What is a "Profession" in the Digital Age?

The term profession comes from the word profess. It was originally a term referring to an acknowledgment or declaration. For the most part, a profession is generally defined as an occupation (such as law, medicine, or engineering) which requires considerable training and specialized study. People who are in a profession are called "professionals."

Great, who cares?

Here are some questions:

• Is marketing a profession? What about information technology? How about law or medicine? Application development? Scooter juicer?
• How about professional selling? or sales enablement, or customer experience?

Today’s focus on content creation means anyone can create content. Is that content to be trusted? Is content built to fill the funnel or advance a profession forward?

For example, take the concept of "certification":

• Is a certification from a vendor like Hubspot a professional certification that should be recognized by hiring managers? Or by clients? By others in the profession?
• LinkedIn offers certification after you watch an hour-long course. People can say they are "certified" and put it on their LinkedIn profile. Should others consider people professional if they are "certified" after answering LinkedIn quizzes?
• What about letters after people's names? Do those matter in today's digital economy where knowledge is so available?

And, Why Should I Care Exactly?

Well, the discussion of a profession important right now because the professionalism of a group establishes a form of influence as recognized by others. And there are a LOT of new roles being created right now because of the digital age.

Being a professional is also thought to be a professional "litmus test" for others to recognize. Those who are considered professional are thought to all have the same professional understanding, acumen, and competence. That means:

• Someone who is considered a "professional" receives the sanction, approval, and authority given to him or her by others.
• A "professional" can attain a higher status in the eyes of his or her most important stakeholders or leadership in the company.
• Those who are "professionals" often get paid more and hired sooner, because they are thought of as "set apart" from others (who are not professionals).
• When two people have the same qualifications, a tiebreaker in the hiring process is often the "professional" certifications or designations that a person has.
• If you consider yourself a "professional" in any field, do you want just anyone to call themselves a professional (Ferris Bueller's Day Off anyone?)

Is it Time to Change the Long-Standing Professional Litmus Test?

The components or elements of a profession are thought to be similar throughout many disciplines, including accounting, education, engineering, law, and medicine. People who are engaged within professions have codes of ethical conduct, a definition of their scope, and standards of practice for their members, which include academic preparation, accreditation, certification, and even licensure. For example, marketing, advertising, project management, software development, coding, business process improvement, manufacturing, finance, and law all meet these criteria.

The question is, does this even matter anymore?

Morris L. Cogan addressed the definition of "what is a profession in business" in 1953. After reviewing all the literature on the topic, he offered the following comprehensive distillation:

“A profession is a vocation whose practice is founded upon understanding the theoretical structure of some department of learning or science, and upon the abilities accompanying such an understanding. This understanding and these abilities are applied to the vital practical affairs of [people]. The practices of the profession are modified by knowledge of a generalized nature and by the accumulated wisdom and experience of [people], which serve to correct the errors of specialization. The profession, that serves the vital needs of [people], considers its first ethical imperative to be altruistic service to the client”

What Does This Even Mean Today?

With respect to fields like sales, business development, SDRS, (or new roles like sales enablement) it's the critical stakeholders like customers, clients, and executives that need to recognize, sanction, and approve the authority of anyone who considers themselves to be a professional in that field. For example, when you go to the doctor, look at their credentials, it's YOU who determine if they are truly a professional or not. When you engage a lawyer and have them represent you, it's YOU who determines if they're going to represent you well or not. Very often, those degrees, diplomas, and credentials do seem to mean something.

The question: Do credentials matter in commercial growth fields like marketing, sales, training, and sales enablement?

• In other words, currently, someone can't simply walk into a room and say; "I'm a doctor because I have the most organic search results for the phrase tumor removal." But, perhaps that needs to change?
• If you're the top content marketer with the most downloads -- does that mean you're more professional than someone else?
• Does creating the 15th definition of "Sales Enablement" and publishing it on Linkedin make it a profession? Who cares really? Anyone?
• Does calling yourself a "professional" make you one? In the eyes of whom? The people you serve, your hiring manager, your employer, or yourself? Who gets to decide?

New Roles: Are they "Professional" or Not?

This is an important question to ask today because new roles are being created to advance the global economy. New titles mean more ambiguity about who is supposed to do what. A recent audit of a sales organization we found over 300 job descriptions for "Sales." Is sales a profession, or is it a role?

According to Forbes, in 2012, these roles didn't exist 10 years prior:

• App Developer, User Experience Design, Sustainability Expert, Elder Care, Cloud Computing Services, Chief Listening Officer, Social Media Manager, Millennial Generational Expert, Educational or Admissions Consultants, Market Research Data Miners.

According to Insider published in 2019, these roles didn't exist 10 years prior:

• Rideshare driver, Instagram influencer, YouTuber, Millenial expert, User Experience Designer, Social media manager, Escape room owner, Twitch streamer, Virtual reality game developer, electric scooter "juicer"

So, are these roles, jobs, or professions? Who decides if they're valuable? Who decides what standards they need to follow? In 2020, does the free market decide? What does that imply to higher education and schools? Many of those schools refuse to teach anything BUT "professional" courses.

See the picture below, adopted from the structure of the medical profession (Stanford University Medical Center)

Let's Start With the Attributes of a "Profession"

Lucky for you, I've researched where professions come from and why they exist (call me a glutton for punishment). Basically, there are tenets of any profession according to Morris L. Cogan who published his criterion in 1953. Why did he do it? To identify the quacks, charlatans, snake-oil salesmen, and swindlers of the day. The 1950s may have been great for cars, clothes, and music, but it wasn't great for women, minorities, or overall public health (It was the golden age of "advertising" where people could say pretty much anything and get away with it.) Many businesses were beginning to use using motivational research to help advertisers influence their consumers based on their need for safety, sex, belonging, and success. They used psychological tools to examine spending habits. They created "personas" that the everyday consumer could relate to or aspire to become like the Marlboro Man. Product personification became a prominent tactic.

So, it's against this backdrop that Cogan published the list defining "what is a profession". According to him, a profession must have and meet all five of the following criteria :

1. A Validated Body of Knowledge

This is the breadth and depth of the written and documented scope of the profession. The body of knowledge describes the aggregation of academic, corporate, and competitive knowledge within the profession. A body of knowledge addresses the “what” of the profession. It encompasses the components of the processes, the elements of, and inter-relationship with the environment around the processes, and the competencies and proficiencies the professional needs to be successful. 

A professional must understand and continuously learn about the vast body of knowledge available in the forms of courses, books, digital, video, seminars, books, tapes, and professional journals. Those who consider themselves professionals, digest the body of knowledge in order to become an expert in their industry, its technologies, and processes, as well as its practices. Every profession has a body of knowledge, including professions of project management, software development, veterinary and medical schools. To advance the body of knowledge, there is rigor in terms of peer review and debate across others who are professionals.

• Certificates can reflect acquiring knowledge and skills. They show that people are engaging in and learning about the body of knowledge. FYI - Certificates are not the same thing as certification (see below).
• A body of knowledge isn't managed by only one group. It evolves and changes based on professionals in the profession. For example, academics thought leaders, experts in the field, and others often work together to create the body of knowledge over many, many years.
• Examples include asking a professional what the most important standards to read and where those standards exist. Many standards can be found in books and articles are is a reflection of how well understood the body of knowledge has become -- as it doesn't have to all exist in one book. Additional examples can be found in groups like PMI (Project Management Institute) or ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) who create indexes or compendiums to organize the broader body of knowledge.

3. Industry Recognized Standards of Entry

When it's determined there needs to be a minimally accepted standard of competency, performance, and standards of professional behavior found across the body of knowledge, a standard of entry can be developed. A standard of entry such as a designation (letters after a name) shows others the professional value of a person can be recognized and rewarded. By having a standard of entry, people within the profession can come to know and understand the steps they need to take to increase professional standing, thereby setting themselves apart from others who are not in the profession. 

• Example standards of entry are found where people acquire professional designations (letters after their name) such as CPLP, CPA, CSE, CSC etc. These are professional designations earned through rigorous testing and other activities requiring proof of validation (such as submitting work samples or meeting in front of peer review board).
• Certifications are much more rigorous than certificates. Certifications to a professional means they have been certified to carry a designation (letter after their name). Theses non-biased and professional designations provide public awareness that a standard of entry has been met. To receive the designation, a professional must meet the minimally accepted level of knowledge common to all professionals and agree to continuously meet the expectations placed on him or her by others in other professions

4. Service Orientation to the Profession:

People are often viewed as focused solely on personal financial gain when they enter into a profession. However, for a profession to exist, the professionals in that field need to share their knowledge and experiences with other professionals, new professionals, and the local community. In other words, professionals within the profession seek to give back to the profession. Not just take from it.

Many professionals are the highest paid people in their communities. As such a professional usually gives of talent, time, and financial resources to help support the community and the profession as a whole – with no strings attached. To elevate the profession. To make the profession better. To help those who come behind. In fact, if you go to many professional organizations in the Washington DC area (as I have), you will find break-out rooms, conference rooms, conference centers, awards, and buildings named after key professionals in the field.

• Examples of service orientation include the research and philanthropic organizations aligned to associations like the Project Management Institute (PMI), United States Chamber of Commerce the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, the Better Business Bureau, Marketing Research Association, and Association of American Educators all who have projects to give back to the "profession"

5. A Sanctioning Organization: 

The final requirement for being recognized as a profession is the authenticating body that provides leadership, establishes standards, and provides means of communication and coordination among practitioners. Professionals should support and participate in organizations dedicated to their individual success as a professional. The organization should be inclusive of all professionals, global, objective, and non-biased towards any one group of people. They should also manage and clarify the body of knowledge and the standard of entry.

Interestingly, organizations have the word "Association" or "Society" in the name doesn't mean are recognized as professional organizations according to US tax law that says the following:

• The US 501(c)(6) Non-Profit designation includes membership-based organizations or clubs that promote the business interests of their members. As such, nobody "owns" the organization, as it's owned by the members and managed according to published by-laws. Such organizations include trade associations and children's sports leagues.
• While charitable (501(c)(3) nonprofits must serve a public good and be supported by the public, a trade association does not have to serve the public good, but they must align to a stated goal and mission of the profession. They exist for the benefit of promoting the business interests of their members as long as their goal is not to make a profit that isn't re-invested back (you guessed it, into the profession). When they fit these criteria and investing in, and aligning with, a profession, they can be called nonprofits.
• As such, professional sanctioning organizations are typically non-profit 501(c)(6) business leagues aligned to a stated mission. "For-profit" professional "associations" are usually business ventures run by one or two people and are treated like any other business, despite having the name of "Society" or "Association" in their name. It's easy to figure out if they are filing with the IRS as a 501(c)(6). It's public record.

5. A Code of Ethics

The need for an ethical basis in the profession itself that provides a foundation of trust that individuals engaged in the profession are using appropriate behavior to achieve their objectives. Someone who considers him or herself a professional in that field must agree to abide by, and hold others accountable to, that published ethical code. Ideally, this code has been specifically developed for the profession, and their unique position of navigating often conflicting demands.

• Ethical codes exist in marketing, finance, law, medicine, politics, and other fields dealing with the public. These ethical codes can be short or long and can be tied to certification (see the standard of entry above).

So, What Do You Think?

Are professions relevant to the business in the digital age? Does something else need to take its place?

To help, here are the five key questions for you:

1. Do you want and expect professionalism and is that different than meeting specific criteria managed by a sanctioning organization?
2. What about new roles? Do they need to be professionalized and have a standard of entry?
3. Does being a professional mean participating and giving back to the profession?
4. For the occupation to attain professional status, is it important to follow some sort of ethical code and enforce that ethical code?
5. Is it important to understand the motives of who is contributing to the body of knowledge?

Source:

Critique of "Profession" as a Sociological Category. Robert W. Habenstein, The Sociological Quarterly vol. 4, No. 4 (Autumn, 1963), pp. 291-300