Managing knowledge workers in PSFs
The majority of PSFs have a distinctive ownership and governance structure. The form of
ownership is the professional partnership. However, professional partnership is a
neglected form of study in academic research (cf. Greenwood and Empson, 2003).
However, partnership firms and organizations are worthy of study because they are
associated with the management of knowledge workers. In addition, these firms have a
prestigious aura around their context (Alvesson, 1995). Accordingly, they have been
acknowledged as an archetype for the new economy (Greenwood and Empson, 2003).
Knowledge intensive firms are particularly appropriate examples of contemporary forms
of ‘‘people dependent organizations’’ (Robertson et al., 2003). They can be defined as: