New Career Models in UK Professional Service Firms: From Up-or-Out to Up-and-Going Nowhere?
In this paper, we empirically examine how professional service firms are adapting their promotion and career models to new market and institutional pressures, without losing the benefits of the traditional up-or-out tournament. Based on an in-depth qualitative study of 10 large UK based law firms we...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Journal article |
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2010
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| _version_ | 1797077967980986368 |
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| author | Morris, T Malhotra, N Smets, M |
| author_facet | Morris, T Malhotra, N Smets, M |
| author_sort | Morris, T |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | In this paper, we empirically examine how professional service firms are adapting their promotion and career models to new market and institutional pressures, without losing the benefits of the traditional up-or-out tournament. Based on an in-depth qualitative study of 10 large UK based law firms we find that most of these firms do not have a formal up-or-out policy but that the up-or-out rule operates in practice. We also find that most firms have introduced alternative roles and a novel career policy that offers a holistic learning and development deal to associates without any expectation that unsuccessful candidates for promotion to partner should quit the firm. While this policy and the new roles formally contradict the principle of up-or-out by creating permanent non-partner positions, in practice they coexist. We conclude that the motivational power of the up-or-out tournament remains intact, notwithstanding the changes to the internal labour market structure of these professional service firms. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T00:25:40Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:7e0ab1cc-889b-4182-a1a4-9aa4ddd70cd4 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T00:25:40Z |
| publishDate | 2010 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:7e0ab1cc-889b-4182-a1a4-9aa4ddd70cd42022-03-26T21:07:41ZNew Career Models in UK Professional Service Firms: From Up-or-Out to Up-and-Going Nowhere? Journal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:7e0ab1cc-889b-4182-a1a4-9aa4ddd70cd4Saïd Business School - Eureka2010Morris, TMalhotra, NSmets, MIn this paper, we empirically examine how professional service firms are adapting their promotion and career models to new market and institutional pressures, without losing the benefits of the traditional up-or-out tournament. Based on an in-depth qualitative study of 10 large UK based law firms we find that most of these firms do not have a formal up-or-out policy but that the up-or-out rule operates in practice. We also find that most firms have introduced alternative roles and a novel career policy that offers a holistic learning and development deal to associates without any expectation that unsuccessful candidates for promotion to partner should quit the firm. While this policy and the new roles formally contradict the principle of up-or-out by creating permanent non-partner positions, in practice they coexist. We conclude that the motivational power of the up-or-out tournament remains intact, notwithstanding the changes to the internal labour market structure of these professional service firms. |
| spellingShingle | Morris, T Malhotra, N Smets, M New Career Models in UK Professional Service Firms: From Up-or-Out to Up-and-Going Nowhere? |
| title | New Career Models in UK Professional Service Firms: From Up-or-Out to Up-and-Going Nowhere? |
| title_full | New Career Models in UK Professional Service Firms: From Up-or-Out to Up-and-Going Nowhere? |
| title_fullStr | New Career Models in UK Professional Service Firms: From Up-or-Out to Up-and-Going Nowhere? |
| title_full_unstemmed | New Career Models in UK Professional Service Firms: From Up-or-Out to Up-and-Going Nowhere? |
| title_short | New Career Models in UK Professional Service Firms: From Up-or-Out to Up-and-Going Nowhere? |
| title_sort | new career models in uk professional service firms from up or out to up and going nowhere |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT morrist newcareermodelsinukprofessionalservicefirmsfromuporouttoupandgoingnowhere AT malhotran newcareermodelsinukprofessionalservicefirmsfromuporouttoupandgoingnowhere AT smetsm newcareermodelsinukprofessionalservicefirmsfromuporouttoupandgoingnowhere |