ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the main features or characteristics that ‘professionals’ themselves would stress in order to distinguish themselves as professionals to others. It explores how the organization and structure of accounting practices in the UK mediates the concept of being an accountant. The chapter outlines the main theoretical approaches to the study of the professions. It examines the dimensions of the institutional configuration of accountancy in the UK that mediate in both positive and negative ways the capacity of accountancy’s members to maintain an identity with being professionals. The chapter analyses three important aspects of configuration: institutional fragmentation, occupational diversity, and the existence and influence of the large multinational auditing firms. Professional socialization is one aspect of adult socialization which is required of those people wishing to become formally recognised as a member of a profession including professionals working within organizations.
