City Research Online

Abstract

This chapter examines the foci, resources and mechanisms of leadership in professional service firms, a context where traditional conceptions of leadership and followership are problematic given the importance of individual autonomy to knowledge-based work. We argue that leadership in professional service firms is, above all, a process of interaction among professionals seeking to exercise influence at the individual,organizational, and strategic level. It is manifested explicitly through professional expertise, discretely through political interaction, and implicitly through personal embodiment. We suggest that these resources are rarely combined in single individuals, which gives rise to the prevalence of collective forms of leadership, supported by embedded mechanisms of social control that channel professional activity.

Publication Type:	Book Section
Additional Information:	Empson, L. & Langley, A. (2015). Leadership and Professionals: Multiple Manifestations of Influence in Professional Service Firms. In: L. Empson, D. Muzio, J. Broschak & B. Hinings (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Professional Service Firms. (pp. 163-188). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199682393, reproduced by permission of Oxford University Press https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-oxford-handbook-of-professional-service-firms-9780199682393?cc=gb&lang=en&
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor
Departments:	Bayes Business School > Management

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