Professionalisation and Executive Search: Reality or Rhetoric

1
Professionalisation and Executive Search
Reality or Rhetoric?

• James Faulconbridge, Jon Beaverstock,
• Sarah Hall and Andrew Hewitson

2
Professionalism

• Historical, traditional professions
• Closure a coherent body of knowledge state
  granted legitimacy
• Shifting connotations of the Professional (Dent
  and Whitehead, 2002 Fournier, 1999)
• Professional Behaviour Legitimacy

3
Executive Search Definitions Historical Context

• Retained Executive Search
• The Big 4 firms
• US to Europe
• Strategies of globalization

4
Top 10 firms by revenue. Source The executive
Grapevine.
5
Egon Zehnder, 2005
6
Professionalization I

• The AESC
• to promote the highest professional standards in
  retained executive search consulting
• Closure and exclusivity? neoliberal state is
  disinterested
• Knowledge and training? tacit knowledge and
  charisma
• Trust and client ethic

7
Professionalization II
The professionals

• Rhetorical legitimacy as a relational
  construction
• Market-making risk and the knowledge economy
• Behaviour and practice

8
Professionalization as market making rather
market protecting?

• Elite labour
• Value of mobile talent (Sennett, 1998)
• Circumvent old boy network (Jones, 1989)
• Labour churn in the Knowledge economy
  (Leadbeater, 1999)
• Knowledge Intensive, professional Services
  (knowledge workers?)
• High-value Bespoke Personal Global-local
• Scientific managerial approach
• Match-makers of the labour market (Finlay and
  Coverdill, 2002)

Firms/ professionals dont want the restriction
of formal regulation
9
Conclusions

• Headhunting as a profession?
• Professionalism as a market-making tool for
  knowledge workers (Reed, 1996)?
• We acknowledge the support of the Economic and
  Social Research Council (award no
  RES-000-22-1498)