Why is it that HR specialists appear to have difficulty applying their knowledge, systems
and techniques in a systematic way when it comes to professional services firms (PSFs) –
particularly when the drivers for developing powerful HRM practices within such businesses
seem more pressing than ever? This paper analyzes the ways HR specialists and PSF
managers/partners differ in their understanding of organizations and their management. The
analysis supports the argument that, while HR specialists and the discipline of HRM are
governed by bureaucratic logic in their approach to management, PSF managers by contrast
are driven by professional logic. This creates a number of subtle as well as explicit
tensions and disconnects that will have to be tackled if the practices of HRM are to
prevail in PSFs. This paper contributes to HRM literature as well as institutional theory,
by applying an analysis of institutional logics to HRM practice in PSFs. The paper builds
on interviews with five HR managers who have held positions in PSFs, as well as a
longitudinal case study of PSF managers in one of the ‘Big Four’ accounting firms. The
paper offers a number of tentative proposals around how HRM and PSFs might transcend the
described gulf between the two approaches to management.
BaronJ. N.DobbinF. R.JenningsP. D.
(1986). War and peace: The evolution of modern personnel
administration in US industry. American Journal of
Sociology, 92,
350–383.
4.
BaronJ. N.JenningsP. D.DobbinF. R.
(1988). Mission control? The development of personnel
systems in US industry. American Sociological Review,
54, 97–514.
5.
BeerM.SpectorB.
(1984). Human Resources Management: The integration of
industrial relations and organizational behavior. In RowlandK.FerrisG.
(Eds.), Research in personnel and human resource management, Vol
2. (pp. 261–297). Stamford JAI
Press.
6.
BeerM.
(1984). Managing human assetsSimon and Schuster.
7.
BévortF.
(2012). Making sense of management with
logics. An ethnographic study of accountants who become
managers. (PhD, Doctoral School of Organization and Management Studies, Copenhagen
Business School). PhD-Series, 17 (http://openarchive.cbs.dk/xmlui/handle/10398/8448).
8.
BévortF.PoulfeltF.
(forthcoming). The dilemma of professional partnerships: Production of
producers or prompt profit?Danish Journal of Business and Economy/DJØF.
9.
BoxallP.PurcellJ.
(2011). Strategy and human resource management
(3rd ed.). London, UK:
Palgrave MacMillan.
10.
BrockD. M.PowellM. J.HiningsC. R.
(2007). Archetypical change and professional service
firm. Research in Organizational Change and
Development, 16,
221–251.
11.
CooperD. J.HiningsB.GreenwoodR.BrownJ. L.
(1996). Sedimentation and transformation organizational
change: The case of Canadian law firms. Organization
Studies, 17(4),
623–647.
12.
CloutierC.LangleyA.
(2013). The logic of institutional logics insights from
French pragmatist sociology. Journal of Management
Inquiry, 22(4),
360–380.
13.
DevannaM.FormbrunM.TichyN.WarrenL.
(1982). Strategic planning and human resource
management. Human Resource Management,
21(1),
11–17.
14.
DiMaggioP. J.PowellW. W.
(1991). Introduction. In PowellW.
W.DiMaggioP. J.
(Eds.), The new institutionalism in organizational theory
(1–40). Chicago
Press.
15.
DobbinF.SuttonJ. R.
(1998). The strength of a weak state: The rights revolution
and the rise of human resources management divisions 1. American
Journal of Sociology, 104(2),
441–476.
16.
EmpsonL.GreenwoodR.
(2003). The professional partnership: Relic or exemplary
form of governance?Organization Studies, (v24i6), 909.
17.
FontanaA.FreyJ. H.
(2008). The interview: From neutral stance to political
involvement. In DenzinN. K.LincolnY. S.
(Eds.), Collecting and interpreting qualitative materials (3rd
ed., pp. 115–163). Sage
Publishing.
18.
FormbrunC.TichyN.DevannaM.
(1984). Strategic Human Resource Management.
Wiley, New
York.
19.
FreidsonE.
(2001). Professionalism: The third logic (1st
ed.). Cambridge:
Polity.
20.
FriedlandR.
(2012). Book review: Patricia H. Thornton, William Ocasio
& Michael Lounsbury (2012), The institutional logic perspective: A new approach to
culture, structure, and process. Management,
15(5),
582–595.
21.
FriedlandR.AlfordR. R.
(1991). Bringing society back in: Symbols, practices, and
institutional contradictions. In PowellW.
W.DiMaggioP. J.
(Eds.), The new institutionalism in organizational analysis (pp.
232–266). Chicago:
University of Chicago Press.
22.
GarfinkelH.
(1967). Studies in ethnomethodolgy.
US: Polity press,
Blackwell.
23.
GayP. D.
(2005). An introduction. In GayP.
D. (Ed.), The values of
bureaucracy (pp. 1–17).
Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
24.
GoodrickE.ReayT.
(2011). Constellations of institutional logics: Changes in
the professional work of pharmacists. Work and
Occupations, 38,
372–416.
25.
GooderhamP. N.NordhaugO.RingdalK.
(1999). Institutional and rational determinants of
organizational practices: Human resource management in European firms.
Administrative Science Quarterly,
44(3),
507–531.
26.
GreenwoodR.SuddabyR.McDougaldM.
(2006). Introduction. In GreenwoodR.SuddabyR.
(Eds.), Professional service firms (pp.
1–16). Elsevier
Ltd.
27.
GreenwoodR.HiningsC. R.BrownJ.
(1990). “P2-form” strategic management: Corporate practices
in professional partnerships. The Academy of Management
Journal, 33(4),
725–755.
28.
GreenwoodR.RaynardM.KodeihF.MicelottaE. R.LounsburyM.
(2011). Institutional complexity and organizational
responses. Academy of Management Annals,
5(1),
317–371.
29.
GreyC.
(2010). A very short, fairly interesting and reasonably cheap book
about studying organizations (2nd ed.).
London:
Sage.
HiningsC. R.GreenwoodR.CooperD. J.
(1999). The dynamics of change in large accounting
firms. In BrockD. M.PowellM.HiningsC. R.
(Eds.), Restructuring the professional organization (pp.
131–153). London:
Routledge.
32.
HuselidM.
A. (1995). The impact of
human resource management practices on turnover, productivity, and corporate financial
performance. Academy of Management Journal,
38(3),
635–672.
33.
JacksonS. E.SchulerR. S.JiangK.
(2014). An aspirational framework for strategic human
resource management. The Academy of Management Annals,
8(1),
1–56.
34.
KaufmanB.
E. (2012). Strategic
human resource management research in the United States: A failing grade after 30
years?The Academy of Management Perspectives,
26(2),
12–36.
35.
LarsonM.
S. (1977). The rise of
professionalism. Berkeley, Los Angeles and
London: California University
Press.
36.
LounsburyM.BoxenbaumE.
(2013). Institutional logics in action.
Research in the Sociology of Organizations, 39,
3–22.
37.
Lengnick-HallM. L.Lengnick-HallC. A.AndradeL. S.DrakeB.
(2009). Strategic human resource management: The evolution
of the field. Human Resource Management Review,
19(2),
64–85.
38.
MaisterD.
H. (2003). Managing the
professional service firm. London:
Simon & Schuster, UK, Ltd.
39.
MeyerJ. W.RowanB.
(1991/1977). Institutionalized organizations: Formal
structure as myth and ceremony. In PowellW.
W.DiMaggioP. J.
(Eds.), The new institutionalism in organizational analysis (pp.
41–62). Chicago:
The University of Chicago Press.
40.
MeyerR. E.Egger-PeitlerI.HöllererM. A.HammerschmidG.
(2014). Of bureaucrats and passionate public managers:
Institutional logics, executive identities, and public service
motivation. Public Administration,
92(4),
861–885.
41.
MeyerR. E.HammerschmidG.
(2006). Changing institutional logics and executive
identities a managerial challenge to public administration in Austria.
American Behavioral Scientist, 49(7),
1000–1014.
42.
PacheA.SantosF.
(2010). When worlds collide: The internal dynamics of
organizational responses to conflicting institutional demands.
Academy of Management Review, 35(3),
455–476.
43.
PerrowC.
(1979). Complex organizations. A critical essay.
Glenview, Ill:.
44.
PfefferJ.
(1998). The human equation: Building profits by putting people
first. Harvard Business
Press.
45.
ReayT.HiningsB.
(2009). Managing the rivalry of competing institutional
logics. Organization Studies,
30(6),
629–652.
46.
RichterA.DickmannM.GraubnerM.
(2008). Patterns of human resource management in consulting
firms. Personnel Review,
37(2),
184–202.
47.
RousseauD.
M. (1995). Psychological
contracts in organizations. Understanding written and unwritten
agreementsSage Publications.
48.
ScottW.
R. (2008). Lords of the
dance: Professionals as institutional agents. Organization
Studies, 29(2),
219–238.
49.
SeoM.CreedW. E. D.
(2002). Institutional contradictions, praxis, and
institutional change: A dialectical perspective. The Academy of
Management Review, 27(2),
222.
50.
SmithV.
(2009). Ethnographies of work and the work of
ethnographers. In AtkinsonP.CoffeyA.DelamontS.LoflandJ.LoflandL.
(Eds.), Handbook of ethnography (pp.
220–232). London:
Sage Publishing.
51.
StakeR.
E. (2008). Qualitative
case studies. In DenzinN. K.LincolnY. S.
(Eds.), Strategies of qulitative inquiry (3th ed., pp.
119). Sage
Publications.
52.
StoreyJ.
(1995). Human resource management: Still marching on, or
marching out? In Human Resource Management: A Critical
Text, 1 (pp. 3–32).
London:
Routledge.
53.
SuddabyR.GreenwoodR.WilderomC.
(2008). Introduction to the journal of organizational
behavior's special issue on professional service firms: Where organization theory and
organizational behavior might meet. Journal of Organizational
Behavior, (Special Issue on professional service firms),
989–994.
54.
SwartJ.KinnieN.
(2010), Organisational learning, knowledge assets and HR
practices in professional service firms, Human Resource
Management Journal, 20(1),
64–79.
55.
ThorntonP.
H. (2004). Markets from
culture: Institutional logics and organizational decisions in higher education
publishing. Stanford University
Press.
56.
ThorntonP.OcasioW.
(2008). Institutional logics. In
GreenwoodR.OliverC.SahlinK.SuddabyR.
(Eds.), The Sage handbook of organizational institutionalism (pp.
99–128). London:
Sage.
57.
ThorntonP. H.OcasioW.LounsburyM.
(2012). The institutional logics perspective: A new approach to
culture, structure, and process. Oxford University
Press.
58.
UlrichD.
(1997). HR champions. The next agenda for adding value and delivery
results. Harvard Business School Press,
Boston.
59.
UlrichD.YoungerJ.BrockbankW.UlrichM.
(2012). HR from the outside in. New
York: McGraw.
60.
von
NordenflychtA.
(2010). What is a professional service firm? Towards a
theory and taxonomy of knowledge intensive firms. Academy of
Management Review, 35(1),
155–174.
61.
WeberM.
(1996/1922). Bureaucracy. In ShafritzJ.
M.OttJ. S.
(Eds.), Classics of organizations theory (pp. 80).
Orlando: Hartcourt
Brace.
62.
WeickK.
E. (1995). Sensemaking in
organizations. Thousand Oaks:
Sage Publications.
63.
WoodG.BrewsterC.BrooksM.
(Eds.) (2014). Human resource management and the institutional
perspective. London:
Routledge.
64.
WrightC.
(2008). Reinventing human resource management: Business
partners, internal consultants and the limits to professionalization.
Human Relations, 61(8),
1063–1086.
