IS MANAGEMENT A PROFESSION ?

• Alec Horniman, Univ. of Virginia - "a profession has a set of standards that are defined, recognized, and acknowledged which implies the right way for the profession to be practiced"
• C. William Thomas, Professor at Baylor Univ. - people who practice in a profession are "franchised by the public to perform a particular service"
• Louis Brandeis, Supreme Court Justice - a profession is an occupation that is "pursued largely for others" and for which "financial return is not the accepted measure of success."
• David Vogel, UC Berkeley - "management is not a profession and is unlikely to become one." If management were a profession, managers "would not be allowed to practice unless they were certified, but how could something like this be enforced? Would this mean that Bill Gates - who did not even graduate college - would not have been allowed to start or grow Microsoft?"