Tit for tat? Opportunistic behaviors in client-headhunter relationships

Abstract

While headhunters act as agents hired by clients (principals) in the intermediated labor market, research has focused primarily on the benefits that headhunters gain from their broker position between clients and candidates. Shifting the focus of attention, we interviewed 51 contingency headhunters specialized in foreign subsidiaries in Japan to examine the opportunistic behaviors of corporate clients and how headhunters responded to these behaviors. The findings show that clients were using several headhunters in search assignments, negotiating and refraining to pay placement fees, contacting introduced candidates directly, changing search criteria and stopping the search, and using headhunters to poach employees. The findings also show how headhunters used social interaction and contract-based approaches to respond to opportunistic behaviors. This study contributes to research on HRM by focusing on the overlooked client opportunistic behaviors in client-headhunter relations.