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Paper info: Managing the Interdependent Relationship between Organisations and Professions in the Delivery of Legal Services

Title


Managing the Interdependent Relationship between Organisations and Professions in the Delivery of Legal Services

Authors


John Finch
University of Glasgow
United Kingdom
John Finch and Susan Stokeld

Place of Publication


The paper was published at the 27th IMP-conference in Glasgow, Scotland in 2011.

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Abstract


Introduction
Professions are facing challenges to adapt, innovate and diversify their services and the influence
of increased managerial authority has seen the introduction of measures designed to rationalise the
delivery of professional services. The complex relationship and the interplay between
professionalism and management underpin the role of management in identifying and shaping
opportunities for developing and delivering professional services (Pinnington and Grey 2007,
Malhotra and Morris 2009). As professionals and managers are reconciled across the processes
that shape and deliver professional services the drive for innovation and creativity inevitably
raises concerns for the professional role. The extant literature highlights research into the role of
the manager and the broader activity of managing critical processes in the organising and
performing of the professions (Robertson, Scarbrough and Swan 2003, Malhotra, Morris and
Hinings 2006, and Malhotra and Morris 2009) but there has been little research into the
challenges of managing organisations that exist in an institutionalised professional context.
It is clear from the literature that professions and professionals remain largely defined by the
shape and content of their work (Suddaby and Greenwood 2005, Malhorta, Morris and Hinings
2006, Malhorta and Morris 2009), yet the durability of the role of the professional in the delivery
of a service is challenged by increasing levels of management within firms and organisations
(Watson 2001, Rashman, Withers and Hartley 2009). Weber’s model of rational–legal
bureaucracy suggests that functional efficiency can be gained through the characterisation of
formal knowledge and advocates greater managerial authority as a means of developing social
order (Greenwood, Suddaby and Hinings 2002). This approach challenges the Anglo–American
concept of professionalism which recognises the authority of the professional and rejects
challenges to its autonomy control from increased managerialism (Freidson 1986). Emerging
trends suggest a move away from the functionalist approach to professions that identifies with
status and authority towards a rationalist view that encourages a more open and less systematic
role for the professional with less emphasis on conforming to the norms and routines and a more
innovative approach to delivering services (Anderson-Gough, Robson and Grey 2000, Cheetham
and Chivers 2005). The concept of ‘professional socialisation’ within an organisational setting is
significant in the context of the delivery of a professional service Fournier (1999). However, as
professional firms become increasingly differentiated, the profile of the management teams within
those organisations is raised and their role more influential (Cheetham and Chivers 2005).
This study uses the delivery of professional legal services to address, firstly, the implications for
the legal profession when faced with the introduction of managerial initiatives designed to
enhance their services and, secondly, the challenges presented by the strong level of
professionalism exhibited by lawyers. Malhotra and Morris (2009) observed that as lawyers
diversify their services and introduce innovation to their role by adapting their existing skills and
acquiring new skills, increasing heterogeneity across the legal profession has consequences for the
organisation and management of the lawyers and their services, not least from imperatives for
increased levels of output from efficiency driven bureaucratisation. Reflecting the current trend
2
towards new and innovative legal services , the role of the legal manager is assessed as a means to
offer new ways to identify and shape opportunities for developing and delivering legal services.
This paper uses empirical insights from eight law firms (both UK firms and international firms
and which all operate across multiple offices) and five in-house legal groups to assess how
decisions regarding the appropriate levels of management are interwoven with the demands on
their services from an increasingly diverse and fragmented client base and how measures
introduced by organisations to implement managerial initiatives must be balanced against the
continuing professionalism of lawyers that remains a feature of legal services. It argues that in
order to innovate and diversify their services professionals must reconcile their professional role
with appropriate managerial measures that will offer opportunities for growth and innovation.