Managing Technology-Enabled Innovation in a Professional Services Firm: A Cooperative Case Study

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Dodgson ◽  
Sheridan Ash ◽  
Jon Andrews ◽  
Nelson Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Professional Services ◽  
Professional Services Firm

Do strengths measure up?

2011 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 5-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicky Garcea ◽  
Stephen Isherwood ◽  
Alex Linley
Keyword(s):  
High Performance ◽  
Professional Services ◽  
Assessment Centers ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Generic Competencies ◽  
Percent Increase ◽  
Strengths Approach ◽  
Professional Services Firm ◽  
Big Four

PurposeThis paper sets out to draw comparisons and make linkages between strengths and competency methodologies. Whereas some authors have seen the strengths approach as a revolution in human resources (HR), the authors of this paper see it more as a natural evolution. The paper aims to overview the strengths approach as well as presenting a case study of strengths‐based graduate recruitment from the Big Four professional services firm, Ernst & Young.Design/methodology/approachThe strengths‐based approach to recruitment is described in general, and the particular approach taken to graduate recruitment at Ernst & Young is outlined. Rather than assessing for generic competencies, strengths‐based recruitment seeks to identify the natural strengths of individuals that are aligned to the role for which they are applying. Assessors are trained to look for energy and authenticity, together with evidence of high performance of the strength.FindingsThe strengths‐based graduate recruitment project at Ernst & Young delivered a 15 percent increase in the number of candidates de‐selected at first interview, together with a 12 percent increase in the number of candidates appointed following assessment center, compared with the previous competency approach.Practical implicationsStrengths‐based graduate recruitment provides a robust and reliable methodology for attracting, selecting and appointing the best candidates for the role. It delivers a better candidate experience and builds a more positive and differentiated employer brand.Originality/valueErnst & Young is one of the first UK organizations to use strengths‐based graduate recruitment systematically in this way The strengths methodology not only supports its interviewing and assessment centers, but also is used throughout its campus events and through attraction and candidate engagement with an online strengths tool developed and managed by Capp.

scholarly journals Organisational identity and alcohol use among young employees: A case study of a professional services firm

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Walker ◽  
Todd Bridgman
Keyword(s):  
Alcohol Use ◽  
Cultural Influences ◽  
Professional Services ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Policy Practice ◽  
Heavy Alcohol Use ◽  
Identification Processes ◽  
Professional Services Firm ◽  
Research And Policy

Background: Cultural influences on young people's drinking have been the focus of much research and policy practice. Young people's drinking is influenced by a range of institutions, including the workplace, yet this has received comparatively little attention by researchers and policymakers. This study examines the workplace influences on young people's drinking through the conceptual lens of organisational identification. Methods: Data was collected through 16 semi-structured interviews with mainly young employees of a professional services firm in New Zealand. The interviews were coded and analysed thematically, generating five themes of alcohol use at work. Results: Alcohol was used in a number of ways by the respondents in relation to their work, from acting as a means of relieving stress or anxiety induced by work, to providing a means for bonding with work colleagues. Their work also impacted on their alcohol use in more 'positive' ways (e.g. respondents limiting their intake to prevent damage to their career prospects). Conclusion: The study highlights how processes of organisational identification both encourage and inhibit alcohol use. The consumption of alcohol at work provides young professionals with a medium to engage in a variety of organisational identification processes. An understanding of these processes can assist policymakers in focusing on the workplace, an area largely ignored to date, as a target for their campaigns aimed at reducing the harmful effects of young people's heavy alcohol use. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.

Creating a sustainable innovation environment within large enterprises: a case study on a professional services firm

2013 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thorsten Kliewe ◽  
Todd Davey ◽  
Thomas Baaken
Keyword(s):  
Change Management ◽  
Change Process ◽  
Professional Services ◽  
Professional Service ◽  
Management Model ◽  
Special Focus ◽  
Large Firms ◽  
Sustainable Innovation ◽  
Professional Services Firm

This paper considers the question of which structures, strategies and practical activities large firms can use to successfully create a sustainable innovation environment within an organisation with special focus given to communication activities used to support this change process. Using the ADKAR change management model as the underlying framework, this study analyses the story of a large professional service firm’s national innovation program to show and discuss a successful example. The paper shows how the firm successfully managed both the change project and the stakeholder change to transform the nature of their organisation. The paper provides valuable insights for professionals, practitioners, consultants and academics involved in or studying the creation of innovation and how to affect this within large organisations.

scholarly journals Organisational identity and alcohol use among young employees: A case study of a professional services firm

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Walker ◽  
Todd Bridgman
Keyword(s):  
Alcohol Use ◽  
Cultural Influences ◽  
Professional Services ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Policy Practice ◽  
Heavy Alcohol Use ◽  
Identification Processes ◽  
Professional Services Firm ◽  
Research And Policy

Background: Cultural influences on young people's drinking have been the focus of much research and policy practice. Young people's drinking is influenced by a range of institutions, including the workplace, yet this has received comparatively little attention by researchers and policymakers. This study examines the workplace influences on young people's drinking through the conceptual lens of organisational identification. Methods: Data was collected through 16 semi-structured interviews with mainly young employees of a professional services firm in New Zealand. The interviews were coded and analysed thematically, generating five themes of alcohol use at work. Results: Alcohol was used in a number of ways by the respondents in relation to their work, from acting as a means of relieving stress or anxiety induced by work, to providing a means for bonding with work colleagues. Their work also impacted on their alcohol use in more 'positive' ways (e.g. respondents limiting their intake to prevent damage to their career prospects). Conclusion: The study highlights how processes of organisational identification both encourage and inhibit alcohol use. The consumption of alcohol at work provides young professionals with a medium to engage in a variety of organisational identification processes. An understanding of these processes can assist policymakers in focusing on the workplace, an area largely ignored to date, as a target for their campaigns aimed at reducing the harmful effects of young people's heavy alcohol use. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.

The explore–exploit tension: A case study of organizing in a professional services firm

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 566-586 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron C. T. Smith ◽  
David H. Gilbert ◽  
Fiona Sutherland
Keyword(s):  
Professional Services ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Asia Pacific ◽  
Professional Service ◽  
Organizational Changes ◽  
Successful Approach ◽  
Contextual Awareness ◽  
Deep Exploration ◽  
Professional Services Firm

AbstractThis article reports on a case study of a decade-long organizing forms response to the need for groundbreaking innovation while maintaining existing operational performance – the explore–exploit conundrum. Employing ‘grounded research,’ data were collected on the experiences of the Asia-Pacific arm of a multinational professional service firm’s key decision-makers, innovators and entrepreneurs. The findings reveal a three-tiered organizing forms response to the explore–exploit paradox, characterized by a novel combination of heavy exploitation-driven actions alongside deep exploration projects. This case suggests that one successful approach to delivering on both explore and exploit focuses on a productive tension that emerges by enacting innovative organizing forms with contextual awareness. This productive tension was sufficiently powerful to impel individuals to innovate, but also sufficiently contained to avoid interfering with commercial outcomes. An explore–exploit framework conceptualizes organizational changes incorporating complexity and contradiction, without the implicit emphasis on removing or denying the existing tension.

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