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Does professional citizenship resonate with you?

Lizzie O'Brien

So, you think you’re a professional? And most of us do. Think we’re professionals. We get to work on time, roll up our sleeves, coach colleagues, advise the business, fight fires; balancing the needs of workers and organisations at the same time. And we go home. To our friends and loved ones, to the gym, to the pub, to the cinema.

But if we’re professionals, do our responsibilities start and end with our day job? Do we have a duty to use our unique skills to help others? How can we go beyond our roles while balancing our work, family and other busy life commitments? These ideas sit at the heart of professional citizenship, which is described by the University of Minnesota as 'an identity: seeing oneself first as a citizen with special expertise working alongside other citizens with their own special expertise in order to solve community problems that require everyone’s effort.’

So, what do you think? How can we be better professional citizens? And should we be? Does the concept resonate with you? Please share your thoughts - the good, the bad and the ugly!

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  • Hi everyone - thanks so much for all your responses! It's great to hear your thoughts and feedback while we are exploring this idea. (And apologies if my own response is a little late - I have been off honeymooning!)

    I hope you don't mind, but I'm going to share my own personal take on it, too. In my original post, I asked a provocative question about whether we have a duty to go beyond our roles to help others, but I think in reality, the kind of professional citizenship we are exploring at the CIPD isn't that prescriptive. It takes into account that we all have busy lives and at any one point, it might not be possible for us - physically or mentally - to do stuff outside of our roles. (I know that's something quite a few of you have picked up on too.) It still holds true to the idea that we have a duty to use our unique skills to help others, but in whatever way we can - whether that's improving your organisation's recruitment processes, having challenging conversations to effect change, giving advice to a friend, volunteering to help young people enter the labour market or leading a movement on gender equality. It's on a sliding scale and could well mean that for you - the way you make a difference right now is within your role, but at other times you might go beyond it. It gives us the room to make a difference in whatever way we can. Please share your thoughts - positive or negative - as we're still very much interested in hearing them.

    My colleague Fiona is doing some further, more in-depth research to properly explore some of the ideas surfacing in this discussion - like a lot of you have spoken about feeling pressure from others to constantly give advice, the need for balance, that we should focus on helping others regardless of our profession - if you'd like to get involved please do contact her: f.scott@cipd.co.uk

  • in reply to Lizzie O'Brien
    Hello everyone
    My personal point of view on professional citizenship is that it has to come as a natural extension of who we are and what we can contribute. It is neither an obligation nor a requirement but I believe it is necessary if we want a better world and improved society, if we want others to express organisational citizenship and performing the extra mile, I think we might and could role model.
    As much as it is difficult to create a cultural and mindset shift incrementally by a single individual, I believe that a collective wave of sharing good practices through professional citizenship is a positive step of what a professional can do to contribute to society.
    The concept resonates with me. I am thinking of doctors operating on a voluntary basis through the médecins sans frontières program or green ecologists, so why not HR professionals with their unique skill sets of establishing and improving interpersonal relationships?
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  • in reply to Lizzie O'Brien
    Hello everyone
    My personal point of view on professional citizenship is that it has to come as a natural extension of who we are and what we can contribute. It is neither an obligation nor a requirement but I believe it is necessary if we want a better world and improved society, if we want others to express organisational citizenship and performing the extra mile, I think we might and could role model.
    As much as it is difficult to create a cultural and mindset shift incrementally by a single individual, I believe that a collective wave of sharing good practices through professional citizenship is a positive step of what a professional can do to contribute to society.
    The concept resonates with me. I am thinking of doctors operating on a voluntary basis through the médecins sans frontières program or green ecologists, so why not HR professionals with their unique skill sets of establishing and improving interpersonal relationships?
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