Accomplish change or causing hesitance – Developing practices in professional service firms

Love Börjeson and Jan Löwstedt

Scandinavian Journal of Management, 2017, vol. 33, issue 3, 185-194

Abstract: The scholarly proclaimed truce between professionals and managers in professional service firms (PSFs) is presently being threatened by changes in the business environment, calling for coordination superordinate to the single professions. The issue of managing professionals in PSFs consequently needs to be re-addressed. We do so by using correspondence analysis to explore the interrelatedness between change initiatives and responses to these changes, in an interview-based case study. Our results suggests that managers can successfully change management related practices without particular consideration of the professionals in the firm, but also that professionals can successfully change professional practices in an unassuming and “practice-like” fashion: with actions rather than with words. Managers who wish to change professional practices, however, need to negotiate the content, scope and purpose of the change initiative with the professionals in the firm.

Keywords: Professional service firms; Practice; Change; Response; Critical attitudes; Correspondence analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:scaman:v:33:y:2017:i:3:p:185-194

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DOI: 10.1016/j.scaman.2017.08.001

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