Dr Neil Béchervaise

NB Consulting (Australasia) Pty Ltd

Re-searching ideology for strategic advantage:
Building reputation capital through professionalism

Neil E. Béchervaise
Adjunct Professor
Australian Graduate School of Entrepreneurship
Swinburne University of Technology
Kevin M. McKenzie
McKenzie Roic Consulting
and
Richard Beal
Australian Graduate School of Entrepreneurship
Swinburne University of Technology

Abstract

Organisations strive to display professionalism to enhance their relationship and reputation capital in order to establish and maintain strategic competitive advantage.

This paper provides the first stage report of an Australian study examining the origins, role and implications of professionalism as a strategic driver in growing and managing relationship capital. It identifies several aspects of an ideology of professionalism that is possibly trait driven and supported through individual relationships. However, professionalism appears to be far more complex, comprising several other aspects that are independent of organisational demands.

Professionalism is tentatively presented as a universal Western notion with responses from IT, business, military and other professions mirroring previously published responses from horticulturalists, lawyers, nurses and educators. Ethics, autonomy, responsibility, mutual respect, experiential knowledge, altruism and changing professional identity have emerged as commonly agreed elements. The paper submits that, rather than being a tangible and identifiable capability, professionalism is an ideal that is passed between generations of individuals and workers, beginning well before they begin their working (and even schooling) careers, and continuing through their professional education and ongoing professional development.

Though some argue that the professions are in decline, this paper concludes with a discussion of the implications of professionalism for organisations seeking to gain strategic advantage through building relationship and reputation capital.

Key Words: Relationship Capital, Strategic Advantage, Professionalism, Reputational Capital, Reputation, Professional Development

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