Professionalism

Professionalism is an ambiguous term that is commonly used to describe a variety of occupations. There is a narrow class of occupations, however, that are professional in the strictest sense. The defining characteristic of the true professional is an ability to exercise sound and reasonable judgment about important matters in conditions of uncertainty. This capacity and its exercise, in turn, depend upon both the development and possession of specialized knowledge as well as a public commitment by professionals to serve the interests of others. Furthermore, professionals precede professions, which are associations of those who already exhibit the traits of professionals. Historically, occupations such as medicine, law and engineering have been considered professional but in the modern era the list of professional occupations has expanded. Given the importance of organizations to modern life, it is quite appropriate to consider management as an emerging professional occupation, if it can genuinely display the key characteristics of professionalism.

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• The stealth rise of control

  Open Access•Sanjeev Bhupla, Adam Barnard et al.•Current Sociology•2025

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