IMPROVING COLLABORATION PROCESS AND WORKING EMPLOYMENT RELATIONSHIP IN PROFESSIONAL SERVICES FIRM

• Main Author: Budiarso
• Format: Dissertations
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/66836
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

This thesis reports the study to improve the collaboration process and working employment relationships among the four teams in a professional services firm. The study is constructed into two complementary parts, and each part of the study is designed to address the relevant research questions; then, the findings of both parts are combined for a broader and deeper understanding and conclusion. Part-1 of the study is conducted to learn the effects of firm governance on the collaboration process dimensions in a public corporation type of professional service firm with one global integrated organization structure and a partnership type of professional service firm with network organization structure. One conceptual model is developed to structure the analysis and guide five expert interviews. It finds that in the public corporation type of professional service firm, with one global integrated organization structure, the structural dimension of the collaboration process plays a more significant role than the agency and social capital dimension in establishing the collaboration process. On the contrary, in the partnership type of professional service firm, with a network organization structure, the social capital and the agency dimensions of the collaboration process play a more significant role than the structural dimension in establishing the collaboration process. It leads to the practical implementation in a partnership type of professional service firm, and the collaboration process would be started by building the social capital and agency dimensions. In a public corporation type of professional service firm, the collaboration process would be started by following the structural dimensions because being a public corporation forces the firm to have a defined and documented governance and administration (structural dimension). Part-2 of the study aims to fill a knowledge gap in the collaboration process and learn the practical ways to establish it. It is done by implementing a Soft Systems Methodology-based Action Research (SSM-based AR) study to improve the collaborative working relationship among the four teams in one of the Big Four firms serving one global multinational client. The Big Four is the nickname used to refer collectively to the four largest professional services network firms (PSNF) globally, consisting of Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG, and PwC. This study learns the following findings: (1) Collaboration process is not static, and establishing it is continuous and cyclical. Refinement and renegotiation are required to keep the agreed equilibrium for the existing situation or find a new equilibrium ii of the five dimensions of the collaboration process for the new situation. (2) Having similar objectives, the mutuality dimension of the collaboration process keeps motivating the four teams to collaborate. The clarity of the mutuality dimension is essential for parties before starting the collaboration process. (3) The social capital (mutuality and norms) and autonomy dimensions play a more significant role than the structural (governance and administration) dimension in establishing the collaboration process in a professional services network firm (PSNF). (4) It proposes the practical steps to implement the five dimensions of the collaboration process. (5) Embedding the theoretical framework in the root definition of SSM guides to address the dual imperatives of SSM-based AR. Combining the findings of two parts of the study provides a broader and deeper understanding and conclusion, answering the bigger research questions: “ how to build a successful collaboration process practically in PSF. Part-2 of the study’s findings give the steps to build using five dimensions of the collaboration process model, and part-1 of the study’s finding clarifies which dimensions must be properly managed to sustain the collaboration process that has been built.