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This evaluative research represents the first report in the literature to date in which a group mentoring programme has been evaluated using a quasi‐experimental research design. Results indicated that the programme was effective in one domain of professionalism, the main outcome variable; and that career‐development outcomes were significantly higher in programme participants. In addition to the previously established functions of mentoring (career and psychosocial development), the research suggests that the conceptual basis of mentoring should be expanded to include the function of professionalism. This has implications for both the practical aspects of mentoring programme development and for future evaluative research. Data were collected by means of pre‐ and post‐test questionnaires and analysed by multiple regression analysis.

The purpose of this study is to determine the type of information Library and Information Science professionals share in the WhatsApp groups in Nigeria.

The study adopted a quantitative content analysis research design. With a total of 739 participants, 1,385 posts of six different WhatsApp groups of Library and Information Science professionals for three months were analyzed.

The study found that the most shared information among the Library and Information Science professionals in Nigeria is post on professional information. This demonstrates that librarians are determined to share professional information among them to promote the profession. This was followed by political information basically on the Nigerian Library Association national executives’ election, and job advertisements related to the library. Although a few members violate the rules by posting the kind of information not required in the WhatsApp group, the erring members are quickly called to order and warned by the WhatsApp group administrator.

Professional ties can grow among information specialists and library practitioners through participation in virtual communities such as WhatsApp group. The implication of this work is in showing that social media especially WhatsApp groups can be used as a knowledge sharing mechanism to share timely, current and relevant information among professionals in different occupations.

Findings on the use of WhatsApp group in sharing professional information will inform several other Library and Information Science professionals in other countries of the need to adopt this channel to disseminate timely information related to up-coming conferences, training opportunities, workshops, call for papers and so on among the professionals. The results of this paper are valuable for anyone interested in an avenue to share or receive much quicker and pertinent information that saves the time of professionals in any occupation.

This study uses experimental data to compare the information generated by professional and nonprofessional investors when both groups receive access to the same financial disclosures. We also manipulate the disclosure level for both subject groups. Using the method developed by Barron, Kim, Lim and Stevens (1998), we then analyze the information contained in stock price forecasts that were made by the experimental subjects. Professionals on average inferred more information than nonprofessionals. The higher level of disclosure did not affect the information possessed by the professional investors. However, we find that a higher level of disclosure is associated with more private information being produced (or inferred) by nonprofessional investors. As a result, these subjects realized a significant improvement in the accuracy of their mean forecasts relative to their individual forecasts. This finding suggests that the enhanced capacity of firms to widely disclose information to all market participants via the Internet, together with the SEC's new “Fair Disclosure (FD)” regulation, has the potential to produce a significant increase in privately inferred information for on‐line nonprofessionals, potentially resulting in the aggregation of more diverse information into share prices.

The purpose of this paper is to explore different health care professionals’ discourse about privacy – its definition and importance in health care, and its role in their day-to-day work. Professionals’ discourse about privacy reveals how new technologies and laws challenge existing practices of information control within and between professional groups in health care, with implications not only for patient privacy, but also for the role of information control in professions more generally.

The authors conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews with n=83 doctors, nurses, and health information professionals in two academic medical centers and one veteran’s administration hospital/clinic in the Northeastern USA. Interview responses were qualitatively coded for themes and patterns across groups were identified.

The health care providers and the authors studied actively sought to uphold the protection (and control) of patient information through professional ethics and practices, as well as through the use of technologies and compliance with legal regulations. They used discourses of professionalism, as well as of law and technology, to sometimes accept and sometimes resist changes to practice required in the changing technological and legal context of health care. The authors found differences across professional groups; for some, protection of patient information is part of core professional ethics, while for others it is simply part of their occupational work, aligned with organizational interests.

This qualitative study of physicians, nurses, and health information professionals revealed some differences in views and practices for protecting patient information in the changing technological and legal context of health care that suggest some professional groups (doctors) may be more likely to resist such changes and others (health information professionals) will actively adopt them.

New technologies and regulations are changing how information is used in health care delivery, challenging professional practices for the control of patient information that may change the value or meaning of medical records for different professional groups.

Qualitative findings suggest that professional groups in health care vary in the extent of information control they have, as well in how they view such control. Some groups may be more likely to (be able to) resist changes in the professional control of information that stem from new technologies or regulatory policies. Some professionals recognize that new IT systems and regulations challenge existing social control of information in health care, with the potential to undermine (or possibly bolster) professional self-control for some but not necessarily all occupational groups.

To shed some light on the motivational profile of entrepreneurial as opposed to professional CEOs in Greece.

Based on McClelland's motivational patterns, i.e. power, achievement and affiliation, as well as responsibility; interviews with Greek entrepreneurial and professional CEOs were conducted. Then, interviews were content‐analysed, in order to identify differences in motivational profiles of those two groups of CEOs.

Achievement, motivation and responsibility were found to be the most significant discriminating factors between entrepreneurial and professional CEOs.

The current research focuses only on McClelland's typology. Other aspects affecting entrepreneurial inclination are not studied in the current paper.

One of the major implications deriving from the identified characteristics of successful entrepreneurial and professional CEOs has to do with the preparation and training of young leaders for both larger and smaller firms.

This paper studies, for the first time, the leadership profile of CEOs in Greece and identifies differences between professional and entrepreneurial ones. This is of great value in an SMEs dominated economy, such as Greece, where these research findings can be used for the development of entrepreneurship.

The purpose of this paper is to examine skill underutilization and collective turnover in a large professional service firm (PSF). The authors hypothesize that skill underutilization is positively related to collective turnover, that skill underutilization is greater among professionals than nonprofessionals, and that the positive relationship between skill underutilization and collective turnover is stronger for professionals than for nonprofessionals.

Using survey data from a large PSF, the authors test these predictions across 191 groups (professional and nonprofessional) in 80 offices. Collective turnover rates were taken from company records one year after the survey was administered.

The authors find support for the prediction that skill underutilization is positively related to collective turnover. In addition, skill underutilization is greater among professionals than nonprofessionals within a PSF. However, the relationship between skill underutilization and collective turnover did not differ between professionals and nonprofessionals.

While the authors find that skill underutilization is positively related to collective turnover, future research is needed to measure the group processes that occur among group members and lead to collective turnover. Limitations of this study include the inability to validate the aggregation of data from the individual level to the group level, and the generalizability of findings to other PSFs or to involuntary turnover situations.

Understanding the antecedents of collective turnover is of particular concern to PSFs, as they are composed of highly skilled, intrinsically motivated professionals, who generate value for the firm. These findings are particularly timely, given the significant levels of underemployment in countries throughout the world.

In addition to extending skill underutilization and collective turnover research to the occupational group level, the findings highlight the importance of providing development opportunities for employees during difficult economic conditions in order to minimize collective turnover.

Mentoring is widely used in the health sector, particularly for early career professionals in the public health system. However, many allied health professionals are employed in private practice and rely on their professional association to provide mentoring support and training. This mentoring context is under-researched. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

A purposeful sample of 15 allied health professionals were interviewed using semi-structured interviews that were then analyzed using template analysis.

The many-to-many group mentoring program delivered valuable knowledge, diagnostic skills and networking opportunities but did not provide inclusion, role modeling or psychosocial support to participants. Also identified were structural and operational issues including; the role of the coordinator in addressing contribution reluctance and participant confidence, confidentiality issues, lack of mentor training and overall organization of the program.

Group mentoring is a valuable method of delivery for professional associations. The many-to-many group mentoring model is beneficial in a situation where the availability of mentors is limited. Further, the importance of having a dedicated program coordinator and a skilled facilitator is emphasized.

This research contributes to the limited literature on many-to-many group mentoring by reviewing the effectiveness of an existing many-to-many group mentoring program for allied health professionals delivered by a professional association.

Professionals subscribe to a given set of shared core values which define their profession. In medicine they relate to the saving of life and healing of the sick. Autonomy is concerned with the extent to which the professional body can set its own rules and standards which illustrate the ethos of the profession and define its character. It is the professionals collectively who monitor the profession in terms of procedures, practice, entry requirements and licences. Society′s role is to determine what is appropriate or acceptable behaviour by professionals and it is increasingly asking about medical activities from a standpoint of priorities of need, appropriateness and value for money. There have traditionally been two types of professional group, random and clustered but we are now beginning to see the emergence of a third type, the managed group. The management of clustered professional groups is extremely difficult. Professional and academic freedoms are jealously guarded while organizational goals are relegated in comparison. The task facing managers in health care is daunting but there are signs of progress. We are beginning to see the emergence of a new partnership between clinicians and managers with agreement on collective interpretation of clinical values leading to the development of an enhanced ethos of health care which is better suited to the needs of the patients.

The purpose of this paper is to extend the discussion of the recursive relationship between the identity of a profession and the professional identity of individuals in the context of change.

The paper draws on qualitative data collected as part of a pilot study into change in the NHS. It draws on structuration theory and insights from social identity theory (SIT) to propose that the relationship between the collective level of the profession and the individual level of the professional is recursive.

The data suggest that individual professionals use and rewrite scripts of their profession but also draw upon new scripts as they engage with local change. To that extent they contribute from the local level upwards to the changing identity of their profession. Further more detailed micro level studies are required.

The argument is based on a limited data set and points towards the need for further microlevel studies which examine the recursive relationship between professionals' identity and the identity of a profession.

Further research can contribute to better understanding of local variance as professionals engage with change.

The paper fuses structuration theory and SIT and examines the agency/structure nexus in a specific change context.

Patient safety has been addressed since 2002 in the health system of New South Wales, Australia via a Safety Improvement Programme (SIP), which took a system‐wide approach. The programme involved two‐day courses to educate healthcare professionals to monitor and report incidents and analyse adverse events by conducting root cause analysis (RCA). This paper aims to predict that all professions would favour SIP but that their work and educational histories would result in doctors holding the least and nurses the most positive attitudes. Alternative hypotheses were that doctors' relative power and other professions' team‐working skills would advantage the respective groups when conducting RCAs.

Responses to a 2005 follow‐up questionnaire survey of doctors (n=53), nurses (209) and allied health staff (59), who had participated in SIP courses, were analysed to compare: their attitudes toward the course; safety skills acquired and applied; perceived benefits of SIP and RCAs; and their experiences conducting RCAs.

Significant differences existed between professions' responses with nurses being the most and doctors the least affirming. Allied health responses resembled those of nurses more than those of doctors. The professions' experiences conducting RCAs (number conducted, leadership, barriers encountered, findings implemented) were similar.

Observational studies are needed to determine possible professional differences in the conduct of RCAs and any ensuing culture change that this may be eliciting.

There is strong professional support for SIPs but less endorsement from doctors, who tend not to prefer the knowledge content and multidisciplinary teaching environment considered optimal for safety improvement education. This is a dilemma that needs to be addressed.

Few longer‐term SIPs' assessments have been realised and the differences between professional groups have not been well quantified. As a result of this paper, benefits of and barriers to conducting RCAs are now more clearly understood.