Understanding the dynamics of leadership in professional service firms.
Lead Research Organisation:
City, University of London
Department Name: Faculty of Management
Abstract
Abstracts are not currently available in GtR for all funded research. This is normally because the abstract was not required at the time of proposal submission, but may be because it included sensitive information such as personal details.
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Laura Empson (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Empson
(2017)
Leading Professionals: Power, Politics, and Prima Donnas
Empson L
(2019)
Collective Leadership Dynamics among Professional Peers: Co-constructing an unstable equilibrium
in Organization Studies
Empson L
(2013)
Managing Partners and Management Professionals: Institutional Work Dyads in Professional Partnerships Managing Partners and Management Professionals
in Journal of Management Studies
Empson L
(2019)
Ambiguous authority and hidden hierarchy: Collective leadership in an elite professional service firm
in Leadership
Empson, Laura
(2017)
Leading Professionals: Power, Politics, and Prima Donnas
Empson, Laura
(2018)
'If you're so successful why are you still working 70 hours a week?'
in Harvard Business Review
Laura Empson
(2015)
Leadership for Lawyers
| Description | Leadership in professional service firms (PSFs) presents distinctive challenges. Leaders not only have to maintain control over highly autonomous individual experts, but their only authority to do so is dependent on the approval of those same individuals. In an ESRC-funded study into the leadership dynamics of PSFs (in the accounting, consulting, and legal sectors), Professor Laura Empson explored the relationship between power and authority in these organisations, and the indirect, overt, and covert leadership practices employed to direct them. She developed the concept of the Leadership Constellation to identify the major actors in the organisation's leadership. People are part of the Constellation typically because they control access to key resources (such as client relationships and specialist expertise), but they do not necessarily have formal authority. The Leadership Constellation therefore represents the informal power structure that exists alongside and overlaps with the formal authority structure. The resulting opacity of the leadership dynamics in the firm and the ambiguity about who is really in charge can be a source of power to those leaders with the political and interpersonal skills to understand and exploit them. Other findings include the fact that high levels of trust between organisational members, characteristic of a traditional partnership, can both help and hinder leadership dynamics. In organisations who recruit a high proportion of lateral hires, trust can be "manufactured" by social control systems. Political activity in PSFs is rife, though vehemently denied. Leaders need to maintain the illusion that they are apolitical, even whilst negotiating, persuading and compromising in order to achieve consensus. This in itself is the act of a highly skilled politician. |
| Exploitation Route | See original report to ESRC http://www.esrc.ac.uk/my-esrc/grants/RES-062-23-2269/read/reports |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Education,Financial Services, and Management Consultancy,Government, Democracy and Justice,Other |
| URL | http://www.esrc.ac.uk/my-esrc/grants/RES-062-23-2269/read/reports |
| Description | 1. Regulator - Financial Reporting Council The FRC sets the framework of codes and standards for the accounting and auditing profession in the UK, and oversees the conduct of the professionals involved. I have had regular meetings with them where I have been asked to provide research-based insights about partnership leadership and governance, including feedback on their review of the Audit Firm Governance Code. I have also helped to frame the Audit and Assurance Council's discussions on the role of accounting firm leadership in changing auditor behaviour. 2. Big 4 Accounting Firm - KPMG Simon Collins, Senior Partner of KPMG, having seen the findings of my leadership dynamics research, asked me to become a member of KPMG's Public Interest Committee (equivalent to an Independent Non-executive Director but with an expanded remit to explicitly encompass the "public interest"). In this capacity, since the start of 2014, I have attended and participated in: regular board meetings, Board strategy and planning meetings, and several Board sub-committees, specifically the Audit and Risk Committee and the Public Interest Committee. 3. Medium-sized law firm - Anonymised In 2010, having heard about my research on governance and leadership dynamics, the partners of the firm invited me to work with them to resolve a series of leadership and governance related issues. Since then I have helped them to: address conflicts within the existing leadership group, establish a new management structure with clearly defined roles and responsibilities, address leadership and governance issues associated with growth, encourage the next generation of partners to move into leadership positions, and consider the implications for partner remuneration structures resulting from these changes. 4. Financial Times Innovative Lawyers Ranking and Awards Awareness of my research led to me being invited to join the judging panel for the FT Innovative Lawyers rankings and awards (from 2012 -). I focus particularly on the role of innovative individuals (i.e. current and future leaders) in these firms and help to ensure they get the recognition both within their organizations and across the industry as a whole. As one of the top legal ranking in Europe, the report and accompanying FT Innovative Lawyers Awards are widely regarded as the best researched in the market. The importance of these rankings is having an influence over the law firm sector not unlike what the FT Ranking of MBAs is having on Business Schools. 5. Denver Colorado School District, USA My research has is now on the "required reading" list for all key leaders of school boards in this district. I am told that it has "significantly challenged their thinking", that they find the focus on professional service firms particularly valuable as the emphasis on plural leadership among professionals has "taken them well beyond the well-established research on educational leadership" they have used in the past. 6. Canadian Bar Association My research has been adopted as part of the core reading for the Canadian Bar Association's "Leadership Boot Camp" and my videos are shown as part of their training courses. Items 5 and 6 were both the result of me posting my practitioner reports and videos on my research centre's website (freely available to download). Both the schools district and the bar association found out about my research through press coverage. 7. Events organised In addition to these specific examples, my research has had a much wider impact through my dissemination events. Since 2008, when the study began, I have organised seven events at Cass around the theme of Leadership and Professionals which have been attended by over 800 professionals, including several of the most senior leaders of global PSFs. The events began ahead of the launch of the ESRC study to pilot the research proposal and have been used as a sounding board for developing ideas and disseminating findings throughout the project. So far (end 2014)I have also been invited to speak about my research at seven practitioner events in Madrid, Amsterdam, and London. These have been attended by approximately 1700 practitioners. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2010 |
| Sector | Education,Financial Services, and Management Consultancy,Government, Democracy and Justice,Other |
| Impact Types | Societal,Economic,Policy & public services |
| Description | Ambiguous authority and hidden hierarchy: |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | Examines micro-dynamics of a plural leadership group within ambiguous authority structure - a professional service firm partnership Asks How do members of a plural leadership group navigate their shared role space within an ambiguous authority structure? How do the micro-dynamics of the plural leadership group change in response to an organisational crisis? Finds Plural leadership group deliberately constructs and actively celebrates dual ambiguity - ambiguous composition and ambiguous authority Ambiguous authority structure operates effectively - organizational and strategic contextual pre conditions Ambiguous authority structure acts decisively in a crisis by reverting to hidden hierarchy ii |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Ambiguous authority and hidden hierarchy: Dynamics of collective leadership in a professional service firm |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | Paper presented at HEC Montreal Examines micro-dynamics of a plural leadership group within ambiguous authority structure - a professional service firm partnership Asks How do members of a plural leadership group navigate their shared role space within an ambiguous authority structure? How do the micro-dynamics of the plural leadership group change in response to an organisational crisis? Finds Plural leadership group deliberately constructs and actively celebrates dual ambiguity - ambiguous composition and ambiguous authority Ambiguous authority structure operates effectively - organizational and strategic contextual pre conditions Ambiguous authority structure acts decisively in a crisis by reverting to hidden hierarchy ii |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Ambiguous authority and hidden hierarchy: Dynamics of collective leadership in a professional service firm |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | Examines micro-dynamics of a plural leadership group within ambiguous authority structure - a professional service firm partnership Asks How do members of a plural leadership group navigate their shared role space within an ambiguous authority structure? How do the micro-dynamics of the plural leadership group change in response to an organisational crisis? Finds Plural leadership group deliberately constructs and actively celebrates dual ambiguity - ambiguous composition and ambiguous authority Ambiguous authority structure operates effectively - organizational and strategic contextual pre conditions Ambiguous authority structure acts decisively in a crisis by reverting to hidden hierarchy ii |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012 |
| Description | Leadership Dynamics in Professional Service Firms |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | http://rsmworldblog.com/2013/10/28/guest-blog-rudolf-winkenius-managing-partner-rsm-netherlands-rsm-world-conference-amsterdam-day-one/ Section not completed |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| URL | http://rsmworldblog.com/2013/10/28/guest-blog-rudolf-winkenius-managing-partner-rsm-netherlands-rsm-... |
| Description | Leadership and Professionals |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | Presented at Colloquium for Oxford Handbook of Professional Service Firms AAAAA |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
| Description | Leading autonomous followers: Indirect, overt, and covert leadership practices in professional service firms |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | This paper asks: In organizations characterized by extensive individual autonomy and contingent managerial authority, how do senior professionals exercise leadership? Based on a cross-case analysis of four global professional service firms in the accounting, consulting, and legal sectors, this study contributes to the emerging leadership as practice literature by explicitly addressing two previously neglected themes: 1) how ambiguous power dynamics within organizations affect leadership practices, and 2) how leadership practices are both context-creating and context-dependent. The study identifies three distinctive leadership practices: gaining and sustaining legitimacy to lead through market success, enabling autonomy whilst retaining control, and acting politically whilst appearing apolitical. It demonstrates how these practices are manifested through a combination of implicit, overt, and covert behaviors. Our study suggests that professional service firms are led by supposedly "reluctant leaders" who must constantly negotiate and renegotiate their leadership positions with their "autonomous followers". In so doing we contribute to the growing literature on plural models of leadership by exploring how leader/follower relationships can be contingent, constructed and negotiated. ii |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013,2014 |
| Description | Navigating ambiguity: Collective leadership processes in professional service firms |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | Presentation ii |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2010,2014 |
| Description | Professor of the Week |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Profile of Laura Empson and details of research study - Term Leadership Constellation admitted to the Financial Times Lexicon Financial Times |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| URL | http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/6881ab62-f38f-11e2-b25a-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2caTrcXBG |
| Description | Top leaders are secret politicians |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Article for practitioners The Lawyer |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| URL | http://www.thelawyer.com/news-and-analysis/opinion/top-leaders-are-secret-politicians/3007416.articl... |
| Description | When everyone and no one is a leader: Dynamics of distributed leadership in a professional service firm |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other academic audiences (collaborators, peers etc.) |
| Results and Impact | Presentation ii |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012,2014 |
| Description | Who's in charge of your firm? |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Article for practitioners Accountancy Age |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
| URL | http://www.accountancyage.com/aa/feature/2279532/whos-in-charge-of-your-firm |