The management science behind the professional partnership

The management science behind the professional partnership was celebrated in a special issue of the Journal of Professions and Organization, July 2017. (1)

Few professional services firm leaders and practitioners, consultants, and commentators are aware of the substantial body of knowledge that underpins the dynamics of partnership in the professions.  So, in this brief post, I reproduce the Abstract of one of the articles to give readers a taste – and hopefully encourage many to delve into this fascinating literature.

The article I have chosen is titled ‘25 years since ‘P2’: Taking stock and charting the future of professional firms‘ written by Michael Smets, Tim Morris, Andrew Nordenflycht and David M. Brock. The authors are part of the Oxford Saïd research hub on Professional Services Firms.   

In this article, we introduce the theme of the special issue, reviewing and analyzing 25 years of the professional partnership, or P², stream of research. We structure our analysis around the three dimensions of control that structured the original P² paper—strategic, operating, and financial control—and their underlying drivers: knowledge intensity, professionalized workforce, and low capital intensity. (2) We then introduce the five papers selected for the special issue, positioning each relative to the conceptual scheme of the research field as a whole. We then identify a set of themes that are poised to dominate professional firm research for the next quarter century—namely internationalization, changing career and work–life preferences, de/re/regulation, and technology. These analyses lead us to a new set of PSF dimensions, which we present as an emerging picture of this dynamic field of research and practice.

To the macro-environment trends noted by the authors, I would add clients’ buying behaviour, business models and supply chains.

The consequences of these trends provide the rationale for my multi-author blog, Dialogue on Remaking Law Firms. And while the subject of Dialogue is legal services, the principles apply to all professions serving organizational needs. 

I warmly commend this article and the special issue in general to all those who seek to understand what the future holds in professional services and help their organizations anticipate and respond to the changes.

(1) 25 years since ‘P²’: Taking stock and charting the future of professional firms Michael Smets, Tim Morris, Andrew von Nordenflycht, David M. Brock. Journal of Professions and Organization, Volume 4, Issue 2, 1 July 2017, Pages 91–111.

(2) Greenwood R., Hinings C. R., Brown J. (1990) ‘”P2-form” strategic management: Corporate practices in professional partnerships’, Academy of Management Journal, 33, 725–56.