First up then out: Self-employment as a response to normative control practices in elite consultancies

Abstract

While normative control practices aim to raise employee motivation and commitment to professional standards in professional service firms, there is much debate on when and for whom such practices remain motivational. Based on interviews with 18 self-employed consultants who left elite consultancies, we find that, for them, normative control practices, such as learning opportunities and social events, lose appeal over time. This paper contributes to the literature on normative control by conceptualising how consequences, like lack of autonomy, reduced learning and growing work-life conflict, increasingly undermine the motivational impact of normative control practices during a consultant career. Self-employment can help consultants avoid these unwelcome effects because independence solves autonomy issues and improves their work-life balance. Mapping this underexplored but very common move from employment to self-employment in the consulting industry introduces the concept of occupational careers to the debate on boundaryless careers.