ABSTRACT
This chapter summarises what happened to the traditional professions against which a “professional project” is measured, to the Institute’s “professional project”, its role as a “qualifying association”, and the extent to which it controls and constructs the practitioner. It examines the ways in which the Institute carried through the organisational work required to look like a traditional ‘profession’ in relation to the dimensions of traditional professionalism—collective organisation, knowledge and values. Scholars and commentators have seen different forms of professionalism occurring and new occupations with their own professionalisations occurring, and observers place the occupation of the personnel/human resource practitioners among such occupations despite the Institute’s claim to longevity. The way in which the Institute’s membership grew and how the Institute organised the membership over the twentieth century are essential elements in demonstrating a coherent and significant organisation that could claim to represent an occupation.
