Whose agents executive search consultants are? - A qualitative study of how executive search consultants position themselves and whom they construct themselves to serve from these positions

Abstract

Executive search consultants play a crucial role in society as they are responsible for searching and recruiting top positions in organizations. They have two main stakeholders to please: their clients and candidates. The Agency Theory, which examines the relationship between principals (such as clients) and agents (such as consultants), provides an interesting starting point for research in this context.

In my theoretical and methodological framework, I decided to use the reformulated version of Agency Theory since executive search consultants try to please at least two possible principals (clients and candidates) in their work, and it recognizes that agents may serve multiple principals. In my framework, I combined it with Positionining Theory to analyze these agent-principal relationships in this executive recruitment context. Based on this theoretical framework, this thesis examines how the consultants position themselves in their speech and who they construct themselves to serve from these positions.

The research material for this study consisted of interviews with Finnish executive search consultants. During the analysis, I identified six distinct positions in which the consultants positioned themselves: professional, servant, gatekeeper, career advocate, moneymaker, and observer. In these positions, executive search consultants constructed themselves to serve either clients, candidates or themselves.

The relationships between the positions and the principals constructed in them reveal the complexity of the executive search consultant's role in executive search recruitment and in the client-consultant-candidate triad. These relationships present a dilemma, raising the question of whose agents executive search consultants are and where their priorities lie in these relations.