Making sense of career in a Big Four accounting firm

There is little existing research on how managers within the ‘Big Four’ professional services firms (PSFs) respond to the increasing normative pressures and performative cultures that characterize contemporary PSFs. It is primarily managers within PSFs that enact the new managerial roles, systems and ethos that differentiate ‘managed professional businesses’ (MPBs) from the P2 archetype. It is managers who in their own estimation need to ensure that both organization and employees perform to the required standard. This article reports from an empirical study into one of the Big Four accounting firms. The focus is on how a specific group of employees, namely female managers, make sense of career and performance in their particular organization. The respondents’ career is being shaped by their real and perceived willingness to be ‘bothered to be playing the game’ as well as providing a good client service and participating in the ongoing rationalization of professional practices. Thus, the self is divided: on the one hand, ambitious, committed and loyal to the firm and to the notion of performing. On the other hand, there is also distancing and disenchantment with the existing practices and reluctant acknowledgement that the reality is characterized by a culture of visibility and exposure; the need to network, play politics and be playing-the-game, none of which are gender-neutral. Il existe peu de recherches sur la façon dont les managers dans les ‘quatre grands’ cabinets de services professionnels (CSP) répondent aux pressions normatives croissantes et aux cultures de la performance qui caractérisent de nos jours les CSP. Ce sont principalement les managers dans les CSP qui tiennent les nouveaux rôles de management, les systèmes et la philosophie qui différencient les organisations professionnelles de type MPB (managed professional business) des organisations archétypales de partenariat professionnel (P2). Ce sont les managers qui, selon leur propre estimation, doivent assurer que tant la performance de l’organisation que celles des employés est au niveau requis. Dans cet article, nous rendrons compte de notre étude empirique dans l’un des Quatre Grands cabinets d’audit. Nous étudions comment un groupe spécifique d’employés, précisément les managers femmes, voient leur carrière et leur performance dans leur organisation spécifique. La carrière de nos sujets est définie par leur volonté réelle et perçue ‘de vouloir s’impliquer dans le jeu’ ainsi que de four