Earlier researches established that the concept of professionalism is a critical concept which entails controlling workers and organizing work. The idea is with managerial, bureaucratic, and hierarchical controls of both commercial and industrial organizations. According to Evetts (2014), the professionalism of work is continuously changing due to the increase in experts who are working in employing firms. They further point out that experts in sizeable professional service firms (PSFs) and other multinational companies can occupationally control their work and discretionary decision-making process making the concept difficult to sustain (Al-Rumayyan et al. 2017). The paper aimed at establishing the attitude of different professionals regarding professionalism by collecting data designed to measure specific aspects of professionalism.
Methods
A questionnaire was designed to measure some aspects of professionalism. Qualtrics was used to create the survey and distributed through emails. A total of eleven professionals responded to the questionnaire. The statements required the respondent to interpret the questions and behavior at work according to his/her profession. The survey instrument had three sections, first contained questions about the attitude of the professionals; the second section consisted of 10 descriptions related to professionalism, which required respondents to rank them on a scale of 1-10. The last part of the questionnaire had demographics data of the respondents. The paper used descriptive statistics, which include means, standard deviations, and frequencies to analyze the responses of the professionals. The reliability of the instrument was tested using Cronbach Alpha. The results were presented using graphs and tables, which are believed to ease the comprehension of the results.
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Results and discussions
| Statement | Strongly Disagree | Disagree | Neutral | Agree | Strongly Agree | N |
| I systematically read the professional journals |
9.09% |
18.18% |
9.09% |
63.64% |
0.00% |
11 |
| Other professions are actually more vital to society than mine |
9.09% |
9.09% |
36.36% |
27.27% |
18.18% |
11 |
| I make my own decisions in regard to what is to be done in my work |
9.09% |
36.36% |
27.27% |
18.18% |
9.09% |
11 |
| I regularly attend professional meetings at the local level. |
9.09% |
27.27% |
27.27% |
27.27% |
9.09% |
11 |
| I think that my profession, more than any other, is essential for society |
0.00% |
27.27% |
36.36% |
18.18% |
18.18% |
11 |
| My fellow professionals have a pretty good idea about each other's competence |
0.00% |
9.09% |
27.27% |
54.55% |
9.09% |
11 |
| People in this profession have a real “calling” for their work. |
0.00% |
18.18% |
36.36% |
9.09% |
36.36% |
11 |
| The importance of my profession is sometimes over stressed |
0.00% |
9.09% |
36.36% |
36.36% |
18.18% |
11 |
| The dedication of people in this field is most gratifying |
9.09% |
18.18% |
18.18% |
54.55% |
0.00% |
11 |
| I don’t have much opportunity to exercise my own judgment |
0.00% |
9.09% |
45.45% |
45.45% |
0.00% |
11 |
| I believe that the professional organization(s) should be supported. |
9.09% |
0.00% |
9.09% |
63.64% |
18.18% |
11 |
| Some other occupations are actually more important to society than is mine |
18.18% |
9.09% |
45.45% |
18.18% |
9.09% |
11 |
| A problem in this profession is that no one really knows what his/her colleagues are doing |
9.09% |
27.27% |
27.27% |
36.36% |
0.00% |
11 |
| It is encouraging to see the high level of idealism, which is maintained by people in this field |
9.09% |
9.09% |
27.27% |
45.45% |
9.09% |
11 |
| 15. The professional organization doesn’t really do too much for the average member. |
9.09% |
18.18% |
27.27% |
27.27% |
18.18% |
11 |
| We really have no way of judging each other’s competence |
9.09% |
18.18% |
18.18% |
36.36% |
18.18% |
11 |
| Although I would like to, I don’t read the journals too often. |
0.00% |
0.00% |
45.45% |
36.36% |
18.18% |
11 |
| Most people would stay in the profession even if their incomes were reduced |
0.00% |
36.36% |
27.27% |
36.36% |
0.00% |
11 |
| My own decisions are subject to review |
0.00% |
9.09% |
27.27% |
36.36% |
27.27% |
11 |
| There is not much opportunity to judge how another person does his work |
0.00% |
18.18% |
27.27% |
36.36% |
18.18% |
11 |
| I am my own boss in almost every work-related situation |
0.00% |
9.09% |
36.36% |
27.27% |
27.27% |
11 |
| If ever an occupation is indispensable, it is this one |
10.00% |
10.00% |
20.00% |
50.00% |
10.00% |
10 |
| My colleagues pretty well know how well we all do in our work |
0.00% |
20.00% |
30.00% |
30.00% |
20.00% |
10 |
| There are very few people who don’t believe in their work |
0.00% |
9.09% |
36.36% |
45.45% |
9.09% |
11 |
| Most of my decisions are reviewed by other people |
9.09% |
18.18% |
18.18% |
27.27% |
27.27% |
11 |
Table 1 : Descriptive statistics
The table above revealed that the majority of the respondents (63.64%) said they systematically read the professional journals, whereas 18.18% of them disagreed. Similarly, more than a third (36.36%) of the respondents were undecided on whether Other professions are more important to society than theirs, whereas 27.27% agreed. Consequently, most of the respondents disagreed with the rest of the statements as represented in the table above. It implied that professionals have the same attitude towards different aspects of professionalism regardless of one’s profession. Besides, it is also an indication professional feel and behaves equally irrespective of his or her type of job.
Moreover, the list of 10 items that consisted of descriptions related to professionalism in terms of their importance was analyzed. The clients believed that professionalism is based on; Being competent, being compliant with procedures, being qualified and reliable, the level of formal education, the number of certificates/licenses obtained, demonstrating excellence as evidenced by your behavior, personal appearance, and quality of work, being ethical, the number of years of experience, earning professional certificates from professional aviation organizations, the number of ratings obtained. These results are an indication that most of the professionals comprehend that being competent, compliant with procedures, qualified and reliable, are the essential actions that portray professionalism.
Figure 1 : Level of education
Figure 1 above shows that most of the professionals interviewed had a bachelor’s degree. The other remaining portion is distributed evenly on the levels of education, as shown above. It implied that all the levels of education were equally represented in the sample chosen.
|
Age |
Percentage |
Frequency |
|
18-20 |
0.00% |
0 |
|
21-29 |
63.64% |
7 |
|
31-39 |
18.18% |
2 |
|
41-49 |
0.00% |
0 |
|
51-59 |
18.18% |
2 |
|
60 and above |
0.00% |
0 |
|
Total |
100% |
11 |
Table 2 : Age distribution
Based on the table above, most of the survey participants, 63.64%, were between 21 and 29 years, whereas 36.36% of them were between 31 and 59 years.
Reliability analysis
The reliability test usually is used to test the consistency of the research tool, which ensures the internal consistency of the research output. In this study, we found that the Cronbach Alpha coefficient as 0.891 that reveals the robust stability of items and internal uniformity of output. The value is hugely higher than 0.5, which is the threshold value of reliability. The output revealed that the instrument used met the reliability test (Smith, 2015).
Case Processing Summary |
|||
|
N |
% |
||
| Cases | Valid |
11 |
91.7 |
| Excluded |
1 |
8.3 |
|
| Total |
12 |
100.0 |
|
Table 3 : Case processing table
|
Reliability Statistics |
|
|
Cronbach's Alpha |
N of Items |
|
.891 |
25 |
Table 4 : Reliability statistics
Conclusions
The purpose of the study was to determine whether people in different professions have the same attitude towards several aspects of professionalism. The research established that professionals have the same attitude towards various aspects of professionalism regardless of one’s job. Besides, it is also an indication professional feel and behaves equally irrespective of his or her type of profession. Moreover, the study found that most of the professionals regard competency, compliance with procedures, quality, and reliability of employees as the essential actions that portray professionalism. The test of reliability shows that the research instrument met the consistency, which ensures the internal consistency of the research results.
References
Al-Rumayyan, A., Van Mook, W. N. K. A., Magzoub, M. E., Al-Eraky, M. M., Ferwana, M., Khan, M. A., & Dolmans, D. (2017). Medical professionalism frameworks across non-Western cultures: A narrative overview. Medical teacher , 39 (sup1), S8-S14.
Evetts, J. (2014). The concept of professionalism: Professional work, professional practice and learning. In International handbook of research in professional and practice-based learning (pp. 29-56). Springer, Dordrecht.
Smith, J. A. (Ed.). (2015). Qualitative psychology: A practical guide to research methods . Sage.
