Author Description

Work and Integrity provocatively raises the question: What does it mean to be a professional today? In this book, William M. Sullivan speaks directly to today's professionals, probing the significance of their work in the changing world of business and other central occupational spheres. In ways that are often surprising and always challenging, Sullivan examines the widespread accusation that professional, middle-class Americans, "the bulk of the 20 percent of the workforce classified professional and managerial, seem to be losing concern about their fellow citizens even as they scramble to keep up wide occupational changes that offer them advantageous positions in the emerging global order.". Work and Integrity locates this moral complaint within the larger compass of global trends that are forcing difficult choices on professionals. It describes how the professions have developed in America from genteel occupations into the most widely emulated and sought-after models of work. This development was made possible by the tempestuous rise of the complex institutions of modern society, and Sullivan explores the personal and social tensions of professional life within the worlds of business, government, health care, education, and the university. At the moment when these institutions are being forced to question accepted ways of doing things, Sullivan asks whether the professional's only responsibility is to manage a successful career and whether even that goal will prove reachable in the future without finding new connections among personal expertise, organizational culture, and civic responsibility.