Understanding professionals' reactions to strategic change: the role of threatened professional identities

Annika Schilling,, Andreas Werr,, Sébastien Gand () and Jean-Claude Sardas ()
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Annika Schilling,: SSE - Stockholm School of Economics
Andreas Werr,: SSE - Stockholm School of Economics
Jean-Claude Sardas: CGS i3 - Centre de Gestion Scientifique i3 - Mines Paris - PSL (École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris) - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - I3 - Institut interdisciplinaire de l’innovation - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

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Abstract: This article develops and demonstrates the utility of a framework for understanding professionals' reactions to strategic change in professional service firms as an interplay between a strategic intent, its manifestation in organizational roles and practices and its fit with existing professional identities. The application of the framework with three case studies shows that strategic changes may threaten different aspects of professional identities (self-enhancement, self-continuity and self-distinctiveness) which in turn tends to lead to different kinds of resistance from the professionals (exit, voice for opposition or voice for renegotiation). The article also links these different reactions to the locus of identification of professionals, which may be either 'local' or 'cosmopolitan'.

Keywords: professional service firms; strategic change; organizational roles; resistance to change; professional identity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011-01-13
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Published in Service Industries Journal, 2011, pp.1-17. ⟨10.1080/02642069.2010.531269⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-00696969

DOI: 10.1080/02642069.2010.531269

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