What is a profession?

By Taona Sibanda – June 2022

We professionals, but what is a profession? The word is very imprecise. At one extreme it may mean any calling or vocation hence we have infrequently encountered people randomly calling themselves professionals to justify their integrity in business.

On the other hand, a profession may embrace only such callings as law and medicine yet from whichever dimension one looks at it, there has never been any doubt that there is a need to preserve certain fraternities as professions. in Britain, up to the 19th century, only the church, the law and medicine were regarded as professions (they were the learned professions). Today an examination of various vocations and callings guides us in understanding what fits into the idea of a profession as opposed to trading activities.

The essential difference between professional and trading activities lies in the functions involved. There is a difference, for instance, between the supply of furniture or groceries and the supply of skilled advice on the basis of trust and confidence. For this reason, it has been noted as follows: “Professions and business have traditionally been contrasted. The professional is seen as oriented not to personal profit but to disinterested tasks like the advancement of knowledge. “Professionalism involves limitations on the aggressive pursuit of self-interest. Professionals subordinate their financial interests to the interests of the public, especially to people who need help.” Against this background, a profession has been defined as a vocation founded upon specialised educational training, the purpose of which is to supply disinterested counsel and service to others, for direct and definite compensation, wholly apart from expectation of other business gains.

Members of a profession behave professionally by acting in a way that accords with accepted professional standards. One such standard is the independence of the profession. Professions, whatever their nature, may be succinctly defined as a self-regulating body of people whose members: Are recognised as having some special skill or learning in some field of activity in which the public needs to be protected against incompetence; Are identifiable by reference to a register or record; Belong to a representative organisation that sets and enforces professional standards; Perform advisory functions and accept personal responsibility for their advice; hold themselves as willing to serve the public and; Submit to a set of rules which impose higher standards of conduct than those required by law of the ordinary citizen.

Some of these rules are set in tablets of stone but others are subject to change over the years to reflect the changes in society generally and the role of professionals in society. Among those cast in iron is the independence of professionals in assisting the public. Clearly, the independence of a profession is imperative. It safeguards a peculiar kind of relationship between professionals and those who do not belong to the profession.

The relationship is peculiar in that it arises from the complexity of the subject matter which, by its nature, deprives the client of the ability to make informed judgments on his own and so renders him to a large extent dependent upon the professional man. When third parties interfere in this delicate relationship by tampering with the independence of professional men in professional pursuits, society will be at serious risk. Taona Sibanda is an Advocate of the Superior Courts of Zimbabwe practicing at The Temple Bar Chambers in Harare.

He is contactable on his email address taonasibanda@gmail.com or on WhatsApp at +263 715015607.