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Collaboration among Highly Autonomous Professionals: Costs, Benefits, and Future Research Directions

Advances in Group Processes

ISBN: 978-1-78560-077-7, eISBN: 978-1-78560-076-0

Publication date: 8 July 2015

Abstract

Purpose

This chapter examines collaboration among highly autonomous, powerful, professional peers to explain why the benefits of teamwork that scholars typically find in traditional teams may not apply. The chapter analyzes the perspectives of individual professionals to show that, in this setting, collaboration is often seen as more costly than rewarding for the individuals involved. It presents a conceptual framework exploring this paradox and suggests directions for future research to elaborate an underlying theory.

Methodology/approach

The chapter draws on extensive qualitative data from surveys and interviews in three professional service firms, including a top 100 global law firm, a boutique executive search firm, and a large, US-based commercial advisory firm. Findings are married integrated with organizational theory to develop testable propositions for future research.

Findings

Because senior professionals collaborate with peers who have the autonomy to choose to work collectively or independently, power and authority are not means to create a team or make it effective. Findings show how professionals interpret the relative costs and benefits of collaboration, and suggest that in most cases, senior professionals will not attempt it or give it up before collaborations can reap important benefits. Thus, short-term costs prevent opportunities to experience longer term benefits for many professionals. Yet, some professionals have figured out how to use “instrumental collaboration” to shift the balance in their favor. The chapter’s conceptual framework uses a longitudinal perspective to resolve this seeming paradox.

Research implications

The chapter presents a nascent theory of instrumental collaboration, including five testable hypotheses, an emergent conceptual framework, and suggestions for specific future research directions.

Keywords

Citation

Gardner, H.K. and Valentine, M. (2015), "Collaboration among Highly Autonomous Professionals: Costs, Benefits, and Future Research Directions", Advances in Group Processes (Advances in Group Processes, Vol. 32), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 209-242. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0882-614520150000032008

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2015 Emerald Group Publishing Limited