THE MEDICAL PROFESSION: AN ORGANIZATIONAL ANALYSIS.

Abstract

Medicine has proven particularly successful with regard to its development and maintenance of a primary position within the professions. While many analyses of the medical profession have dealt with its unique status, explanations of authority relations have largely been presented as medicine's jockeying for power with other elite occupational types. In the following work, medicine's organization is used as a context for the subsequent analysis. Individual medical practitioner ties to the American Medical Association are tested for degree of association with organizational platforms and policies. The "distance" between medicine and other health-related industries is described as a feature of the wieldy AMA's diffuse authority. The strong association of medicine with science and the physical role are considered as equally important elements in the professional dominance of medicine. Finally, the medical client is brought into the analysis, pointing to the substantial contribution of clients as assistants to medical authority. Each aspect is described as a dimension of the medical profession, necessary for the definition and protection of its boundaries.