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Managing knowledge integration: Balancing professional and managerial logics in an engineering consulting firm

Author

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  • Ollila, Susanne
  • Styhre, Alexander
  • Werr, Andreas

Abstract

Integrating professional expertise in professional service firms (PSFs) is a key strategic challenge in the contemporary economy and individual firms. Previous research has pointed out that the governance of key aspects of PSFs, including knowledge integration, is shifting from a professional to a managerial logic, a shift that is often pictured as conflict laden based on the incompatibility of the two logics. Based on a study of knowledge integration in an engineering consulting firm, the current paper shows how managerial and professional logics interplay in shaping knowledge integration practices. We identify both aspects in which the logics reinforce each other in enabling knowledge integration and tensions that threaten knowledge integration. We conclude that the professional logic is a key driver of knowledge integration, but that the managerial logic, including its formal HR practices, may support knowledge integration through secondary effects if applied in a thoughtful way.

Suggested Citation

  • Ollila, Susanne & Styhre, Alexander & Werr, Andreas, 2015. "Managing knowledge integration: Balancing professional and managerial logics in an engineering consulting firm," Zeitschrift fuer Personalforschung. German Journal of Research in Human Resource Management, Rainer Hampp Verlag, vol. 29(2), pages 131-148.
    • Handle: RePEc:rai:zfpers:doi:10.1688/zfp-2015-02-ollila
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    Cited by:

    1. Pham Thi Minh Ly & Wen-Hsiang Lai, 2017. "Fuzzy AHP Analysis of Firm-Level Knowledge Accumulation," Journal of Information & Knowledge Management (JIKM), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 16(03), pages 1-24, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    knowledge management; knowledge integration; professional services; HR practices; institutional logics;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J24 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor Productivity
    • M12 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Personnel Management; Executives; Executive Compensation
    • M14 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Corporate Culture; Diversity; Social Responsibility

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