Management practice graduating towards professionalism …
Rajashekhar Devarai
Chief Librarian, Asian School of Business Management, BBSR
Gossip having its roots in common sense and conventional wisdom is close to hearts of humans. The beauty of gossip is that one need not do any exercise or work for it. One can just get engaged in and it surrounds around human sensible events, behavior and happenings. It surrounds around concepts like status, prestige, honour, humiliation, insult, achievement, humour, failure etc. We all are party to gossips some time or the other. Psychologists of late acknowledge the importance of gossip …. in relieving ones stress levels. How is it that gossip is relevant to the topic chosen for discussion today i.e., professionalism of management? In day-today gossips we find people in general, using terms / phrases like : Occupation, profession, professionalism, be a professional, show your professionalism etc. But I doubt with what connotations and meanings we use theses terms and phrases. May be, by being professional we mean to be more sincere …. more tactful …. more technical, more smart … more educated and so on. By having such a limited meaning of the word profession and professionalism …. how close are we towards the actual meaning of these. I am not kidding, calling oneself a professional has almost become a fashion. ................................... Last but not the least, we should acknowledge the contribution of Sociologists who have been studying occupations, jobs, works and crafts and of course Professions for quite some years. The field of study is popularly known as 'Sociology of Professions'. The trend reports brought out by Indian Council of Social Science Research are worth reading with regard to literature reviews on professions. It looks like an abrupt ending …. no I told you …. it is little more than a gossip …so gossips end abruptly. The view points are deliberately put in first person to make it a light reading. I don't think I will be able to make it more lighter a reading than this. This discussion is little more than a gossip and common sense. If the intellectual curiosities of practicing managers / professionals is raised the purpose of the write up is served. The making of a profession and calling is more mysterious and historical than we imagine. Have interest to know more … dil mangta hai more ? have a look at the recommended readings.
FULL TEXT SEE FURTHER AT : Devarai, R.S. 2011. Management practice graduating towards professionalism ... .-Samadhan : Annual Magazine 2010-11.-Bhubaneswar : ASBM Institute of BBA and Junior College, pages 22-24 ; Institutional Link : http://www.asbm.ac.in/asbm/
Recommended Readings :
1. Alonso, W et.al. (Ed). 1963. The Professions. Daedalus : Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.-92(4).
2. Devarai, R.S and Damodaram, T. 1993. Information for the common man and the future of Librarianship : a critical analysis. "Indian Journal of Information, Library and Society" 6(1-2) 84-92.
3. Devarai, R.S and Ramesh, L.S.R.C.V.1999. Librarianship and the professional model : a sociological tutorial and critique".- Library Science With a Slant to Documentation and Information Studies 36(3).
4. Etzioni, E (Ed).1969. The Semi – Professions and their organization.-Toronto : The Free Press, Macmillan.
5. Gerstl, J and Jacobs, G (Ed). 1976. Professions for the people.-New York : John Wiley.
6. Johnson T.J.1972.Professions and Power. London : Macmillan Press.
7. Khurana, R and Nohria, N.2008. It is time to Make Management a True Profession.-Harvard Business Review, October 2008.
8. Sharma, S.L.1985. Sociology of professions in India. IN "Survey of Research in Sociology and Social Anthropology.-New Delhi : ICSSR.
9. "It is time to make Management a True Profession. A rigorous code of ethics will make you a better manager. Society will also benefit, too. ….. True professions have codes of conduct and the meaning and consequences of those codes are taught as part of the formal education of their members. A governing body, composed of respected members of the profession, oversees members compliance. …. On balance we believe that a profession, with well-functioning institutions of discipline, will curbs misconduct because moral behavior is an integral part of the identity of professionals – a self-image most are motivated to maintain." – Rakesh Khurana and Nitin Nohria (HBR, October 2008).
Librarianship is a noble profession
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