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What Is a Profession, and What Are the Prerequisites for Being a Profession?

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Professionalizing Leadership

Abstract

In this chapter, I have looked into what qualifies a profession, and highlighted some conditions of professional status that will be particularly relevant in the later discussions of leadership as a profession. For the purpose of the question of this book, I have chosen three main topics: Education, competence and discretion; Autonomy, ethical rules and self-control; and Monopoly. The question of whether leadership should turn into a true profession also raises questions about the relationship between professions, organizations, authorities and users. Some of these questions concerns Dedifferentiation and De-professionalization, which I address in the end of this chapter.

Thanks to Malinda Labriola for helpful proof reading.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The title is my translation.

  2. 2.

    My translation.

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Otterlei, J.B. (2018). What Is a Profession, and What Are the Prerequisites for Being a Profession?. In: Örtenblad, A. (eds) Professionalizing Leadership. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71785-2_2

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