OUTLOOK — By Mohammed Al Balushi — Theoretically, professionalism is the knowledge that individuals carry about a certain field. At work, professionalism refers to a person doing his/her job with sincerity, and maintaining professional etiquette and ethics at workplace. It leads to logical and completely unbiased decision-making, making it the basis of a good work environment. In addition to the same theory, professionalism at work is completely devoid of politics, positive politics or mind games. Its root lies in those who do their work with quality and quantity in mind.
Unluckily, and in fact as a ground reality such theories are imbalanced with practices.
Be professional! At workplace, you must be hearing this phrase more than often. Don’t you? Most of the times, they say, for example; he is not professional, she is not professional, the employees of that department are not at all professionals.
Truly, professionalism always remains the main key in the world of business, and non-business as well. Lack of respect for co-workers of all levels, not attending customers’ (internals & externals) telephone calls immediately are some examples of unprofessional attitudes. On the other hand, you won’t feel good when you are unprofessionally treated, either at your workplace or any other institutions.
What if professionalism is lacking at workplace? Things will go personal. Is not it? It really disgusts when things move from professional to personal. Upon the same issues some experts came with the opinions that; if the management likes the person, though, he or she doesn’t perform well and shows productivity in the organisation and for the organisation; they will still be recognised, and awarded, because of the connection, and vitamin “W”.
Employees have witnessed that; there are many organisations where some employees are lacked with qualifications, experiences, and work skills, but they are still well recognised by the management. So, where is the professionalism in managements and organisations? Reading one of the books about “Management Behaviour”, where it highlights that; many people face injustice at work due to lack of professionalism.
Discrimination due to sex, colour, creed, nationality or religion is against professionalism at work.
In one of the surveys which highlight that; the lack of professionalism exists only with the new generations and mostly with new employees. In the same survey Human Resources Management (HRM) professionals had been asked what are the qualities best describe an employee who is considered to be professional. Unfortunately, the (HRM) professionals mentioned only four qualities which were; interpersonal skills, work ethic, appearance and communication skills.
Some other qualities had not been mentioned by them, such as; study background, knowledge, productivity, confidence, time management and experience. One of the recent study which was published in eWeek and identified that; "More than 88 per cent of those surveyed said professionalism is related to the person, not the position in which they work. Nearly 40 per cent found Gen Y to have poor grammar skills; Almost 30 per cent found Gen Y to have a poor attitude, with 27 per cent reporting these workers are 'disrespectful and inconsiderate'."
These trends, while perhaps not as pronounced in other demographics, pose a substantial problem for modern management. Addressing a lack of professionalism in the workplace, in its many forms, requires diligence and tact”.
“In fact, the lack of professionalism also exists with old aged employees (senior management); because the professionalism is behaviour and some believes it is a culture issue. Instead the professionalism should have been increased in the organisations, but the outcome has shown opposite. Managements of all organisations have to rethink, and redefine the professionalism where it may better suits their organisations. The professionalism should not be kept in a “closed glass”; instead it must come out as a best practice. The essentiality of this subject is the importance of professionalism. Why people think that the professionalism is important at workplace? What really it brings to the organisations?
According to my little knowledge and understanding, the professionalism can achieve, and ensure; (excellent performance at workplace, employees will better value the organisational goals as well as their owns, professionalism makes employees motivate in some extent, everyone’s efforts will be well recognised and awarded by the management, fairness will be in place and better shown, and egoism will be avoided).
