The following table generally summarizes our discussions of the distinguishing
characteristics of professions and non-professional vocations. Remember
that few occupations are at either extreme, instead, they fall on a continuous
spectrum depending on the relative presence or absence of the various characteristics
listed below. See also Johnson, chapters 5 and 6, "Definition of a Profession"
by Firmage and "Attributes of a Profession" by Greenwood.
| Professions | Aspects | Vocations |
| scientific, more theoretical,
not understood by others, esoteric, special, intellectual systematic, closed |
body of knowledge | theory only for practice,
rule of thumb generally understandable |
| long, more theoretical
continues |
education | short, by example, drill
ends |
| explicit, active,
central to performance of regular work |
role of scientific (e.g. mathematical) models in normal work | implicit, passive,
unimportant, irrelevant |
| some necessary,
but not sufficient |
skills (e.g. manual skills) | primary requirement |
| full responsibility,
final instance |
expected capability | routine tasks, complications sent to other professions |
| general, broader, unlimited technically, final responsible instance | responsibility | in limited technical domain, more complicated cases referred to professional if necessary |
| strong, based on not commonly understandable knowledge, monopoly of judgement | professional authority | weak, based on skills, experience, generally understandable by laymen |
| peers | control authority, performance evaluation | outsiders |
| paramount | public interest | not an important issue |
| widespread and
directly life threatening |
potential consequences of error | restricted scope or
not/indirectly life threatening |
| independent,
restrictions general, broad |
technical independence | dependent or restricted in well defined ways |
| directly related to body of knowledge | creativity | tangential to body of knowledge |
| clients not really able to judge quality of service rendered | services provided to | customers able to judge quality of service rendered |
| lower (e.g. 50-50%), field often inherently risky | expected success rate | high to 100% |
| qualifications, ability to perform services, negligence | claims based on | success or failure of results |
| non-competitive, may not advertise or advertising restricted, sharing of knowledge and experience encouraged | collegue relations | competitive, little or no limitation on advertising, little or no sharing of knowledge and experience |
| often fuzzy | division/distinction between work and leisure | clear ("9 to 5 job") |
| internal desire to perform well, idealism | motivation | self-interest, financial income |