ON BEING A PROFESSIONAL IN A BIG-6 FIRM

Material from an extensive qualitative case study of a ''Big Six'' fir m is used to argue that being a professional in the firm is understood - by professionals themselves - as being more to do with ways of cond ucting oneself than with possession of technical knowledge or being ce rtified to practise. Using documentary and interview materials, the co mplexities and tensions of these ways of conducting oneself are explor ed, as is their relationship to issues of fairness, physical appearanc e, gender, sexuality and hierarchy. The operation of concepts of the ' 'firm type'' and ''the client'' in mediating some of the tensions and paradoxes of being a professional are also explored. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.