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Professions in a globalizing world: towards a transnational

sociology of the professions?

James R Faulconbridge,

Department of Geography, Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, UK.

Email:j.faulconbridge@lancaster.ac.uk

Daniel Muzio,

Leeds University Business School, Leeds University, UK.

Email: dm@lubs.leeds.ac.uk

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Professions in a globalizing world: towards a transnational

sociology of the professions?

Abstract

An extensive literature traces and theorizes the emergence of processes of

globalization and how these are re-negotiating and re-structuring existing economic,

political and cultural settlements. Globalization has certainly significant implications

for the incumbent professions, with both the societies and the regulators around them

changing and taking-on new characteristics and forms. The realities of professional

work and organization are also taking on an increasingly global dimension. However,

whilst we dont lack empirical studies of the internationalization of individual

professions, the implications of processes of globalization, re-regulation and

governmental rescaling for existing theoretical understandings of professionalism and

professionalization has not received the same attention. This paper seeks to rectify

this gap in our knowledge by developing a transnational sociology of the professions

by drawing on existing theoretical frameworks and reworking them so as to take

account of the transnational re-scaling of the world the professions inhabit. By

outlining and theorizing the implications of this emerging transnational sociology of

the professions and recasting theoretical approaches we identify ways that theories of

the professions can effectively get to grips with an important series of new research

questions about transnational professional projects and practices.

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Introduction

In many ways, studies of the sociology of the professions and their focus on

accountancy, architecture, the clergy, law and medicine, have provided a

comprehensive analysis of the actors, strategies, power relations and knowledge-

claims associated with the institutionalization of a profession (Abbott, 1988; Burrage

et al, 1990; Johnson, 1972; Larson, 1977; Parsons, 1954; Freidson, 1986; MacDonald,

1995). In particular, this work has drawn attention both to the supposed functional

role of professional projects (the setting and maintaining of standards in relation to

competence and ethics) but also the more political and self-interested dimensions of

such projects (the creation and maintenance of monopoly, restriction in numbers of

practitioners and the maintenance of exclusivity that helps sustain fee levels and

social standing). As a result, more recent debates have evolved to focus on the

changing identities of professionals (Aldridge and Evetts, 2003; Fournier, 2002) and

on contemporary meanings of professional competence and responsibility (Evetts,

2003; Svennson, 2006) with less analytical work focussing on the political-economic

underpinnings of professional projects: i.e. the intricate negotiations between the

professions and other actors such as the state that lead to the maintenance and

reproduction of professional practices, privileges and values.

One consequence of this recent disinterest in the formation and resilience of the

professions is a paucity of attempts to consider the theoretical implications of changes

in professional strategies and tactics as a result of processes of globalization. There is

now an extensive literature that traces the emergence of the interconnecting networks

and flows of globalization processes which lead to what Castells (2000) terms the

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network society, what Urry (2000) calls a sociology beyond societies and what

Hannerz (1996) refers to as transnational connections. Moreover the rescaling of

governance both downwards (sub-national level) and upwards (transnational level)

has been highlighted as part of a spatio-temporal crisis in which neoliberal agendas

increasingly lead to the hollowing-out of the nation-state as a range of sub and supra-

national organizations (Jessop, 1994, 2000) and multi-scalar governance systems

emerge (Hudson, 2004; Jessop, 2005). These processes of globalization have

significant implications for the incumbent professions, with both the societies and the

regulators around them changing and taking-on new characteristics and forms.

However, whilst we dont lack empirical studies of the internationalization of

individual professions (Cooper and Robson, 2006; Evetts, 1998, 2002; Faulconbridge

et al, 2008; Faulconbridge and Muzio, 2007; Flood, 1995; 1996; Fourcade, 2006;

Suddaby et al, 2007; Morgan and Quack, 2005), the implications of processes of

globalization and governmental rescaling for existing theoretical framings of

professional projects have not received the same attention.

This paper seeks to rectify this gap in our knowledge by developing a transnational

sociology of the professions by drawing on existing theoretical frameworks and

reworking them so as to take account of the transnational re-scaling of the world the

professions inhabit. We draw attention to the implications of the transnational

mobility and connection of professionals, their work and clients and of the re-scaling

of professional governance regimes in which legitimacy and power are gained from

increasingly transnational as well as national endeavours. This evolution, which

affects the regulation of both the production of producers (closure regimes granting

access to professional occupations) and the production by producers (systems

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regulating professional practice) (Abel, 1988) cannot be fully understood according to

existing theoretical framings. In addition we also show how the global professional

service firm has itself become a site of professionalization and an actor in professional

projects, something which is missed in existing theories of the professions. By

outlining and theorizing the implications of this emerging transnational sociology of

the professions and recasting theoretical approaches we identify ways that theories of

the professions can effectively get to grips with an important series of new research

questions about transnational professional projects and practices.

The Sociology of the Professions: From globally universal to nationally

contingent

The sociology of the professions was born with a distinctively Anglo-American focus

which identified the professions as spontaneous associations of gentlemen that emerge

autonomously to institutionalize and regulate a specific area of practice (Johnson,

1972; Larson, 1977). Whilst some authors emphasized the functional, public spirited

and even civilizing intentions behind these initiatives and drew attention to the way

professional guilds allowed knowledge bases, ethical and altruistic values and

standards to be upheld in relation to public safeguard services such as law and

medicine (Carr-Saunders and Wilson, 1933; Parson 1954), others connected

professional projects to the exercise of power and pursuit of self-interest by elite

groups that seek to create a monopoly for their services and restrict numbers in a

profession so as to maintain fee levels and social standing (Freidson, 1970; Johnson,

1972; Larson, 1977). All, however, initially suggested that professionalization was a

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bottom up process which developed, at least initially, independently from the states

direct intervention. Indeed, many of the traits which underpin orthodox

understandings of professionalism such as independence, autonomy, discretion,

collegiality, partnership and self-regulation were said to be born out of this peculiar

pattern of institutionalization in which professional guilds actively defend their right

to exclusively provide services.

Such Anglo-American perspectives dominated the study of the professions for many

years, with work tending to abstract and generalize what are peculiar characteristics of

particular professions (law and medicine) in specific historical and geographical

contexts (19th century Britain and America) as universal and intrinsic features of

professionalism as a sociological phenomenon (Evetts, 2003). From early on, then,

the sociology of the professions had a propensity to take the professions as a universal

phenomenon unaffected by time-space heterogeneity. Therefore, the professions were

conceived to be geographically consistent in terms of processes of emergence and

sociological effect. The double volume by Burrage and Torstendhal (1990) and

Torstendhal and Burrage (1990) operates, however, as an important correction to such

spatially-challenged conceptualisations, re-orientating the field of research along

more comparative grounds.

Nation-states and professional projects

Burrage and Torstendahl (1990) and Tostendahl and Burrage (1990) show, through

the study of professionalization patterns in continental societies which are generally

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characterised by a strong and interventionist state and a large and powerful civil

service apparatus, that the relationship between the professions and the state involves

more than a universal form of agreed compromise. In particular they show how the

state was directly involved in the institutionalisation, reorganisation and regulation of

professional expertise and was the main end-user of professional and technical

services in a number of contexts (Freidson 1994). This was a very different situation

to that which existed in the Anglo-American world where the autonomy of the

professions from the state was seen as a key feature of professionalization.

Growing recognition of such a distinctively continental approach to

professionalization in which a dirigist state drove forward professionalization as part

of broader projects of nation building and govermentality (Johnson, 1993; Siegrist

1990) heralded a renaissance for the sociology of the professions. A recasting of

theoretical approaches took place as recognition of top-down process of professional

formation tied to state interest, power and agency drew scholars attention to new

actors in professionalization processes who were previously ignored but who deserved

further analytical scrutiny. Perhaps of most significance in this regard is the work of

Burrage et al. (1990) who provide an actor-based framework to account for the

intricate interactions and fluid negotiations between the different agents (producers,

consumers, policy makers, regulators and academics) involved in processes of

professionalization. These interactions and negotiations relate to two key objectives of

professional projects: the ability to control, through a licensing process, access into a

profession (regulation of the production of producers) and the ability to control,

through deontological codes and self-regulation, the behaviour of qualified

professionals (the regulation of the production by producers) (Abel, 1988). The

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unique contribution of Burrage et al.s (1990) work is the identification of four key

actors who, owning to their varying interests, resources, capabilities and roles, are

responsible for producing spatially and historically heterogeneous outcomes in terms

of such processes of professionalization. The four actors identified in this approach

are:

1. Practitioners who through their professional association seek to identify,carve-out and protect an area of exclusive competence so to maximize

financial and status rewards.

2. Users of professional services who, through their demands and expectations,determine the way the professions practice and organize them selves.

3. States who either grant autonomy and self-regulation to professionals andtheir associations (Anglo-American context) or actively license them and

regulate them as a quasi civil service (Continental European context).

4. Universities which produce the knowledge-base of the professions andprovide the credentials (an approved degree) that support professional closure

regimes.

Burrage et al. showed how, across national boundaries, these four actors played

historically different roles in the establishment and regulation of professional

occupations whilst also influencing the day-to-day practice of professionals and their

understanding of their duties, responsibilities, loyalties and ethical standards.

Specifically, the robustness of the two pillars of professional projects - the regulation

of the production of producers and the regulation of the production by producers

(Abel, 1988) is shown by Burrage et al. to be tied to the specific interactions

between these four actors.

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Most significantly for our argument here, the theoretical contribution of Burrage et al.

(1990) redirected studies of the professions towards the sustained analyses of time-

space variations in the status and role of professions such as law and medicine and

heralded the framing of these differences within broader debates about the varieties of

capitalism (Buchner-Jeziorska and Evetts, 1997; MacDonald, 1995; Faulconbridge

and Muzio, 2007; Morgan and Quack, 2005). In particular, nationally-specific

professional projects have been shown to lead to:

Variations in the knowledge base of the professions. In all contexts,knowledge-based credentials act as an important device for controlling

standards of practice and regulating entry to a profession. In some contexts

(such the UK and USA) the profession, through its representative body and

through negotiations with the state, defines the knowledge-base of

practitioners and the credentials needed to claim a professional title. In other

contexts (e.g. Germany, Italy) the state alone defines the knowledge base and

training program. The result is important differences both in the content and

processes of education (e.g. law degrees) but also in the cultures and values

of professionals (e.g. their ethical dispositions) (see Krause, 1996;

International Journal of the Legal Profession, 2002; MacDonald, 1995).

Variations in the role of the professions in society. Following on from theeffects of education, the particular understanding of the role and nature of a

profession will significantly influence its mandate and relationship with

users. For example, in the Anglo-American context the autonomy of the legal

profession has allowed it to develop a close relationship with business over

the past century. In contrast, in Germany the control of the legal professional

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by the state and the definition until recently of professionals such as

accountants and lawyers as exclusively civil servants has emphasized

professional services as forms of technical expertise rather than as value-

adding commercial resources (see Morgan and Quack, 2005; Flood, 2007;

Faulconbridge et al., 2008). This has in turn historically limited the

development of large commercially orientated professional services firms.

The commitment of particular governments to neo-liberal programmes ofreform, which emphasize ideas such competition, customer choice and

budgetary discipline (Muzio and Ackroyd, 2005), has a series of important

and nationally distinct implications for the professions. Particularly

noteworthy here is once again the distinction between Anglo-Saxon and

Continental Societies. The former have demonstrated a particularly reformist

zeal in tackling what one of their key representatives (the British Prime

Minister Margaret Thatcher) once termed as the little republics of the

professions (Burrage, 1997). In the Anglo-American context we have seen

the partial dismantling of professional monopolies and liberalization of the

markets for expertise, de-regulation and the lifting of many restrictive

practices, the introduction of corporate ownership structures and private

sector management practices and techniques as well as the reduction of

public expenditure on professional services. In continental societies,

however, reforms have been much more cautious, slow, piecemeal and

contested with the result that the system of the profession operates with a

great deal of continuity (Reed, 2007).

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Scale-jumping in studies of the professions

In effect, then, work on the sociology of the professions jumped scales and moved

from the universal in the form of studies of Anglo-American professional projects

which were assumed to have global relevance, to the national through the study of

state-specific projects and their similarities and variations. This switch in emphasis

was important for sustaining the intellectual vibrancy of scholarly work on the

professions. But, as is so often the case when forms of scale-jumping occur, this

recognition of the importance of geographical sensitivity in the sociology of the

professions has led to the fetishising of one scale, in this case the national, at the

expense of others scales that are just as important in theoretical conceptualisations.

From a historical perspective, it would be possible to develop such an argument by

calling for more emphasis on the regional and local dimensions of professionalism

and professionalization, something particularly significant in the US context where

state-level registration and professional associations have long been important in

professional projects (Krause, 1996). Here, however, we want to develop a more

detailed scrutiny of the implications of the transnational spaces that now pervade

negotiations in professional projects. Whilst no-one would doubt the importance of

recognising the independent development of professions in different national contexts,

the last 20 years have delivered with growing intensity new forms of transnational

connectivity, flow and regulatory re-scaling that are producing subtle changes in the

role and spatiality of the once nationally-embedded actors identified by Burrage et al.

(1990).

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In the rest of the paper we, therefore, consider how the development of various forms

of transnationality impact upon the functional and political dimensions of professional

projects, in particular in the European context. We do this by focusing on two specific

areas of transnational re-scaling which illustrate the impact of globalization on

current professionalism: the rescaling of the regulation of the professions and the rise

of the large global professional service firm (GPSF). Both developments have a

number of serious implications for how we understand, theorize and research

professions and professional projects.

Professions in a globalizing world I: The rescaling and emergence of

transnational governance

One of the most provocative debates over the past twenty years has centred on the

changing role of the nation-state in light of the emergence of new governmental

agents that operate at the transnational but also sub-national level (see for example

Bauman, 2000; Held et al., 1999; Sassen, 1998). Swyngedouw (1997) adopts the term

glocalization to capture this process and the apparent pincer movement from above

(e.g. the World Trade Organization) and below (e.g. local social movements) that

has changed the nation-states role in governance whilst others speak of a hollowing-

out of the nation-state (Jessop, 1992). Increasingly, this has led to sudies focussed on

the interrelationships between different scales and the way the nation-state interacts

with supra- and sub-national agents as part of contemporary governance (Cox, 1998).

As a result it has been suggested that scales of governance do not operate as

hierarchical structures in which the global is more powerful than the local. Instead, it

is argued that there are nested scales in which the interaction between multiple agents

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defines contemporary governance regimes (Brenner, 2001; Jessop, Brenner and Jonas,

2008).

Of particular significance for the professions has been the development of new forms

of transnational governance as part of these re-scaling processes. As noted above,

existing studies of the professions often take for granted the ability of national agents

(whether professional associations or governments) to accomplish the two pillars of

professionalization: the regulation of the production of producers (qualification into

the profession) and the regulation of the production by producers (the behaviour of

qualified professionals) (Abel, 1988). However, transnational regulatory frameworks

such as the World Trade Organization and the European Union, together with new

forms of soft governance in which there is governance without government (Djelic

and Sahlin-Andersson, 2006), are qualitatively changing the role of national agents in

the regulation of the professions. For example, soft governance results from the way

nation-states and other economic actors reach workable compromises about the

regulation of economic activities without resorting to formalised agreements

(Suddaby et al, 2007; Arnold, 2005). It also results from the development of

transnational standards by groups such as the International Competition Network

which seek to create standardised worldwide conditions for economic processes such

as the management of antitrust (competition) issues (see Morgan, 2006) or the

International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) which seeks to develop aligned

reporting formats for auditing transnational corporations (Suddaby et al., 2007).

Firms, states and professions, therefore, agree to abide by these soft governance

standards set as part of coordinated attempts to promote economic gain and to develop

the type of unimpeded cross-border trade at the heart of neo-liberal agendas (Arnold,

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2005). Other examples of both hard and soft transnational governance that have

affected the professions include new organizations such as The United Nations

Commission on International Trade Law or the International Institute for the

Unification of Private Law (Quack, 2007), standards such as the Generally Accepted

Accounting Principles (GAAP) in accountancy, bodies of knowledge such as EU Law

and regulatory frameworks such as the EU Service Directive (Evetts, 2002) and the

General Agreement on Trade in Services Article VI:4 (Arnold, 2005) which pursue

the liberalization and internationalization of professional services more generally

(Evetts, 2002; Cooper and Robson, 2006; Dezalay and Sugarman, 1995).

These transnational institutions provide the sites, standards, knowledges, and

vocabularies of professional practice (tools which allow the regulation of the

production of producers and their delivery of services), and, therefore, the institutional

scaffolding to which professionalization projects are increasingly (if somewhat

loosely) attached. Sakka and Willmott (1995) reveal the implications of this for the

UK accountancy profession by charting the effects of the Eighth EC Directive on the

jurisdictional boundaries of accountants. The transnational directive sought to align

the jurisdiction of accountants across Europe and limit their work to audit procedures.

The was vigorously resisted by the UK profession and whilst the directives ambitions

were thwarted, the case study reveals the significance of transantional regimes of

governance for what are often assumed to be national professional projects. Of course,

this new compact reflects a growing community of interest and intent structured

around the Washington Consensus (Suddaby et al, 2007) and a common neoliberal

agenda concerned with removing restrictive barriers and opening up domestic markets

to global trade and investment flows (crucially including investment and trade in

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professional services themselves). Economic interest also ties the elites of global

professionalism into a symbiotic relationship with the masterminds of the neo-liberal

agenda, as the new economic order delivers to them significant financial gains and

opportunities. Indeed, transnational professional elites have even lobbied against their

own national associations in some situations for professional deregulation, re-

regulation and liberalization insofar these processes support the construction of a

global market for their expertise (Arnold, 2005; Dezalay, 1995 Greenwood and

Suddaby, 2006; Suddaby et al, 2007). The role of large global accountancy firms in

lobbying for the WTOs General Agreement on Trade in Services article VI:4

(Arnold, 2005) is symptomatic of such tendencies. In the next section we, therefore,

provide more detailed analysis of how such transnational regulation has affected the

control of professionals (in terms of access to the profession and service standards)

through two examples of recent change.

Examples of regulatory re-scaling in the professions

The internationalization of professional projects through the emergence of

international professional associations is the hallmark of the transnationalization of

governance in the professions. Organizations exemplifying this trend include the

European Federation of National Engineering Associations (FEANI) and European

Federation of Engineering Consultancy Associations (EFCA) in engineering, the

International Bar Association and the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe in

law, the World Medical Association in medicine, Association of International

Accountants (AIA) in accountancy, and the International Union of Architects. These

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groups are increasingly actors in the institutionalization of new professional

jurisdictions and in the re-regulation of professional services markets (Evetts, 1995),

particularly because they increasingly represent national bodies in transnational

debates both about the professions and their role but also about the organization of

cross-border work, the management of practitioner mobility and standards for

professional practice. Crucially, this includes the operation of closure regimes which

control the production of providers (Evetts, 1995). For example, the award of

qualifications and the certification of competences (e.g. EurIng in engineering), the

regulation of professional practice through the development of deontological codes

(e.g. the Council of Bars and Law Societies in Europes European lawyer common

professional standard), the provision of continuing professional education (e.g. the

International Union of Architects international system of continuing professional

development) and the representation of professional interests (e.g. FEANIs lobbying

to highlight the shortage of professional skills in Europe) all provide examples of how

the professional association has itself acquired an international, albeit often supra-

regional dimension and capability as part of a broader shift towards transnational

markets and international divisions of labour (Evetts, 1995: 772).

The functional and strategic implications for professional projects of the types of

changes described above are significant. In particular, this trend towards transnational

professional bodies reinforces the idea that a form of transnational professionalism is

possible and that the nation-state is no-longer the only level at which access to the

profession or professional standards should be controlled. Regardless of the

legitimacy of such claims, by reinforcing the hard forms of governance embodied by

the new EU Service Directive and the Bologna process in education (see below),

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soft initiatives by transnational professional associations (including: educational

credentials, CPD, registration and deontological codes) despite not being officially

recognised in the formal codes of national professional associations, are leading to the

incremental relocation of the sites of regulation. This does not remove national

regulatory powers or roles. But it does place them in a dialectical process alongside

new forms of transnational and organizational authority which inevitably change the

role of national institutions. We further consider the significance of this below in

terms of the regulation of the professions when we highlight the potential for slippage

and gaps in control of both the production of producers and production by producers.

Secondly, also illustrating the effects of regulatory re-scaling and related to the

emergence of transnational professional associations are the actions of the European

Union in relation to the professions and the development of hard, legally binding

frameworks that regulate aspects of professional projects. Two developments are

particularly noteworthy here. First, new legislation such as the EUs First General

Systems Directive, the Directive on Professional Qualifications (2005/36/EC) and the

EU Services Directive. All of these initiatives are connected to the EUs long term

vision of ever closer political union in which there is the harmonisation of economic

regulation. The creation of a single market in professional services and qualifications

is seen as a necessary step towards this objective. The First General Systems Directive

and the Directive on Professional Qualifications (2005/36/EC), which represent the

precursors of the now watered-down EU Services Directive, attempts to extend the

provisions of single market logics to include professional services through the

establishment of common deontological expectations and standards of practice and

through the reciprocal recognition of national qualifications across the entire Union

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(Evetts, 2002). In essence, these directives means that a professional qualified to

practice in one European country also has the right to practice in any other European

country subject to the successful completion of a transfer test.

In parallel to this, and secondly, the EUs Bologna process which seeks to harmonize

university degree structures across Europe also has the potential to impact upon the

fundamental operation of the professions. The proposal involves developing a

European-wide system of education credit transfer. There are no suggestions of a

convergence in educational systems between countries, and the Bologna process

leaves control of degrees in the hands of universities and under the regulation of

nation-states (Webb, 2002). But the opportunities created by the process for

professionals to move between countries during and after their period of training,

alongside the adoption of a standard European model with regards to the length of

Undergraduate, Masters and Doctoral programmes, raises interesting questions about

the ability of states to control access to their professions through education, as has

been the case in the recent past.

Both initiatives indicate, then, how a combination of integration and harmonization is

reconfiguring the regulative framework in which the professions operate. This is

complimenting, replacing or even overriding national arrangements, particularly in

terms of the production of producers and closure regimes. There is, then, an

increasingly re-regulated market place in which the control that national governments

and associations have over professional activity is somewhat looser than in the past

because of the emergence of alternative transnational frameworks and reference

points. These changes render national closure regimes more porous and reduce the

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ability of local associations to control the standards and norms associated with entry

to the professions (the production of producers) and the delivery of services

(production by producers).

Problematically, this new regulatory compact between national and transnational

institutions is weak, potentially incestuous and incomplete (Flood and Sosa, 2008).

Transnational regulators often have only soft forms of influence and rely for policing

on the national governments which they partly supersede (Suddbay et al, 2007).

Indeed, national governments often resist the transfer of authority to transnational

structures and frameworks and act in defence of their jurisdictions and professionals

systems (Arnold, 2005), thus creating complex layers of regulation and grey zones

between national and transnational regimes. For example, in the EU Service Directive

clauses exist which allow certain professions to opt-out of transnational agreements

on reciprocal recognition of qualifications if the national government can prove it is

essential for national security. The professions are, therefore, caught in between the

ebbs and flows of retreating local and unconsolidated transnational regulatory

frameworks which are fragmented, polarised and fraught with uncertainty yet

apparently increasingly pivotal in defining the production of professionals (entry

standards) and the production by professionals (service standards).

This apparently problematic yet accelerating rescaling of professional regulation

along an increasingly transnational dimension is occurring alongside an equally

important trend: the rise of the professional services firm as a new powerful actor in

processes of professionalization. In the next section, we therefore, examine the role of

the firms alongside transnational regulatory rescaling before considering how both the

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rescaling of governance and the rise of the firm requires a repositioning of existing

theories of the sociology of the professions so as to transcend nationalistic tendencies

and focus attention on this dialectal interaction between the national and the

transnational in professional projects.

Professions in a Globalizing World II: The Rise of the Global Professional

Service Firm

The global professional service firm (GPSF), employing thousands of professionals in

dozens of jurisdiction and generating multi-million pound profits, is probably one the

most notable example of change in contemporary professions. The very large

accountancy (e.g. PriceWaterhouseCoopers), law (Clifford Chance), architecture

(Aedas) and engineering (Arup) are clear examples of this reality, as are to a

somewhat lesser extent the international networks of practitioners which are coming

together to develop cross-border capabilities (e.g. TAGLAW, Advoc and Eurogroup,

in law, Consult International in consultancy, CPAmerica International or MSI Global

Alliance in accountancy). Of course, professional firms have had a foreign presence in

the past. However, the logic, characteristics, extent and use of international offices has

changed significantly in the past twenty five years. In particular, the work, structures,

and practices of GPSFs represent in many ways a break from the past in terms of

assumptions about the organization of professional practice. As we will discuss, this

has significant implications for the objectives and modus operandi of many traditional

state-level professionalization projects.

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The emergence of GPSFs has been partly driven by the internationalization of the

consumers of professional services (usually large corporations) who themselves are

often transnational in operation and increasingly demand seamless and consistent

services across their worldwide locations (Beaverstock et al., 1999). Contrary to

assumptions in earlier versions of the sociology of the professions, users are, then,

increasingly asking professionals not to fulfil their role as it is defined and understood

in their host-jurisdiction, but to operate transnationally, something which is usually

identified with an Anglo-American inflected form of professional practice (see

Morgan and Quack, 2005; Quack, 2007). Further enhancing this switch towards a

transnational mode of thinking, professional associations themselves started to

encourage their members to look abroad in the 1980s and 1990s to offset increasing

competition and the effects on firms profitability of regulation in their domestic

jurisdictions

These trends have led to the development of firms with an increasingly integrated

footprint of international offices with competitive advantage being pursued by

leveraging the assets and competences held by one branch throughout the firms entire

office network (Beaverstock et al., 1999; Jones, 2005; Faulconbridge, 2007). For

instance, many GPSFs employ locally qualified and regulated professionals in every

market they operate in but ask professionals to work using transnational approaches to

professional practice. Indeed, today a significant amount of the work performed by

GPSFs is not national in focus but draws on the expertise of international

multidisciplinary teams which stitch together global products, services and deals

generating in the process new transnational arrangements, practices and knowledges

(Faulconbridge and Muzio, 2007; Quack, 2007; Morgan, 2008).

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Importantly, these locally qualified transnational professionals do still carry their own

nationally peculiar values, modus operandi, professional cultures and conceptions of

professionalism and professional practice. The differences between the

entrepreneurial and proactive culture associated with Anglo-Saxon jurisdictions and

the more technical and reactive stance of continental professions is a particularly

notable example of the effects of this on GPSFs (Morgan and Quack, 2005; Flood,

2007; Faulconbridge, et al 2008). Furthermore, the various local offices of global

PSFS operate under very different systems of professional regulation, with radical

differences in terms of jurisdictional boundaries and accepted professional practices

existing across countries. Thus some professional associations may take more

restrictive attitudes towards practices such as advertising, charge-out rates or

ownership structures than others whilst different jurisdictions grant to different groups

control over specific tasks and markets (Flood, 1995). The boundaries, for instance,

between nursing and medicine or law and accountancy in matters of insolvency and

tax advice are indeed extremely fluid and variable across national boundaries

(Dezalay and Sugarman, 1995; Faulconbridge et al, 2008; Sikka and Willmott, 1995).

Yet, GPSFs do also represent a vehicle for the sustained interaction between different

local varieties of professionalism, something which can generate significant tensions

and challenges but which is increasingly managed through cross-border management

strategies. These strategies are designed to transcend the narrow boundaries of local

versions of professionalism and to develop a cadre of truly transnational practitioners.

As part of attempts to guarantee consistency in client experience, GPSFs are, for

instance, devising new tactics such as the global practice group and global recruitment

and training schemes that have at their heart attempts to create a new form of what

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might be termed organizational (Faulconbridge and Muzio, 2007, 2008) or

commercialised (Hanlon, 1998) professionalism. This form of professionalism does

not necessarily emphasise the values or norms of any one jurisdiction, but instead

seeks to exploit and develop transnational, cosmopolitan professionals. We examine

two of the most important strategies GPSFs use below.

GPSFs re-scaling professional projects

First, GPSFs are increasingly recruiting practitioners with educational experiences in

multiple jurisdictions. Practitioners often gain qualifications by studying at a leading

university outside of the jurisdiction in which they are qualified to practice so as to

experience multiple cultures of professional work (Silver, 2002, 2007; Quack, 2007).

In the case of law this often involves practitioners from outside of Anglo-American

jurisdictions completing a L.L.M postgraduate qualification at a US law school, a

degree which is designed to develop the skills needed to be a transnational lawyer.

Such transnational educational experience is assumed to maximize the chance of

recruits being or becoming transnational professionals allied less to national and more

to transnational and/or firm-specific models of professionalism. The careful

recruitment by GPSFs of professionals which such transnational experience is also

coupled to a second, strategy.

The use of selective in-house firm training to further develop transnational

professionals has become an increasingly important strategy for GPSFs. The decision

of large UK based law firms to opt-out from the Law Societys standard Legal

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Practice Course and develop, in conjunction with commercial providers such as BPP

and Kaplan, their own programme of education tailored to the realities of corporate

work is symptomatic of the strategies GPSFs use to try and disconnect themselves

from national professional systems and contexts (Malhotra et al., 2006: 194). As is the

development of global academies, such as the Clifford Chance Academy, and the use

of educational specialist such as BPP rather than universities or professional

associations to train and socialize lawyers and to provide continued professional

development where needed. All of these training programs are, in part at least,

designed to instill the transnational values as well as the skills required to perform as

a corporate professional in a GPSF. Such training can, therefore, be seen as

constituting part of a firm-driven process of professional identity formation and

regulation (Cooper and Robson, 2006; Suddaby et al, 2007; Anderson-Gough et al,

1999; Grey 1994, 1998; McKenna, 2006). This involves the inculcation of appropriate

behavioural norms, cultural values and presentational styles, emphasizing in particular

client service and the value of a commercial approach to professional practice

(Anderson-Gough et al, 1999; Covaleski et al., 1998). Thus, as remarked by Anderson

Gough et al (1999), the emphasis shifts from being a professional (a matter of

technical competences and qualifications) to being professional as professionalism

becomes a matter of appearance to be monitored and regulated through new

disciplinary technologies and organizationally located processes such as training,

performance appraisal, mentoring and management by objectives (see also Fogarty,

1992).

Of course, the emergence of transnational professionals is still not necessarily a

smooth process. National varieties of values and cultures do not melt away and the

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transnational professional may fail to emerge or will only emerge after tensions

between the local and global are resolved (see Faulconbridge, 2008; Flood, 1996).

We are, not then, suggesting that a process of homogenisation is at work in the

professions. Rather, we are suggesting that the theoretical tools of the sociology of the

professions need refreshing to enable them to take account of the rescaling in

contemporary professionalism and of the emergent transnational influences connected

to this. This means recognising both the transnational nature of professional practice

and the role of the global firm as a new powerful agent and reference point in

processes of professionalization; a role which at times conflicts with the state and the

other actors identified by Burrage et al, (1990). This is a significant development, as

the interests and agendas of this new actor may, crucially, deviate from those of the

professional association which is supposed to regulate and represent professionals. As

indicated by the examples of training and recruitment, the global firm constitutes an

important new site of professionalization as far as control over the production by

professionals (control of service quality) is concerned (Suddaby et al, 2007) and a

rival point of reference for individual practitioners, the majority of whom are today in

salaried employment and who are increasingly expected to develop a primary

allegiance to their employer (professional organization) rather than to their broader

profession (professional association) (Montagna, 1974; Mintzberg, 1979; Raelin,

1991). The emergence of global firms is, then, rearticulating established power

relations and recasting professionalism as a matter for organizational rather than

occupational standards (Cooper and Robson, 2006; Suddaby et al, 2007; Anderson-

Gough et al, 1999; Grey, 1998).

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Professions beyond the nation state: recasting the actors in professional projects

It would seem, then, that globalization is increasingly reshaping the realities of

professional projects and their negotiated functional and strategic outcomes.

Globalization, as indicated in this discussion, has impacted on the system of the

professions in at least two very significant ways. Firstly, through the emergence of

global professional firms which provide commercially orientated advice to

transnational clients in multiple jurisdictions. Secondly and related to this, through the

development of transnational regimes and frameworks to regulate professional

practice that nation-states either implement (hard regimes such as the EU Service

Directive) or agree to (soft regimes such as International Accounting Standards). As

part of this, education has also begun to fall under forms of transnational influence

(e.g. the Bologna Process; mutual recognition of national qualifications, cross-border

qualifications such as EuIng). The operation of professional closure regimes is, then,

also affected by such transnational dynamics.

Whilst empirically significant insofar as they challenge the characteristics of

traditional professionalization projects by interfering with the regulation of both the

production of producers andthe production by producers, such developments become

even more important when considered in the context of existing theories of

professionalization. At its most fundamental, it is quite clear that all the actors

identified by Burrage et al. (1990) have experienced a process of significant

transformation as they shift from an exclusively national to a global stage. This

transformation is something which literature on the sociology of the professions has

not explicitly tackled, yet such changes seem to be in need of careful academic

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scrutiny. Clients are increasingly global and require transnational advisory packages

and globally consistent solutions which exceed the boundaries of single jurisdictions.

In a context dominated by GPSFs and international career patterns, practitioners too

need to be conceptualised as mobile global elites rather than single jurisdiction, state-

bound actors. Even universities have gone global through the expansion of overseas

student numbers and through the development of international programmes, curricula,

exchanges and even campuses.

The inherently national focus of existing frameworks is perhaps most starkly

illustrated by the conceptualisation of the state in existing theories of the professions.

Whilst still being an important actor today, the state as an actor in professional

projects now sits alongside and engages in dialectic negotiations with hard

transnational institutions such as the World Trade Organization and European Union,

soft institutions such as the International Bar Association or the International

Accounting Standards Board, as well as the large GPSFs which are increasingly

responsible for regulating individual professionals according to their corporate

standards and guidelines. It seems wise, therefore, to extend our focus in models of

professionalization from the nation-state as an actor to include broader transnational

governance regimes, so as to capture more effectively the diversity of multi-scalar

actors, both in the form of formal hard regulations and informal soft governance

(Sahlin-Andersson and Djelic, 2006), which are involved in processes of professional

formation and regulation. In light of wide-ranging empirical transformations affecting

the actors identified at the heart of professional negotiations, the development of an

approach that is less focussed on the national scale and more sensitive to the

transnational spaces of professionalziation seems, therefore, an important theoretical

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endeavour. However, this is not just a case of recalibrating the existing focus in

theoretical work and extending the reach of Burrage et al.s framework to embrace

this new transnational dimension. It also involves recognising the role of new actors

that had no parallel in professional projects until the late twentieth century.

Introducing new actors in professional projects

Perhaps one of the most importance changes in the professions towards the end of the

twentieth century was the rise to prominence of the professional service firm (Brock

et al, 1999; Hinings, 2005; Faulconbridge and Muzio, 2008; Muzio et al, 2007).

Indeed, as described in our account, the large professional service firm lies behind

many of the empirical trends described here and is largely responsible for many of the

transformations taking place in professional landscapes. Large firms, through their

global scale, have the ability to short-circuit local systems of regulation whilst, at the

same time, through their activities and strategies can build new transnational forms of

professionalism and professional practice. Thus, as a result of this transformation, the

locus of professionalization has in many cases begun to move towards organizations

as, through their training, socialization and regulation processes, firms and their

offices become important sites of professional identity formation and practice.

Interestingly, these new powerful actors are often guided by specific interests that

depart in significant ways from those of the professionals they employ and of the

institutions that represent them. For instance, attempts to regulate the production by

producers (Abel, 1988) through mandatory licensing and accreditation processes may

interfere with organizational strategies which prioritize selective recruitment and the

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development of internal labour markets, whilst also increasing the mobility and

therefore bargaining power of individual professionals (Kirkpatrick et al, 2009).

Similarly the regulation of the production by producers through the imposition of

restrictions on acceptable practices (bans on advertising, off-shoring and client

testimonials, minimum fees, domiciliation requirements) and organizational structures

(such as restrictions on corporate forms of ownership or salaried employment)

increasingly come under pressure from firms ability to develop innovative

entrepreneurial organizational structures, to engage with client demands and more

generally to compete freely in the professional services marketplace. Even the

standardization and codification of professional knowledge in official bodies of

knowledge and credentials may clash with attempts by firms to guard their knowledge

base as a source of competitive advantage as firm-specific practices and procedures

are prioritised over profession-specific knowledge (Morris and Empson, 1998).

Overall the rise of the large employing organization inserts, therefore, a series of new

tensions at the heart of professionalization projects, as these new actors seek to

renegotiate professional settlements to suit their interests. Indeed, it has been

suggested that in the context of new knowledge based occupations, such as

management consultancy and advertising, the development of large global

professional services firms before the consolidation of strong professional institutions

may partly explain the absence or failure of traditional professionalization projects in

these areas because of the ability of firms to fill or challenge many of the roles

associated with actors such as the state, professional associations and universities in

professional projects (Kirkpatrick et al, 2009; McKenna, 2007). The result is often a

cosmetic and symbolic approach to professionalism as firms claim the rhetoric and

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mimic the outward appearance of professionalism (Kipping, 2002; Kirkpatrick et al,

2009; McKenna, 2006) in order to signal their quality, success and respectability to

consumers and to lay down behavioural and presentational expectations for their

employees but resist any attempt to transfer power to occupation wide institutions

and, in particular, to develop formal accreditation and licensing processes or external

regulation (even in the self-regulatory forms traditionally exercised by professional

associations (Anderson-Gough et al, 1999; Grey, 1994; 1998).

Thus, as far as theories of professional projects go, this suggests it is now impossible

to understand how professional practitioners behave and practice without

incorporating a detailed analysis of the actions of transnational firms and their effects

on practitioners employed by them.

Conclusions

In this paper we have documented the development of a number of important

transnational dimensions to the practice, regulation and production of professionals.

As a result of processes of globalization in which national borders become less

significant both for individuals but also for governance and the societies we live in

(Castells, 2001; Urry, 2000; Jessop, 1991; Swyngedouw, 1997; Cox, 1998),

contemporary professionals increasingly mirror what Sklair (2001) calls a

transnational capitalist class that constant moves around the world and has

transnational identities and loyalties that transcend Westphalian state boundaries. Of

course, a careful reading of work on transnationality and globalization also reveals the

continued importance of place and the dialectal production of identity. We would not,

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therefore, want to suggest that the nation-state no-longer matters, nor that

professionals lose all sense of local identity. Yet important shifts do, nonetheless,

seem to be occurring. These shifts, in relation to the sites of regulation and control

(transnational as well as national professional associations and governance) and the

sites of work and identity formation (the GPSF), create significant challenges for

existing theoretical framings of professional projects and sociologies.

Whilst existing work (Abbott, 1988; Burrage et al., 1990; Freidson, 2001;

MacDonald, 1995) provides a useful starting point for reframing theories of the

professions in transnational times, as we argued above, the transnational dimensions

of the contemporary professions requires not just the reframing of existing theories

(the recognition of the transnational and the move towards a focus on governance

rather than the state) but also the inclusion of new actors (the professional service

firm) because of the way forms of transnationality affect both the production of

producers (closure regimes that restrict access to the professions) and the production

by producers (regimes that regulate professional service quality (Abel, 1988). The

empirical trends associated with transnational professions and the theoretical

implications that arise from them, therefore, open up a number of important future

research questions. Here we identify four amongst the many intriguing issues that

exist.

First, whilst the existence of transnational regulatory agents and regimes is not in

doubt, their effectiveness requires close scrutiny. Existing literature highlights the

fragmented, contested and partial nature of transnational regimes (Arnold, 2005;

Evetts, 2002; Flood and Sosa, 2008; Suddaby et al., 2007), but the implications of this

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for both the work of the national bodies expected to enforce transnational agreements,

and for the professionals who operate within such frameworks, is unclear. Potentially

a significant number of black holes might exist in which important elements of

professional regulation, particularly with regards to the operation of closure regimes,

have been weakened as transnational regimes have emerged. However, to date it is

difficult to tell whether this is the case. There are also unanswered questions about

how incumbent national regulators are responding to transnational regimes as far as

the regulation of both the production of producers and the production by producers is

concerned. As Cox (1998) highlights, re-scaled governance regimes often involve

negotiated compromises between different agents. Yet we know little about the types

of negotiation ongoing as part of the re-scaling of professional governance. Further

research that examines in more detail the characteristics of transnational regimes and

the work of national agents in enforcing these regimes, therefore, seems warranted.

Second, and related, an important line of future research might investigate the

professional allegiances and identities of transnational professionals. As Etherington

and Lee (2007) describe in relation to the case of law, as systems of local value

production (national education) and regulation (the state) are complemented by new

forms of transnational regulation and, in GPSFs, by new forms of global business

ethics, the identity of a transnational professional becomes exposed to a peculiar mix

of competing pressures and reference points. Francis (2005) makes a similar point,

again in relation to law, highlighting how assumptions of regulators and professions

themselves about the coherency of professional values need careful consideration in

light of the role of the firm as a site of socialisation (See also Anderson-Gough et al,

[1999] and Grey [1994, 1998] for similar discussion in the context of accountancy).

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Yet, again, we know little at present about the transnational professionals that now

exist and the nature of their identity. Further studies of the professionals themselves

and the main influences on their professional practices, values and norms would,

therefore, seem important.

Third, and again related to previous points, much more detailed empirical studies of

the strategies of GPSFs and the way these effects firms roles as sites of

professionalisation would seem crucial. The use and effectiveness of organizational

technologies such as selective recruitment and selection, corporate training

programmes, mentoring and performance appraisals in disciplining, socializing and

regulating individual professionals points to the increasing role of professional

services firms as sites where professional identities are mediated, formed and

transformed (Cooper and Robson, 2006: 416). This is particularly important insofar

the regulation of the production by producers is concerned, as organizational

processes, standards and priorities could compliment if not displace occupation wide

norms when regulating how professional practitioners behave and how professional

services are produced, traded and consumed. The tension that arise between these

internal (organizational) and external (occupational) requirements as well as their

implications for individual practitioners in terms of commitment, self-identity and job

satisfaction is certainly a theoretically relevant area which requires further empirical

scrutiny. Similarly, whilst the threat of organizational technologies and routines to

individual autonomy, discretion and even professionalism has been often noted, more

work is required on the operation and effectiveness of such systems and the ways in

which individual professionals negotiate, reconcile, and even resist their demands in

their everyday work and long term careers. Certainly the hollowing out of established

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forms of professionalism by the firm and its subordination to its own corporate

priorities, values and vocabularies is a possibility, but it is one that needs to be

supported by further empirical investigation.

Finally, fourth, and returning to important debates in the sociology of the professions

about the exclusive and powerful role of professions in society (Abbott, 1988;

Johnson, 1972; Larson, 1977), it would be useful to consider if and how emerging

transnational dynamics benefit consumers of professional services. The system of

the professions, with its emphasis on occupational licensing, self-regulation and

restrictive arrangements that creates monopolies for services, was attacked in the

Anglo-American context during the 1980s as neo-liberal ideologies became

increasingly appealing to government (Abel, 2003). Accordingly, the professions

themselves became the object of a series of reforms and legislative interventions

designed to weaken monopolies, challenge privileges and reduce the burden on the

public purse. In many ways, changes associated with the transnationalization and re-

regulation of the professions are part of broader attempts to make professional

services more market orientated and aligned with the neoliberal doctrines that

dominate business. Yet few have asked whether the development of transnational

dimensions to professional projects actually benefit the consumers of professional

services. Questions need to be asked about how access to professional services and

their quality might be affected by these new regimes of governance. It is entirely

possible that benefits for consumers are limited, yet without research focussed on this

question we cannot be sure this is the case.

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All in all, it would seem, then, that the emerging transnationality of professional

projects and sociologies offers a way to reinvigorate theoretical and empirical

research on the professions. The apparent hiatus in theoretical work examining

professional projects should be overcome by the recognition of the need for a better

understanding of the effects of globalization and re-regulation on professionalism, just

as the recognition of the nationally distinctive nature of professionalism overcame a

hiatus in research in the early 1990s.

Acknowledgements

TBC

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