Professional Organization

An organization is any social arrangement that has same aims, aspirations, and goals. A professional organization on the other hand, is usually a non-profit group that helps further awareness and goals of a specific profession.

It also acts to protect the interest of the public and the professionals themselves by establishing standards of ethics and regulations. In other cases, professional organizations can also act as labor or trade unions or serve other purposes like legal purposes, licensure and certifications for its members. So what makes an organization, or any organization for that matter, professional?

Let us count the ways. Before we do that, however, let us first define what is an organization is.

What Is An Organization?

The word organization comes from the Greek word organon, which literally means tool. Today, this definition is somewhat corrupted from tool to like-minded individuals. To answer the question, though: an organization is any social arrangement that has same aims, aspirations, and goals. This is a body of people (ranging anywhere from two individuals and more) that have established their own set of rules that regulate their performance as a single body. These rules are what actually define them from everyone else.

In present times, organization may mean a lot of things for different fields of interests. For example: in social sciences, an organization is part of the disciplines being studied and researched on for economics, political science, management, organizational behavior, psychology, and most especially in sociology.

What Is A Professional Organization?

One of the indicators of a professional organization is that it should be a non-profit group; though there are some that do not follow this rule. The term professional organization can be used interchangeably with other terms like: professional association, professional body and even professional society. Almost all professional organizations are created to further awareness and goals of a specific profession. You will never find a professional organization favoring two professions at the same time, because that is going against the grain of their primary function.

Protecting the interest of the public and the professionals themselves are also one of the most primary functions for professional organizations. In certain circles, people claim that these organizations serve the interest of the professionals more than the general public, but this debate really rests on the tide of public opinion. Professional organizations, however, try to establish standards of ethics and regulations when it comes to training, to ensure that their chosen profession remains unblemished in the eyes of the public.

In some extreme cases, particularly among merchants and traders, these professional organizations serve as formal cartels – in a good way, of course. When we say cartel, we mean a price-fixing body that dictates aspects of their industry like: allocation of customers, allocation of territories, bid rigging, establishment of common sales agencies, division of profits, market shares, total industry output, etc. The professional organization’s goal for this matter is to help increase its member’s profits by reducing competition among themselves.

In other cases, professional organizations can also act as labor or trade unions – although description is usually not favored by these organizations or formal labor unions themselves.

Professional organizations may also serve other purposes like legal purposes, licensure and certifications for its members.

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