Common threats and managing reputation in executive search firms

Abstract

This paper provides important insights into how executive search firms can successfully manage their reputations to overcome major threats to their organisations. The paper focuses on three threats faced by executive search firms: the global financial crisis; questions around the sector’s professional status; and the proliferation of social media for recruitment. Our data show that there was not a single coherent response from firms, but a piecemeal approach that focused on three forms of reputation management. First, diversifying service offerings; second, highlighting their symbolic capital; and third, connecting their firms to clients and candidates through partners. Building on our data and the theoretical literature, we provide a framework for understanding how professional service firms can manage their reputations in response to common threats, based on three categories from the English idiom, ‘keep up with the Joneses’. First, moving away from the Joneses; second, fencing out the Joneses; third, networking more than the Joneses. We provide theoretical and practical insights around how organisations can manage their reputations in response to threats which are common across sectors.