Decisions Made by Professional judgment

Professional organizations are distinguished by the fact that the determination
of the basic mission—the specific services to be offered and to
whom—is in good part left to the judgment of professionals as individuals.
In the university, for example, each professor has a good deal of control
over what is taught and how, as well as what is researched and how. Thus
the overall product-market strategy of a university must be seen as the
composite of the individual teaching and research postures of all its professors.
There is, however, a subtle but not insignificant constraint on this
power. Professionals are left to decide on their own only because years of
training have ensured that they will decide in ways generally accepted in
their professions. Pushed to the limit, then, individual freedom becomes
professional control