TY - JOUR
T1 - Strategic compliance
T2 - A study of professionals' responses to sales management control
AU - Singh, Nina
AU - Rennstam, Jens
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - This study responds to the call for research on how different and often conflicting discourses co-exist in professionals’ everyday work experiences. The paper explores how professionals respond to sales management in the context of two professional service firms (PSFs). Based on a qualitative study of employees’ experiences of sales, our findings suggest that the professionals respond to sales management by engaging in strategic compliance, i.e., adhering to rules and expectations to achieve goals of professional advancement (financial, status, autonomy), which, in turn, reinforces their membership of the profession. We identified three modes of strategic compliance: career-, integration-, and survival-mode. This conceptual framework contributes with a deepened understanding of the complex relationship between professional work and sales management. Specifically, our study suggests that while strategic compliance may help professionals navigate the tensions between professional- and sales-ideals, it is also associated with struggle and normalizes sales as a part of professional work.
AB - This study responds to the call for research on how different and often conflicting discourses co-exist in professionals’ everyday work experiences. The paper explores how professionals respond to sales management in the context of two professional service firms (PSFs). Based on a qualitative study of employees’ experiences of sales, our findings suggest that the professionals respond to sales management by engaging in strategic compliance, i.e., adhering to rules and expectations to achieve goals of professional advancement (financial, status, autonomy), which, in turn, reinforces their membership of the profession. We identified three modes of strategic compliance: career-, integration-, and survival-mode. This conceptual framework contributes with a deepened understanding of the complex relationship between professional work and sales management. Specifically, our study suggests that while strategic compliance may help professionals navigate the tensions between professional- and sales-ideals, it is also associated with struggle and normalizes sales as a part of professional work.
KW - professionalism
KW - organizational control
KW - compliance
KW - strategic compliance
U2 - 10.7577/pp.4454
DO - 10.7577/pp.4454
M3 - Article
SN - 1893-1049
VL - 12
JO - Professions and Professionalism
JF - Professions and Professionalism
IS - 1
M1 - e4454
ER -