Who are Professionals and who are not? Is a doctor or engineer a Professional and Gardners or Cobblers are not?

Some days back I noticed that a negative type of culture has start building. A lot of Managers are keen to or habitual to call other people working under them NON- PROFESSIONAL and they are having several reasons along with that.
Let's open this topic for discussion.
1- What is Professionalism?
2- Who are Professionals?
3- Is a doctor or engineer a Professional and Gardners or Cobblers are not?
Lets brain storm to see if somehow we can reach a single statement.
Fayyaz

Hi,
To be a professional is to be proficient in the profession-whatever it may be.
But more than that, a professional is one who acts for professional considerations and for NOT for personal consideration. This means that his competence is oriented to the task/goal and not to any personal reasons.
In that sense, a professional is a competent person who acts for professional considerations.
Those who call others, especially their juniors-non-professionals may be right or wrong depending upon the facts of the situation, but those who talk like this are perhaps not professionals themselves, because to a professional, the task achievement comes ahead of any other consideration. It is quite possible that such people are using these terms without fully comprehending the import of the term.
Loyalty to the profession is the first test of a professional. Other things come thereafter.
Trust the matter is clear at least to you!
Regards
samvedan
August 20, 2006

Hi!
Professional is one who does his job with perfection.
One need to be acedemically qualified to be a professional.

As per my view Professionalism is linked with the ethics. Every profession involves certain ethics and those who follows the ethics involved with that profession are professionals.

A profeesional must posses very positive attitude considering the objective with due respect of long term benefit.
Do you agree with my point?
Anjuman Ara Baby

Profession::

A profession is an occupation that requires extensive training and the study and mastery of specialized knowledge, and usually has a professional association, ethical code and process of certification or licensing. Examples are accounting, law, teaching, architecture, nursing, medicine, finance, the military, the clergy and engineering.

Classically, there were only three professions: ministry, medicine, and law. These three professions each hold to a specific code of ethics, and members are almost universally required to swear some form of oath to uphold those ethics, therefore "professing" to a higher standard of accountability. Each of these professions also provides and requires extensive training in the meaning, value, and importance of its particular oath in the practice of that profession.

Sociologists have been known to define professionalism as self-defined power elitism or as organised exclusivity along guild lines, much in the sense that George Bernard Shaw characterised all professions as "conspiracies against the laity".

Sociological definitions of professionalism involving checklists of perceived or claimed characteristics (altruism, self-governance, esoteric knowledge, special skills, ethical behavior, etc.) became less fashionable in the late 20th century.

If the bosses call their subordinates non professionals, it is not right.

They can be called non Managers but certainly not non professionals.

ARchna

A professional, in the present day context, is the one - academically qualified, technically sound, consistant in excelling in his areas of expertise & meeting the objectives as well as adding value to whatever he/she is doing.

Dear All,
So far it has gone very interesting, just to add my opinion I believe that a mixture of the following makes a Professional as:
Competencies + Capabilities + Adaptabilities = Professional
But again Professionals also have different levels and that what makes the Job market move as:
Work load+Resources+Personal Development+Motivation= Professionalism.
Last thing is Appraisals or Recognitions that makes or Breaks Professionals.
I m not a Prof. so we can further negotiate the REAL DEFINITION of Professionals.
Fayyaz :)

Both Archna and Sabarivenkat have got it right. Archna has given the classic definition of a professional and Sabarivenkat has added a more topical twist.
In today's context, you cannot really give a very limited definition of a professional, because the term has become more flexible, and embraces a wider spectrum, but I think their comments are quite apt.
However, others may wish to elaborate further, and it would be interesting to have some more definitive descriptions.

A profession is "a vocation requiring knowledge of some department of learning or science."
A professional is one who follows "an occupation as a means of livelihood or gain," or one who is "engaged in one of the learned professions."
Professionalism is exhibited by one of the "professional character, spirit or methods" or the "standing, practice, or methods of a professional as distinguished from an amateur." -----American College Dictionary
Regards
Julie