Archetype Change in Professional Organizations: Survey Evidence from Large Law Firms

Date01 March 2003
AuthorTimothy Morris,Ashly Pinnington
Published date01 March 2003
DOIhttp://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.00267
Archetype Change in Professional
Organizations: Survey Evidence from
Large Law Firms
Ashly Pinnington and Timothy Morris
*
UQ Business School, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Qld 4072, Australia
*
Said Business School, University of Oxford, Park End Street, Oxford, OX1 1HP, UK
Corresponding email: a.pinnington@business.uq.edu.au
This paper examines the proposition that the traditional archetype of the professional
partnership is said to have changed into a more ‘business-like’ entity, the managed
professional business. It broadens the restricted case sample base on which much of the
evidence has been adduced, by developing a survey questionnaire through which 197
large British law firms were sampled. Change, consistent with the notion of a more
commercially oriented and consciously managed organization, is concentrated in the
market-facing area of the firm but coexists with areas of continuity in the governance of
the firm and its strategic management. The findings reveal a more managerial form of
organization in which the core elements of the traditional form of professional
organization have not been transformed. These results contest the assertion of either
transformational or sedimented change found in other, case-based research and suggest
that archetype change needs theoretically to be distinguished from the general
phenomenon of greater managerialism within the professional service firm.
Introduction
A key theme of much of the change said to be
occurring in professional firms is the growing
importance of ‘business-like’ behaviour and
values (Brock, Powell and Hinings, 1999; Nelson
and Trubek, 1993a). The changes have been
interpreted as constituting a new archetype called
the ‘managed professional business’ replacing the
traditional professional partnership form (Coop-
er, Hinings, Greenwood and Brown, 1996; Brock,
Powell and Hinings, 1999). Much of the evidence
for change has been built on case research of a
limited number of law firms and the largest
accounting firms in North America. However,
certain special contingencies contributing to the
rate and nature of change raise questions of
generalizability. Taking the legal profession, for
example, these contingencies include the highly
litigious nature of the US business environment
and the ideological distinctiveness of the profes-
sion (Galanter and Palay, 1991; Nelson and
Trubek, 1993b). Together they mean that a
highly commercialized ethos and mode of oper-
ating exists in the USA compared to many other
jurisdictions. To what extent, therefore, does the
argument that archetype change has occurred
apply elsewhere? Are there other more convin-
cing interpretations of what is observed? The
research reported below addresses these ques-
tions. It extends the existing case-based research
by surveying a large sample of law firms and it
focuses on a separate but similar population to
that studied previously and facing many of the
same pressures for change.
While the research finds evidence of change to
more business-like ways of operating that is
consistent with the archetype change proposition,
it also finds important areas of continuity
particularly with regard to the role of the
partners in determining strategic decisions and
controlling client relations. This leads us to
British Journal of Management, Vol. 14, 85–99 (2003)
r2003 British Academy of Management

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