In pursuit of an escape from these limitations, this chapter has emphasized the need to study the outcomes rather than just the processes of professionalization. Elevated occupational authority was nominated to be the most important evidence and consequence of the professionalization of occupations. That is, the members of professionalized occupations enjoy largely exclusive authority to provide certain services and define the nature of those services. This stress on occupational authority was found to unify rather than contradict existing definitional perspectives on professions.