The Role Of Professionalism In Public Relations

Defining the word “profession” has changed rapidly throughout the years depending on what environment is it linked to. A Profession is labeled by education program that is been taught to every student the same way and is known as a basic platform that cannot be changed throughout their career; a set of steps that need to be followed to assure success in what they are practicing hence they all master the same basic skills and knowledge. An example that will put professionalism in perspective is; every medical student that wants to become a surgeon has to learn how to remove an appendix; the process is standard regardless of where it was taught or what country, this cannot be said regarding public relations due to no set of standard regulations …show more content…
For many years, practitioners as well as scholars have argued concerning ways to improve the professionalism and occupational standing of public relations. A number dimensions of professionalism in public relations have been recognized including activities and skills, levels of salaries, the use of research, the role or function of public relations within a organization, racial as well as gender, ethics, in addition to licensing and accreditation (Wolf & de Bussy , 2009). There are also a number of indicators of professional status, such as a body of theory-based knowledge, specialized education preparation for entry, recognition from the community that the field provides unique services, codes of ethics as well as standards of performance, and independency in practice or acceptance of personal accountability by PR …show more content…
In essence, the push for professionalism particularly occupies an important place in the agendas of professional organizations as well as a prominent concern in the PR scholarship. Much of public relations research as well as theory have often required claiming professional status for PR through defining it as an ethical as well as strategic practice whilst showing its social responsibility and asserting a management discipline (Pieczka & L'Etang, 2001, pp. 270-273). It is argued that public relations will only gain its status once it is recognized as a management area; therefore, when PR is transformed into an actual profession the status as well as salaries of its members will increase. This approach has in particular influenced many of the feminist research in the public relations practice (Wolf & de Bussy ,