This study explores student-consulting firms and how a strong organizational culture can be a key to mitigate their particular challenge of high employee turnover and how their management can work with different dimensions of organizational culture as tools to embed a strong organizational culture. A student-consulting firm is a consulting firm operated by students still engaged in regular educational programs that can be considered a form of knowledge-intensive firm (KIF). This study investigates how management in these firms work with organizational cul- ture through four dimensions, symbols, heroes, rituals and ceremonies, and values. These dimensions are based on Schein [1990] and extended by input from Hofstede et al. [1990] and Bolman and Deal [2003]. The findings of this study are based on three detailed case studies conducted at the three largest student-consulting firms in Sweden where semi-structured interviews were performed to investigate how manage- ment work with different managerial tools in these four dimensions. This study concludes that there are at least eleven discreet management tools that are used in these firms to mitigate the challenges that their high employee turnover implies. The findings provide in-depth insight into these tools and their usage and effect, thereby enhancing the understanding of the role of organizational culture and providing a framework for management.

High rates of employee turnover in the legal sector are an internationally recognized problem. Despite persistent efforts from business law firms, many lawyers choose to leave their employer. This suggests these business law firms struggle with talent management and employee retention. Based on several concepts from organizational theory, this study investigates which motivational forces contribute to employee retention at Swedish business law firms. Data has been collected through semi-structured interviews with six respondents; working as associates, senior associate and partner at their respective firms. The empirical findings show that affective, contractual and calculative forces contribute most to lawyers choosing to stay at their law firms. Meanwhile, normative, alternative, behavioral, moral/ethical and constituent factors contributed little or nothing to employee retention. Complementary factors such as compensation, fringe benefits and work-life balance were also not regarded as decisive in the lawyers’ decisions to remain.

With the recent boom in big data and the continuous need for innovation, Artificial Intelligence is carving out a bigger place in our society. Through its computer-based capabilities, it brings new possibilities to tackle many issues within organizations. It also raises new challenges about its use and limits. This thesis aims to provide a better understanding of the role of humans and Artificial Intelligence in the organizational decision making process. The research focuses on knowledge-intensive firms. The main research question that guides our study is the following one:   How can Artificial Intelligence re-design and develop the process of organizational decision making within knowledge-intensive firms?   We formulated three more detailed questions to guide us: (1) What are the roles of humans and Artificial Intelligence in the decision making process? (2) How can organizational design support the decision making process through the use of Artificial Intelligence? (3) How can Artificial Intelligence help to overcome the challenges experienced by decision makers within knowledge-intensive firms and what are the new challenges that arise from the use of Artificial Intelligence in the decision making process?   We adopted an interpretivist paradigm together with a qualitative study, as presented in section 3. We investigated our research topic within two big IT firms and two real estate startups that are using AI. We conducted six semi-structured interviews to enable us to gain better knowledge and in-depth understanding about the roles of humans and Artificial Intelligence in the decision making process within knowledge-intensive firms. Our review led us to the theoretical framework explained in section 2, on which we based our interviews.   The results and findings that emerged from the interviews follow the same structure than the theoretical review and provide insightful information in order to answer the research question. To analyze and discuss our empirical findings that are summarized in the chapter 5 and in a chart in the appendix 4, we used the general analytical procedure for qualitative studies. The structure of chapter 5 follows the same order than the three sub questions.   The thesis highlights how a deep understanding of Artificial Intelligence and its integration in the process of organizational decision making of knowledge-intensive firms enable humans to be augmented and to make smarter decisions. It appears that Artificial Intelligence is used as a decision making support rather than an autonomous decision maker, and that organizations adopt smoother and more collaborative designs in order to make the best of it within their decision making process. Artificial Intelligence is an efficient tool to deal with complex situations, whereas human capabilities seem to be more relevant in situations of uncertainty and ambiguity. Artificial Intelligence also raises new issues for organizations regarding its responsibility and acceptation by society as there is a grey area surrounding machines in front of ethics and laws.

Bakgrund: Då utvecklingen i det företagsekonomiska samhället har gått från ett industrisamhälle till ett kunskapssamhälle efterfrågas extern expertis från kunskapsintensiva företag. Många konsultföretag är goda exempel på den postbyråkratiska organisationsformen, som karaktäriseras av relativt få skikt av hierarki, flexibilitet, delaktighet i beslutsfattande och lösa karriärstrukturer, där identiteten blir svårmanövrerad. Identitet är av särskild betydelse när det kommer till KIF:er av olika skäl. Det blir allt mer framträdande för ledare att försöka forma individerna själva. Det är viktigt för ledningen att influera anställda via strategier för att exempelvis uppnå organisationskontroll, säkerställa lojalitet och behållning, och förebygga existentiell osäkerhet samt skapa självförtroende och självkänsla i arbetet. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att med hjälp av befintliga teorier och empiriskt underlag bidra med ökad förståelse av hur KIF:er använder identitetsreglering för att erhålla organisationskontroll. Genomförande: Studien har genomförts med en kvalitativ metod via en fallstudiedesign genom intervjuer med anställda inom relevanta företag inom konsultbranschen. Respondenterna har haft varierande befattningar och kunskaper i respektive företag. Slutsats: Resultatet av denna studie visar att kunskapsintensiva företag arbetar med organisationskontroll där identitet spelar en central roll. Flertalet strategier presenteras så som rekrytering, värdeerbjudande, utbildningar, avskalad hierarki, sociala aktiviteter, team, corporate storytelling och värderingar, vilket bidrar till en ökad förståelse för hur KIF:er arbetar med identitetsreglering för att uppnå organisationskontroll. / Background: Since the development of business economics has shifted from an industrial society to a knowledge society, external expertise is demanded from knowledge-intensive companies. Many consulting firms are good examples of the post- bureaucratic organization, characterized by relatively few layers of hierarchy, flexibility, decision-making involvement and loose career structures, where the identity becomes difficult to operate. Identity is of particular importance when it comes to KIFs for different reasons. It is becoming increasingly prominent for leaders to try to shape the individuals themselves. It is important for management to influence employees through strategies to achieve organizational control, ensure loyalty and prevent existential uncertainty as well as create self-confidence and self-esteem at work. Purpose: The purpose of the study is to provide, with the help of existing theories and empirical evidence, an increased understanding of how KIFs use identity regulation to obtain organizational control. Empiric: The study has been conducted with a qualitative method through a case study design through interviews with employees in relevant companies in the consulting industry. Respondents have had varying positions and skills in their respective companies. Result: The result of this study shows that knowledge-intensive companies work with organizational control where identity plays a central role. Several strategies are presented such as recruitment, value offerings, educations, scaled-down hierarchy, social activities, teams, corporate storytelling and values, which helps to understand how KIFs work with identity regulation to achieve organizational control.

Submitted by Cristiane Shirayama (cristiane.shirayama@fgv.br) on 2011-05-24T12:13:57Z No. of bitstreams: 1 61080100011.pdf: 449887 bytes, checksum: 3a6b4ab010c3706ff039d76f10f7ba92 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Gisele Isaura Hannickel(gisele.hannickel@fgv.br) on 2011-05-24T12:18:05Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 61080100011.pdf: 449887 bytes, checksum: 3a6b4ab010c3706ff039d76f10f7ba92 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Gisele Isaura Hannickel(gisele.hannickel@fgv.br) on 2011-05-24T12:18:38Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 61080100011.pdf: 449887 bytes, checksum: 3a6b4ab010c3706ff039d76f10f7ba92 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2011-05-24T12:21:40Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 61080100011.pdf: 449887 bytes, checksum: 3a6b4ab010c3706ff039d76f10f7ba92 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-08-25 / The movement of Brazilian companies into foreign markets is a recent phenomenon. From the beginning of this first decade of Century XXI, service companies, and especially law firms well established in Brazil - many of them specializing in serving clients of foreign origin – have been associated with international partners or have opened branches in known international places. This trend not only serves to commercial or economic purposes, but involves issues related to organizational learning, with strategic and operational impacts on the decision-making process of these firms. This is the basic hypothesis of this master thesis, which relies on two methodological approaches, secondary and primary researches, to perform the test of this hypothesis and analysis of organizational consequences of internationalization. The dissertation is presented in three nuclear chapters, besides introduction and conclusion, where are examined the methodological procedures, the theoretical and conceptual basis and researches results, summarized in some impacts that affect the originally prevailing organizational culture, culminating with influences on the decision-making process of marketing, pricing and organization of these companies. / O movimento de empresas brasileiras em direção ao exterior é considerado um fenômeno recente. Desde o princípio dessa primeira década do século XXI, empresas de serviços e, especialmente, os escritórios de advocacia já consolidados no Brasil – muitos deles especializados no atendimento de clientes de origem estrangeira – se associaram com “partners” no exterior ou abriram filiais em conhecidas praças internacionais. Esse movimento de internacionalização não guarda apenas uma dimensão comercial ou essencialmente econômica, mas envolve aspectos relacionados ao aprendizado organizacional, com impactos operacionais e estratégicos sobre o processo de tomada de decisões desses escritórios de advocacia. A presente dissertação de mestrado tem como hipótese, fundada no conceito de “knowledge intensive firm”, dentre outras bases teóricas, que as organizações de advocacia brasileira passaram por um processo de aprendizado com a abertura para o exterior. Esse aprendizado tem influência sobre o padrão cultural anteriormente prevalecente na unidade brasileira, transformando-o. Para efetuar o teste desta hipótese e a análise das conseqüências organizacionais da internacionalização, são utilizados dois procedimentos metodológicos combinados, a pesquisa secundária e a pesquisa primária. A dissertação apresenta-se em três capítulos nucleares, além da introdução e da conclusão, detalhando a metodologia, os fundamentos teóricos e conceituais utilizados e apresentando os resultados das pesquisas, sumariados num conjunto de impactos que afetam as decisões mercadológicas, de formação de preços e de organização dessas empresas.

Inledning: Omorganiseringstrenden har varit stark i Sverige under 2000-talet. Ett av motiven har varit att HR-funktionens strategiska personalarbete kan bidra till kostnadseffektivitet och värdeskapande som behövs i en konkurrenskraftig miljö. Kunskapsintensiva organisationer i tillväxt är helt beroende av sitt humankapital och bör definiera behoven att ha ett utstuderat sätt att arbeta med HR.     Syfte: Syftet med studien är att förstå de behov och förväntningar som föreligger att implementera en formaliserad HR-funktion för kunskapsintensiva företag i tillväxt. Vi vill genom studien undersöka HR-funktionens roll och betydelse samt nyansera bilden av organisationens drivkrafter till att implementera en formaliserad HR-funktion.   Metod: Uppsatsen består av en induktiv ansats med en kvalitativ metod. Vi har genomfört en fallstudie på ett medelstort företag i tillväxt i en kunskapsintensiv bransch. All empirisk data har insamlats genom kvalitativa intervjuer på ledningsgruppnivå samt en enkät till samtliga medarbetare på fallföretaget.     Slutsats: De slutsatser vi kommit fram till är att behovet av att implementera en HR-funktion inom kunskapsintensiva företag i tillväxt beror på medarbetarnas attityder, motivation och beteende, som i sin tur påverkar organisationens resultat. De mjuka värdena bör gå hand i hand med de hårda värdena. Humankapitalet är en av de största konkurrensfördelar som morgondagens organisationer kommer att stå inför där tyngdpunkten ligger i att arbeta systematiskt med HR samt att transformera mål och strategier till att bli mer effektiva, värdeskapande och strategiska. / Introduction: Reorganization trend has been strong in Sweden in the 2000s. One of the reasons has been that the HR function's strategic in HR-work can contribute to cost efficiency and creates value, well needed in a competitive environment. Knowledge-intensive organizations in growth are entirely dependent on its human capital, and should examine the need to maintain a studied approach to working with HR.   Purpose: The purpose of this study is to understand the needs and expectations that are in place to implement a formalized HR function for knowledge-intensive companies in growth. We want to study the HR function's role and importance and nuanced the picture of the organization's incentives to implement a formalized HR function.   Method: The paper consists of an inductive approach with a qualitative method. We conducted a case study of a medium sized company in growth in a knowledge-intensive industry. We have collected all the empirical data through qualitative interviews in the management-team and a questionnaire/survey to all employees in the company.   Conclusion: The conclusion we reached is that the need to implement an HR function in knowledge- intensive companies in growth is context, expertise, size and leadership. Human capital is one of the major competitive advantages that tomorrow's organizations will face and the focus is on working systematically with HR and transform goals and strategies to become more efficient, value creation and strategic.