ABSTRACT
The characteristic beliefs about professionalism emphasize the differences between professions, divisiveness in organizational structure, and autonomy in the form of peer-sanctioned activity on the part of the professional. The systems approach requires a focus on the output, the benefit, or service to be derived from the professional's activity in concert with others rather than a focus on the professional's discrete or unique contribution. Subunits are specialized in terms of specific health problems such as disease control, maternal and child health, or environmental control. In the health field the honor and the status accorded the physician has served to legitimate and cement an extremely complex organization of professional and technical specialists. Howard S. Becker suggests that the meaning of "profession" is best used in the sense of a folk concept rather than as a definitive scientific concept and that the term calls forth, or is symbolic of, a set of ideas or beliefs which in themselves perform certain functions in society.
