Professionalism on the Job
Job professionalisminvolves doing things right and doing the right things (McKenna, 1992;Ackoff, 1999).This holistic view of professionalism encompasses a large spectrum of characteristics that defines professionalism. A professional must be capable of handling all the details of his or job and model the appropriate ethical and moral behaviors deemed appropriate. Therefore, job professionalism is an expectation of carrying out job responsibility in a manner that meets the approval of all stakeholders in an ethical and moral manner.
Professionalism is the embodiment of attitude, dress, actions, and knowledge necessary to carry out the functions of a job in a manner conducive to repeat business. In short, job professionalism is the ability to impress in-order to achieve success. Job professionalism is a necessity in-order to create a sustainable business. Having a professional attitude is essential in job professionalism. Every employee must be involved in the leadership of an organization and is accountable and responsible for the quality the business produces. This quality includes appearance of people, property, and communications.
Quality improvement involves doing the right things. One of the most important aspects of a business is to obtain a profit from all its business activity. Each employee is responsible for his or her conduct on the job that will facilitate improving the bottom line. Business processes has mandates every employee must meet satisfy the customer’s needs. Therefore, providing excellent customer service is necessary. Being professional means having the right tools, attitude, behavior, and dress to meet the demands of the most important stakeholder of a company, the customer.
Because having customers is essential to doing business, doing the right things is paramount. Customers expect friendly professional service that meets their needs. Being professional in meeting the customer needs include knowing the product, price, and performance requirements of the customer. Each employee should understand the product and be capable of describing the important features of the product to the customer.
Therefore, job professionalism is the performance of all job related activities in the most efficient, ethical, and moral manner. Attendance, dress, behavior, attitude, customer service, job performance, hygiene, are essential characteristics of a professional. Employees must carry out the expectations of the employer responsibly. These characteristics require proficiency or the expectation that the individual is highly skilled in his or her job. The foundational principle of doing things right and doing the right things is the expectation that employees dress appropriately and conduct themselves appropriately at all times as representatives of their company.
