Elsevier

Collegian

Volume 16, Issue 4, December 2009, Pages 177-183
Collegian

Why fellowship? Peak professional bodies, peer recognition and credentialing in Australia

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.colegn.2009.06.002Get rights and content

Summary

Background

Professions frequently distinguish themselves from trades or vocations, by creating professional peak bodies. Usually professional peak bodies offer two levels of subscription: membership and fellowship. Fellowship of a peak body is widely considered as offering status and prestige by recognising contribution made to one's profession. Fellowship therefore, often brings with it specific privileges of a symbolic or material nature, or both.

Aim

To describe the criteria for eligibility for fellowship; the perceived benefits of fellowship to individuals from the organisations’ viewpoint; the process of obtaining and maintaining fellowship across a range of professional peak bodies; and to apply the outcomes from the survey to nursing professional peak bodies.

Method

A telephone survey of 25 professional organisations representing a range of disciplines and industries in Australia was conducted. Each organisation was telephoned and the manager responsible for membership was invited to participate in a 10-min telephone survey.

Results

Of the 25 organisations approached, 24 agreed to participate (response rate 96%). For six (25%) of these participating organisations, membership was exclusively limited to nurses and/or midwives. Fellowship was offered in 22 organisations (92%). Significant professional experience (73%) was the most frequently cited criterion for fellowship. Professional leadership/contribution to the profession was listed by less than half (45%) organisations surveyed. Over half (55%) of those organisations that offered fellowship programs also were credentialing bodies. The main benefit of fellowship reported was the prospect of peer recognition and higher professional standing (77%).

Discussion

The majority of organisations reported offering fellowship status and all had criteria for fellowship. The most frequently cited criteria were, however, based on longevity in the profession and continued financial membership rather than demonstrated leadership within the profession. There was variability in how fellowship was attained and maintained which may be linked to whether organisations have a credentialing role or not. A more in depth study of fellowship is warranted.

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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Copyright © 2009 Royal College of Nursing, Australia. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.