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Professionalism: Exploring the role and responsibility of
our professional associations
Henczel, Susan, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia Macauley, Peter, RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia
Abstract
This paper explores the roles and responsibilities of today’s professional associations in developing, maintaining and sustaining the professionalism that underpins the profession of librarianship. These include the activities and processes that establish boundaries for the profession; stake the territory in which the profession operates; promote the profession, develop the prestige of the occupation through education, safeguard and protect the specialised knowledge of the field and certify its attainment, develop the standards and regulations by which the profession operates, preserve the integrity of the profession; and keep up with innovations, developments and knowledge which are effectively disseminated to members through communications, publications, conferences, seminars and training processes to support them in improving the services they provide.
This paper intends to initiate discussion about the roles and responsibilities of library associations as the profession evolves within its changing environment - this is critical to members of the profession and also to those shaping the library associations. It also intends to initiate discussion about what it is that constitutes professionalism today as we consider how well the profession is regarded and accepted by society at large. Professionalism influences not only societal regard but also professional identity, with each of those having influence on the future of the profession and what that future may look like.
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Introduction
Our national library associations have a long history with most close to or having already reached their centenary yet disruptions, from information and communication technologies (ICT) to publishing continue to change the nature of the profession they were established to support. Librarianship has become more complex through convergence with other
disciplines/professions including information and/or communications technology, information systems, content management, web design and development, information architecture, records management and knowledge management. The complexity is further exacerbated by the tension between occupational and organizational professionalism as libraries and information units are subsumed into their parent organizations and commitment to the employing organization overtakes conflicts with, and often overwhelmsthe commitment to the profession (Noordegraaf, 2011b; Watson, 2002).
The challenges for our professional associations come in the form of maintaining relevance, resourcing and financial sustainability. Remaining relevant to a profession that has
fundamental tensions and constantly blurring boundaries is difficult, but remaining financially viable in times of increasing competition, economic constraint and disinterest is enormously difficult when there is reliance on membership fees to operate and on an active membership to provide governance for the association and develop and deliver products and services through committees, working groups and projects teams.
For a profession that has had a longstanding battle with being comfortable in its own skin, these challenges can potentially impact significantly on the professional identity and professionalism of its members. This, in turn, influences the broad public perceptions (image, stereotypes etc.) as well as the attractiveness of the profession as an option for those seeking careers. Taking these elements into account it is timely to consider whether the professional association has a role in developing and sustaining the professionalism of the members it supports, and whether there are responsibilities on both the part of the members and the associations to develop and maintain the standards of professionalism that provide clarity around the role of the librarian and his/her place within employing organizations and user communities.
Professional identity and professionalism
As evidenced by the professional literature professional identity and professionalism are inextricably linked. A person’s professional identity is how they see themselves as a
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professional, within a profession. This underpins their professionalism through the behaviours, attitudes and values that underpin their approach to their work.
Professional identity
How a person sees themselves as a professional within their profession influences how they view their work and how they behave as they do their job (Hall, 1968). A person’s
professional identity is one’s professional self-concept based on attributes, beliefs, values, motives, and experiences (Ibarra, 1999). It is well documented in the sociological studies by Evetts (1995, 2003, 2011, 2013) that professional identity construction begins during the educational process and is consolidated through occupational and professional socialization.
Professional associations play a key role in professional identity construction and
maintenance through their involvement in the formal education processes and continuing professional development (CPD), as well as in the ways they facilitate professional
socialization by connecting with their members and enabling members to connect with one another. Occupational socialization occurs both within and external to the workplace as professionals socialize with organizational and industry colleagues rather outside their own profession. Studies that have attempted to measure professionalism have found that
although both types of socialization influence professional identity, professional socialization influences attitudes and values, while occupational socialization influences workplace engagement and motivation (Butter & Hermanns, 2011).
Over a number of decades the profession of librarianship has experienced what some would call an ‘identity crisis’. Putting aside the perpetuating stereotypes, debates about names and titles, and discussions about whether or not librarianship is a ‘real’ profession, the profession has faced levels of change that have broadened roles, blurred the boundaries of the
professional realm through convergence with other disciplines and radically changed user perceptions and expectations. The evolution of roles and responsibilities has resulted in a complexity that changes the way in which individuals relate to the profession and to each other. This in turn influences the professional identity of each member, having
consequences for both the individual and for the profession itself.
For the individual, the tensions between pure professionalism and organizational
professionalism are consequences of the bureaucratic natures of organizations that regulate, prescribe and standardise processes to the point where autonomy is diluted and
professional status is undermined (Noordegraaf, 2011b). This situation influences their connectedness to colleagues, the level to which they share values and sense of purpose and their commitment to ongoing knowledge and skill acquisition (Bauman, 2008; Beaton,
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2010). It influences career choices, CPD and training decisions, and professional networks as well as where they feel they ‘fit’ as a professional as they ‘drift’ into other disciplines. For the professional associations the consequences are ambivalence, disconnect and irrelevance resulting in declining membership and reduced participation and engagement. Some associations are embracing complexity through revised strategies and renewed vision (Lachance, 2006) while others have not survived the transition (Broady-Preston, 2006). As national associations address these roles and responsibilities with varying levels of success their futures lie in how they deal with today’s needs and expectations and the strategies they develop to sustain them.
Professionalism
The concept of professionalism is more than the skills and knowledge of a profession; of equal importance are the values and attitudes inherent in its members. Values such as trust, ethics and honesty sit alongside Hall’s five attitudinal elements of (1) association; (2)
perceived societal benefits; (3) self-regulation; (4) dedication to the profession; and (5) autonomy, to provide a framework for professional behaviour. (Beaton, 2010; Blake &
Gutierrez, 2011; Hall, 1968; Hamilton, 2013). In layman’s terms, and in today’s environment, professionalism is reflected in how people behave as they do their job – the way they apply their knowledge and skill, take control of their career and associated learning, commit to doing their job well, associate with others within their profession and their industry, and how their work is underpinned by their values.
Why do professional identity and professionalism matter?
How librarians approach their work and how they behave in the workplace shape the perceptions of those they interact with and serve, regardless of the sector they work in and regardless of their position or speciality (Archer, 2008). This perception has been shown to go beyond the individual and becomes the public perception of a profession. According to Beaton the professional associations are responsible for establishing and maintaining the aspects of the profession on which perceptions are based (Beaton, 2010). These include standards of practice (professional ethics, duty of care), honesty, due diligence,
perseverance, willingness to listen and learn, and trustworthiness (confidentiality). The associations also have a duty to safeguard and protect the specialized knowledge of the field and to certify its attainment and it is on the effective undertaking of such functions that the acceptance, survival and expansion of the professions will in part depend.
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So what are the role and responsibilities of the professional association in terms of
professional identity and professionalism?
Hall (1968) and Wilensky (1964) tell us that the establishment of a professional association is a core component of a field of work being known as a profession and also a core element in the development of professional identity and professionalism. Hall’s ‘professional model’ acknowledges the professional association as a critical element in the structure of a
profession and one that, through support, interaction and connectedness reinforces one’s identity as a professional and subsequent values, attitudes and behaviours (Blake &
Gutierrez, 2011). The level to which members engage with, commit to and participate in the activities of their professional association are influenced by both professional identity and professionalism (Bauman, 2008; Beaton, 2010).
Professional associations support members of a profession through the accreditation of their formal education, ongoing certification/chartership, the provision of CPD and training,
networks, publications, opportunities to participate in the work of committees, working groups and Boards and the provision of standards and guidelines. Professional library associations have an advocacy role in ensuring that the profession is understood by the appropriate representatives at various levels of government responsible for the allocation of funding for libraries, and by those in public and private sector organizations that employ members of the profession. Such advocacy extends to the users of libraries and information services; those in our communities who use school and public libraries, the academic
communities that use university libraries and information users in organizations and institutions.
As the profession changes and evolves, so must the professional associations. It is the professional associations that set out the “body of knowledge, set of skills and competencies and set of shared or core values” for the profession (Davis, 2008, p. 70) and each of these components must remain aligned with the profession. Watson (2002) suggests that
professional bodies use the rhetoric of professionalism to ‘reinvent’ themselves – where there is disconnect between members of the profession and the association then the association becomes less than representative. There is a need for close bonds between members of a changing profession and the association so that they change in line with one another. Noordegraaf’s works on the relationship between the changing organizational requirements of professions and the resultant changes in what people need from their professional associations suggests that “professional associations, as non-organising forms of social organising, are crucial for construing and organising members. They create and
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symbolize professional behaviours and practices. They bring together professional workers, define professional work, establish boundaries and demarcate fields, standardize work methods and form professional loyalties” (Noordegraaf, 2011a, p. 468).
Some thoughts about the consequences of disruption
The changing nature of the profession and the evolving relationships between members and the associations is a consequence of the wide-ranging disruptions experienced over recent years. Although not unique to the profession of librarianship, these disruptions have altered the fundamental nature of our profession in terms of how we network, communicate and how we maintain our knowledge and skills. They have also altered the perception of our
profession from the perspective of our user communities who have become less reliant on specialist skills and knowledge as their information seeking/use behaviours and attitudes towards information have changed.
Knowledge, territory, education, certification and integrity
Professional association roles and responsibilities include safeguarding specialized
knowledge; protecting and securing boundaries and operational territories for the profession; ensuring that formal education for the profession establishes and maintains the level of prestige appropriate for the profession; certify attainment of specialized knowledge and maintaining the integrity of the profession.
Many of us working in the profession today would have difficulty in articulating the specialized knowledge base that is librarianship in 2013. This is, in part, due to the
broadening of formal professional education to encompass additional elements contained within the shifting boundaries of our profession; convergence of the profession with other disciplines to the point where there is confusion over territories and professional roles and responsibilities; and changes to information user attitudes and behaviours towards
information authority, quality and accuracy.
While associations continue to be involved in the development of curricula for formal professional education the benefits of certification continue to be debated, with only some embracing formal certification processes. Additionally, national library associations in the developed world continue to have voluntary membership. This is in contrast to a growing number of associations in developing countries where membership is mandatory as is ongoing certification through participation in CPD activities.
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Our continual questioning of titles, names (of positions, buildings, and services) and professional purpose through conversations, debates, studies and reports are visible to members of the community that includes our funders and others who make the decisions about out futures. They send messages of insecurity and uncertainty, a blurred identity and a lack of cohesive professionalism that compromises the integrity of the profession internally through the professional identity of members and externally from the perspective of our user communities.
As more librarians work outside libraries we see tensions between organizational and professional requirements. These influence loyalty to the profession and consequently professional identity and professionalism.
Despite our professional associations being established to support the profession much of their efforts lie in supporting the libraries that employ some members of the profession. This seems unique in the world of professions as where in other professions (engineering, accounting, medicine etc.) the support is of the skill and expertise of the professional – not their workplace.
Communication, knowledge dissemination and association
Professional association roles and responsibilities include keeping up with innovations, developments and knowledge and disseminating this through communications, publications, conferences, seminars and training processes; and the creation and facilitation of networks to enable members to connect and communicate with one another.
Social media enables us to experience conferences, training programs and seminars without physically attending; associations have grasped onto ‘virtual participation’ as a cost effective way of providing events, products and services creating further separations between the physical and virtual experience; and professional association publishing is in decline as fewer professionals take the time to research and write causing editors struggle to find quality copy while some associations have handed over their publishing to commercial publishers.
Today we can achieve association through formal and informal networks, non library groups and associations, subject or discipline-specific associations and networks – physical and virtual, professional and social - each of which connects us with colleagues that provide
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sources of ideas, expertise and reference. Social media networks such as LinkedIn, Twitter, and FaceBook now provide flexible ways of connecting and communicating.
Membership of library associations is declining due to factors such as shrinking financial support from employers, greater demands on the professional’s time, the presence of a broad choice of relevant associations including those established to support non-library professions and online services, the cost of membership and/or a perceived lack of value for money (Richards, 2002) and irrelevance (Flanagan, 1992). There is also a lack of interest, especially on the part of younger professional members (King & Maglitta, 1995) although anecdotal evidence suggests that this may have changed in recent years. Additionally, as membership of professional library associations is voluntary, the various levels and types of associations are competing with one another for members.
The implications of declining membership have far reaching effects for education and advocacy. As the accrediting bodies for LIS programs there are implications for the quality and relevance of both professional education and research due to disconnect between the profession and those accrediting the courses and conducting research. Advocacy and lobbying activities are less effective as reduced numbers lessens the ability to influence political agendas and funding arguments. Associations rely on volunteers to form their Boards, committees, work groups and project teams. A smaller membership means a smaller pool of people from which to attract volunteers.
In response to declining memberships associations have chosen to (1) raise membership fees, or (2) broaden the scope of membership to include non-professionals and ‘those interested in libraries’. This dilutes the prestige of association for professionals, which in turn has the potential to influence their professional identity.
Conclusion
This paper does not proclaim to provide answers but rather to initiate discussion about how to respond to the disruptions that are impacting on the profession of librarianship. As the disruptions change the nature of the profession and influence both the professional identity and professionalism of its members there are far reaching implications for the professional territory we claim as ours. We have seen fundamental shifts in not only our boundaries, but also in the way our skills and knowledge are perceived by society at large. With the
increasing complexity and fragmentation of our profession how can we maintain and sustain our professionalism on which the acceptance and survival of our profession depends?
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NOTE:The subject of this paper is part of a larger PhD research project on the impact of
national library associations on the profession of librarianship. For further information please contact the author.
