ETHICAL BASIS FOR HRM PROFESSIONALISM 157inherited, empirical, practical, and normative knowledge, but none seems to
be obviously paramount or essential. Rather than prejudging exactly what
kind of knowledge is required I will simply list all the criteria of a profession,
mentioning knowledge-related ones as they appear amongst the other criteria.
There will be mention of theory, inherited tradition, practical judgement,
expertise, and an ongoing empirical support basis, peer review, and other
features. It does not however seem to be necessary to resolve this issue by
privileging one or two over others ‘once and for all’ in order to recognize this
cognitive and educational requirement as essential.
In compiling the list of criteria I discard uses of the term ‘professional’
where it means simply doing something to earn a living; or doing it very
skilfully, and so ‘professionally’. A professional is someone who meets a human
need or normatively warranted want in a skilled and virtuous way, drawing
on a body of systematic knowledge, and granted a social licence to practise as
such. Based on an analysis of the literature I would claim that the criteria listed
below are the marks of a profession and can be verified as such by paradigm
cases of the professions such as law and medicine.
The criteria for a profession
A set of marks of a profession can be canvassed from the philosophy literature
on what makes a field of practice into a profession (Battin et al. 1989; Bayles
1989; Callaghan 1988; Coady and Bloch 1996; Koehn 1994; Lawrence 1999;
Solomon 1993, 1997). Most of these are mentioned in the sociology literature,
which we will set aside in the interests of brevity (see Lawrence 1999 for
most of the important sociological references). The paradigms are law and
medicine closely followed by psychiatrists, academics, architects, accountants,
dentists, natural scientists, teachers, and engineers. Although long self-styled
as professions, clergy, armed forces, and police are, for some, questionable
as professional groups, especially in the lower ranks. A third aspiring group
includes nurses, journalists, computer specialists, pharmacists, radiographers,
librarians, veterinarians, social workers, bankers, financial planners, and real-
tors. The marks listed below, I would claim, apply at least to the paradigm
cases of professions and professionals—law and medicine. To be graduated as
a profession a set of practices must meet some adequate subset of these marks.
Some of these marks are internally complex and will be denoted by a letter
after the number, for example, 9(c).
1(a). Professionals arecalled to meet a specific, profession-defining need of
the client. Examples are justice and health for lawyers and doctors
respectively. 1(b). In acquiring the skills and virtues used to meet the