Table 1.

Practical ideal type (PIT) of a successful modern profession and its foundations in the literature. Each ideal type category and the relationships between them are graphically represented in Figure 1.

Ideal type categoryLiterature

1. Essential Service to Society

  1. Performs essential service to society

  2. Society recognizes that profession performs essential service

Bayles 1986; Freidson 1994; Bayles 2003; Gardner and Shulman 2005; Holden et al. 2015; Gregory and Austin 2019; Edwards 2020; Fitzgerald 2020; Kellar et al. 2020; Nelson et al. 2021; Santarossa et al. 2021; Moore et al. 2022.

2. Body of Knowledge (BoK)

  1. BoK is organized and accessible to practitioners

  2. BoK is updated regularly

  3. Practitioners steward BoK via their organization

  4. Practitioners and higher education expand BoK via research findings

  5. BoK aligns degree accreditation, credentialing, and continuing education

Freidson 1994; Daley 2001; Gardner and Shulman 2005; Ressler 2005; Brauer 2011, 2015; Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education 2020; Fitzgerald 2020; Kirkpatrick et al. 2020a; Ressler and Lenox 2020; Ressler et al. 2021.

3. Higher Education

  1. Accreditation applies BoK to degree programs

  2. Accreditation sets minimum quality of formal higher education

  3. Accreditation aligns higher education curricula with societal and employer needs

Bollag 2005; Planning Accreditation Board 2006; Patil and Codner 2007; Kavanagh and Drennan 2008; Clarke and Prichard 2013; Vlasses et al. 2013; Gaston 2014; Bullard 2015; Redelsheimer et al. 2015; Sample et al. 2015.

4. Credentialing

  1. Practitioners provide their own credentialing via their organizations

  2. Credentials set a minimum level of competency

  3. Credentialing enforces ethical accountability

  4. Profession self-regulates

Bayles 1986, 2003; Kirk 2007; Brauer 2011; Gorman 2014; Monteiro 2015; Craig et al. 2018; Funk et al. 2019; Kirkpatrick et al. 2020a, 2020b; Gao 2021; Harris and Buchbinder 2021.

5. Public Trust

  1. Professional reputation and standing in society are monitored

  2. Public understanding and awareness of profession are promoted

  3. Member-serving organization, employers, practitioners, and higher education coordinate to manage public image

Pearson 2004; Lachapelle et al. 2012; Hadfield and Rhode 2015; Rhode 2015; Kirkpatrick et al. 2020a, 2020b, 2020c.

6. Recruitment

  1. Youth and diverse identities proactively recruited into profession

  2. Member-serving organization, employers, practitioners, and higher education collaborate on recruitment

Klein et al. 2010; Shaffer 2010; Fantz et al. 2011; Banken 2013; Holden et al. 2015; Lent 2015; Roach 2015; O’Herrin 2016; Skiera 2016; O’Herrin et al. 2018a; Zhou 2020; American Society of Civil Engineers 2022.

7. Retention and Advancement

  1. Employment trends are monitored

  2. Career ladder and advancement opportunities are defined

  3. Professional development programs are informed by employment trends

Luker and Lyons 1997; Mills and Treagust 2003; Drenkard and Swartwout 2005; Wall 2007; Buerhaus and Auerbach 2011; Pugsley et al. 2017; O’Herrin et al. 2018b; Esfahani et al. 2020; Kirkpatrick et al. 2020b, 2020c.

8. Professional Organization

  1. Practitioners form and maintain a member-serving organization

  2. Member-serving organization is dedicated to advancing the profession

  3. Organization mediates the other 7 ideals listed here

  4. Organization provides conferences, journals, and other forums for networking and dialogue

Scott 1969; Myers and Banerjee 2005; Planning Accreditation Board 2006; Davoudi and Pendlebury 2010; Edwards and Bates 2011; Roach 2015; Dawkins 2016; Pugsley et al. 2017; Miller 2019; Kirkpatrick et al. 2020a, 2020c; Guyadeen and Henstra 2021; American Planning Association 2022; Goodman et al. 2022; US Bureau of Labor Statistics 2022.