The Organizational Design of Transnational Professional Service Firms

Governance of professional service firms: a configurational approach

“…As the firm size increases, however, the incentive benefits of unlimited liability will be quickly outweighed by the costs and risks associated with it. Third, as previous studies have shown, larger PSFs are more specialized, decentralized, and apply hierarchical decision-making, and are more likely to formalize procedures such as operating rules and personnel regulations Graubner 2006;Greenwood and Empson 2003;Greenwood et al 2010). …”

“…In a general partnership, however, all partners share (Graubner 2006). Many large PSFs are specialized according to at least three characteristics (Greenwood et al 2010). The first and obvious characteristic is geography, establishing different offices and sometimes regional office systems within the PSF.…”

The work of global professional service firms

“…In addition, GPSFs are said to be putting significant efforts into the management of their corporate cultures in ways that emphasize the importance of transnational collaboration (see e.g. Greenwood et al, 2010). Such efforts are supported by various international mobility systems and networking events aimed at exposing employees to "new ways of working, different cultures, different ways of thinking" (Jones, 2005: 187) and, ultimately, nurturing professionals that are able to work across national divides.…”

Control in the multinational enterprise: The polycentric case of global professional service firms

“…For instance, Spence et al's research (in press) on the 'Big Four' accounting firms identifies a strong center-subsidiary convergence around partner promotion processes and, in particular, around the need to generate certain levels of revenue as an essential criterion for promotion. The authors argue that this suggests that the firms have become 'in fundamental ways, globally homogenous' (p. 18) and explain this development by highlighting, among other factors, considerable investment by the firms in the 'standardization of knowledge sharing, training and service delivery' (p. 19) over the last twenty years (see also Greenwood et al, 2010;Segal-Horn & Dean, 2009). The authors also point to the dominance of Anglo-American norms and values, especially a logic in which the profit motive is paramount in organizing the firm.…”

“…Greenwood et al, 2010). That is, UK partners would sometime manage to obtain staff from overseas offices by promising to assist them in the future should they require UK consultants on their own transnational projects.…”