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We study how mid-tier accounting rms deal with changes in their institutional environment that resulted in a shift in emphasis from the trustee logic to the commercial logic. We
nd that these mid-tier rms selectively adopt practices related to the commercial logic,
while retaining a principal commitment to the trustee logic. Interviews with high level
informants in these rms show how specic strategic choice opportunities serve as independent critical events framing practice-adoption decisions. Main strategic issues for the
mid-tier rms relate to the changing role of the accountant and changes in organizational
structure and practices. As these issues fundamentally challenge characteristics of their
professional identity, there is internal resistance against this transformation. Nonpartnered accountants mainly challenge new roles that upset their extant work routines,
whereas partners resist changes affecting their autonomy. These types of resistance
directly impact the strategic organizational responses of the accounting rms to institutional pressures.
2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Introduction
Over the past two decades the accounting profession
has come under increasing institutional pressure. Financial
globalization (Arnold, 2009) along with technical innovations (Brock, 2006) and a broad shift towards neo-liberal
principles of market economics (Puxty, Wilmott, Cooper,
& Lowe, 1987) are changing the face of accounting. In response, the accounting profession is changing with a leading role for the largest, multinational accounting rms
(Cooper & Robson, 2006) that have created a distinct transnational eld (Suddaby, Cooper, & Greenwood, 2007). The
big 4 rms developed a new, commercial business model
for their operations (Greenwood & Suddaby, 2006)
reected in their attitudes in the regulatory arena (e.g.
Corresponding author. Tel.: +33 1 39 67 97 08; fax: +33 1 39 67 70 88.
E-mail addresses: lander@hec.fr (M.W. Lander), bkoene@rsm.nl (B.A.S.
Koene).
1
Consultant.
0361-3682/$ - see front matter 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aos.2012.11.001
Please cite this article in press as: Lander, M. W., et al. Committed to professionalism: Organizational responses of mid-tier accounting
rms to conicting institutional logics. Accounting, Organizations and Society (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aos.2012.11.001
M.W. Lander et al. / Accounting, Organizations and Society xxx (2012) xxxxxx
Please cite this article in press as: Lander, M. W., et al. Committed to professionalism: Organizational responses of mid-tier accounting
rms to conicting institutional logics. Accounting, Organizations and Society (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aos.2012.11.001
M.W. Lander et al. / Accounting, Organizations and Society xxx (2012) xxxxxx
Theoretical orientation
Shifting institutional logics
The accounting industry has always faced contradicting
expectations from a professional and a commercial logic.
Yet traditionally the professional trustee logic (Suddaby
& Greenwood, 2005) in which professional values and a
feeling of societal guardianship is central to the professional identity was dominant. Professional audit practices
are the core of the accountants activities and as these
activities mean applying an esoteric body of knowledge
to complex problems, they enjoy high levels of discretion
and autonomy (Greenwood, Hinings, & Brown, 1990).
Additionally, senior members, who typically own and
manage the rms, are responsible for their particular practice areas and hence place priority hereon. In practice this
means that the strategy of the rm can be described as the
aggregate of the partners individual interests (Pinnington
& Morris, 2003). In terms of organizational systems and
practices, these rms rely primarily on informal and collegial control mechanisms at the expense of more formal and
hierarchical systems (Greenwood et al., 1990).
However, recently the accounting industry experienced
a number of upheavals that challenge traditional professional practice and the centrality of the trustee logic. First,
computer aided audit systems have reduced the complexity and labor intensity of the audit process (Brock, 2006). In
the Netherlands, the introduction of a standardized software language XBRL results in increased efciency and
ultimately less billable hours in the consolidation practice
(ING Economic Bureau, 2010). On the client side, the increased emphasis on costs and the internet and mobile
technologies that allow for shopping around, adds to the
pressure on audit fees (Ahroni, 1999). Second, due to globalization, accountancy organizations now have to deal with
international standards and needs of their international
clients (Nachum, 1996). This brings new knowledge
requirements for accountants and challenges in the local
integration of global standards (Botzem & Quack, 2009).
Third, statutory protection for providing services has been
reduced or removed (Hart, Schlesinger, & Maher, 1992).
This results in growing intra- and inter-professional competition (Gray, 1999). Fourth, the Sarbanes-Oxley act has
also induced changes in the organizational structure of
accounting rms (Greenwood & Suddaby, 2006), increasing organizational process controls and reducing the
importance of the individual accountant. In the Netherlands, for those rms that perform statutory audits of annual and consolidated accounts, the Wet toezicht
accountantsorganisaties (Wta; law on the supervision of
accounting rms), has been implemented. This law entails
that accountancy rms require permits for statutory
audits, the allocation of which is determined by a number
of stringent quality demands. This has led to a decrease in
the number of rms allowed to conduct audits. The Wta
has created a large barrier of entry as the costs of these
Please cite this article in press as: Lander, M. W., et al. Committed to professionalism: Organizational responses of mid-tier accounting
rms to conicting institutional logics. Accounting, Organizations and Society (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aos.2012.11.001
M.W. Lander et al. / Accounting, Organizations and Society xxx (2012) xxxxxx
permits are signicant. There are the direct costs of obtaining and maintaining this permit as well as indirect costs
stemming from the investments rms have to make in
their quality systems (ING, 2010). Finally, rms face
changes in client demands. Clients are not only more critical towards the service they receive, but also demand
more and different services, i.e. full service advice (ING,
2010). As such, the role of the traditional accountant is
slowly being shifted towards that of an advisor to the rm
(Ramirez, 2009).
The accounting profession at crossroads
These developments shift the control over professionals
from the professionals to market competition and hierarchical control through management in organizations (Hanlon, 1996, 1997). This directly weakens the effects of social
closure and economic monopoly, two important historical
foundations for maintaining the professions. Social closure
is the process by which jurisdictional boundaries are
drawn around a particular set of knowledge and skills to
make it possible for a profession to ensure quality and
competence by providing special educational credentials.
Economic monopoly both ensures the quality of the profession as well as the discipline of its members by muting
competition (Freidson, 2001). Related, economic monopoly
ensures the development and maintenance of quality because it allows the professions, for instance, to set tariffs
and entry barriers and prohibit advertising (Freidson,
1984; Suddaby et al., 2007). While the accounting industry
has always faced conicting demands from the professional and the commercial logic, the aforementioned
changes pushed accounting rms to rationalize their service delivery process replacing the traditional partnership
form by the MPB form (Cooper et al., 1996), which emphasizes the efciency of structures and processes. Additionally the large accounting rms broadened their activities
to consultancy services (Greenwood & Suddaby, 2006).
This has led them to forego their professional independence (Covaleski, Dirsmith, & Rittenberg, 2003) and an
emphasis on the application of expertise in the interest
of public service (Pinnington & Morris, 2003) for the concept of value added (Covaleski et al., 2003; Pinnington &
Morris, 2003). Following the shift to a more commercial logic the large accounting rms also developed more deliberate management practices. To assure efciency and avoid
strategic drift (Lorsch & Tierney, 2002) the large accounting rms introduced formal strategic planning and governance, emphasized marketing and work with centralized
nancial systems (Morris & Pinnington, 1998).
Institutional dynamics and strategic responses
Changing institutional demands naturally result in a
changed organizational eld. On the eld level, the literature on institutional logics shows four possible outcomes
of the clash between logics: the incorporation of elements
of a new logic into the dominant one (e.g. Glynn, 2000), the
hybridization of elements of both the old and new logic
(e.g. Colyvas & Powell, 2006; DAunno, Sutton, & Price,
1991; Purdy & Gray, 2009), a shift from the old dominant
Please cite this article in press as: Lander, M. W., et al. Committed to professionalism: Organizational responses of mid-tier accounting
rms to conicting institutional logics. Accounting, Organizations and Society (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aos.2012.11.001
M.W. Lander et al. / Accounting, Organizations and Society xxx (2012) xxxxxx
Methods
Rationale
The aim of this research is to elaborate our current theoretical understanding (Lee, Mitchell, & Sablynski, 1999) of
the impact of multiple institutional logics and the heterogeneity of organizational responses. Similar to Greenwood
and Suddaby (2006) we use inductive reasoning to map
organizational responses to institutional pressures as perceived in the demographic of mid-tier accounting rms.
In order to document changes in structures and systems
and the ways in which these changes coincide with institutional templates large scale comparative studies are
necessary (Greenwood & Hinings, 1996, p. 1047). They
are necessary as changes involve difcult to measure concepts (e.g. resistance) and radical changes take lengthy
periods of time. Hence we opted for a qualitative, multiple
case study (Eisenhardt, 1989) and use event sequencing of
historical and contemporary processes (Lee et al., 1999)
within and between cases. In order to disentangle the process of organizational change we draw on interview and
archival data.
Research context: The Dutch accountancy sector
The accountancy rms included in the sample are
drawn from the 22 largest accountancy rms listed directly
behind the big 4 rms. In terms of size (turnover and number of full-time employees) mid-tier rms differ substantially from the big 4 accounting rms. In the ranking of
largest accounting rms in the Netherlands the big 4 are
followed by three rms with prots in excess of 100 million and employing over 1000 fte. The following six rms
have over 50 million in prots and employ over 500
employees. Finally, the remaining 13 mid-tier rms have
prots in excess of 15 million and employ more than
150 employees (www.accountant.nl).
Data sources
We dene our sample geographically, which is a tried
and tested sampling method for professional organizations
whose operations are contingent on the jurisdiction in
which they are active (Greenwood & Suddaby, 2006; Ruef
& Scott, 1998) Our data was collected from 2009 to 2011,
under the jurisdiction of the Nederlandse Beroepsorganisatie voor Accountants (NBA; Dutch Accounting Association).
Our primary sources of data are interviews with 34 senior-level informants within 11 mid-tier accounting rms
in the Netherlands with turnover ranging from 17.4 to
215.7 million and 161 to 1950 employees (see Table 1).
Our informants were theoretically sampled on a number
of characteristics (Corbin & Strauss, 2008). First, the informants needed to have insight in the strategic plans of the
rms. Preferably and most of our informants were
the informants needed to be (managing) partners and as
such have decision making authority. Secondly, the informants represented the different service areas of the rm
such as the audit branch, the consolidation branch and
the scal branch.
As we study conicting institutional logics we are tapping into cognitive aspects such as perceptions, thought
and interpretation. Therefore, we are at the risk of several
biases (Miller, Cardinal, & Glick, 1997). In order to mitigate
subject biases, we used multiple informants (at least three,
save for one rm where only the managing partner contributed to the study) per rm. The added benet of using
multiple informants is that it often results in richer data
(Schwenk, 1985). In the rst instance, the managing partner or director was contacted and informed about the
studys objectives and asked to participate in an interview.
Subsequently, using snowball sampling (Kerlinger, 1986),
we asked the rst informant to specify at least two other
potential informants. The interviews ranged from one to
one and a half hour in length. We always started by asking
for background information on the rm as well as the
informant. Hereafter, open-ended questions were used to
elaborate on ve important forces for change in the
accounting industry. Open-ended questions lead to higher
accuracy in reports (Miller et al., 1997). Examples of ques-
Please cite this article in press as: Lander, M. W., et al. Committed to professionalism: Organizational responses of mid-tier accounting
rms to conicting institutional logics. Accounting, Organizations and Society (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aos.2012.11.001
M.W. Lander et al. / Accounting, Organizations and Society xxx (2012) xxxxxx
Table 1
Informant information.
Firm/informant number
A1
A2
A3
A4
B1
B2
B3
C1
C2
C3
D1
D2
D3
D4
E1
E2
E3
F1
F2
F3
G1
G2
G3
G4
H1
H2
H3
I1
I2
I3
J1
K1
K2
K3
Informants
Turnover = 215.7 million
# FTE = 1950
OOB licensed
Turnover = 115.5 million
# FTE = 1160
OOB licensed
Turnover = 111.7 million
# FTE = 1280
Turnover = 97.2 million
# FTE = 866
OOB licensed
Turnover = 68.8 million
# FTE = 756
Turnover = 59 million
# FTE = 636
Turnover = 53.5 million
# FTE = 465
OOB licensed
Turnover = 43.3 million
# FTE = 476
Turnover = 29.6 million
# FTE = 293
Turnover = 21.3 million
# FTE = 161
Turnover = 17.4 million
# FTE = 180
Please cite this article in press as: Lander, M. W., et al. Committed to professionalism: Organizational responses of mid-tier accounting
rms to conicting institutional logics. Accounting, Organizations and Society (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aos.2012.11.001
M.W. Lander et al. / Accounting, Organizations and Society xxx (2012) xxxxxx
vantage is that the principal informant will refer to likeminded additional informants. The resulting community
bias could limit the diversity of generated responses and
ultimately wrongfully anchor organizational responses.
While we cannot rule out some level of bias we feel our
ndings are valid rst, as we asked informants to describe
concrete examples of change and non-change events
which allow informants to tell their story and second we
used secondary data sources for validation of the change
events that our informants described in order to ascertain
their accuracy, and mitigate potential subject bias (Jick,
1979). Archival data on both changes in the industry and
changes within rms were consulted when available. We
used three different kinds of archival information. First,
we used annual reports (20082010) of the professional
accountancy association in order to determine key trends
as well as important legislative changes within the accountancy industry. Secondly, we perused the companies websites to uncover any press releases (from 2008 to 2011) for
descriptions of major changes the rms have gone through.
Finally, we used information drawn from industry journals
(e.g. Maandblad voor Accountancy and Bedrijfseconomie
(MAB; Monthly journal on accountancy and business economics)). Information herein was analyzed after the interviews were held and was used to supplement both the
information on forces for change in the eld, as well as
changes that were initiated by various actors in the eld.
These data were primarily used to corroborate the information drawn from the interviews however at times it
was used to supplement our data.
Data analysis
The data analysis had both a planned and emergent
character. During the analysis the authors shifted back
and forth between raw data and theory in order to make
sense of the effect of conicting logics on organizational responses (Glaser & Strauss, 1967). In doing so, we focused
on three basic questions: (1) what forces for change are
mentioned by the rm; (2) what elements of the rm did
these pressures inuence; and (3) what were the organizational responses given by the rm? The process involved
two distinct steps.
Stage 1. Case studies were written for each of the rms
in the sample based on informant quotes as well as archival data (Graebner, 2009) and varied in length between 20
and 40 pages. In these case studies, rst, the drivers of
institutional change that resulted in conicting institutional logics were coded. Following common inductive
processes, we went from broad generic classication of
the issues related to the questions above in the rst coding
round, to more specic categories in coding round two
such as drivers stemming from rules and regulation, or
automation of processes. These drivers were subsequently
analyzed for their relation to the two existing institutional
logics. However, as it is difcult to empirically identify
institutional logics we followed Jarzabkowski, Matthiesen,
and Van de Ven (2009) by searching for indicators of these
logics in our data. We looked in particular for evidence of
norms, beliefs and values associated with each of these
logics such as quality standards and professionalism for
Please cite this article in press as: Lander, M. W., et al. Committed to professionalism: Organizational responses of mid-tier accounting
rms to conicting institutional logics. Accounting, Organizations and Society (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aos.2012.11.001
M.W. Lander et al. / Accounting, Organizations and Society xxx (2012) xxxxxx
Table 2
Organizational change categories.
Role of the accountant
Organization
Accountant to advisor
Core business(consolidation-advise)
Training
(Advisory) services
Formal business development
Range of services, specialist concept
Client acquisition (reactiveproactive)
Cold acquisition
Automation of services
Portals/online service
XBRL
Organizational governance
Background management/board members
Decision making/voting (all-directive)
Performance pay system
Division prots
Evaluation functionality
Organizational structure
(Merging) number of locations
Critical mass
Separation audit and advisory
Service lines
Staff services
Internationalization
Network
Clients/services
Table 3
Organizational response strategies and tactics.
Examples of strategies for organization A
Strategy
Quote
Deance
Manipulate
R1: We have created a bachelor in cooperation with a university to train our people
to be able to advise clients
R2: We have hired a business manager, and with him a strategy for new product
development mainly related to automation
R2: We want to provide business through a full service concept, but also want to hold
on to the bottom of the market
R1: We are way ahead in terms of web based access. We give presentations on it, to
show that
R3: We do too little. However, it is a key point for us to increase efciency in the audit
Deance
Automation of
services
Organization
Organizational
governance
Performance pay
system
Organizational
structure
Internationalization
Formal business
development
Range of services,
specialist concept
Portals/online service
Deance
XBRL
Compromise
Background
management/board
members
Decision making/
voting
Division prots
Acquiesce
Compromise
R1: I would be in favor of more directive decision making, but you need to know
when you are directive or when you need to convince
R2: Another sore spot is the reward system. Everyone gets the same based on a point
system, but we do not have a differentiated performance pay system
R2: Our performance system has criteria such as how good are you with your clients,
what is your protability and how satised are your people
R3: It has been debated whether to merge locations, however a lot of people were
against it
R2: You need a large club to get scale advantages from you IT investments, as well as
being able to specialize
R3: Our rm still has a mixed practice, so we did not separate audit and advice
Evaluation
functionality
(Merging) number of
locations
Critical mass
Separation audit and
advisory
Service lines
Staff services
Clients/services
Manipulate
Acquiesce
Deance
Acquiesce
Deance
Acquiesce
Compromise
Deance
Deance
Please cite this article in press as: Lander, M. W., et al. Committed to professionalism: Organizational responses of mid-tier accounting
rms to conicting institutional logics. Accounting, Organizations and Society (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aos.2012.11.001
M.W. Lander et al. / Accounting, Organizations and Society xxx (2012) xxxxxx
Please cite this article in press as: Lander, M. W., et al. Committed to professionalism: Organizational responses of mid-tier accounting
rms to conicting institutional logics. Accounting, Organizations and Society (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aos.2012.11.001
10
M.W. Lander et al. / Accounting, Organizations and Society xxx (2012) xxxxxx
Table 4
Drivers of strategic change and their effects according to the trustee and commercial logics.
Example quotes
Effect according to
trustee logic
Drivers
Example quotes
More stringent
certication demands
place emphasis on
quality controls and
professional values
Rules and
regulation
Automation
and XBRL
Client
demands
Economic/
market
conditions
Please cite this article in press as: Lander, M. W., et al. Committed to professionalism: Organizational responses of mid-tier accounting
rms to conicting institutional logics. Accounting, Organizations and Society (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aos.2012.11.001
11
M.W. Lander et al. / Accounting, Organizations and Society xxx (2012) xxxxxx
Table 5
Firm specic responses relating to the role of the accountant.a
Role of the accountant
Acquiescence
Compromise
Deance
Manipulation
K
J, K
B, C, D, E, G, I
C, D, E, G, H
A, H, J
F
A, B, I
A, B, D, H, J
A, C, F, J
D, G, I
B, C, H, J
E, K
B, D, E, G, H, I, K
F, K
Portals/online service
XBRL
E, I
A, C, E, I
B, C, H, J
B, F, J
A, F
D, K
Accountant to advisor
Core business
Training
(Advisory) services
Automation of services
Firms have not commented on all strategic choices. If that was the case they were not assigned a strategy.
Table 6
Locus of resistance to the changing role of the accountant.
Role of the accountant
Accountant to advisor
(Advisory) services
Client acquisition
Automation of services
Core business
Training
Formal business development
Cold Acquisition
XBRL
Accountants
Partners
A, C, D, E, F, H, I, J, K
E, G, I, J
D, K
D, G, H, I, K
B
K
K
G, H, I, K
B, D, K
Please cite this article in press as: Lander, M. W., et al. Committed to professionalism: Organizational responses of mid-tier accounting
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M.W. Lander et al. / Accounting, Organizations and Society xxx (2012) xxxxxx
partner meetings weve talked about it but nothing happens. Entire groups are just not entrepreneurial enough;
partners are not entrepreneurial enough to see that now
is the time to be creative. First things really have to start
hurting before anything will actually change D3.
People dont want to look too far ahead as long as money
keeps rolling in. K1
Another new technique introduced because of increased market competition is cold calling. This practice
was frowned upon and deemed unprofessional until relatively recently. Although a number of rms (D, G and I)
make use of it, most rms resist or sparingly use this practice, both at the level of the non-partnered accountant and
the partner. Almost all rms remark that their relationship
with clients is based on trust: its a trusting relationship,
youre not selling pens or coffee machines, we are selling
added value in a trusting relationship (H2). They describe
their role as shifted from a controller to an advisor (A1,
H1), a sparring partner (B1) or even to a general practitioner (F2). Hence most agree that they need to compete
on quality through specializations and not on price and
that accountants are hesitant to use it [cold calling] as they
feel they need this trust relationship (K1).
In all, the shifting role of the accountant is not wholeheartedly embraced by partners and non-partners alike.
Partners perceive the need to complement their existing
practices with advisory services, as long as it relates to
their original profession. Non-partnered accountants however are fearful and resistant to this change as it forces
them to draw on a completely different set of abilities as
compared to their original work. This results in differing
organizational responses ranging from limited addition of
advisory services to addition of related services by training
accountants or by decoupling the back ofce from the
frontline or hiring non-accountants. With regard to the
possibility of advertising and a more pro-active market approach, rms obtain new leads in various ways. Nevertheless, cold calling is still considered undesirable for the most
part as it violates the trust relationship with clients
respondents perceive to be essential for selling their advisory services.
The changing organizational practices
The drivers for change do not only inuence the role of
the accountant, they also inuence organizational practices. Main drivers here are: imposed rules and regulation
that demand high control of quality; developments in
technology that require more formal organization, a coherent organizational system, and critical mass; the globalization of clients has led rms to join international
networks, which in turn demand certain changes in structural arrangements; and, demands of clients for more specialized advisory services that again have implications for
critical mass. Our data show that organizations have to
decide how they respond in four important ways: (1) rms
make choices about their governance system (maintain
their traditional form of organizational governance
through collegial decision making, place the management
of the rm in the hands of a non-professional, or engage
Please cite this article in press as: Lander, M. W., et al. Committed to professionalism: Organizational responses of mid-tier accounting
rms to conicting institutional logics. Accounting, Organizations and Society (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aos.2012.11.001
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M.W. Lander et al. / Accounting, Organizations and Society xxx (2012) xxxxxx
Table 7
Firm specic responses relating to organizational structures and practices.a
Organization
Acquiescence
Compromise
Organizational
governance
Background management/board
members
Decision making/voting
A, B, D, F, G, I
C, H, K
C, H, K
A, B, D, E, G, I
Division prots
Evaluation functionality
A, E, G, H, I, J, K
K
C
C, F, H, I, J
B, D, F
A, D, E
Organizational structure
A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K
C, D, F, G, H, I, K
C
A, H
C
A, B, E
B, D, E, F, H, I
B, D, G, I
A, B, D, F, G, H, I, J
A, K
Network
Clients/services
E, J, K
E, J
C, F, H, I
B, F
G
A, G
D
D
Internationalization
a
Deance
Manipulation
E, J
F
Firms have not commented on all strategic choices. If that was the case they were not assigned a strategy.
One informant goes even further by stating that the reason they have not implemented such a system is that: We
dont have prot maximization as a main goal. We just
want to earn enough to continue the business and be able
to offer a certain level of quality in our services (C1).
Finally some rms decide to cater to the international
wishes of their clients, most by joining an international
network as they do not want to open up ofces abroad.
This however is clearly related to client demand.
The second cluster of rms consists of only two rms
rms F and J that have adapted most of their structures to
the new commercial logic. Firm J has a non-professional
managing partner, whereas Firm E has ofce managers in
charge of its local ofces. Firms F and J have abandoned
collegial decision making in favor of more directive forms.
As rm J indicates:
We do not discuss strategy monthly because we just dont
allow it. We did that before but in order to create a steady
course we stopped. Otherwise you keep changing direction J1.
Firm F also works with differential performance-pay
systems for partners and employees (Yes, we have performance-pay systems down to the secretary including a share in
the prot, F2) and has high levels of directive decision
making. At the same time, however, Firm J has decided to
create more and smaller ofces throughout its region, signicantly smaller than the average ofce of the other midtier rms but more importantly which would not be
staffed with accountants.
Imagine a nice place where you can meet with clients,
where you can discuss strategy, where there are big whiteboards. Well you dont need accountants there; we have
put them together in one ofce. J1.
However, rm J is an exception. Overall there is relatively little change in the practices and structures of most
organizations. Where resistance to changes in the role of
the accountant was located more at the level of non-partnered accountants, the resistance against changes in organizational structure and practices is solely attributed to the
partners. Especially with regard to the governance of the
rm, almost all informants indicated that a non-professional as managing partner would not be accepted as they
Please cite this article in press as: Lander, M. W., et al. Committed to professionalism: Organizational responses of mid-tier accounting
rms to conicting institutional logics. Accounting, Organizations and Society (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aos.2012.11.001
14
M.W. Lander et al. / Accounting, Organizations and Society xxx (2012) xxxxxx
Table 8
Locus of resistance to the organizational structure and practices.
Organization
Accountants
Partners
Organizational governance
A, B, D, F, G, I
A, C, G, I
Division prots
E, G, H
Organizational structure
D
A
Internationalization
Network
D, G
Please cite this article in press as: Lander, M. W., et al. Committed to professionalism: Organizational responses of mid-tier accounting
rms to conicting institutional logics. Accounting, Organizations and Society (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aos.2012.11.001
M.W. Lander et al. / Accounting, Organizations and Society xxx (2012) xxxxxx
ndings mirror what Hanlon (1997) found in the law industry where professionals in smaller rms continue to draw on
much of the social service ethos and rhetoric and are hostile
to managerialism. In sum, we argue that the sun is not setting on professionalism in mid-tier accounting rms. Their
embeddedness in the original professional logic with an
emphasis on service ethic is still strong and is supported
by the type of relationship requested by their local clients.
A second insight we draw from our rms is that
although in some cases top management does see the merit
of a proposed change, often it is unable to align its internal
constituency. While partners underscore the need to offer
advisory services in order to ensure protability, non-partnered accountants resist this practice as they are risk averse
and afraid of the implications of this shift. Hence a slow
process of training and formal business development is
put in place to provide them with skills and knowledge necessary to make the change. We also nd evidence of resistance at the level of the partners. Covaleski et al. (1998)
as well as Dirsmith et al. (1997) nd in their studies on
the introduction of management by objectives that administrative partners wish to control and shape behavior of
practice partners and non-partnered accountants but that
this is resisted by practice partners as it limits their autonomy. We see a similar resistance to structures and processes that limit partner autonomy. In the rms in our
sample most managing partners and practice partners
alike, are still actively involved in the delivery of services
and as such resist the same practices and structures. For instance they resist the merging of locations, very directive
forms of decision making, individualized performance-pay
systems and the presence of non-professional managers.
For future research it could be of interest to explore what
the shift from the trustee to the commercial logic, and the
concomitant development of organizational structures and
processes, means for the non-partnered, non-managing
accountants. While our informants report them to be in general risk averse, the reason for their resistance is still unclear.
Their importance as a source of resistance however is clear
as rms do have to adapt their organizational responses to
move them into the zone of acceptability (Ansari, Fiss, & Zajac, 2010; Lewis & Seibold, 1993; Radnor, Feller, & Rogers,
1978) for this group of professionals.
Organizational responses, archetype change and institutional
logics
Our second contribution is to the literatures on organizational responses, archetype change and, particularly, institutional logics. Studies of organizational responses to
institutional pressures (Oliver, 1991) are numerous but often focus on the adoption or non-adoption of specic practices (e.g. Ang & Cummings, 1997; Fiss & Zajac, 2004,
2006; Goodrick & Salancik, 1996; Greening & Gray, 1994;
Lounsbury, 2001, 2007; Milliken et al., 1998; Rao & Sivakumar, 1999; Thornton, 2002; Westphal et al., 1997). Also,
studies investigating the eld level end-states in institutionally complex elds show a number of different outcomes
like a shift from the old dominant logic to the newly introduced logic (e.g. Thornton, 2002; Zilber, 2002); the introduction of elements of a new logic into a dominant one (e.g.
15
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M.W. Lander et al. / Accounting, Organizations and Society xxx (2012) xxxxxx
tional logics in the inter-institutional system the professional and market logics (Thornton et al., 2012). This moral
motivation is especially pronounced with regard to
changes that impact the values associated with their original professional identity that have been imprinted through
socialization.
Our ndings thus highlight the relevance of further research into how situational and positional circumstances
affect individuals focus of attention and their evaluation
of applicability and relevance of institutional logics in decision-making processes. Furthermore, further investigation
of how actors choose and use elements of logics for justication and/or moral motivation of choices in processes of
institutional change seems warranted to better understand
the dynamics of practice developments in elds governed
by multiple conicting institutional logics.
Our nding that these mid-tier accounting organizations draw on institutional logics as a toolkit contradicts
expectations of integral change towards organizational
archetypes based on the new (commercial) institutional logic. Institutional logics involve values and beliefs by which
individuals produce and reproduce their material subsistence (Thornton & Ocasio, 1999). As such they directly
inuence organizational structures and processes (Greenwood et al., 2009). This is closely related to the concept
of interpretive schemes which underlie organizational
archetypes. Archetypes are interconnected structures and
systems that together support the particular values and
norms at the heart of the substantiated interpretive
scheme (Greenwood & Hinings, 1993). This would thus
mean that logics and archetypes should form logical and
interrelated practices which should be shown in a similar
conguration. Examples are studies of the development
of Multidisciplinary Practice in accounting rms (Greenwood et al., 2002) or the Managed Professional Business
in law rms (Cooper et al., 1996) as archetypes that reect
the emphasis on the commercial logic.
Such coherence however is not observed in our group of
mid-tier rms. The toolkit approach our mid-tier rms employ to deal with each of the specic issues they face, results in hybrid structures on the organizational level
(Greenwood, Raynard, Kodeih, Micelotta, & Lounsbury,
2011). These organizational strategies in the face of institutional complexity resonate with the process of sedimentation in the development between archetypes (Cooper et al.,
1996). However, while sedimentation is a process of between-archetype changes by coupling mutually constitutive interpretive schemes on top of each other, we are
unsure if this is the case for our mid-tier rms. The rms
continue to draw heavily on the professional interpretive
scheme and move only in small incremental ways towards
a more commercial scheme. However, as we are still in the
early stages in the transformation of the mid-tier segment
of the accounting eld, it is too soon to judge if this is the
start of a process of between archetype change or a within
archetype change. This may well be a case of what Morris
and Pinnington (1999) imply as a more recursive and
reexive model where old and new values and systems
interact and reinterpret each other (Brock et al., 2007, p.
244). An interesting area for future research here is the
inuence of a hybrid organizational structure on organiza-
Please cite this article in press as: Lander, M. W., et al. Committed to professionalism: Organizational responses of mid-tier accounting
rms to conicting institutional logics. Accounting, Organizations and Society (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aos.2012.11.001
M.W. Lander et al. / Accounting, Organizations and Society xxx (2012) xxxxxx
17
accounting rms. In order to address the issue of generalizability both across and within professions we call for future micro-level research in order to determine how and to
what extent embeddedness in local institutional environments explains the continued adherence of mid-sized
and small rms to the trustee logic and as a consequence
its related organizational form.
Acknowledgements
Michel W. Lander would like to thank the AXA Research
Fund for its nancial support and Bas A.S. Koene would like
to thank the Erasmus Trust Fund and the Stockholm Centre
for Organizational Research for their support.
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