Professionalism: A Perspective of an Agriculturist (3rd October 2008)

The concept of professionalism goes beyond one’s profession.  It intends to establish that every professional cultivate cardinal values and morality in their life. 

To qualify as a professional, one must suspend self-interest in the first place.  It is required to maintain integrity of the profession and win the trust and confidence of the clients and society as whole. 

While the professionals strive to know better and know what is best for their clients, they must enshrine morality and ethical values in discharging their responsibilities at a highest level of skill and knowledge.  On this subject, Winston Churchill once said; “You make a living by what you get.  You make a life by what you give”.

Professionalism is primarily an attitude towards one’s profession and not just a measure of formal educational level or competence requirement.  Professionals’ behavior that ignores basic goals of the profession only serve individual motives and cause organization and clients to lose confidence on the professionals.  Thus, the professionalism may be defined as behavior that builds trust of the society on the professionals and eventually to the organization in which they work. 

The esteem of a profession depends upon the willingness of the professionals to improve the ideals of the profession.  Besides being skilled and knowledgeable, the professionals are those people who are objective and ethical.  They discharge their duties in an objective manner and apply fundamental values of ethical behavior to their profession.  Integrity and equanimity in discharging the responsibility with equity, clear conscience, accountability and above all ethical behavior are some of basic elements of the professionalism. 

The professionalism demands that professionals must discharge their responsibility in the best interest of the society.  They must exercise their obligation equally to their profession, clients and institutions in an honest and ethical manner.  They must keep abreast of the expanding horizon of knowledge base and failing to do so, the time will leave the professionals behind and make them obsolete.  The professionals must know what they claim to know and maintain minimum essential level of competence. 

The basic philosophy of professionalism demands the following four essential qualities in a professional:

1.  Competence and expertise in a chosen field, 

2. Integrity in delivering the responsibilities by conferring accountability thereof, 

3.  Enshrine morality and ethical values in discharging the responsibilities entrusted upon, and 

4.  Uphold institutional responsibility, because the degree to which respect and trust are enjoyed within an organization, influences the efficiency and effectiveness in delivering the expected output. 

The ultimate goal of professionalism is to achieve the same degree of rigor and predictability of performance from every individual professional of the respective discipline. 

Professionalism indeed stems from a set of guiding principles of standards, work ethics and code of conducts to maintain or uphold the image of the profession being exercised by the professionals. 

In the field of agriculture, the profession of an agriculturist entails to development or acquisition of scientific knowledge and application of agricultural sciences to the business and arts of agriculture.  On this background a professional agriculturist is a person who demonstrates or performs any work or service in the field of agriculture. 

From the perspective of professional agriculturist, food is one of the most powerful currencies in the world today particularly in the developing world.  The echelon of a professional agriculturist is measured in terms of commitments and dedication leading to excellence combined with the dignified way of delivering the services.  The professional agriculturist primarily works for sustainable development and growth in the agriculture aiming for:

1.  A bountiful harvest through advances in agronomy and bio-technology, technology transfer, product development and quality assurance,

2.  Constantly higher environmental standards through sustainable farming practices, soil and water conservation, and health and safety measures, and

3.  More business opportunity and room for healthy economic growth.

  

To be graduated as a professional in agriculture in the Bhutanese context, the professionals must fulfill two basic requirements of professionalism:

1. They must have service motive, share their advances in knowledge and sustain professional integrity and ideals, and
2. They must recognize their obligation to the Bhutanese farming communities by living up to their expectations. 

Above all, Bhutanese professional agriculturists should have a mission of modernizing Bhutanese agriculture, which can be done with passion and professionalism.  The trend for knowledge-based development is set and it will only intensify in years ahead.

Striving to be a professional agriculturist is to exercise responsibility and accountability with a high level of performance observing ethical attitude towards one’s profession.  The three primary goals set for being a professional are:

1. Maintaining and operating out of one’s expertise; Competent individuals can be relied upon to do their job well, they maintain a professional edge, take responsibility for the quality of their work, and work within their limitation.
2. Self-control and respect for others; Self-controlled individuals know themselves, know their limits, and seek help when things get out of control in their lives.  They observe self-discipline, which allows for productivity and satisfaction while avoiding self-destructive and obsessive tendencies. 
3. Respecting others; Professionals treat other people as if they really matter.  Through empathy, they put themselves on the receiving end of their actions, creating a climate of respect and dignity, which allows every one a meaningful measure of satisfaction and success. 

The tips as checklist for attaining the goal of a professional agriculturist are:

To be observed	To be avoided
Maintaining and operating out of one’s expertise
Ø  Remaining aware of alternatives and new approaches,	Ø  Negligence (=neglecting duties or problems)
Ø  Keeping up to date with the changing environment and needs of the clients	Ø  Generating shoddy results and letting the task remain incomplete
Ø  Ensuring accuracy and precision, and stay with it until it is right	Ø  Continual postponing urgent tasks
Ø  Meeting dead line for accomplishing the assigned responsibility exercising full accountability	Ø  Reliance upon outdated methods and techniques
Ø  Exercising discipline, dedication, sincerity and self motivation towards delivering one’s services	Ø  Letting somebody do one’s job, taking up shaky ventures, and volunteering for what is beyond one’s ability
Ø  Exercise self-reliance, resourcefulness, willingness to accept and carry out the assigned task.	Ø  Coming to work high and hung-over
Self control and respect for oneself
Ø  Keeping cool, but focused	Ø  “Going off” on others even when they seem to deserve it
Ø  Knowing one’s identity and the limit	Ø  Relying upon intimidation
Ø  Keeping work schedule, showing up for work and actually working	Ø  Being a whiner, a slacker and a missing person
Ø  Getting help when things are getting out of control	Ø  Moving too fast and letting colleagues feel embarrassed
Respecting others
Ø  Keeping appointment and being punctual	Ø  Using others’ idea without giving credits
Ø  Respecting others’ private lives and personal preferences	Ø  Upbraiding subordinates in public
Ø  Giving credit to others’ idea and good work	Ø  Shifting the blame and backbiting
Ø  Exercising patience with others’ occasional bad days	Ø  Being a gossip-monger, a tyrant or a manipulator

Bhutanese agriculture is in the cross roads of tradition and modernization.  Elsewhere, fundamental shift has taken place from subsistence to profitable market-driven agriculture.  With changing time, modernization of Bhutanese agriculture is inevitable. 

In the modern market-driven agriculture, the consumers are in the driver’s seat and it is their directions must be clearly read by the farmers or else the income they receive from their small farms will be heavily discounted. 

In the new era of changing scenario, if there is one word to explain the requirements of the Bhutanese professional agriculturist, it is professionalism.  This implies to set of standards of performance across all parts of the system.  It implies willingness to take up responsibility and benchmark performance retaining appropriate ethics and values.  If Bhutanese agriculture is to be a sunrise industry in the new era, the role of fully professional agriculturists is critical.

To achieve a high standard of performance, the professional agriculturists have to balance their obligation to the farming communities, the organization and principles and standards of agricultural sciences that keep agriculture bountiful and sustainable.  The criteria against which the performance of the professional agriculturists may be measured are:

Ø  Whole-hearted commitment and involvement,

Ø  Full responsibility is assumed willingly,

Ø  Undiminished enthusiasm and high energy level,

Ø  Untarnished integrity at all times,

Ø  High degree of proficiency in skills and knowledge are demonstrated while performing the tasks,

Ø  Positive work values at all times,

Ø  Improvement in work methods is formulated and implemented,

Ø  Loyalty is rendered to respective organization and clients, and

Ø  Standards, rules and regulations are adhered and strictly complied.

For modernizing Bhutanese agriculture, every professional agriculturist, we believe, should establish a professional credo as outlined below:

Creed of a Bhutanese Professional Agriculturist

I am a professional agriculturist by choice and not by chance.

I believe in Bhutanese agriculture; I dedicate my life to the advancement of the livelihood and dignity of Bhutanese farming communities.

I will exercise my proficiency for sustainable development of Bhutanese agriculture.

I will continue to advance professionally with my clear conscience and hard work.

I will work in harmony to the interest of my organization, clients and interest groups working for the sustainable development of Bhutanese agriculture.

My love and respect for the Bhutanese farming communities will spur me on to impart something from my life that will continue to uphold the esteem of Bhutanese professional agriculturist.

 Tashi Delek

References:

Chismar D (-), Professionalism: Ethics in everyday business work place, Chowan College Center for Ethics.

Goodwin B (2000), Ethics at work, Kluwer Academic Publisher.

Ontario Institute of Agrology: Personal professionalism, Characteristics of Professionalism.

Napier R (2001), Global trends impacting farmers: implication for family farm management, Napier AgriFuture, Australia.

White J (1985), Professionalism and agrology: Is there a future.