Professional Identification is a type of social identification and is the sense of oneness individuals have with a profession (e.g. law, medicine) and the degree to which individuals define themselves as profession members. Professional identity consists of the individual's alignment of
roles
A role (also rôle or social role) is a set of connected behaviors, rights, obligations, beliefs, and norms as conceptualized by people in a social situation. It is an expected or free or continuously changing behavior and may have a given indi ...
,
responsibilities,
values, and
ethical standards to be consistent with practices accepted by their specific profession.
Sources of professional identification
Researchers have found that a desire for quality (rather than profits) is associated with professional identification. Organizations tend to be concerned with efficiency and profitability, whereas professions care mainly about providing the highest-quality service (as defined by the professions), almost regardless of cost or revenue considerations (Freidson, 2001). Administrators are usually seen as promoting profitability at the expense of profession-defined quality (Freidson, 2001). In one notable study, practicing physicians viewed administrators with medical degrees (e.g., the
M.D.) as “outsiders” to the medical profession because of what the physicians believed to be the administrators’ undue emphasis on organizational goals (Hoff, 1999: 336). Practicing physicians viewed administrators with MDs more negatively than those without MDs because the former were thought to have “betrayed” the medical profession by assuming administrative roles (Hoff, 1999: 344).
Formation of professional identity
Professional identity formation is a complex process through which the sense of oneness with a profession is developed, with some of the difficulty arising out of balancing
personal identity with professional identity.
Professional identity begins to form while individuals gain their educational training for their profession.
Drawing on
community of practice
A community of practice (CoP) is a group of people who "share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly". The concept was first proposed by cognitive anthropologist Jean Lave and educat ...
theory, transitions between communities can lead to the individual experiencing tension or conflict in how the distinct communities' values and expectations differ, causing the individual to restructure the boundaries between their professional,
personal, and private spheres of identity.
Recent research
For over 50 years, researchers have studied whether professional employees' social identities influence their work behaviors.
David R. Hekman
David R. Hekman (born 1978) is an associate professor of organizational leadership and information analytics at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Hekman's research focuses on improving organizational health, including the demographic pay gap ...
and colleagues found that professional identification may conflict with
organizational identification.
Organizational identification may lead employees to believe that administrators are “like them” and “on their side", whereas professional identification leads employees to believe that administrators are “not like them” and “not on their side”.
[Hekman, D.R., Bigley, G.A., Steensma, H.K., Hereford, J.F., (2009) “Combined Effects of Organizational and Professional Identification on the Reciprocity Dynamic for Professional Employees.” ''Academy of Management Journal'', Vol. 52, No. 3.]
See also
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Acculturation
Acculturation is a process of social, psychological, and cultural change that stems from the balancing of two cultures while adapting to the prevailing culture of the society. Acculturation is a process in which an individual adopts, acquires and ...
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Onboarding
''Onboarding'' or organizational socialization is the mechanism through which new employees acquire the necessary knowledge, skills, and behaviors in order to become effective organizational members and insiders. In the United States, for example ...
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Socialization
In sociology, socialization or socialisation (see spelling differences) is the process of internalizing the norms and ideologies of society. Socialization encompasses both learning and teaching and is thus "the means by which social and cul ...
References
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Industrial and organizational psychology
Occupations
Professionalism