Recent scholarship has argued that the concept of profession is undertheorized and accepted uncritically. The authors address this issue by summarizing the characteristics of professions and articulating professions as institutionalized occupations. Their study of a veterinary call center suggests that profession influences the workplace through (a) knowledge providing, seeking, and sharing; (b) self-management of behavior, emotions, and productivity; (c) internal sources of motivation; (d) a service orientation; (e) the invocation of field standards; and (f) participation in a knowledge community beyond the workplace. Although these features may be distinguishable analytically, they are unified in the experience of work. Moreover, the close match in this case between the service orientations of the profession and of the organization strengthened the workers' commitment and thus the legitimacy of the organization.
Abbott, A. (1988). The systems of professions: An essay on the division of expert labor. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
2.
Albert, S., Ashforth, B.E., & Dutton, J.E. (2000). Organizational identity and identification: Charting new waters and building new bridges. Academy of Management Review, 25, 13-17.
3.
Ashcraft, K.L. (2005). Resistance through consent? Occupational identity, organizational form, and the maintenance of masculinity among commercial airline pilots. Management Communication Quarterly, 19, 67-90.
4.
Ashcraft, K.L., & Allen, B.J. (2003). The racial foundation of organizational communication . Communication Theory, 13, 5-38.
5.
Ashforth, B.E., & Mael, F. (1989). Social identity theory and the organization. Academy of Management Review, 14, 20-39.
6.
Barber, B. (1965). Some problems in the sociology of the professions . In K. S. Lynn (Ed.), The professions in America (pp. 15-34). Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
7.
Barker, J.R. (1993). Tightening the iron cage: Concertive control in self-managing teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 38, 408-437.
8.
Barley, S.R. (1996). Technicians in the workplace: Ethnographic evidence for bringing work into organization studies. Administrative Science Quarterly, 41, 404-441.
9.
Barley, S. (2008). Coalface institutionalism. In R. Greenwood, C. Oliver, K. Sahlin, & R. Suddaby (Eds.), The Sage handbook of organizational institutionalism (pp. 491-518). London: Sage.
10.
Brown, T.J., Dacin, P.A., Pratt, M.G., & Whetten, D.A. (2006). Identity, intended image, construed image, and reputation: An interdisciplinary framework and suggested terminology. Journal of Academy of Marketing Science, 34, 99-106.
11.
Carr-Saunders, A.M. (1966). Professionalization in the historical perspective . In H. M. Vollmer & D. L. Mills (Eds.), Professionalization (pp. 2-9). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
12.
Cheney, G., & Ashcraft, K.L. (2007). Considering "the professional" in communication studies: Implications for theory and research within and beyond the boundaries of organizational communication. Communication Theory, 17, 146-175.
13.
Constas, M.A. (1992). Qualitative analysis as a public event: The documentation of category development procedures. American Educational Research Journal, 29, 253-266.
14.
Cruess, S.R., Johnston, S., & Cruess, R.L. (2004). "Profession": A working definition for medical educators. Teaching and Learning in Medicine, 16, 74-76.
15.
Deetz, S.A. (1992). Democracy in an age of corporate colonization: Developments in communication and the politics of everyday life. Albany: State University of New York Press.
16.
Djelic, M., & Quack, S. (2008). Institutions and transnationalization. In R. Greenwood, C. Oliver, K. Sahlin, & R. Suddaby (Eds.), The Sage handbook of organizational institutionalism (pp. 299-324). London: Sage.
17.
Dukerich, J.M., Golden, B.R., & Shortell, S.M. (2002). Beauty is in the eye of the beholder: The impact of organizational identification, identity, and image on the cooperative behaviors of physicians. Administrative Science Quarterly, 47, 507-533.
18.
Dutton, J.E., Dukerich, J.M., & Harquail, C.V. (1994). Organizational images and member identification. Administrative Science Quarterly, 39, 239-263.
19.
Freidson, E. (1986). Professional powers: A study of the institutionalization of formal knowledge. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
20.
Glaser, B.G., & Strauss, A.L. (1967). The discovery of grounded theory: Strategies for qualitative research. New York: Aldine.
21.
Goode, W. (1966). "Professions" and "non-professions." In H. M. Vollmer & D. L. Mills (Eds.), Professionalization (pp. 34-45). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
22.
Greenwood, E. (1966). The elements of professionalization. In H. M. Vollmer & D. L. Mills (Eds.), Professionalization (pp. 9-19). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
23.
Greenwood, R., Oliver, C. , Sahlin, K., & Suddaby, R. (Eds.). (2008). The Sage handbook of organizational institutionalism. London: Sage.
24.
Heaton, L., & Taylor, J. (2002). Knowledge management and professional work: A communication perspective on the knowledge-based organization. Management Communication Quarterly, 16, 210-236.
25.
Hess, J.A. (1993). Assimilating newcomers into an organization: A cultural perspective. Journal of Applied Communication Research , 21, 189-210.
26.
Hughes, E.C. (1965). Professions. In K. S. Lynn (Ed.), The professions in America (pp. 1-14). Boston : Houghton Mifflin.
27.
Jablin, F.M. (1987). Organizational entry, assimilation, and exit. In F. M. Jablin, L. L. Putnam, K. H. Roberts, & L. W. Porter (Eds.), Handbook of organizational communication (pp. 679-740). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
28.
Jepperson, R.L. (1991). Institutions, institutional effects, and institutionalism . In W. W. Powell & P. DiMaggio (Eds.). The new institutionalism in organizational analysis (pp. 143-163). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
29.
Johnson, M., Morgeson, F.P., Ilgen, D.R., Meyer, C.J., & Lloyd, J.W. (2006). Multiple professional identities: Examining differences in identification across work-related targets. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91, 498-506.
30.
Jorgenson, J. (2002). Engineering selves: Negotiating gender and identity in technical work. Management Communication Quarterly, 15, 350-380.
31.
Kennedy, M. (1990). Choosing a goal for professional education. In R. W. Houston, M. Haberman, & J. Sikula (Eds.), Handbook of research on teacher education (pp. 813-825). New York: Macmillan.
32.
Kimball, B.A. (1992). The "true professional ideal" in America: A history . Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.
33.
Kramer, M.W., & Hess, J.A. (2002). Communication rules for the display of emotions in organizational settings. Management Communication Quarterly , 16, 66-80.
34.
Kuhn, T., & Nelson, N. (2002). Reengineering identity: A case study of the multiplicity and duality in organizational identification. Management Communication Quarterly, 16, 5-38.
35.
Lammers, J.C., & Barbour, J.B. (2006). An institutional theory of organizational communication . Communication Theory, 16, 356-377.
36.
Lammers, J.C., & Duggan, A. (2002). Bringing physicians back in: Communication predictors of physicians' satisfaction with managed care. Health Communication , 14, 493-514.
37.
Larson, M.L. (1977). The rise of professionalism. Berkeley: University of California Press.
38.
Latour, B. (2005). Reassembling the social. Oxford , UK: Oxford University Press.
39.
Lindlof, T.R. (1995). Qualitative communication research methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
40.
MacIver, R. (1966). Professional groups and cultural norms. In H. M. Vollmer & D. L. Mills (Eds.), Professionalization (pp. 49-55). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
41.
Mael, F., & Ashforth, B.E. (1992). Alumni and their alma mater: A partial test of the reformulated model of organizational identification . Journal of Organizational Behavior, 13, 103-123.
42.
Menand, L. (2001). The metaphysical club: A story of ideas in America . New York: Farrar, Strauss, & Giroux.
43.
Moore, W.E. (1970). The professions: Roles and rules. New York: Russell Sage.
44.
Morgan, J.M., Reynolds, C.M., Nelson, T.J., Johanningmeier, A.R., Griffin, M., & Andrade, P. (2004). Tales from the fields: Sources of employee identification in agribusiness. Management Communication Quarterly, 17, 360-395.
45.
Olufowote, J.O. (2006). Rousing and redirecting a sleeping giant: Symbolic convergence theory and complexities in the communicative constitution of collective action. Management Communication Quarterly, 19, 451-492.
46.
Parsons, T. (1951). The social system. Glencoe, IL: Free Press.
47.
Pentland, B.T. (1992). Organizing moves in software support hot lines . Administrative Science Quarterly, 37, 527-548.
48.
Phillips, N., Lawrence, T., & Hardy, C. (2004). Discourses and institutions. Academy of Management Review, 29, 635-652.
49.
Pratt, M.G. (2000). The good, the bad, the ambivalent: Managing identification among Amway distributors. Administrative Science Quarterly , 45, 456-493.
50.
Pratt, M.G., Rockmann, K.W., & Kaufmann, J.B. (2006). Constructing professional identity: The role of work and identity learning cycles in the customization of identity among medical residents. Academy of Management Journal, 49, 235-262.
51.
Real, K., & Putnam, L. (2005). Ironies in the discursive struggle of pilots defending the profession. Management Communication Quarterly, 19, 91-119.
52.
Roberts, L.M. (2005). Changing faces: Professional image construction in diverse organizational settings. The Academy of Management Review, 30, 685-711.
53.
Russo, T.C. (1998). Organizational and professional identification . Management Communication Quarterly, 12, 72-111.
54.
Sahlin, K., & Wedlin, L. (2008). Circulating ideas: Imitation, translating and editing. In R. Greenwood, C. Oliver, K. Sahlin, & R. Suddaby (Eds.), The Sage handbook of organizational institutionalism (pp. 218-242). London: Sage.
55.
Scott, C.R. (1997). Identification with multiple targets in a geographically dispersed organization. Management Communication Quarterly , 12, 491-522.
56.
Scott, C.R. (2001). Communicative strategies for establishing and maintaining customer loyalty and employee identification in the New Economy . Management Communication Quarterly, 14, 451-492.
57.
Scott, W.R. (1965). Reactions to supervision in a heteronomous professional organization. Administrative Science Quarterly, 10, 65-81.
58.
Scott, W.R. (1966). Professionals in bureaucracies: Areas of conflict . In H. M. Vollmer & D. L. Mills (Eds.), Professionalization (pp. 265-275). Englewood, NJ: Prentice Hall.
59.
Scott, W.R. (1995). Institutions and organizations. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
60.
Sharma, A. (1997). Professional as agent: Knowledge asymmetry in agency exchange. Academy of Management Review, 22, 758-798.
61.
Starbuck, W.H. (1992). Learning by knowledge intensive firms. Journal of Management Studies, 29, 713-740.
62.
Starr, P. (1982). The social transformation of American medicine . New York: Basic Books.
63.
Strauss, A. (1987). Qualitative analysis for the social scientist . Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
64.
Strauss, M., & Corbin, J. (1990). Basics of qualitative research: Grounded theory procedures and techniques. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
65.
Taylor, J.R., & Van Every, E.J. (2000). The emergent organization: Communication as its site and surface. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
66.
Tompkins, P., & Cheney, G. (1985). Communication and unobtrusive control in contemporary organizations. In R. D. McPhee & P. K. Tompkins (Eds.), Organizational communication: Traditional themes and new directions (pp. 179-210). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
67.
Tracy, S.J., & Scott, C. (2006). Sexuality, masculinity, and taint management among firefighters and correctional officers: Getting down and dirty with "America's heroes" and the "scum of law enforcement." Management Communication Quarterly, 20, 6-38.
68.
Vaast, E. (2004). O brother where are thou? From communities to networks of practice through intranet use. Management Communication Quarterly, 18, 5-44.
69.
van Knippenberg, D., & van Schie, E.C.M. (2000). Foci and correlates of organizational identification. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 73, 137-147.
70.
Wallace, J.E. (1995). Organizational and professional commitment in professional and non-professional organizations. Administrative Science Quarterly, 40, 228-255.
71.
Weick, K.E. (1979). The social psychology of organizing. New York: Random House.
72.
Weick, K.E. (1995). Sensemaking in organizations. London: Sage.
