Abstract

Organisations have acknowledged the importance of design as a strategic tool and therefore have recognised the need to effectively manage it. This has led to the development of the Design Management occupation, which while some believe is a mature and established profession others question its current status. Due to their certain similarity and proximity to Design Management, the professional status of two other UK occupations: Marketing and Public Relations (PR), is assessed along with that of Design Management, using Wilensky’s process of professionalisation. The paper also tests the hypothesis that Wilensky’s process should be treated as a set of criteria rather than a process, hence the sequence in which these stages occur does not affect the professional development of an occupation. Looking at the development of Marketing and PR in the UK, this hypothesis is validated because both occupations have achieved full professional status, albeit achieving these criteria in a different sequence. While both Marketing and PR can be characterised ‘established professions’, Design Management in the UK is currently a ‘semi-profession’. Based on a comparative analysis, the paper offers two implications for the Design Management occupation in the UK, firstly, the need to define the occupation’s body of knowledge and secondly the need for the establishment of a UK-based professional association.