There has been a long-standing debate whether the field of Management is deserving of professional status, rather than simply status as an occupation. Critics claim that the absence of a required educational background and a professional organization with its own code of ethics are what keep management from joining established professions such as medicine and law. Rather than the study management as a field, this paper studies its participants, 1070 different Chief Executive Officers from 247 companies across thirty years (1960-1989) to determine whether their demographic characteristics have changed over time in a manner reflecting professionalization of the field. Changes in CEO characteristics documenting increased reliance on human capital and decreased reliance social capital, as well as greater job mobility suggest the field of Chief Executive has become more professionalized over the course of the study.
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