POWER AND CONTROL IN PROFESSIONAL PARTNERSHIPS

Strategic management controls in professional partnership firms are di fferent from controls in companies. A recently developed model of stra tegic management controls in the partnership firm was applied in a mod ified form to a sample of 60 firms in three traditional professions-la w, accounting and architecture. Strategic management in the partnershi ps was broadly consistent with the model but we identified three adapt ations in 10 of the sample of firms: corporate planner, corporate moni tor and operations monitor. This article explains these adaptations an d suggests that the form which strategic control takes ina partnership depends on the distribution of power in the firm. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd