Leveraging Human Assets in Law Firms: Human Capital Structures and Organizational Capabilities

ILR Review ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 671 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter D. Sherer
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
Organizational Capabilities ◽  
Law Firms

Leveraging Human Assets in Law Firms: Human Capital Structures and Organizational Capabilities

ILR Review ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 671-691 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter D. Sherer
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
Capital Structure ◽  
Business Strategy ◽  
Organizational Capabilities ◽  
Financial Capital ◽  
Residual Income ◽  
Law Firms ◽  
Law Firm ◽  
Leverage Ratio ◽  
Firm Knowledge

Partners in a law firm are the source of firm knowledge and hold claims to the firm's residual income; associates work for partners, acquire knowledge, and receive a fixed level of compensation. The author uses the ratio of associates to partners to measure the leveraging of human assets in law firms, which he likens to the leveraging of financial capital in other firms. Analyzing data on 312 large offices of law firms in 1991, he finds that this leverage ratio was related to business strategy, human resource management, and organizational structure. As an index of law firms' human capital structures, it also had important implications for organizational capabilities and firm competitiveness. For example, offices characterized by a rare and tightly controlled human capital structure had the highest billing rates, reflecting their capability of providing clients with services that deeply embody the knowledge of partners.

Decision Making

2019 ◽  
pp. 64-81
Author(s):  
Alvaro López-Cabrales ◽  
Mar Bornay-Barrachina
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Human Capital ◽  
Absorptive Capacity ◽  
Domestic Market ◽  
Organizational Characteristics ◽  
Organizational Capabilities ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
Task Environments

Decisions are choices. Decision making is the essence of management. Managers make decisions every day and the practical implications of such decisions are key to the success of the company. After reading this chapter, managers, or those who are preparing to be managers, should be better able to do the following: (1) understand the extent to which such organizational characteristics as structure or technology affect decision making, (2) see why the complexity of task environments determines the decisions being made by managers, (3) define and manage certain strategic organizational capabilities such as learning or absorptive capacity, (4) think about cognitive and non-cognitive human capital characteristics that play a role in decision making, and (5) be aware of the impact of culture on decision-making processes. Understanding these aspects will help you develop a deeper understanding of the role and importance of decision making, not only in the domestic market but also internationally.

Intellectual capital role in ambidexterity emergence

2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 733-744 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susana Fernández-Pérez de la Lastra ◽  
Natalia García-Carbonell ◽  
Fernando Martín-Alcázar ◽  
Gonzalo Sánchez-Gardey
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Human Capital ◽  
Intellectual Capital ◽  
Organizational Capabilities ◽  
Integrative Model ◽  
Alternative View ◽  
Organizational Ambidexterity ◽  
Organizational Capital ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Multilevel Perspective

Purpose Considering the inconclusive results in the literature on the way organizations create ambidextrous organizational capabilities, the purpose of this paper is to present an alternative theoretical model of three different paths through which ambidexterity is built. From a multilevel perspective, the model describes how specific combinations of the facets of intellectual capital – human, social and organizational capital – can synergistically work to reach ambidexterity. Design/methodology/approach The study is based on main arguments from multilevel and intellectual capital literature. The multilevel approach allows the authors to consider a broader perspective to define three specific modes to create ambidextrous capabilities. Additionally, the intellectual capital literature completes the model, with the input (human capital), mechanisms (social capital) and the infrastructure (organizational capital) needed to develop ambidexterity. With the integration of both frameworks, the model explains how different types of ambidexterity are generated at diverse firm levels – individual, group and organizational, following different and complementary paths. Findings This research goes beyond the traditional arguments on how organizations develop simultaneously exploration and exploitation activities, proposing an integrative model of three complementary modes: path 1 (ambidexterity based on individual human capital); path 2 (ambidexterity through social capital) and path 3 (ambidexterity through organizational capital). These paths link organizational levels in organizations, showing the accumulative process of ambidexterity from a multilevel perspective. Originality/value The paper offers an alternative view expanding the ongoing discussion in the ambidexterity field. There is a lack of configurational models in the literature that describe, from a synergistic point of view, these complementary paths to achieving organizational ambidexterity. This approach contributes to explaining that not only individual ambidextrous human capital is needed to generate organizational ambidexterity, but also that specialist human capital could be a source of ambidexterity.

Client-Related Factors and Collaboration Between Human Assets

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
John K. Mawdsley ◽  
Philipp Meyer-Doyle ◽  
Olivier Chatain
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
Professional Service ◽  
Law Firms ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Professional Service Firms ◽  
Related Factors ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Knowledge Intensive ◽  
The Individual

Collaborations between individuals in firms have important implications for the development of relational and human capital. In knowledge-intensive contexts where collaborations are formed to deliver services to clients, collaboration decisions can involve nontrivial tradeoffs between short-term and long-term benefits: individuals and firms must carefully manage the tradeoffs between leveraging existing relational and human capital for the reliable performance of repeat collaboration and creating new relational and human capital through new collaboration. Building from the premise that servicing clients is central to collaboration decisions in human asset–intensive firms, we examine how client-related factors shape collaboration decisions among lawyers (partners) in UK law firms providing M&A legal advisory services. We focus on three key client-related dimensions that we predict govern collaboration decisions: the depth of individual- and firm-level relationships with the focal client, key client attributes that reflect the client’s status and its use of different firms to undertake its outsourced work, and client-driven individual- and firm-level resource constraint. Our empirical findings support our proposition that client-related factors influence the pattern of collaborations between individuals in firms. We also reveal how client-related factors at the individual level can have opposite effects on collaboration decisions from those at the firm level. Overall, our findings contribute to research on relational capital, strategic human capital, team formation, professional service firms, and the microfoundations of strategy.

Knowledge Management and the Links to Human Capital Management

2010 ◽  
pp. 221-233
Author(s):  
Marianne Gloet
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Human Resource Management ◽  
Human Resource ◽  
Organizational Capabilities ◽  
Capital Management ◽  
Human Capital Management ◽  
Leadership And Management ◽  
Management Capabilities

This paper explores various linkages between knowledge management (KM) and human capital management (HCM) in the context of developing leadership and management capabilities to support sustainability. Based on the prevailing literature, a framework linking human resource management (HRM), KM and HCM is applied to the development of leadership and management capabilities to support sustainability. The framework identifies ways to promote sustainability through creating effective links between KM and HCM by which organizations can develop their leadership and management capabilities to support sustainability across business, environmental and social justice contexts. This approach provides managers with a framework for addressing sustainability issues and for developing individual and organizational capabilities to support sustainability through KM and HCM practices.

scholarly journals Strategic Approach to Job Design: An Issue in Strategy Implementation

2015 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 48
Author(s):  
Nosheen Jawaid Khan ◽  
Sarwar Azhar ◽  
Zoofishan Hayat
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
Core Competencies ◽  
Implementation Process ◽  
Job Design ◽  
Strategy Implementation ◽  
Strategic Human Resource Management ◽  
Organizational Capabilities ◽  
Effective Strategy ◽  
Strategy Execution ◽  
Convergence Process

The field of strategy and strategic human resource management (SHRM) are combined to unveil the “black box” involved in strategy formulation and effective strategy implementation process. The SHRM new focus considered human capital as strategic resource utilized and deployed to strategic jobs that are designed to broaden its focus from task significance to strategically impact on employment of organizational capabilities or competencies at any level in the firm for the effective strategy implementation. Strategic job-design fit contribute to deploy organizational capabilities and competencies for the approach to effective strategy execution that leads to competitive advantage. The strategic capabilities of human capital exhibit certain behaviors that mediate the process of effective strategy implementation. It is suggested that without involvement of internal organization factors (Social Capital and Inter-functional coordination) behaviors cannot be applied appropriately for the convergence process. It is concluded that right pool of human capital should be strategically aligned with strategic jobs while recognizing and deploying organization capabilities and core competencies, manifested through appropriate behaviors rightly applicable through convergence process to smoothen the execution of the strategy.

Towards an integrated framework of professional partnership performance: The role of formal governance and strategic planning

2017 ◽  
Vol 70 (11) ◽  
pp. 1388-1414 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michel W Lander ◽  
Pursey PMAR Heugens ◽  
J (Hans) van Oosterhout
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
Strategic Planning ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Conventional Wisdom ◽  
Law Firms ◽  
Objective Data ◽  
Mediating Mechanisms ◽  
Attraction And Retention ◽  
Critical Resources

Conventional wisdom identifies human capital and organizational reputation as the critical resources explaining professional partnership (PP) performance. PPs have increasingly adopted organizational practices like strategic planning and formal governance, however, which have long been alien in highly professionalized contexts. In order to test the influence of both these classic resources and the newly adopted practices on PP performance, as well as the mediating mechanisms— that is, client attraction and retention as well as organizational efficiency—through which this influence is channeled, we develop an integrated theoretical framework of PP performance. We test the resulting hypotheses using survey and objective data collected on 196 Dutch law firms. Our findings provide new insights into the drivers of PP performance and the complex interrelationships between PP resources and newly adopted practices.

Knowledge Management and the Links to Human Capital Management

2010 ◽  
pp. 1403-1415
Author(s):  
Marianne Gloet
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Human Resource Management ◽  
Human Resource ◽  
Organizational Capabilities ◽  
Capital Management ◽  
Human Capital Management ◽  
Leadership And Management ◽  
Management Capabilities

This paper explores various linkages between knowledge management (KM) and human capital management (HCM) in the context of developing leadership and management capabilities to support sustainability. Based on the prevailing literature, a framework linking human resource management (HRM), KM and HCM is applied to the development of leadership and management capabilities to support sustainability. The framework identifies ways to promote sustainability through creating effective links between KM and HCM by which organizations can develop their leadership and management capabilities to support sustainability across business, environmental and social justice contexts. This approach provides managers with a framework for addressing sustainability issues and for developing individual and organizational capabilities to support sustainability through KM and HCM practices.

Eliminating the Weakest Link

2011 ◽  
pp. 176-209
Author(s):  
Diana J. Wong-Ming Ji
Keyword(s):  
Human Capital ◽  
External Environment ◽  
It Outsourcing ◽  
Organizational Capabilities ◽  
Resource Information ◽  
Weakest Link ◽  
Multi Level ◽  
Development Of Competencies ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Strategic Management Process

As organizations shift from tactical to strategic approaches with IT outsourcing, their human capital portfolios of knowledge, skills, competencies, and organizational capabilities need to be reconfigured accordingly. This chapter outlines a model for constructing human capital portfolios that enable firms to strategically leverage IT outsourcing. Two organizational capabilities—rational strategic management process and connective capabilities—provide the integrating mechanisms for competencies from three sub-units that are human resource information systems (HRIS), the IS function, and supply chain management. Knowledge and skills at the individual and sub-unit level enable the development of competencies that are integrated by organizational capabilities. Given the dynamic nature of competitive contexts, managers have to reconfigure their organizations’ human capital portfolio to align their firms with the external environment. In sum, creating human capital portfolios for strategic IT outsourcing supply chains requires a multi-level and multi-disciplinary approach to identify and strengthen the weakest links.

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