scholarly journals Ambiguous Authority and Hidden Hierarchy: Collective Leadership in a Professional Service Firm

2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 (1) ◽  
pp. 11410
Author(s):  
Laura Empson
Keyword(s):  
Professional Service ◽  
Collective Leadership ◽  
Service Firm ◽  
Professional Service Firm

scholarly journals Ambiguous authority and hidden hierarchy: Collective leadership in an elite professional service firm

Leadership ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 62-86
Author(s):  
Laura Empson
Keyword(s):  
Professional Service ◽  
Power Dynamics ◽  
Organizational Crisis ◽  
Collective Leadership ◽  
Service Firm ◽  
Professional Service Firm ◽  
Leadership Group ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Functional Purpose ◽  
Do So

This study represents a detailed analysis of collective leadership in an elite professional service firm, examining the distinctive power dynamics revealed among professional peers as they attempt to act decisively in response to an acute organizational crisis. It identifies how professional peers deliberately construct and amplify ambiguity in both the composition and authority of their collective leadership group, and examines how that ambiguity can serve a functional purpose for group members. Intuitive mutual adjustment is the prevailing pattern of interaction, but this changes to a more managed form of mutual adjustment as a hidden hierarchy is revealed in response to the crisis. The study identifies the micro interactions which constitute both intuitive and managed mutual adjustment, and shows how members of a collective leadership group can maintain cohesion and act decisively, in spite of lacking the formal authority to do so. The findings challenge some foundational assumptions of collective leadership theory and extend our understanding of leadership power dynamics more generally by demonstrating how leaders can exercise considerable informal power under the cloak of ambiguity, highlighting the hidden hierarchy that can exist within a collective, and emphasizing the significance of individual ‘heroic’ leader within collective leadership.

Skill underutilization and collective turnover in a professional service firm

2015 ◽  
Vol 34 (7) ◽  
pp. 787-802 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melissa Mitchell ◽  
Christopher D. Zatzick
Keyword(s):  
Group Processes ◽  
Professional Service ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Group Level ◽  
Turnover Rates ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Service Firm ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Professional Service Firm ◽  
Collective Turnover

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine skill underutilization and collective turnover in a large professional service firm (PSF). The authors hypothesize that skill underutilization is positively related to collective turnover, that skill underutilization is greater among professionals than nonprofessionals, and that the positive relationship between skill underutilization and collective turnover is stronger for professionals than for nonprofessionals. Design/methodology/approach – Using survey data from a large PSF, the authors test these predictions across 191 groups (professional and nonprofessional) in 80 offices. Collective turnover rates were taken from company records one year after the survey was administered. Findings – The authors find support for the prediction that skill underutilization is positively related to collective turnover. In addition, skill underutilization is greater among professionals than nonprofessionals within a PSF. However, the relationship between skill underutilization and collective turnover did not differ between professionals and nonprofessionals. Research limitations/implications – While the authors find that skill underutilization is positively related to collective turnover, future research is needed to measure the group processes that occur among group members and lead to collective turnover. Limitations of this study include the inability to validate the aggregation of data from the individual level to the group level, and the generalizability of findings to other PSFs or to involuntary turnover situations. Practical implications – Understanding the antecedents of collective turnover is of particular concern to PSFs, as they are composed of highly skilled, intrinsically motivated professionals, who generate value for the firm. These findings are particularly timely, given the significant levels of underemployment in countries throughout the world. Originality/value – In addition to extending skill underutilization and collective turnover research to the occupational group level, the findings highlight the importance of providing development opportunities for employees during difficult economic conditions in order to minimize collective turnover.

How Calibration Committees Can Mitigate Performance Evaluation Bias: An Analysis of Implicit Incentives

2020 ◽  
Vol 95 (6) ◽  
pp. 213-233 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabella Grabner ◽  
Judith Künneke ◽  
Frank Moers
Keyword(s):  
Performance Evaluation ◽  
Panel Data ◽  
Professional Service ◽  
Performance Ratings ◽  
Performance Rating ◽  
Opportunistic Behavior ◽  
Service Firm ◽  
Evaluation Bias ◽  
Professional Service Firm

ABSTRACT While prior research on performance evaluation bias has mainly focused on the determinants and consequences of rating errors, we investigate how a firm can provide implicit incentives to supervisors to mitigate these errors via its calibration committee. We empirically examine the extent to which a calibration committee incorporates supervisors' evaluation behavior with respect to their subordinates in the performance evaluation outcomes, i.e., performance ratings and promotion decisions, for these supervisors. In our study, we distinguish between lack of skills and opportunism as two important facets of evaluation behavior, which we expect the calibration committee to address differently. Using panel data of a professional service firm, we show that supervisors' opportunistic behavior to strategically inflate subordinates' performance ratings is disciplined through a decrease in the supervisors' own performance rating, while the supervisors' skills to provide less compressed and, thus, more informative performance ratings is rewarded through a higher likelihood of promotion.

INNOVATION AWARDS: REWARD, RECOGNITION, AND RITUAL

2017 ◽  
Vol 21 (05) ◽  
pp. 1740006 ◽  
Author(s):  
LISA CALLAGHER ◽  
PETER SMITH
Keyword(s):  
Risk Taking ◽  
Professional Service ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Professional Service Firms ◽  
Service Firm ◽  
Detailed Case ◽  
Professional Service Firm ◽  
Pluralistic Contexts

This paper draws on a detailed case study of an innovation awards-giving scheme in a professional service firm to consider the role of discretionary awards in encouraging and displaying innovation capabilities. Because of their association with competition, it might seem that awards are likely tools in pluralistic contexts such as professional service firms where risk-taking and collaboration require deep relationships with clients and with professionals from different specialisations. We intend to show how managers and professionals mobilised around the scheme using the rewarding, recognising, and ritualising of innovation through awards, as a platform to initiate and promote other organisational processes that foster innovation capabilities.

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