
Professional Organizations - Such As Accounting And Consulting Firms, Law Firms, And Investment Banks - Are Fundamental To The Functioning Of The Global Economy. Yet Many Of The Most Powerful Are Notoriously Private. This Book Uncovers The Complex, Messy, And Surprisingly Emotional Challenges Of Leading Professional Organizations - Revealing The Realities That Lies Beneath The 'professional' Surface Which These Organizations Present To The Outside World. Individual Professionals - Highly Educated, Highly Intelligent, And Highly Opinionated - Are Generally Reluctant To See Themselves As Followers And May Be Equally Reluctant To Put Themselves Forward As Leaders. They Value Their Autonomy And Confer Authority On Their Leaders On A Highly Contingent Basis. How Does A Professional Come To Be Seen As A Leader Within A Professional Organization? How Do Leaders Maintain Their Position Once They Have Reached The Top Of Their Organization? How Do They Navigate The Complex Power Relationships Among Their Professional Colleagues And Actually Get Things Done? Leading Professionals: Power, Politics, And Prima Donnas Analyses The Complex Power Dynamics And Interpersonal Politics That Lie At The Heart Of Leadership In Professional Organizations. It Is Based On Laura Empson's Scholarly Research Into The World's Leading Professional Organizations Across A Range Of Sectors, Including Interviews With Over 500 Senior Professionals In 16 Countries. It Draws On The Latest Organizational And Leadership Theory To Analyse In Detail Exactly How Professionals Come Together To Create 'leadership'. It Identifies How Change Happens Within Professional Organizations And Explains Why Their Leaders So Often Fail.
This book investigates the complex power dynamics and interpersonal politics that define leadership within professional service firms. Laura Empson, a scholar specializing in professional service firms, utilizes her extensive research to examine the unique challenges of leading highly educated and autonomous professionals. By synthesizing organizational theory with empirical data, the author provides a framework for understanding how leadership is constructed and maintained in environments where traditional authority is often resisted.
What You Will Find
Scope Limits
Experts recognize this work as a significant contribution to the study of organizational behavior in elite professional environments. Readers frequently note the academic rigor and the depth of the qualitative data gathered from hundreds of senior professionals.
Page Count:
270
Publication Date:
2017-01-01
Publisher:
Oxford University Press
ISBN-10:
0191062219
ISBN-13:
9780191062216
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