Bedömning av anställda i professionella tjänsteföretag - ett kritiskt perspektiv
Human resource managementPerformance managementPerformance appraisalEmployee assessmentProfessional service firms
Human capital is professional service firms' most valuable resource and its quality is closely linked to the quality of its services. The purpose of this study is to investigate how professional service firms appraise their employees. A comparative study between an architecture firm and a management consulting firm is conducted with the aim to identify and explain similarities and differences in performance appraisal. Two qualitative case studies are performed and interviews as well as documents are used to explore the area. The thesis builds on a critical perspective and it has an explorative approach. The study shows that professional service firms appraise their employees in formal arenas such as performance reviews, wage discussions and evaluations after finished projects. However, our study also indicates that a large part of the assessment is taking place in informal arenas such as in social networks and the everyday project execution. Furthermore, evaluations seems to be based more on the evaluator's gut feeling than formal criteria. The amount of formal performance appraisal in the two firms and the role of internal networks for assessment differ, both being significantly more important in the management consulting firm. The thesis suggests that the observed differences can be explained by aspects such as the firm's career structure, the motivational factors of the employees and the degree of visibility of the working process and final results.