of Formal Knowledge, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986, ISBN 0-226-26225-1.
• Joseph M. Jacob, Doctors and Rules: A Sociology of Professional Values, Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick and London, 1999.
• Jonathan Montgomery, Medicine, Accountability, and Professionalism, 1989.