Leadership and Governance

This chapter explores the dynamics which govern the interactions of professionals and examines the implications for leaders of professional organizations. There may be several hundred senior professionals working inside a large professional organization. At any moment, they may stop thinking of themselves as part of the collective and start pursuing their individual interests. Despite its many limitations, partnership remains the optimal legal form of governance for reconciling professionals’ competing interests; the chapter explains why. It identifies the socialization processes, management systems, and governance structures which create and sustain the partnership ethos. By distinguishing partnership as a legal form from partnership as an ethos, it identifies how valuable aspects of the partnership ethos can survive and thrive within a corporation. It explains how leaders with a sophisticated understanding of their organization’s partnership ethos will be more effective at influencing partnership dynamics and at avoiding falling foul of them.