Professional Service Firms Research Articles

Contextual antecedents for team learning in professional service firms

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to identify contextual antecedents for team learning in professional service firms.Design/methodology/approachStructural equation modelling was applied to establish reliability and validity and to measure the size of relationships. Evidence was drawn from an empirical sample of 210 consultants in the Nordic professional service industry.FindingsThe findings of this study reveal and strongly support that two important contextual antecedent factors that facilitate for team learning in professional service firms are market orientation and leader support for collaborative learning practices. The effect of leader support on team learning is also mediated by a market orientation.Originality/valueThere is a paucity of knowledge on contextual factors that contribute to team learning. This study provides insight of theoretical and practical value.

Hybrid workplace: current status, positives, negatives, challenges, and team learning

PurposeThis study aims to find out if organizations are still practicing a hybrid workplace arrangement after COVID-19 ease of restrictions, determine the positive and negative sides of a hybrid workplace, ascertain the challenges organizations are currently facing in implementing a hybrid workplace and examine how successful team learning has been in hybrid workplaces.Design/methodology/approachThis study adopted a mixed approach. Two sets of data (quantitative and qualitative) were used to answer the research questions.FindingsThis study found that most organizations within professional service firms are still implementing hybrid workplaces even though COVID-19 restrictions have been eased. This study also found that one of the advantages of implementing a hybrid work arrangement includes employees’ opportunity to spend more time with their families. On the other hand, the disadvantages discovered were gradual loss of corporate identity, a feeling of loneliness and others. One of the challenges organizations are facing in implementing this working system is the lack of an ergonomic workplace and appropriate technology for remote working. With evidence, this study ends with finding out that companies are not successful as expected in terms of team learning in a hybrid workplace.Originality/valueTo the best of the author’s knowledge, this is among the first to look at hybrid workplace in the African setting where COVID restrictions which highlights the practice has not really been an issue. This study also combines its findings with those done on the subject before to firmly clarify attributes as they exist.

Difficulties to digitalize: ambidexterity challenges in law firms

PurposeThis paper aims to understand what prevents established law firms from embracing digitalization and discusses barriers to solving the emerging ambidexterity problem. Law firms have been organized in the same way for decades. However, digital opportunities are emerging and new competitors are challenging established firms. This presents established law firms with an ambidexterity problem: How can law firms simultaneously uphold their successful way of working while entering a new world of digitalization, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning?Design/methodology/approachPrevious research suggests that law firms are slow in digital transformation, compared to other Professional Service Firms (PSFs). In this paper, the authors explore why this happens. Interview data from representatives in law firms are complemented with data from architects as well as legal industry data and field notes. The data have been analyzed to spot patterns and emerging themes.FindingsThe authors find that established law firms face structural and cultural barriers to applying ambidextrous solutions. When comparing law firms with architecture firms, the authors see that while established architecture firms have combined digital exploration with ongoing exploitation, established law firms have focused on exploitation, leaving digital exploration to new legal tech firms. This difference can be attributed to industry context and professional culture.Originality/valueThis paper shows that both structural and contextual ambidexterity is a challenge for established law firms. This paper contributes to the understanding of barriers to embrace digital technology, and supports practitioners in efforts to remove these barriers.

Flourishing digital technology in professional services firms: multidisciplinary perspectives in India

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify the role of digitalization on the key characteristics of professional service firms (PSFs) that are part of the service sector and inherently oriented with intense knowledge, capital and professionalized workforces.xD; xA.Design/methodology/approachThis study adopted a qualitative, exploratory and inductive research methodology based on in-depth interviews with 49 entrepreneurs/professionals of PSFs focusing on the role of digitalization including capital intensity, knowledge intensity and professionalized workforce.FindingsThe result reflected that digitalization facilitates at lower levels of knowledge intensity, whereas it increases the capital intensity for most of the firms and decreases the professionalization of the workforce among PSFs.Originality/valueThe study provides empirical validations where digitalization has changed the distinctive characteristics of PSFs, which promotes new practices, allows for variation and transforms their competitive contexts. In light of these findings, the authors illuminated the application of digitalization on the Indian law firms, retail, education, healthcare and manufacturing industry.

When are clients helpful? Capitalising on client involvement in professional service delivery.

Professional service firms apply specialist knowledge to create customised solutions to client problems. In their work, teams of professionals undertake projects in which clients may be closely involved in co-creating solutions. However, we know little about the conditions under which client involvement contributes to better performance. We examine the direct and conditional contribution client involvement can make to project success and propose team bonding capital as a moderator. We conduct multi-level analysis of data from 58 project managers and 171 consultants nested in project teams. We find a positive impact of client involvement on both team performance and team member idea creativity. Team bonding capital moderates the relationships client involvement has with both team performance and individual member idea creativity, where the impact of client involvement is greater when team bonding capital is high. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Finding a fit between CXO’s experience and AI usage in CXO decision-making: evidence from knowledge-intensive professional service firms

PurposeArtificial intelligence (AI) applications’ usage in Chief Officers’ (CXOs’) decision-making is a topic of current research interest. A fundamental dilemma is carefully planning an effective combination of a CXO’s professional experiences and AI applications’ decision-making responsibility. However, the existing literature fails to specify the value of co-creation of AI applications and the human experience in managerial decision-making. To address this gap in the literature, the authors’ examine how an ideal cognitive-technology fit can be created between human experiences and AI-based solutions at CXO-level decision-making using the theoretical lens of the Service-Dominant Logic.Design/methodology/approachThe authors’ employed a grounded theory approach and conducted a focus group discussion with seven participants to shed light on the factors that may balance AI applications’ usage and CXOs’ experience in making business decisions. This was followed by 21 in-depth interviews with employees from knowledge-intensive professional service firms to validate the findings further of a new phenomenon. Further, given the newness of the phenomenon, this approach allowed researchers a retrospective and real-time understanding of interviewees’ experiences of the phenomenon under consideration.FindingsThe advantages and constraints of both CXOs’ experiences and AI applications deserve due consideration for successfully implementing technology in knowledge-intensive professional service organizations.Research limitations/implicationsThis study may appeal to researchers and practitioners interested in the future of decision-making, as the authors’ study findings advocate for balancing CXO’s expertise and the use of AI in decision-making.Originality/valueBased on the preliminary findings, the authors developed a theoretical framework to understand the factors that govern AI implementation in an organization and how a competitive strategy may emerge from value co-created by AI applications and CXOs’ experience, particularly in knowledge-intensive professional service firms.

Supporting value co-creation through interaction during the pre-purchase customer journey: empirical evidence from B2B HR services

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the role of interaction in supporting value co-creation during pre-purchase customer journey stages when selling professional B-to-B services. First, value co-creation in professional service firms (PSFs) is reviewed, and, second, the role of interaction in the different stages of a customer’s pre-purchase journey is explored, specifically in the context of B-to-B human resource management services.Design/methodology/approachQualitative, semi-structured interview data was collected from potential B2B customers of a PSF in question, providing a broad coverage of prospective clients in architecture, engineering and IT sector.FindingsIn general, the findings of this study indicate that interaction plays a crucial role in pre-purchasing stages of a customer journey. In particular, these findings form understanding of how various interaction channels and content support PSF’s ability to co-create value with its prospects.Originality/valueThe existing research tends to concentrate on how value is created for existing customers, and far less attention has been paid to the perspective of prospects. This study contributes theoretically by providing novel insights into the current literature on value co-creation in PSFs by providing an understanding of how interactions in pre-purchase phases affect the co-creation of value from the perspective of prospects, which is a less researched viewpoint. Empirically, this study offers managers much-needed, context-specific knowledge of PSFs by comparing differences and pulling together similarities from each customer journey stage of PSF prospects.

Prevalence and correlates of sexual harassment in professional service firms.

Despite their significance, limited research has been conducted on sexual harassment in professional service firms (PSFs). Survey data were gathered from 321 Belgian employees (155 women, 166 men) of global accounting and law firms. The prevalence of sexual harassment in PSFs based on traditional sexual harassment items and not-man-enough harassment items was reported. Correlations of respondents' experiences with workplace sexual harassment with perceived acceptance of sexual harassment by one's peers (social norms), personality traits, and demographic and job-related factors were examined. Experiences of workplace sexual harassment were widespread in the current sample: 88.5% of women and 83.3% of men experienced at least once or twice some form of sexual harassment at work during the past 24 months. The most frequent types of sexual harassment reported are examples of (verbal) forms of gender harassment. Instances of traditional harassment were experienced equally often by men and women, while not-man-enough harassment was much more frequently experienced by women. Severe physical sexual harassment was less frequent. Workplace sexual harassment is positively correlated with perceived acceptance of sexual harassment by one's peers and negatively with job level. Results of the current study align with research that links workplace sexual harassment with workplace culture and suggest that both men and women in PSFs experience enforcement of gender roles. It seems quintessential for firms to create working environments and cultures in which sexual harassment is clearly and unambiguously condemned and sanctioned.

When and how digital platforms empower professional services firms: an agility perspective

PurposeDrawing on a strategic agility perspective, the authors develop a theoretical framework and empirically examine how digital platform adoption and capability impact business performance via digital-enabled strategic agility in the context of professional service firms.Design/methodology/approachThe authors propose and examine a conceptual framework based on survey data from 127 professional service firms in New Zealand.FindingsThis study reveals the impact of digital platform capability on the business performance of professional service firms that employ digital platform technologies. The results suggest that organizational innovation and managers' creative efficacy will be used as distal antecedents and contribute to digital platform capabilities. In addition, digital strategic agility can mediate the link between digital platform capabilities and business performance.Originality/valueThis study is one of the first to investigate when and how digital platforms empower professional service firms. This study reveals the role of digital strategic agility and digital platform capabilities in knowledge-intensive enterprises. This research advances the development of knowledge-based economy in the information age by applying and extending strategic agility to the uncertain and volatile business environment. The authors' new conceptualization provides a deeper understanding of how and why professional services business and organizations can adapt to the post-COVID era smoothly and successfully.

Roles of managing partners in mid-size and large law firms – evidence from the DACH-region

ABSTRACT While there has been ample research on the roles of managers, no similar studies have been conducted regarding the roles of Managing Partners in law firms – a subgroup of professional service firms (PSF). However, the many differences between PSFs and industrial or other service providers suggest that the existing research on the role of managers cannot be applied to law firm Managing Partners. In order to fill that gap and analyze the roles of law firm managers, evidence was collected in 34 interviews with 36 Managing Partners from large and mid-size law firms in the DACH-Region (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) regarding their function as their firms’ top managers. Analysis shows that while the Managing Partner function varies considerably between law firms, the activities of Managing Partners can be clustered into 15 distinct roles. This study adds empirical evidence to the existing practice literature and supports our understanding of the Managing Partner function in law firms and other PSF.

Digitalization processes in small professional service firms: drivers, barriers and emerging organisational tensions

PurposeThis study aimed to provide an exploratory analysis of digitalization processes in small professional service firms (SPSFs) by examining their main drivers and barriers and their impact on customer management practices, considering the intra-organizational, inter-organizational and service offering dimensions.Design/methodology/approachThis study adopted a qualitative, exploratory and inductive research methodology based on in-depth interviews with 19 owners or consultants of small tax/accounting firms, focusing on the role of digitalization in their internal and external processes.FindingsThe findings reveal external and internal barriers to and drivers of digitalization, as well as its effects on customer management practices. They also reveal the emergence of tensions related to the intra-organizational, inter-organizational and service offering dimensions.Originality/valueThis work contributes to the research on the role of digital technologies in the professional service sector, with a focus on SPSFs, which has thus far received limited attention. This research highlights the complexity of combining increasingly standardized processes and services with the need to maintain flexibility and informality in internal and external interactions.

I see myself in my leader: transformational leadership and its impact on employees' technology-mediated knowledge sharing in professional service firms

PurposeKnowledge is the main product of professional service firms; therefore, knowledge is the key to success. Due to the nature of this organizational type, management in professional service firms has faced many challenges in encouraging employees to share knowledge. The diffusion of technologies has facilitated technology-mediated knowledge sharing (TMKS), which helps the transfer of knowledge become easier without time and space limits. This study aims to unfold the impact of transformational leadership as an antecedent of TMKS under the interplay with perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness in using technology.Design/methodology/approachAn online survey was distributed to employees in professional service firms through the snowball sampling method. Three hundred forty employees, who had experience with technology-mediated knowledge sharing, participated in the survey.FindingsThe findings showed that transformational leadership had a significant impact on TMKS, which was moderated by perceived usefulness and gender. TMKS influenced organizational innovation, and the mediating effect of TMKS was identified.Originality/valueThis study provides solutions for management in professional service firms to motivate their employees to share knowledge via technology, which drives organizational innovation. More caution about gender differences and the low levels of perceived usefulness from employees need to be considered when adopting transformational leadership.

How Professional Service Firms Derive Triple Value Bottomline: An IC Perspective

The ever-increasing market turbulence has turned today’s corporate landscape more competitive and complex. Particularly during the last two decades, the increased utilization of Information & Communication Technologies (ICTs) globally transformed the services sector in terms of ease of business processes and improved client service delivery. However, in the current knowledge-based era, these tools & technologies would only be meaningful if these are appropriately utilized by a knowledgeable workforce. In other words, this knowledge age has changed the success mantra of business competitiveness by re-shifting the focus from ICT-based transformations to knowledge-based transformations, though the availability of ICT systems has further augmented the organizational capabilities. Moreover, truly capitalizing on these warrants a knowledge-enabled work culture and recognizing as such the strategic significance of in-house Intellectual Capital (IC) that serves as a prime mover of achieving a sustainable competitive advantage. However, the maximum potential of IC for deriving multi-stakeholder value has not been fully achieved. Therefore, by administering 12 face-to-face semi-structured interviews at Australian Professional Service Firms (PSFs), this research offers a novel perspective on IC valuation by presenting the concept of ‘Triple Value Bottomline’ coupled with ‘IC Best Practices for PSFs’. These collectively offer IC evaluation, measurement and management mechanisms. Overall, the findings reveal immense potential of IC for achieving diverse value outcomes for multi-stakeholders in PSFs.

‘People first’ responses to an externality

Professional service firms in the built environment are subject to externalities. Whether these forces are related to economic downturns, changes in the regulatory environment, natural disasters, trade wars, armed conflict, mass migration, hyperinflation, climate change, global pandemics, entropy, or even the never foreseen, firms must adapt, reposition, and rebound from negative events. The ability to adapt is best personified by the people that make up a firm. When one firm’s major commission was completely altered overnight due to the passing of major legislation that changed the mission and mandate of the agency that commissioned the work, the firm was nimble enough to pivot, make judgments about what scope could still be accomplished within the deadline, and determine who to assign the necessary tasks to get the job accomplished. The experience forced mentors to step up, mentees to step out of their comfort zones, the team to congeal under pressure, and resulted in an unmanageable deadline being met despite difficult odds and a myriad of factors beyond the firm’s control. Only mentorship, knowledge sharing, resilience, and dedication allowed a positive result for the firm, the client, the user agency, and those served by the institution. It also furthered the standing perception of the firm as the trusted advisor that finds a way. This case study in the mitigation of exogenous shocks through a ‘people first’ strategy will highlight potential A/E/C industry responses to similar events.

Unsettling West-centrism in the study of professional service firms

Over the last two decades, research on professional service firms has developed into an important subfield of management studies. In this article, I offer a postcolonial critique of this subfield. I show that it is not only built almost exclusively on studies conducted in the West but also generally presents its theorizing as though it were universal. This is despite the field being mostly focused on transnational firms. It is also despite professional service firm scholars generally being distinctly sensitive to (organizational) difference and having no steadfast commitment to positivism. Importantly, I also contend that professional service firm scholarship tends to construct an image of Western professionals as bearers of universal experience, knowledge and ‘professional’ culture while overlooking, if not obscuring, their role in neo-colonialism. Thus, what started as a useful effort to study an unusual – ‘professional’ – type of organization appears to have evolved into a West-centric scholarly enterprise. I urge scholars to recognize and interrogate the problem and work self-reflexively to address it in their own research – and I offer suggestions to that end. My contribution also has implications for the postcolonial critique in management studies and related efforts to decolonize the field.

“This boys club world is finally getting to me”: Developing our glass consciousness to understand women's experiences in elite architecture firms

AbstractIn this article, we take inspiration from the evolution of the material use of glass to explore how the metaphorical use of glass could be developed to understand the emerging struggles of women in architecture. Drawing on semi‐structured interviews of architects employed in professional service firms, we suggest that the multi‐faceted nature of glass helped us to identify and understand the complex experiences of inequality for women in architecture. In so doing, we make three contributions to scholarship on gender, work, and organizations. First, we demonstrate how glass barriers were truly material in their consequences for senior women, as they prevented their rise or initiated their decline. A focus on glass barriers, however, did not fully account for the experiences of younger women in these firms. Surprisingly, and in stark contrast to the “boys club world” that left many senior women in architecture with a fractured sense of self as they struggled to construct self‐affirming identities as both women and architects, we found that the exclusive use of new technologies enabled younger women architects to melt some aspects of the traditional identity and turn them into new forms. Our conceptualization of “technologies of glass” draws attention to the social, cultural, and technological resources that younger women deploy to construct a strong professional identity in the changing world of architecture. We argue that glass can be understood not just as a constraint but as a multifaceted material with limitless possibilities for design. Thus, by highlighting the material‐symbolic entanglements of the use of glass, we strengthen and refresh the metaphor of glass, to better understand the fluidity of contemporary challenges facing professional women at work.

Management of fortuity: Workplace chance events and the career projections of up-or-out professionals

How much control do people have over their career? We explore this question in the context of professional service firms, long thought of as providing predictable, agentic careers in the up-or-out model. Specifically, we seek to understand how chance events in immediate work circumstances are experienced in this context, and the responses they elicit in terms of career construction. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 68 pre-partnership professionals from three large professional firms using the up-or-out promotion system, we find that chance developments in proximate work conditions, especially with respect to key relationships and project allocation, shape the possibilities that professionals see for their careers going forward and the actions they take in response. Even in this seemingly predictable career, being continuously attuned to fortuitous turns of events informs how people enact career agency. It also prompts a heightened awareness of the fragile nature of the up-or-out career path, triggering a gradual reconsideration of career possibilities that includes career confirmation, ambivalence, pivot, and fading. Our study contributes to better understanding the interdependence between context and agency in contemporary careers, highlighting the widespread and consequential role of proximate chance events in people's career construction process.

Revenue Management of a Professional Services Firm with Quality Revelation

In this paper, the authors tackle the operational problem of managing a professional service firm (PSF). A PSF, such as a management consulting firm, law firm, or an accounting firm, has employees of varying skills, backgrounds, qualifications, and experience. The operational problem of PSFs can be summarized as a bidding-cum-matching problem where the probability of winning depends on the quality of the employees promised for the job as well as the price quoted in the bid. Should the employees (hence, the quality) be committed as part of the bid, or should the firm rely on reputation? How much should the firm bid, given one or the other strategy and available resources, taking future bids into consideration? How many employees of each type should the firm have on hand? What is the optimal utilization level of each type? These are some of the questions this paper addresses.

Educational Success in Transitional China: The Gaokao and Learning Capital in Elite Professional Service Firms

AbstractDespite fruitful findings on the reasons underlying the desire for educational success and scarce credentials among students and families, there is little research on the meaning of educational success in the marketplace. As higher education in China has expanded to aid better-quality growth and the transition to a knowledge-based economy, educational success has become increasingly critical in the allocation of socioeconomic rewards. As such, insights into how educational success and concomitant credentials are valorized are empirically and theoretically significant. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 73 recruiters for elite professional service firms, this study analyses the meanings underlying the process of valorizing educational success and elite credentials. It shows that success in the gaokao, or entry to higher education, was qualitatively salient in excluding candidates, while information about subject domains and marks/class rank carried relatively less weight. Recruiters based the value of educational success on the notion of “learning ability,” which reflected their shared understandings about Chinese educational selection/institutions and wider conditions of elite professional firms. On this basis, this paper argues for the development of learning capital as a new theoretical lens for approaching educational success and credentials in transitional China.

Following the chain of command? How managers balance benefits and risks in granting autonomy to employees

We investigate how managers trade off the benefits of delegating authority to their employees with the risk of loss of control. Organizational economics theory identifies specific knowledge of subordinates and monitoring possibilities for the manager as determinants of delegation. Social learning theory predicts that when unit managers are themselves granted more authority, they will pass this on to their employees. This cascading of authority reduces the fear of loss of control associated with delegation. Using a survey among 215 unit managers in professional services firms, we find that managers delegate more authority to employees in their unit when those employees have more specific knowledge, when there are more exceptions in employee tasks, and when monitoring costs are lower. We also find support for the cascading effect: decentralization to the manager is positively related to autonomy granted to employees, while it moderates the effects of specific knowledge and monitoring costs.