ABSTRACT
To properly understand the nature of professional values one should appreciate the nature of a profession, which is deliberated in Chapter 9, starting with a synopsis of the history of professions. Ten attributes are presented that characterize those occupations that have been afforded the status of profession. At their core is a value system characterized as the professional ideal, the professional model, or the service model, suggesting an altruistic concern for benefitting society as well as the paying client. Ramifications of the various types of settings in which professionals work are discussed, with special attention to professionals in large hierarchical corporations, and the professional-organizational conflicts that may arise therein. The chapter speculates that there are reasons why such conflicts are less likely to be the case for I-O psychologists than for other professional groups: e.g., (a) I-O psychology historically has been functionally integrated into the administration of business, and (b) I-O psychologists tend to “self-select” from a population that has an organizational orientation marked by values compatible with those of the corporate enterprise.
