"The Best Plave to Be": Managing Employee Loyalty in a Knowledge-Intensive Company.- Miguel Pina e Cunha

Abstract

Using a case study of an integrated information technology services firm, I examine how the interplay between culture, structure and leadership is managed to build employee loyalty. I focus on the salient features of the case, namely that a high profile culture combines with a low profile leadership and with minimal structuring to create a vibrant and loyalty-generating organizational environment. I propose that these processes are effective because they reinforce one another. It is their articulation, not their existence, which acts both as an unobtrusive control mechanism and as an employee loyalty generating process − fulfilling the needs of both the organization and its professionals.

Keywords: knowledge-intensive firms, organizational culture, minimal structure, low profile leadership