Why fellowship? Peak professional bodies, peer recognition and credentialing in Australia
Section snippets
Peer recognition and the professional bodies
Peer recognition is an issue for the professions which argue that their claim to a perceived (and real) higher status in the hierarchy of work and occupations is forged from the individual and collective status and human capital generated in the process of becoming a member of a particular professional occupational group. Access to the traditional professions (e.g. medicine and the law), is generally gained via a rigorous preparatory phase whereby novitiates acquire a primary qualification (at
Method
A convenience sample of 25 professional organisations representing a range of disciplines and industries in Australia were invited to participate. Each organisation was telephoned and the manager of the membership and/or the fellowship program was identified (herein called the manager). The manager was given verbal information about the study and invited to complete a 10-min telephone survey.
Instrument
The first question in the two-paged survey instrument asked managers if the organisation offered fellowship (one question). Where fellowship was offered, the managers were asked to specify the criteria for fellowship eligibility in their organisation (one question).
The managers then were asked if their organisation was a credentialing body and, if so, whether fellowship was part of the credentialing process (two questions). Next, managers were asked if fellowship was initiated by an invitation
Data analysis
Data were analysed using SPSS Version 14.0. Frequencies for questionnaire responses were calculated for all variables. Key words and themes in the open-ended response items were identified and coded.
Results
There were 25 representatives of professional organisations invited to participate in our survey (Box 1). Of these, 24 agreed to participate (response rate 96%). Twenty-one of the 24 (86%) had the word ‘college’ or institute’ in their title. The majority of managers stated that their organisation offered fellowship (n = 22, 92%). Managers from these 22 organisations outlined 12 criteria for eligibility of applicants for fellowship of their organisation. The most frequently cited criteria were:
Discussion
Fellowship was an integral part of the majority (92%) of the organisations surveyed as a method to acknowledge service and a significant contribution to the profession. The use of criteria for eligibility for fellowship, that is, ‘fellowship qualifiers’ confirm the notion of a profession as a cultural phenomenon that values the criteria of constancy and consistency in an individual's performance and recognises and rewards merit and ambition. Most (88%) of the professional bodies surveyed
Conclusion
The data presented here provide a snapshot of the ways professional bodies across Australia recognise and reward their members and highlight a range of similarities and differences in form and function. However, the similarities appear to outweigh the differences which suggest a level of consistency about what constitutes a peak professional body, and more significantly, how fellowship is constructed as a category superior to membership.
It would also appear that the difference in the processes
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Cited by (1)
Hidden Jedi: A critical qualitative exploration of the Fellow credential and advanced expertise
2020, Nutrition and Dietetics