Observations on an Emerging Profession

This study examines the ranking that rehabilitation counselors received from their colleagues and clients in an alcoholism rehabilitation organization. The findings suggest that organizational power was the major determinant of the favorable ranking rehabilitation counseling received from colleaguest legitimacy appeared to accrue from power, not the reverse. Occupational visibility appeared to account for client ranking while knowledge that a powerless client group was controlled by others was found to be an important dimension of rehabilitation counselor standing with clients. One implication of the study is that the immediate social environments of occupations provide a meaningful place to begin to document the professionalization process