The Professionalization of Everyone?

Author(s): Harold L. Wilensky

Source: American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 70, No. 2 (Sep., 1964), pp. 137-158
Published by: The University of Chicago Press
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 the americanjournalof sociology
Volume LXX Number 2 September 1964

The Professionalizationof Everyone?'

Harold L. Wilensky

ABSTRACT
A popular generalization is that occupations are becoming "professionalized." The label is loosely ap-
plied to increasing specialization and transferability of skill, the proliferation of objective standards of
work, the spread of tenure arrangements, licensing, or certification, and the growth of service occupations.
This paper argues that these loose criteria are less essential for understanding professional organization
than the traditional model of professionalism which emphasizes autonomous expertise and the service
ideal. Examination of the history of eighteen occupations uncovers a typical process by which the es-
tablished professions have arrived. Among newer and marginal "professions," deviations from the process
can be explained by power struggles and status strivings common to all occupations. Barriers to profes-
sionalization are pinpointed. Analysis of the optimal "technical" base for professionalism suggests that
knowledge or doctrine which is too general and vague or too narrow and specific provides a weak base
for an exclusive jurisdiction. Data on the clash between professional, organizational, and client orienta-
tions among 490 professors, lawyers, and engineers suggest that (1) bureaucracy may enfeeble the service
ideal more than it threatens autonomy; (2) a client orientation undermines colleague control and pro-
fessional norms. The main theme: (1) very few occupations will achieve the authority of the established
professions; (2) if we call everything professionalization, we obscure the newer structural forms now
emerging.

Many occupationsengage in heroic strug- make the grade. Yet there is a recurrent
gles for professional identification; few idea among students of occupations that
1 This paper is a general development and test
the labor force as a whole is in one way
of ideas about the professionalization of social wel-
or another becoming professionalized.2 In
fare occupations in H. L. Wilensky and C. N. 2 The Webbs early predicted that "the Trade
Lebeaux, Industrial Society and Social Welfare Unions of the Workers . . . will more and more
(New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1958), chap. assume the character of professional associations."
xi, and of hospital administration in my "The Representing crafts based on "expert specializa-
Dynamics of Professionalism," Hospital Adminis- tion" validated by "public opinion," they wrote,
tration, VII (Spring, 1962), 6-24. It owes much "Each Trade Union will find itself, like the National
to the work of E. C. Hughes, Men and Their Work Union of Teachers, more and more concerned with
(Glencoe, Ill.: Free Press, 1958), and R. K. Merton raising the standard of competency in its occupa-
et al. (eds.), The Student-Physician (Cambridge, tion, improving the professional equipment of its
Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1957). The ma- members, 'educating their masters' as to the best
terial, used by permission of the Free Press of way of carrying on the craft, and endeavoring by
Glencoe, is based on a forthcoming book. I am every means to increase its status in public esti-
grateful to the National Institute of Mental Health mation" (S. and B. Webb, Industrial Democracy
(M-2209, 1958-63), the Department of Sociology [London: Longmans, Green & Co., 1902], pp. 825-
of the University of Michigan, and the Center 26. Cf. R. H. Tawney, The Sickness of an Acquisi-
for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences tive Society [London: Fabian Society and George
for generous support, and to Albert J. Reiss, Jr., Allen & Unwin, 1920], chap. vii). Discussion of the
and Erving Goffman for critical readings of an early professionalization of management has continued
draft. for decades. See, e.g., L. D. Brandeis, Business-

137

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138 THEAMERICAN
JOURNALOF SOCIOLOGY
a worthy effort to uncover similarities In the minds of both the lay public and
among all occupations, many sociologists professional groups themselves the criteria
have succumbed to the common tendency of distinction seem to be two: (1) The
to label as "professionalization" what is job of the professional is technical-based
happening to real estate dealers (realtors) on systematic knowledge or doctrine ac-
and laboratory technicians (medical tech- quired only through long prescribed train-
nologists). Personal service functionaries ing.4 (2) The professional man adheres to
like barbers, bellboys, bootblacks, and a set of professional norms.
taxi drivers, it appears, are also "easily To say "technical" is not to say "scien-
professionalized."3 tific." For the basis of the claim to ex-
clusive competence varies according to the
DEFINING PROFESSION distinctive features of each profession's
What are the differences between doc- functions and background. Contrast, e.g.,
tors and carpenters, lawyers and auto- two of the oldest professions-medicine and
workers, that make us speak of one as the ministry. Medicine, since its "reform"
professional and deny the label to the in the United States some sixty years ago,
other? The best way to approach the prob- has emphasized its roots in the physical
lem is to assess critically the argument that and natural sciences along with high,
labor is becoming professionalized (see rigorously defined, and enforced standards
Chart 1). of training designed to impart that body
If, as Chart 1 suggests, specialization, the of knowledge. Among the dominant de-
ultimate application of theory, transfer- nominations in the ministry, rigorous
ability of skill, stability of employment or standards of training are also stressed, and
attachment to firm, and the existence of doctrines are well codified and systema-
work rules do not help in defining a "pro- tized, providing a technical base for prac-
fession," what does? tice-a base less secure than that of medi-
Any occupation wishing to exercise pro- cine, but still within the scope of the
fessional authority must find a technical definition.
basis for it, assert an exclusive jurisdiction, These two cases tell us not only that
link both skill and jurisdiction to standards both scientific and non-scientific systems
of training, and convince the public that of thought can serve as a "technical" base
its services are uniquely trustworthy.While for professionalismbut that the success of
this traditional model of professionalism, the claim is greatest where the society
based mainly on the "free" professions of evidences strong, widespread consensus re-
medicine and law, misses some aspects of garding the knowledge or doctrine to be
the mixed forms of control now emerging applied. In modern societies, where science
among salaried professionals, it still cap- enjoys extraordinary prestige, occupations
tures a distinction important for the or- which shine with its light are in a good
ganization of work and for public policy. position to achieve professional authority.
Thus, while medicine has had its sectarian
a Profession (Boston: Small, Maynard & Co., 1914). dissenters (chiropractors, osteopaths, and
And more recently, talk of the professionalization at one time psychoanalysts), it enjoys
of labor has been revived (see N. Foote, "The
Professionalization of Labor in Detroit," American
more acceptance than the ministry, whose
Journal of Sociology, LVIII [January, 1953], 371- doctrines are anchored in conflicting re-
80; and A. L. Stinchcombe, "Bureaucratic and 'An operational test for "technical" is that pref-
Craft Administration of Production: A Compara- erence in hiring is given to those who have proved
tive Study," Administrative Science Quarterly, IV competence to an agency external to the hiring firm
[September, 1959], 168-87). or consumer (cf. Stinchcombe, op. cit.). Again what
'T. Caplow, The Sociology of Work (Minneap- counts is training for practice in an exclusive oc-
olis: University of Minnesota Press, 1954), pp. 48, cupational jurisdiction; there is no notion that it
139. can all be learned on the job.

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 OF EVERYONE?
THEPROFESSIONALIZATION 139
ligious communities. There is clearly more pentry does not; many of us might con-
consensus about the products of applied struct a homemade bookcase, few would
science than about spiritual values; the forgo a clergyman at the grave. The key
best way to avoid smallpox is more certain difference is that the clergy's tasks and
than the best way to achieve salvation. tools, unlike the carpenter's, belong to the
Nevertheless, in some places the ministry realm of the sacred-which reinforces a
comes close to science-based professions in jurisdictional claim grounded in formal
it monopoly of recognized skill while car- training and indoctrination. Occupations

CHART 1
OFLABOR?
IS THERE A PROFESSIONALIZATION
Labor Becoming Professional* Labor Not Becoming Professional
1. More manual jobs involve a specialized technique 1. Specialization is no basis for professional author-
supported by a body of theory-mathematical, ity. High degrees of specialization prevail at every
physical, chemical, even physiological and social- skill level, both in jobs which can be done by al-
psychological. Systematic on-the-job training most anyone (assembler in auto plant) and in
leads to upgrading of machine tenders. "Almost jobs done only by the trained (surgeon).
every employee in the plants of Detroit will be an The link between manual work and theory is
engineer of one kind or another." tenuous. While ultimately all labor is rooted in
theory, the civil engineer who designs a bridge
may know some laws of physics, the workers who
build the bridge do not.
If by upgrading we merely mean ability to
learn by virtue of previous experience and chal-
lenge, then IQ becomes the criterion for profes-
sional.
2. More manual jobs involvetransferableskills. 2. Transferability of skills is limited in most manual
jobs outside of the traditional crafts; much of the
new technology requires training for the specific
system or machine in the particular workplace.
Such transferability is often absent in the estab-
lished professions anyway. E.g., the house counsel
and other staff experts have skills which are
bound to a particular organization; their knowl-
edge concerns the traditions, personalities, and
procedures unique to that organization.
3. More manual jobs now provide careers regulated 3. No evidence that colleague control of manual
and supported by a colleague group. Unions try jobs is increasing. The pace of technological
to "reconstruct industry so as to assure to every change is fast; the changes are administered
man a career." The evidence is in union demands mainly by employers. This makes it unlikely that
for: manual jobs, comprising a declining fraction of the
labor force, will provide stable "careers" in any
a) Seniority in promotions-to assume that every- sense of the term.t
one will wait his turn and so eventually reach Most of these ways to increase the job security
"a job which matches his highest powers-one of high-seniority workers are traditional; they
object of a career." Like the system of rank have not prevented the wiping out of obsolete
and pay of the professor. crafts or unstable employment among low-senior-
b) Demandfor continuousincome-wage and work ity men. If salaried status were a criterion of pro-
guaranties, pension and welfare programs, sal- fessionalism, we would have to call the fee-taking
aried status. doctor non-professional and the office clerk pro-
fessional. If stable attachment to the enterprise
is the criterion, this goes with a decline in col-
league control.
4. An objectiveand fair set of rules and standardsen- 4. Negotiated plant rules are not focused mainly on
forced by grievance procedures and arbitration quality of product or of work performance; they
under union contract is the equivalent of profes- are overwhelmingly and properly concerned with
sional codes of ethics supported by public trust. protection of employees rather than the public.
Moreover, unions show an increasing responsi- The public-relations programs of both unions and
bility toward the consumer-a new concern with management should not be mistaken for their
the impact of wages on prices, laws to protect hard-core policies in contracts and daily life.
consumers. etc.
* The argumentsare adapted from Nelson Foote, op. cit., who states them in their sharpest form. Quotations are from Foote.
t H. L. Wilensky, "OrderlyCareersand Social Participation:The Impact of Work History on Social Integration in the Middle
Mass," AmericanSociologicalReview,XXVI (August, 1961), 521-39.

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140 JOURNALOF SOCIOLOGY
THEAMERICAN
which successfully identify themselves with that the practitioner do technically compe-
the sacred may achieve as much of a man- tent, high-quality work, but that he ad-
date for monopoly as those which identify here to a service ideal-devotion to the
themselves with science. University teach- client's interests more than personal or
ing throughout modern history has com- commercial profit should guide decisions
bined both strategies. And the legal profes- when the two are in conflict.
sion is based on moral doctrines only Despite the temptation to adopt C.
slightly modified by systematic empirical Wright Mills's cynicism,7 the norm of
research.5We have perhaps made too much selflessness is more than lip-service. It is
of the difference between an occupational probably acted out in the established pro-
mandate derived from science and sanc- fessions at a somewhat higher rate than
tioned by law (medicine) and one derived in other occupations. Among the reasons
from morality or religion and sanctioned are the following: (1) The belief that the
by public opinion or by the supernatural professions offer superior opportunity for
(the priesthood). Science, as Durkheim service is widespread; it is one of the mo-
noted, cannot combat popular opinion if tives accounting for the excess of aspirants
it does not have sufficient authority "and over entrants to these occupations-and
it can obtain this authority only from there may be a self-selection of the service-
opinion itself."6 motivated. (2) The client is peculiarly
The criterion of "technical" is not vulnerable; he is both in trouble and ig-
enough, however. The craftsman typically norant of how to help himself out of it.
goes to a trade school, has an apprentice- If he did not believe that the service ideal
ship, forms an occupational association to were operative, if he thought that the in-
regulate entry to the trade, and gets legal come of the professional were a command-
sanction for his practice. But the success ing motive, he would be forced to approach
of the claim to professional status is gov- the professional as he does a car dealer-
erned also by the degree to which the demanding a specific result in a specific
practitioners conform to a set of moral time and a guaranty of restitution should
norms that characterize the established mistakes be made. He would also refuse
professions. These norms dictate not only to give confidences or reveal potentially
embarrassing facts. The service ideal is
' In a sense social work has vacillated between
the pivot around which the moral claim
the ministry (doctrine-oriented social reform) and
medicine (science-oriented clinical practice) as
to professional status revolves.
models for the professional thrust. Supporting the service norm are several
8E. Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of the
additional ideas which influence relations
Religious Life (Glencoe, Ill.: Free Press, 1947 [first with clients and colleagues but which dis-
ed.; London: G. Allen & Unwin, 1915]), p. 208. tinguish professional occupations in only
The consensus of client publics regarding the knowl- minor degree. For instance, norms covering
edge base of an occupation is both cause and conse- client relations dictate that the professional
quence of the degree of professionalization. Perhaps
occupational groups which serve mainly high-status
be impersonal and objective (limit the re-
clientele (e.g., Presbyterian and Episcopalian cler- lationship to the technical task at hand,
gy) are pressured into organizing themselves pro- avoid emotional involvement) and im-
fessionally. The members, many themselves pro- partial (not discriminate,give equal service
fessionals with long training and rationalized work, regardless of personal sentiment).8 How-
expect high standards of preparation and perform-
ance from those who serve them. At the same time, I
C. W. Mills, White Collar (New York: Oxford
once an occupation has secured an institutional
University Press, 1956), chap. vi.
basis for practice (a professional school, strong
8 Cf. T. Parsons, The Social System (Glencoe,
organization, legal protection, etc.), it is easier
for it to develop, disseminate, and claim exclusive- Ill.: Free Press, 1951), pp. 433-39, 454 ff., and
ness for its knowledge; it can "enforce" the notion Essays in Sociological Theory (Glencoe, Ill.: Free
that it is "technical." Press, 1949), chap. viii.

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 OF EVERYONE?
THEPROFESSIONALIZATION 141
ever, these norms do not provide a clear no clients except, in an ultimate sense, so-
demarcationbetween professional and non- ciety; and bosses, if any, are often in-
professional occupations, for many crafts determinate. The main public for the
and commercial establishments foster simi- scientist is fellow-scientists, who are in a
lar work rules; such statements describe position to judge competence; the main
customer-clerk relations in established de- public for the professional is clients or
partment stores almost as much as doctor- employer-clients,who usually cannot judge
patient relationships. competence. The ambiguity arises from the
In the area of colleague relations, two fact that the scientist as teacher or em-
norms seem especially well developed in ployee may come to view his students or
established professions: (1) "Do what you other groups as clients and reduce his sen-
can to maintain professional standards of sitivity to colleagues, while the professional
work" (e.g., professionals tend to honor may have a high degree of sensitivity to
the technical competence of the formally his colleagues and reduce his openness to
qualified, avoid criticism of colleagues in influence from clients or bosses. The typi-
public, condemn unqualified practitioners, cal case in the professional world of the
avoid too much or too little work if it future (assuming a larger percentage of
lowers standards, etc.); (2) "Be aware of salaried professionals and more scientific
the limited competence of your own spe- practice) may combine elements from each
cialty within the profession, honor the model. At any rate, the scientist's dis-
claims of other specialties, and be ready interested search for truth is the func-
to refer clients to a more competent col- tional equivalent of the professional's tech-
league."9 Both norms can be viewed as nical service ideal, and where a scientific
essential conditions for the maintenance of discipline has a substantial segment of its
the master norm-the technical service adherents fully engaged in applied work,
ideal. the requisites of a profession are generally
In short, the degree of professionaliza- met.
tion is measured not just by the degree of Which occupations have gone how far
success in the claim to exclusive technical in professionalizing? Established solidly
competence, but also by the degree of ad- since the late Middle Ages have been law,
herence to the service ideal and its sup- the clergy, university teaching (although
porting norms of professional conduct. the church did dominate universities,
medieval faculty were by no means all
IS THERE A PROCESS OF clergy), and to some extent medicine (es-
PROFESSIONALIZATION? pecially in Italy). During the Renaissance
While there may be a general tendency and after, the military provided profes-
for occupations to seek professional status, sional careers for a dispossessed aristoc-
remarkably few of the thousands of occu- racy. Officer cadres in the standing armies
pations in modern society attain it. Per- of Europe from the sixteenth to the nine-
haps no more than thirty or forty occu- teenth centuries developed a professional-
pations are fully professionalized-an esti- ism based on a sense of brotherhood in a
mate that moves up or down depending self-regulating fraternity dedicated to codes
upon how many of the scores of engineer- of honor and service.'0 Dentistry, archi-
ing and scientific specialties we include. tecture, and some areas of engineering
An obvious difficulty here is the overlap (e.g., civil engineering) were profession-
between a scientific discipline (psychology, alized by the early 1900's; certified public
physics) and a profession (the practice
10 A. Vagts, The History of Militarism (rev. ed.;
of clinical psychology, aerospace science).
A science, in contrast to a profession, has Greenwich: Meridian Books, 1959), pp. 43-54. Cf.
M. Janowitz, The Professional Soldier (Glencoe,
9Wilensky and Lebeaux, op. cit., pp. 303-8. Ill.: Free Press, 1960).

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142 THEAMERICAN
JOURNALOF SOCIOLOGY
accounting and several scientific and en- Such students of the sociology of work
gineering fields came along more recently. as Everett Hughes have pictured a "natu-
Some are still in process-social work, cor- ral history" of professionalism.12 Their
rectional work, veterinary medicine, per- studies are suggestive, but to establish
haps city planning and various managerial anything firm here we need both detailed
jobs for nonprofit organizations-school social histories of occupations and more
superintendents, foundation executives, ad- systematic comparisonof the cases in hand.
ministrators of social agencies and hos- Table 1 attempts such comparison.It sum-
pitals. There are many borderline cases, marizes the history of eighteen occupations
such as schoolteaching, librarianship,nurs- for which satisfactory information could
ing, pharmacy, optometry. Finally, many be obtained and shows the sequence that
occupations will assert claims to profes- best fits the development of the established
sional status and find that the claims are professions in the United States; it suggests
honored by no one but themselves. I am some necessary elements in the professional
inclined to place here occupations in which package and confirms the idea that there
a market orientation is overwhelming- is a typical sequence of events. While that
public relations, advertising, and funeral sequence is by no means invariant, the
directing.11 The barriers to their profes- table shows that only 32 of 126 dates for
sionalization are discussed below. crucial events in the push toward profes-
Can a comparisonof the few occupations sionalization deviate from the following
which are clearly recognized and organized order:
as professions tell us anything about the 1. An obvious first step is to start doing
process of professionalization? Is there an full time the thing that needs doing. The
invariant progression of events, a path sick were always nursed, but technical and
along which they have all traveled to the organizational developments created nurs-
promised professional land? Do the less- ing as an occupation. Hospitals have al-
established and marginal professions dis- ways been managed, more or less, but the
play a different pattern? developmentof the modernhospital created
' Among discussions of the forces promoting the occupation of hospital administration.
and impeding professionalization, see M. Lieber- At this early stage, the practitioners come,
man, Education as a Profession (Englewood Cliffs, of necessity, from other occupations.'3
N.J.: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1956); J. L. Colombotos, 2. The question of training soon arises.
"Sources of Professionalism: A Study of High- The early recruits, or a client public or,
School Teachers" (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation,
University of Michigan, 1961); W. J. Goode, "The less often, a professional association press
Librarian: From Occupation to Profession?" Li-
'2Hughes, op. cit., pp. 133-37. Cf. A. M. Carr-
brary Quarterly, XXXI (October, 1961), 306-20;
Saunders and P. A. Wilson, The Professions
M. L. Fiske, Book Selection and Censorship (Berke-
ley: University of California Press, 1958); R. W. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1933), and Caplow, op.
Habenstein and E. A. Christ, Professionalizer, Tra- cit., pp. 139-40.
ditionalizer, and Utilizer (Columbia: University of 1 As recently as 1948, e.g., a study done by the

Missouri, 1955), a study of general-duty nurses; American College of Hospital Administrators of

L. Reissman and J. H. Rohrer, Change and Di- the careers of 1,000 members showed that they
lemma in the Nursing Profession (New York: were recruited from 131 diverse occupational back-
Charles Putnam's Sons, 1957); T. H. McCormack, grounds and varied greatly in education, age, and
"The Druggists' Dilemma: Problems of a Marginal viewpoint (Hospital Administration: A Life's Pro-
Occupation," American Journal of Sociology, LXI fession [Chicago: American College of Hospital
(January, 1956), 308-15; L. H. Orzack and J. R. Administrators, 1948]; C. E. Prall, Problems of
Uglum, "Sociological Perspectives of the Profession Hospital Administration [Chicago: Physicians'
of Optometry," American Journal of Optometry Record Co., 1948]). The recruitment base for wel-
and Archives of American Academy of Optometry, fare-agency executives was once heterogeneous:
XXXV (August, 1958), 407-24; and R. W. Haben- public administration, business administration, law,
stein, "The American Funeral Director" (unpub- politics. Similar data on urban planners have been
lished doctoral dissertation, University of Chicago, reported by Harry Gold in an unpublished study
1954). sponsored by the American Institute of Planners.

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 144 THEAMERICAN
JOURNALOF SOCIOLOGY
for establishment of a training school. The pital administrators; relief investigators,
first teachers, Everett Hughes suggests, caseworkers; newspaper reporters, jour-
are enthusiastic leaders of a movement nalists. The change in label may function
(like municipal reform among the city to reduce identification with the previous,
managers) or protagonists of some new less-professional occupation. Many, of
technique (casework among social work- course, are unsuccessful in this effort. Thus
ers), or both (probation officer is a new funeral directors or morticians have not
occupation based both on the prison- escaped the public image of undertaker,
reform movement and on a new technique). and salvage consultants are, alas, still con-
If these training schools do not begin fused with junk dealers.
within universities, as they do in the case All this is accompanied by a campaign
of hospital administration, city planning, to separate the competent from the in-
and accounting, they always eventually competent. This involves further definition
seek contact with universities, and there of essential professional tasks, the de-
is a steady development of standard terms velopment of internal conflict among prac-
of study, academic degrees, and research titioners of varying background, and some
programsto expand the base of knowledge. competition with outsiders who do similar
A corps of people who teach rather than work.
practice is an inevitable accompaniment. a) It is in the further self-conscious
Higher standards increase the length and definition of the core tasks that a pecking
cost of training and force earlier commit- order of delegation occurs. The doctor al-
ment among recruits. In the successful locates much of his job to less-trained
case, the standardized training is requisite nurses and laboratory and X-ray techni-
to entering the occupation. cians; the nurses, as they seek to profes-
It should be noted that in four of the sionalize, allocate much of their less at-
six established professions in Table 1, tractive work to practical nurses, aides,
university training schools appear on the and nurse assistants; and these, in turn,
scene before national professional asso- allocate some of their chores to ward
ciations do. In the less-established profes- helpers. A similar tendency exists among
sions, the reverse pattern is typical. This all professional groups in short supply-
underscores the importance of the cultiva- dentists, teachers, engineers, scientists, and
tion of a knowledge base and the strategic social workers, all of whom are redefining
innovative role of universities and the their functions upward and at the same
early teachers in linking knowledge to time are sloughing off their dirty work, that
practice and creating a rationale for ex- is, their less-technical or less-rewarding
clusive jurisdiction. Where professionaliza- tasks.
tion has gone farthest, the occupational At the same time that the long process
association does not typically set up a of defining and redefining the area of
training school; the schools usually pro- competence goes on, and entry is gradually
mote an effective professional association. restricted to those willing to go through
3. Those pushing for prescribed training the prescribed training, problems of in-
and the first ones to go through it comn- ternal morale and interprofessional con-
bine to form a professional association. flict develop.
Activists in the association engage in much b) The contest between the home guard
soul-searching-on whether the occupation who learned the hard way and are com-
is a profession, what the professional tasks mitted to the local establishment, on the
are, how to raise the quality of recruits, one hand, and the newcomerswho took the
and so on. At this point they may change prescribed course and are committed to
the name of the occupation. In this way practicing the work wherever it takes them
hospital superintendents have become hos- (these newcomers tend to job-hop a bit

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 OF EVERYONE?
THEPROFESSIONALIZATION 145
more in search of better working arrange- of the act by someone outside the fraternity
ments) 14-this age-old conflict comes to a may be declared a crime (medical prac-
head. The newcomers see the oldtimers as tice laws).
a block to successful professionalization; Licensing and certification as weapons
the latter see the former as upstarts. If in the battle for professional authority are
hiring and firing is out of the hands of the the least important of these events-al-
professional association, this remains a though legal protection is a hot issue in
sore spot, for those who recruit take their some newer professions such as social work
choice and may prefer old experience to and clinical psychology. In Table 1 the
new training. first state licensure law usually comes
c) What is true of internal conflict is toward the end of the process, but the pro-
also apparent in external relations: hard fessions clearly cannot claim this as a
competition with neighboring occupations unique feature of their development: for
seems to go with these later stages of pro- some time egg-graders have been licensed
fessionalization. All occupations in the in Indiana, well-diggersin Maryland, horse-
human-relations field have only tenuous shoers in Illinois, plumbers and midwives
claims to exclusive competence. This re- in many places, notaries public every-
sults not only from their newness, uncer- where.
tain standards, and the embryonic state of Two lessons may be inferred: the turn
the social and psychological sciences on toward legal regulation may be an ex-
which they draw, but also from the fact pedient of an occupation "on the make,"
that the types of problems dealt with are where internal debate persuades members
part of everyday living. The lay public that it will enhance status or protect jobs;
cannot recognize the need for special com- or it may be forced on an occupation by
petence in an area where everyone is "ex- some clear and present danger where pub-
pert." lic debate persuades lawmakers to protect
The competition among clinical psy- the layman (e.g., from forged documents
chology, psychiatry, and other brands of or quack "cures"). Medicine, law, and
psychotherapy for the right to practice optometry, for instance, were licensed
therapy is typical. But even more clearly either before they established a university
technical occupations, like medicine, find connection or before they formed a na-
themselves doing battle with marginalprac- tional professional association. Legal pro-
titioners-with peaceful absorption as one tection is apparently not an integral part
outcome (osteopathy) and all-out war as of any "natural history" of professional-
another (chiropractic). ism.
4. There will be persistent political agi- 5. Eventually rules to eliminate the un-
tation in order to win the support of law qualified and unscrupulous,rules to reduce
for the protection of the job territory and internal competition, and rules to protect
its sustaining code of ethics. Where the clients and emphasize the service ideal will
area of competence is not clearly exclusive, be embodied in a formal code of ethics.
legal protection of the title will be the aim Among new or doubtful cases this may ap-
(certified psychologist, registered engi- pear at the beginning of a push for pro-
neer); where definition of the area of com- fessional status (e.g., city management,
petence is clearer, then mere performance hospital administration, funeral direction),
'Studies of nurses (Habenstein and Christ, op. but in ten of thirteen established profes-
cit., pp. 87, 134) and of labor union staff experts sions or professions in process it comes at
(H. L. Wilensky, Intellectuals in Labor Unions: the end (civil engineering, law, medicine).
Organizational Pressures on Professional Roles In sum, there is a typical process by
[Glencoe, Ill.: Free Press, 1956], pp. 133 ff.) show
that those with the strongest professional commit- which the established professions have ar-
ments tend to be the most mobile. rived: men begin doing the work full time

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 146 JOURNALOF SOCIOLOGY
THEAMERICAN
and stake out a jurisdiction; the early to some extent adhere to professional
masters of the technique or adherents of norms have acquired extraordinary auton-
the movement become concerned about omy-the authority and freedom to regu-
standards of training and practice and set late themselves and act within their spheres
up a training school, which, if not lodged of competence. Elaborate social arrange-
in universities at the outset, makes aca- ments, formal and informal, sustain this
demic connection within two or three dec- autonomy.
ades; the teachers and activists then One might argue that such control as
achieve success in promoting more effec- these professions have exercised will de-
tive organization, first local, then national cline-or at least that very few additional
-through either the transformation of an occupations will acquire the label, "estab-
existing occupational association or the lished." For there are some major barriers
creation of a new one. Toward the end, to professionalization: organizational con-
legal protection of the monopoly of skill texts which threaten autonomy and the
appears; at the end, a formal code of service ideal, and bases of knowledge which
ethics is adopted. threaten exclusive jurisdiction. The future
Power struggles and status strivings of professionalismdepends on developments
common to all occupations help to explain in the organization of both work and
deviations from the sequence. The newer knowledge.
and more marginal professions often adopt Organizational threats to autonomy and
new titles, announce elaborate codes of the service ideal.-It is commonly assumed
ethics, or set up paper organizations on a that bureaucracy,or more accurately, com-
national level long before an institutional plex organization, clashes with profession-
and technical base has been formed. Note, alism. It is sometimes assumed that a
for instance, that the first national profes- client- or customer-orientation is incom-
sional association comes before the first patible with a professional orientation.
university school in all seven of the occu- Both assumptions contain truth; both de-
pations "in process" but in only two of serve critical examination.
the established professions (dentistry and An increasing percentage of professionals
architecture). There is a hint, too, that work in complex organizations (scientists,
newer professions make contact with uni- engineers, teachers, architects, even law-
versities earlier in their careers (the first yers and physicians). These organizations
training school is the university-affiliated develop their own controls; bosses, not
school in the cases of hospital administra- colleagues, rule-or at minimum, power is
tion and city planning). Finally, the tac- split among managers,professional experts,
tical and strategic situation of an occupa- and lay boards of directors. The salaried
tion, old or new, may demand early li- professional often has neither exclusive nor
censure or certification whatever the actual final responsibility for his work; he must
level of development of the technique, accept the ultimate authority of non-pro-
training, or association. Indeed, in a cul- fessionals in the assessment of both process
ture permeated by the idea of professional- and product. For instance, compare the
ism but little touched by its substance, fee-taking doctor in general practice with
many occupations will be tempted to try the salaried industrial scientist in product
everything at once or anything opportunity development. The scientist can be by-
and expediency dictate. The "professional- passed if his company chooses to buy up
ization" of labor, management, and com- licenses or subcontract the work to outside
merce is largely of this kind. laboratories; his work can be terminated,
expanded, cut back, or disposed of accord-
BARRIERS TO PROFESSIONALIZATION ing to the judgments of laboratory directors
Those technical occupations that have responding to outside units or higher-ups;
gone through the above process and that his power and status, reflected in salaries

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 OF EVERYONE?
THEPROFESSIONALIZATION 147
and tables of organization, are lower than scramble for many clients or who depend on
those of the men he serves. In contrast, the patronage of a few powerful clients.
the doctor's authority and responsibility, Does complex organization threaten the
often exercised under emergency condi- service ideal? The cases of professors and
tions, is typically final (we speak of "doc- clergymensuggest the difficultiesin arriving
tor's orders"); he stands at the top of the at an answer. Here are two ancient pro-
income-prestigeladder in the medical "in- fessions, practiced traditionally in well-or-
dustry"; diversification of clients frees ganized bureaucraticcontexts in which ser-
him from dependence on any one.15 vice motives have been strongly institu-
The matter of autonomy is, of course, tionalized. Are professors less committed to
not that simple. Our scientist may be in a the disinterested search for truth than law-
laboratory run by a scientist-administrator yers are to their clients' rights? Are minis-
and a firm run by former members of the ters less concerned about the spiritual and
laboratory staff, all of whom pursue ad- social welfare of their parishioners than
ministrative policies aimed at preserving doctors are about the health of their pa-
his professional autonomy. Or he may tients? We lack the necessary evidence. It
simply be in a good market position, his is true that one of the main centers of re-
services so much in demand, his mobility sistance to Nazi terrorin Germanybetween
chances so great, that his superiors tread 1933 and 1939 was, a bureaucratic profes-
lightly when they reject his advice or make sion-personified by Pastor Niemoller of
suggestions about his work. A study of top the Protestant Confessional Church and
staff experts in labor unions found that some of the leading Catholic clergy.17 But
the men who had received serious outside it is also true that many salaried professors
job offers since their employment in the in Nazi Germanyprostituted their scholar-
union had more influence on union deci- ship to ends which they knew were false.
sions than those without such offers."6The Teachers generally were among the earliest
crux of the issue of autonomy for salaried and most enthusiastic recruits for the Nazi
professionalsis whether the organizationit- party. At the same time, however, fee-
self is infused with professionalism (as taking lawyers were subverting the rule of
law and fee-taking physicians were conduct-
measured,say, by a large percentageof pro-
ing bizarre "medical experiments" in the
fessionally trained employees and man- concentration camps. "Bureaucratic" or
agers) and whether the services of the "free," professionals in a totalitarian con-
professionals involved are scarce (as meas- text do not come out well-especially when,
ured by a large number of attractive job as in the Germanyof the early 1930's, their
offers from the outside). If the answer is careers are threatened by unemployment
((yes" in both instances, the salaried pro- and political crises.
fessional may have more autonomy in his How do salaried professionals compare
work than those self-employedprofessionals with their independent colleagues in a plu-
whose relatively low income forces them to ralist society-especially when their services
15
are in demand and they have frequent occa-
Cf. W. Kornhauser, Scientists in Industry sion to choose between self-interest and the
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1962).
A comparison of the organization of "craft produc- interests of their clients? That commercial
tion" and "mass production" leads to similar con- contexts for professional practice such as
clusions: in mass production both product and real estate agencies, advertising firms, and
process are planned in advance by persons not on banks frequently put the establishment's
the work crew, while in craft production central-
ized planning of tasks is abandoned in favor of
interests before the client's requires no no-
decisions made by the work crew based on their tice. But such non-Drofitservice workshoDs
training and occupational culture (Stinchcombe, 17 E. K. Bramstedt, Dictatorship and
op. cit.). Political
Police (New York: Oxford University Press, 1945),
1
Wilensky, Intellectuals .. . , op. cit., pp. 227 ff. pp. 192-204.

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148 JOURNALOF SOCIOLOGY
THEAMERICAN
as schools, universities, hospitals-alike in to the nurse's aide, as the patient gasps for
their broad community base and ideology- breath. "It'll be my neck if nothing's wrong
also acquire a life of their own and that with her").
life is not always fully described by the All this is not to say that the hospital
technical service ideal. should be geared for full-speed production:
The image of rational, technical work this would mean more examinations, tests,
routines aimed solely at client welfare is conferences,more irregularwork (examina-
difficult to sustain in many service estab- tions and surgery would bunch up), less
lishments,whateverthe occupation. Medical leisure, even less sleep, perhaps lowered
occupations in hospitals highlight the di- staff morale and increased labor turnover.
lemma. Some hospitals are operated frankly It does imply, however, that service work-
for the profit of their owners. And in all shops, profit and non-profit private and
hospitals, patients come to feel that much public, organize their work in ways that
of what goes on is dictated by non-medical protect the income, security, and well-being
considerations-that many rules for patient of their most valued personnel-and that
management are designed for the conven- where such institutional considerations are
ience and comfort of the staff. The feeling prominent, the technical service ideal will
is strongest where the disease is chronic and be threatened, whatever the anxious effort
the stay in the hospital long.18 to preserve it.
The difficulty of sustaining the fiction In brief, perhaps bureaucracy enfeebles
that all effort is bent toward technical ser- the service ideal more than it threatens pro-
vice is particularly apparent in the mental fessional autonomy. Both salaried and self-
hospitals described by Erving Goffman,19 employed professionals are vulnerable to
and the problems of maintaining profes- loss of autonomy when demand for service
sional status for any of the personnel are is low and dependence on powerful clients
accordingly intensified. Even where the in- or bosses unreceptive to independent pro-
side view made possible by long-term in- fessional judgment is high. But where
carceration does not give the patient the comfortable organizational routines take
impression that medical care is sometimes command, the salaried professional (or the
a subordinateaim of the hospital, the point fee-takingprofessionalaffiliatedwith a serv-
may be dramatized in (1) the inevitable ice workshop) may lose sight of client
conflict between the needs of patients and needs more quickly than his solo brother.
the needs of teaching and research pro- Threats to exclusive jurisdiction.-A
grams; and (2) the restriction of communi- major barrier to the professionalization of
cation intrinsic to all status systems ("I'm many occupations"on the make," aside from
not going to call Dr. Smith," says the nurse organizationalthreats to autonomy and the
18A sensitive study of TB hospitals that focuses
service ideal, is the nature and structure of
on what is urgent to the patient, his timetable of their base of knowledge and doctrine. If the
progress, notes that crucial decisions to discharge technical base of an occupation consists of
the patient, schedule him for surgery, promote him a vocabulary that sounds familiar to every-
to a new activity classification, when made on one (social science and the arts of adminis-
Friday, are commonly not reported to the patient tration) or if the base is scientific but so
until Monday. If an X-ray is defective, physicians
at a discharge conference will not order another narrow that it can be learned as a set of
but will instead put off the decision in this case rules by most people, then the occupation
until the next routine conference. Surgery, of will have difficulty claiming a monopoly of
course, may be put off for weeks, even months, skill or even a roughly exclusive jurisdic-
for the sake of maintaining a regular schedule
for the surgeon (J. A. Roth, Timetables [Indianap- tion. In short, there may be an optimal base
olis: Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1963]). for professionalpractice-neither too vague
"DAsylums (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & nor too precise, too broad nor too narrow.
Co., 1961), pp. 321-86. Many new or aspiring professions face

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 OF EVERYONE?
THEPROFESSIONALIZATION 149
this barrier because they are grounded The expert may be defined as a man who
mainly in human-relations skills or some knows so much that he can communicate
program of reform. The search of social only a small part of it. Taxonomist and
work for a technical base illustrates the doctor alike acquiremuch diagnostic knowl-
dilemma of most "human-relationsprofes- edge that they do not learn from books.
sions"-knowledge which is at once too This element of tacit knowledge in the
broad and too vague.20 Paradoxically, sciences and professions helps explain their
knowledge at the other extreme-narrowly achievement of exclusive jurisdiction; it
restricted, very precise-is also a poor also helps explain their traditionalism. The
foundation for professional jurisdiction. client public sees a mystery in the tasks to
When we are able to break a skill down in- be performed, a mystery which it is not
to componentelements, prescribe sequences given to the ordinary man to acquire.22
of tasks in a performance,leaving little to Since tacit knowledge is relatively inac-
the judgment and understanding of the cessible, it is also less subject to direct
worker, we have a job that can be taught criticism and quick change. The tacit com-
to most people, often in a short time-in- ponent of their knowledge base is a seldom-
deed, a job which is ripe for elimination recognized cause of the tenacious conserv-
through programming on a computer. We atism of the established professions.
also have a system of procedureswhich by While the nature of the knowledge base
its very accessibility is open to critical ex- is the main reason for the aura of mystery,
amination and debate by all comers-and mysteriousness may also be deliberately
is therefore vulnerable to quick displace- used as a tactical device, a means of build-
ment. It is by its nature anti-traditional, ing prestige and power. The legal profession
never "established." is a case in point. Like primitive medicine-
Professional knowledge, like all knowl- men who cultivated the occult knowledge of
edge, is to some extent tacit; and it is this the supernatural,lawyers have always sedu-
that gives the established professions their lously cultivated the myth of the majesty
aura of mystery. As Michael Polanyi re- and the mystery of the law. "The client has
minds us,21"there are things that we know to have confidence in the law and the law-
but cannot tell": the doctor's recognition yer," a general counsel for a union once
of the characteristic appearance of a told me. "It builds [the top officer's] con-
disease, the taxonomist's recognition of fidence in the lawyer when he sees us in
the specimen of a species-these are like action. He gets the idea we know what
our everyday recognition of the identity of we're talking about."23 Ferdinand Lund-
a person, the mood of a face; they are acts berg, pointing to such metaphysical con-
of understandingcomplex entities which we structs as "corporate entity," "property
cannot fully report. Both experimentalevi- rights," "fair value," "conspiracy,""proxi-
dence (on "subliminal perception") and mate cause," "good faith, bad faith," and
everyday life (placing a physiognomy) con- "malice,"24observes that the law must still
firm that we can know how to discriminate be classified with theology and lawyers as
a complex pattern of things without being political theologians.
In short, the optimal base of knowledge
able to specify by what features we dis-
or doctrine for a profession is a combina-
criminateit. tion of intellectual and practical knowing,
20For detaifs on the traditions of social reform
22 Archaic usages of the noun "mystery" include
and social science on which social work practice
is based, see Wilensky and Lebeaux, op. cit., pp. "occupation," "craft," "art," "calling," and "skill."
283-334. 3Wilensky, Intellectuals .. ., p. 234.
24
2' "Tacit Knowing: Its Bearing on Some Prob- "The Priesthood of the Law," Harper's Maga-
lems of Philosophy," Reviews of Modern Physics, zine, CLXXVIII (December, 1938-May, 1939),
XXXIV (October, 1962), 601. 515-26.

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150 JOURNALOF SOCIOLOGY
THEAMERICAN
some of which is explict (classifications and NEW FORMS OF PROFESSIONALISM
generalizations learned from books, lec- There is another way to view what is
tures, and demonstrations), some implicit happening to professionalism: it is not that
("understanding"acquired from supervised organizational revolution destroys profes-
practice and observation). The theoretical sionalism, or that the newer forms of knowl-
aspects of professional knowledge and the edge (vague human-relations skills at one
tacit elements in both intellectual and prac- extreme, programmed instructions at the
tical knowing combine to make long train- other) provide a poor base for profession-
ing necessary and to persuade the public of alism, but simply that all these develop-
the mystery of the craft. If an occupation ments lead to something new. The culture
is based on knowledge or doctrine which is of bureaucracyinvades the professions; the
too general and vague, on the one hand, or culture of professionalism invades organi-
too narrow and specific, on the other, it is zations.26
not likely to achieve the exclusive jurisdic- To understand the future of profession-
tion necessary to professional authority. alism we must grasp the diversity of orien-
In assessing the barriers to a claim of tations that now prevail among men with
exclusive jurisdiction, I have so far focused high levels of training and link these orien-
on the technical underpinnings of profes- tations to specific attributes of occupation
sional practice, without reference to the and workplace. If interpenetration of var-
changing character of the clientele which ious "bureaucratic"and "professional"cul-
must honor the claim. What does the rising tures is taking place, the individual role
educational level of the population imply orientations appropriateto each should also
for professionalism? The facts present a merge; mixed cultures should be reflected
pardox: with education come (1) greater in mixed attitudes of professional people.
sophistication about matters professional, Data on the clash of professional ca-
more skepticism about the certainties of
reerist, missionary, and client orientations.
practice, some actual sharing in professional
knowledge (the mysteries lose their en- -Several observers of occupational life-
chantment); but at the same time (2) more in contexts as diverse as the Wisconsin
willingness to use professional services.25 civil service, the Office of Naval Research,
The question is open whether a population big national labor unions, general hospitals
prone to greater use of professional service in Missouri, a liberal arts college, and uni-
which is at the same time more critical and versity social science departments-have
less deferential will mean greater pressure independently come to very similar con-
for high standards of technical and ethical clusions about the types of orientations
performanceor an increasing skepticism, a professional and executive personnel have
discounting of professional claims, even a toward their work (orientations variously
tendency to see in the professional just an- labeled "career commitments," 'role
other commercialvendor. We lack the nec- concepts," "role orientations," "job iden-
essary data on the perspectives of potential tifications," or "reference groups").27 The
clients varying in education, information, I
troubles, and experience with various pro- Cf. T. H. Marshall, "The Recent History of
Professionalism in Relation to Social Structure and
fessions. Social Policy," Canadian Journal of Economics
and Political Science, V (August, 1939), 325-40.
25E. Friedson, Patients' Views of Medical Care
' L. Reissman, "A Study of Role Conceptions
(New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1961), pro-
vides some evidence on the first point. What sepa- in Bureaucracy," Social Forces, XXVII (March,
rates the educated patient from the less educated 1949), 305-10; D. Marvick, Career Perspectives
is the former's critical attitude toward the services in a Bureaucratic Setting (Ann Arbor: University
he is in a position to demand. The less educated of Michigan Press, 1954); Wilensky, Intellectuals
do not make trouble for the doctor; they are ... ; Habenstein and Christ, op. cit.; A. Gouldner,
typically docile and appreciative of what they get. "Cosmopolitans and Locals," Administrative Sci-

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 OF EVERYONE?
THEPROFESSIONALIZATION 151
diversity of these orientations suggests major types emerging is the professional
modifications of stereotypical portraits of service expert, whose professional training
the Organization Man or of the glad- and commitment to an outside colleague
handing, other-directed characters who group at once give him motive and strength
people the pages of The Lonely Crowd. to resist the demands of the employing
Chart 2, based on these previous studies, organization and, where his orientation is
outlines the principal types and suggests accommodated,make him useful as a source
hypotheses about how they develop.28 of flexibility, innovation, and reliable in-
This research suggests that one of three telligence. However, each complex organi-
zation, having multiple functions, requires
ence Quarterly, II (1957-58), 281-306, 444-80; and
P. Lazarsfeld and W. Thielens, Jr., The Academic
its own distribution of role orientations;
Mind (Glencoe, Ill.: Free Press, 1958). and each man's biography is in some re-
' Cf. Wilensky, Intellectuals . . . , pp. 111-74, spects unique. We would therefore expect
313-17. diverse workplaces to display central tend-

CHART 2
SOCIAL STRUCTURE, LIFE-HISTORY, AND ROLE ORIENTATION
Type of Role Orientation Roots in Structure Roots in Biography
Professional service (or discipline). Role is technical, demands formal Origins: high status categories-
Highly identified with profes- grad. training. Structure is e.g., upper-middle class, Prot-
sion; oriented toward outside managed by men with profes- estant.
colleague group; wants to give sional training and job his- Education: many years of college
competent, objective, technical tories. -esp. professional or graduate
service of which outside col- Org. interests impinge on large school built on undergraduate
leagues would approve; accents no. of outside groups, org. is liberal arts degree. Orderly ca-
full use of skills. public relations-sensitive, so it reer.
hires specialists in accommoda- Participates in professional af-
tive techniques who can deal fairs.
with government agencies and
others professionally staffed.
Careerist ("Organization Man"). Role carries prestige in commu- Origins: middle mass; medium to
Highly identified with incum- nity. low status ethnic-religious
bent leadership of his org.; ori- Structure provides opportunity groups (esp. Catholics).
ented toward career within for much job progression; ca- Education: college dropout or 4-
workplace hierarchy. No ideo- reer climb associated with resi- year grad. with low exposure to
logical commitments, no dilem- dential mobility.* liberal arts; weak graduate
ma-producing non-organiza- training, if any. Less orderly
tional goals; little professional career (e.g., several tries before
identification. Wants chance got on present ladder).
for social mobility, rewards rec- Little participation in profession-
ognized in local community- al affairs, more in local commu-
money, promotions, security. nity.
Missionary. Oriented toward some Role created as end product of so- Origins: marginal (e.g., minority
abstract concept of a social cial movement (e.g., labor groups such as Jews and Ne-
movement; highly identified movement--staff of unions; groes; families often entrepre-
with an outside political or re- good govt. movement--city neurial, broken, or unusually
ligious-political group. Sees or- managers; political movements intellectual).
ganization as vehicle for social ---staff of parties, govt. agen- Education: broad (via favored
change fitting private goals- cies;humanitarianreformmove- colleges, big-city colleges, or
goals derived from past or pres- ment-)welfareoccupations, cor- self-teaching).
ent participation in social move- rectional officers, nurses. Career: includes "ideological oc-
ment. Role not clearly defined (new be- cupations" (e.g., journalism or
cause org. is new, new unit in adm. or organizational work in
established org., or org. has dif- reform adm., political party, or
fuse purposes), provides chance little magazines; campus radi-
for innovator. cal).
Participation: professional and so-
cial action.
* H. L. Wilensky, "Work, Careers,and Social Integration,"InternationalSocial ScienceJournal, XII (Fall, 1960), 555-56.

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 152 THEAMERICAN
JOURNALOF SOCIOLOGY
encies toward one or another role orien- 2. Free responses to the question, "Differ-
tation. Among individuals-recruitment, ent people want different things out of their
training, and indoctrination being every- jobs. What are the things you yourself feel
where imperfect, man and job never fitting are most important in a job?"
3. A question concerning those professional
precisely-we would further expect mixed
journals read regularly: "Generally speaking,
orientations to be frequent.29 would you say you read your professional
In order to test these ideas in three
professional groups, I devised an index of 30The analysis is based on detailed interviews
professional-discipline orientation and an- with probability samples or universes of six pro-
fessional groups stratified for various character-
other of careerist orientation.30The indexes istics. The interviews took place in the first half of
are based on the following: 1960. Only white males who were in the labor force
1. A rankingof referencegroupson a card, and who were currently or previously married
were interviewed. All had college degrees. The
with appropriatevariations in phrasing for special selection criteria follow (an initial phone
lawyers,engineers,and professors:"Here are contact screened in the eligible lawyers and engi-
some groupsthat inevitablyjudge the quality neers): (1) Lawyers. Selected randomly from the
of professional performance (show card). Michigan State Bar Roster and the Martindale-
Whosejudgmentshouldcountmost whenyour Hubbell Law Directory. Age: 30-55. Family in-
overallprofessionalperformanceis assessed?" come: at least $8,000 in one of the past five years.
"Arethere any otherson this list whose judg- All have law degrees and derive half or more of
ments should count?"Table 2 shows the per- total income from law. (a) Solo lawyers. A pure
centage mentioningeach reference group as type including only individual practitioners or
most important. two-man family partnerships in the Detroit area.
May be associated with other lawyers but does not
29 In a recent study of industrial scientists and share clientele on any permanent basis. N = 100.
engineers, Kornhauser (op. cit.) shows that profes- (b) Firm lawyers. Selected from the nineteen
sional orientations are most frequent among pro- Detroit firms with ten or more partners and asso-
ducers of research, "organizational" orientations ciates. House counsel were excluded. N = 107. (2)
are most common among men who administer the Professors. Full-time faculty of arts and sciences
conditions under which research is produced, and colleges in two universities. Rank: assistant profes-
mixed orientations typify men who apply and sor and up. Age: 29-55. Disciplines: physical sci-
communicate research. The earlier studies men- ences (including mathematics) and the humanities.
tioned above are consistent, although every one of All professors who fit these criteria were inter-
them turned up large numbers who combine ele- viewed. Excluded: the social sciences and profes-
ments from each type. sional schools. Both institutions are large, but not

TABLE 2

Per Per
Lawyers
Lawyers |Per~Cent Enier
Enineers Cent Professors Cent

a) Clients 43 The consumer of the 34 Students 9

product or service
b) Executives or heads of 8 Immediate superiors in 47 The administration 2
firms (if lawyer is not (of firm one's company
self-employed) men) The department chair- 6
man
c) Colleagues-other 51 Fellow engineers in one's 16 Colleagues in one's own 24
lawyers familiar with specialty dept.
one's work Colleagues in one's dis- 56
cipline, whatever their
affiliation
d) Community leaders - Community leaders 0 Community leaders ac- 0
tive in educational
affairs
e) Bar association lead- 0 Leaders of professional 2
ers engineering associa-
tions
The college faculty as a 1
whole

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 OF EVERYONE?
THEPROFESSIONALIZATION 153
journalsthoroughly,partially,or do you just typical, consistent with the idea of the in-
glancethroughthem?" terpenetration of bureaucratic and profes-
Responses were scored as shown in Table sional cultures.
3 (respondents' total scores ranged from a Where is professionalism most likely to
high of 8 to a low of 1 on professionalism flourish?Table 4 shows that Urban Univer-
and 5 to 1 on careerism). sity professors lead (six in ten are high on
As expected, the two indexes are nega- professionalism), ChurchUniversity profes-
tively correlated (r - .27,p < .01). Men sors and lawyers as groups are medium, and
who score very high on professionalism engineers are low (only one in ten comes
seldom score high on careerism; men through strong on professionalism).
who rate very high on careerism seldom These findings again emphasize that (1)
rate high on professionalism. Taking ac- bureaucracy is not a necessary bar to pro-
count of the entire range, however, this fessional commitments (e.g., recruitment
inverse relationship is not strong, which and administrative policies encourage pro-
suggests that mixed types of orientation are fessionalism at Urban University, not
at Church University); (2) occupational
eminent: (a) "Church U." Church-controlled. N =
training is generally more important than
31. (b) "Urban U." A fast-growing state university. workplaceindoctrinationas a source of role
N = 68. (3) Engineers. Had an engineering degree orientation (e.g., despite contrasting or-
or its equivalent. Age: 30-55. Family income: at ganizational contexts, firm and solo lawyers
least $8,000 in one of the past five years. Generally are similar in professionalism; and engi-
research and development specialists, supervisors,
or executives. Two large enterprises: (a) "Unico." neers, the occupational group with least
A unit making one main product subject to great professional training, are by far the most
fluctuations in demand. Reputation: a dead end careerist and least professional). Thus, or-
for engineers. N = 91. (b) "Diversico." A unit ganizational threats to colleague control,
with diversified operations and a history of stable
growth. Reputation: recruiting ground for top which have received so much attention in
executives in central headquarters. N - 93. debate about the fise and fall of profes-
TABLE 3
PROFESSIONAL-DISCIPLINE ORIENTATION CAREERIST ORIENTATION
Whose Judgment Should Count
3. One of the following is most important and men- 3. One of the following is most important: depart-
tions the second: colleagues in own department or ment chairman or administration for professors;
discipline for professors; colleages or bar associa- heads of firms for lawyers; immediate superiors
tion leaders for lawyers; fellow engineers, leaders for engineers. (Solo lawyers not scored here; score
of engineering associations for engineers. adjusted by weighing things most important in a
job twice.)
2. Mentions one as most important, not the other. 2. Mentions one but not as most important.
1. One or both mentioned but not as most impor-
tant.
0. None of above. 0. None of above.
Things Most Important in a Job
3. Mentions technical tasks and autonomy or service 3. Mentions income or economic security, mobility
and recognition from colleagues, profession, or and status, and recognition from superiors as
discipline as things most important. things most important.
2. Technical tasks, and either autonomy, service, or 2. Income or economic security and either of others
recognition, etc. but not both.
1. Technical task but neither of the others. 1. Income or economic security but neither of the
others.
0. Mentions none of above. 0. Mentions none of above.
Thoroughnessof Reading Professional Journals
3. Thorough.
2. Partial.
1. Glances through.
0. Reads none regularly.

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 154 THEAMERICAN
JOURNALOF SOCIOLOGY
sionalism, are attenuated by occupational In order to pin down this clash between
training and organizationalpurpose. colleague control and client control, I con-
Perhaps more subversive of autonomy structed an index of client orientation,
and the service ideal are pressures from the using the questions mentioned above. To
non-organizationalusers of service-where receive a high score the respondent must
the client is not a boss but just a customer. spontaneouslygive client-orientedresponses
"The quack," Everett Hughes suggests, "is in "things most important in a job" (i.e.,
the man who continues through time to recognition or appreciation from clients,
please his customers but not his col- chance to serve clients, enjoy working with
leagues.' In any work context where the clients, or good quality of clientele) and
TABLE 4*
OCCUPATION COUNTS MORE THAN WORKPLACE AS A SOURCE OF PROFESSIONALISM
AND CAREERISM; SOLO PRACTICE ENCOURAGES A CLIENT ORIENTATION
(Per Cent)

PROFESSORS LAWYERS ENGINEERS

GPRAND

Urban Church Diver- TOTAL

Total Firm Solo Total Unico Total (N=490)
U. U. Divo
(N=68) (N-31) (N=99) (N=107) (N=100) (N=207) (N=93) (N=91) (N=184)

Index of professional
orientation:
High (6-8)....... 60% 32 51 27 24 25 13 8 11 25
Medium (4-5) .... 36 48 39 50 57 53 57 52 55 51
Low (0-3) ....... 4 19 9 24 19 22 30 39 35 24
Total ..... 100% 99 99 101 100 100 100 99 101 100
Index of careerist ori-
entation:
High (4-5)....... 1 6 3 7 6 6 25 24 25 12
Medium (2-3).... 67 51 62 39 41 40 62 59 60 52
Low (0-1) ....... 31 42 34 55 53 54 13 17 15 35
Total ......... 99 99 99 101 100 100 100 100 100 99
Index of client orien-
tation:
Medium-High
(1-2).......... 31 29 30 41 61 51 30 39 35 41
Low (0) ......... 69 71 70 59 39 49 70 60 65 59
Total ......... 100 100 100 100 100 100 100 99 100 100

* See pp. 152-53 for measuresand samples.

professional lacks strong colleague con- rank clients as "most important" in judg-
straints, the customer's complaints, real or ing the quality of professional perform-
imaginary, are likely to receive prompt and ance. A medium score indicates one of the
costly attention; his real problems, if they two, a low score, neither.
require professional skill, may be over- The results confirm the conflict between
looked. In the extreme case, the client- client and colleague orientations. The nega-
oriented practitioner makes a point of tive correlation between professionalism
maligning the techniques and motives of and client orientation (r -. 33, p < .01)
his professional competitors and, like the is somewhat stronger than that between
proverbial ambulance chaser, solicits work professionalism and organizational career-
ism. Eighty-four per cent of those who
where no work needs doing.
score high (6-8) in professionalism score
I, op.
cit., p. 98. low (0) in client orientation; 32 per cent

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 OF EVERYONE?
THEPROFESSIONALIZATION 155
of those high in client orientation are low careerist, missionary, and client orientation
(0-3) in professional orientation and the results in a mixed picture so the interpene-
rest are medium (4-5). tration of professional and non-professional
The variations by occupation and work controls leads to new structural forms. A
setting are also consistent with the hypoth- preview of these mixed forms of control
esis. Table 2 shows that lawyers, the most may be seen in some of the newer, mar-
"independent" of the three professional ginal, or would-be professions-first, in oc-
groups, are medium on professionalismbut cupations which share control with social
high on client orientation-a product per- establishments where careers may lead to
haps of medium-long professional training managerial positions (e.g., engineering,
but weak colleague constraints on the job. teaching, librarianship, social work); sec-
Professors rank high on professionalism, ond, in occupations in which careers do not
low on client orientation-a product per- lead to management but where control is
haps of longer training and stronger col- split among professionals, laymen, and ad-
league constraints. Most important, solo ministrators (e.g., the many occupations
lawyers, while average in professionalism ancillary to medicine such as hospital ad-
and low in careerism, have a strong edge ministration, nursing, pharmacy). The cru-
in client orientation; six in ten score cial question concerns how much weight
medium or high compared to about three professionals, bosses, laymen, or clients
or four in ten of other groups. Anchored carry in decisions regarding standards of
in neither organizationnor colleague group, entry, performance,reward, and promotion.
the sensitivity of the solo professional In librarianship and teaching, salaried
gravitates naturally to the customer. professionals face powerful lay boards who
Will the clash of client and colleague appoint supervisors and administrators
diminish or increase in the future? One from professional ranks. The dominant
could argue that the increasing fraction of voices are lay and managerial.Trade unions
the labor force in the tertiary sector- (the American Federation of Teachers
service occupations in which client and cus- AFL-CIO) have a small percentage of the
tomer contact is prominent-implies that membership; the leading occupational as-
a client orientation will be an increasing sociations (the National Education Asso-
threat to professionalism. Insofar as self- ciation) include administrators (school
employment encourages a client orienta- principals), emphasizepublic relations, and
tion, however, the professional segments
eschew collective bargaining. However,
of the service sector are becoming less vul-
nerable, as they become more salaried. On where trade unions share jurisdiction with
balance, the organizational threat to pro- professional associations, there is a tend-
fessionalism, to the extent that it is a ency for each to copy the organizational
threat, is the one that will grow in in- forms and strategies of the other. Thus,
fluence. The interpenetration of organiza- the AFT has long officially stated that it
tional controls and professional controls, is against strikes, and the NEA has re-
careerist and professional orientations, re- cently set negotiating goals and indorsed
mains the central problem for analysis in tactics short of the strike-ranging from
assessing the future of professionalism.The complaints to the press to national sanc-
occasional rise of social movements spawn- tions like withholding contracts for the
ing new occupational groups and mission- coming school year.
ary orientations is also worth further at- Among engineers and foremen the same
tention. I will return to these problems situation prevails, but here an overwhelm-
below. ingly dominant managerialgroup, in active
Power structure and professional con- opposition to unionism and hostile to au-
trols.-Just as the clash of professional, tonomous professional groups, has usually

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156 JOURNALOF SOCIOLOGY
THEAMERICAN
prevented the full development of either.32 workers in welfare agencies, clergy in
Of course, managementdominationis some- churches, or professorsin universities. Hos-
times attenuated and, as I have suggested pital administration may be something
above, a professional group in great de- new: professionals and laymen together
mand, with a firm base of independent hire administratorswho then must struggle
training, may acquire considerable auton- for the authority to do their co-ordinating
omy even in command-conscious sectors job. If the hospital administrator decides
such as industry and the military estab- to intervene in such touchy matters as the
lishment.a3 And in Europe it is common use and payment of salaried medical spe-
for management to share control with cialists, the control of the quality of surgery,
white-collar unions, some of which have a death from a new drug or anesthetic,
a semi-professional character. or sometimes even in more routine matters
Instead of facing a powerful lay board, such as scheduling of operations and admis-
or a powerful managerial group, an aspir- sions or the use of proper techniques of
ing occupation may face an entrenched sterilization, he is likely to be lectured
profession. A large number of the quasi- about interfering with the "sacred doctor-
professions which have strived mightily to patient relationship."34It seems clear that
expand their professional status-pharma- ancillary medical occupations will arrive at
cists, nurses, hospital administrators-find an autonomy befitting professional status
themselves in the stultifying shadow of only at the expense of control now in the
medicine. The doctor is still officially a hands of physicians and board members
guest of the hospital, but, like the Man who will not readily yield.
Who Came to Dinner and stayed for sev- All these cases point up the importance
eral months, he carries heavy weight and of the pre-existing power structure as a
indeed, upon occasion, has full charge of barrier to full professionalizationand as a
the managementof daily affairs. In seeking determinant of the mixed forms of organ-
autonomy in the technical performance of ization that professional aspirants adopt.
their work, hospital administrators, like To the degree that professionalizationis the
pharmacists, must travel a rocky road. By expedient adoption of professional forms in
legal and informal means medicine resists a struggle for prestige and income, the fact
encroachment on its authority. that someone-layman, manager,or profes-
This fact reflects a common dilemma in sional-got there first is central.
organizationallife: the simultaneous neces-
CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS
sity of giving autonomy to highly trained
specialists and yet giving some occupations If the marks of a professionare a success-
the authority to co-ordinate the specialists. ful claim to exclusive technical competence
Two outcomes seem typical: the layman and adherence to the service ideal, the idea
gets control, as in teaching and librarian- that all occupations move toward profes-
ship; or professionals administer, as social sional authority-this notion of the profes-
32 See the symposium on professional workers in
sionalization of everyone-is a bit of socio-
industry in Industrial Relations, Vol. II (May,
logical romance. Many occupations which
1963), especially G. Strauss, "Professionalism and aspire to become professional are in organ-
Occupational Associations," and E. J. Dvorak, izational contexts that threaten autonomy
"Will Engineers Unionize?" and the service ideal: some are overcrowded
3 Commenting on kickback practices in the buy- occupations of low rank where the work is
ing operations of auto manufacturers a purchasing supervised by men without professional
agent said, "Management at Chrysler was able to training or sympathy; some are practiced
tell Purchasing from whom to buy and look at the
scandal. I bet they couldn't get away with telling 34Cf. T. Burling, E. M. Lentz, and R. N. Wilson,
a professional accountant to falsify the books" The Give and Take in Hospitals (New York: G. P.
(Strauss, op. cit.; cf. Janowitz, op. cit.). Putnam's Sons, 1956).

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 OF EVERYONE?
THEPROFESSIONALIZATION 157
in service establishments which, in their dedication to the task, and even some
concern with the comfort and morale of standards of honorable dealing-what T.
their most valued personnel, lose sight of H. Marshall calls "a modern type of semi-
client needs; others are so commercialized professionalism"36and what Shils sees as a
that talk of the service ideal is nonsense. happy integration of professional and civil
Many occupations rest on a base of knowl- culture.37It may also be true that the em-
edge or doctrine which is (1) too general pirical, critical, rational spirit of science
and vague or (2) too narrow and specific finds its way into an increasing number of
for achievementof the exclusive jurisdiction occupations. This should not lead us to
and autonomy of a profession. The first is mistake the rhetoric of professionalism for
epitomized by the personnel men, salesmen, its substance or to ignore the distinctive
junior social workers, and other human-re- features of professionallife that sort out the
lations specialists who are products of established professions from new and dif-
American general education at the college ferent organizational forms.
level; the second, by the scores of engineer- The occupationalgroup of the future will
ing specialties in the Soviet Union where combine elements from both the profes-
the regime finds it easy to train and control sional and bureaucraticmodels; the average
its technicians by continual narrowing and professional man will combine professional
redivision of traditional engineering cur- and non-professionalorientations; the typi-
riculums.35 cal occupational association may be neither
Another clue to the obstacles to any a trade union nor a professionalassociation.
marked growth of professionalismis in the Mixed forms of control, hybrid organiza-
differencebetween the process by which the tions-not a straight-line "professionaliza-
established professions have achieved their tion of labor"-are the likely outcomes.
position and the process pursued by occu- Occupational structures now emerging
pations aspiring to professional status. In have their individual correlates.As the data
the recent history of professionalism, the above suggest, the role orientationsof many
organizationpush often comes before a solid professionals reflect a resolution of the
technical and institutional base is formed; clash between the requirements of profes-
the professional association, for instance, sion, organization, and social movement.
typically precedes university-based train- Most obvious, professional orientations
ing schools, and the whole effort seems more rooted in a colleague group will increas-
an opportunisticstruggle for the rewardsof ingly be found mixed with careerist orien-
monopoly than a "natural history of pro- tations rooted in a workplace hierarchy.
fessionalism." This is one of the costs of specialization and
This is not to say that many occupations bureaucratization noted by Carr-Saunders
which fail to fit the professional model are
as he laments, "no one speaks any more of
not developing higher levels of training and
the learned professions."38Less obvious but
performance,an increasingly sober, dutiful
no less important, the neutral and objective
3 N. De Witt (Education and Professional Em-

ployment in the U.S.S.R. [Washington, D.C.: Gov- Marshall, op. cit., p. 338.
ernment Printing Office, 1961], pp. 228 ff.) reports
that there are programs for metallurgical engineer- S E. Shils, "Demagogues and Cadres in the Po-
ing specialists in copper and alloy, in lightweight litical Development of the New States," in L. Pye
metals or in ferrous metallurgy; for mining engi- (ed.), Communications and Political Development,
neering specialists in the drilling of petroleum and (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1963),
gas wells or in the exploration of coal deposits; pp. 68-69, 76.
for civil engineering specialists in bridge design, 3 A. M. Carr-Saunders, "Metropolitan Condi-
in building large-scale hydrotechnical structures or tions and Traditional Professional Relationships,"
in erecting industrial buildings. "This fragmenta- in R. M. Fisher (ed.), The Metropolis in Modern
tion," he says, "is characteristic of every field of Life (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Co., 1955),
engineering." p. 286.

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158 THEAMERICAN
JOURNALOF SOCIOLOGY
advice of the "technician professional" will action, the caseworkeror groupworkerwho
be mixed more and more with a sense of becomes a supervisor or administrator
program,of long-run goals and possibilities. broadenshis ties to the larger communityof
In many a corner of the bureaucratic ma- pressure groups and politicians, and can
chinery of modern society, one finds what thereby engage in social action on behalf of
I have elsewhere labeled the "programpro- his profession. These have their counter-
fessional"-the specialist in depth (e.g., parts among lawyers working for minority
experts in social insurance, rehabilitation, defense agencies and civil liberties organ-
public assistance, public finance, housing, izations, social scientists working for gov-
race relations, labor disputes settlement) ernmentagencies, political parties, and con-
whose professional competence and com- gressional committees. End products of
mitment are beyond question, but whose broad movements of social reform, these
commitment to particular programs and men combineprofessionalstandardsof work
policies (e.g., health insurance) is just as with programmaticsense and constitute an
strong. By virtue of his technical prowess, important link between professional cul-
he makes himself indispensable as a policy ture and civil culture, the man of knowledge
adviser. In his job moves-between gov- and the man of power. As we assess the
ernment and private agencies, civic organ- mixed organizational forms and mixed role
izations, foundations, universities-he fol- orientations of the future, we must attend
lows the programs to which both his skills not only to the barriers to the profession-
and his social philosophy are bound.39The alization of newer occupations, but to the
labor staff expert striving to "keep Labor emergencefrom existing professions of such
left" supplies ideology and programs for policy-minded staff experts.
community relations and national political UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
3 Wilensky,Intellectuals .. ., pp. 129-43. BERKELEY

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