Are Professionals Retained by Social Capital?: The Role of Social Capital in Retaining Professionals in Professional Service Firms

In this master's thesis on professional service firms, the author's main interest is to shed light on how social processes determine the inclination of a professional, accountant, consultant, lawyer or other, to remain with his employer. The social phenomena that build on reciprocity and repeat interaction ¿ like trust, norms or shared codes and language - are referred to as social capital because benefits arise to the parties invested in the asset. Professional services are produced by professionals interacting in a social structure that comprises their peers and their clients, and where much of that production relies precisely on the benefits that arise to the professional from the social capital he or she shares with others. Thus the suspicion arises that the degree to which professionals become tied down in the network of peers that constitutes their employer, is a function of the degree to which they are invested in social capital. To address this question, this text investigates the role of social capital in retaining professionals in professional service firms, and attempts to clarify some of the mechanics that link social capital and retention.