1). Professionalism is a term, which is often used to identify a person at work. As a rule, by this term people describe such person, who is respected at a work place and achieved a lot in the professional field. Also, there is a number of other qualities, which allow us to recognize true professional skills. Thus, for instance, professionals are well known for their knowledge. They constantly master their skills, participate in a variety of events, which help to develop their knowledge. True professionals always master their knowledge in order to be the best in their specialized field. Another feature is competence. Professionals always keep their promises, do their job in time and make everything possible to show excellent results. They always focus their attention on result. Usually, when we speak of a professional, we imply that such person does not look for easy solutions. Professionals can be characterized as honest and reliable. Such people are very good at self-regulation, they manage to work effectively in all conditions, even under pressure.
2). At present time, there are no doubts that professionalism indeed matters. Each person, who works at one or another company, is its representative. We may not know all employees, but our impression of certain organization is based on the communication with the employees we know. That is why each worker should remember that when communicating with people at work, we serve as a face of a certain company. Each employee appears in such situation, when he becomes an ambassador, a face of the company (Hejazi). However, the importance of professionalism lies not only in the need of representation of your organization. It is crucial to deliver professional services in any situation.
3) Professionalism is judged both by employers and customers. In general, it is possible to give a list of criteria, which are responsible for professionalism. For example, attitude to work and problems. Some people will work in any conditions and will try to find solutions even to the most complicated tasks. The others will nay all the time. One of the most important criteria is competence. Professionals know their field perfectly, but at the same time they never stop learning, improve their skills. In addition to qualities, which are directly connected with profession, it is also worth mentioning that professionalism is judged by appearence of a worker and his communication skills ("How Do Employers Judge Professionalism?").
4) Each person bears individual responsibility in regards to professionalism. It means that each employee is responsible for his professional skills. In addition, each person should be interested in developing his or her professional skills. When completing one or another task, people should think about the result and do their best. It is wrong to think that our laziness or unwillingness to do something properly will be unnoticed. Sooner or later such attitude will be revealed and the results can be rather sorrowful.
5). Unprofessional attitude to work will definitely have a number of serious negative implications. Of course, in each professional sphere they are different. For example, unprofessional attitude of doctors to patients will lead to illnesses, worsening of health state or even to death of their pationts. If educators are unprofessional and incompetent, they will not be able to teach students properly and therefore in the future our society will suffer because of a great number of incompetent employees.
References
"How Do Employers Judge Professionalism?" (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.thewisejobsearch.com/2011/11/how-do-employers-judge- professionalism.html
Hejazi, A. "Professionalism: Does it Really Matter?" (2012). The Futurists. Retrieved from http://www.wfs.org/blogs/alireza-hejazi/professionalism-does-it-really-matter
