Risk, Opportunism, and Structural Holes

Headhunters find candidates for jobs. They are paid by their clients—employers—when the candidates they generate accept job offers. Headhunters, therefore, resemble other third-party agents or brokers whose fortunes rest on their ability to secure a match between their clients and other interested parties. In this analysis, we examine how headhunters manage the risks of being a broker in a highly competitive industry. They pursue two strategies: They attempt to develop close ties with clients, and they are willing to be opportunistic toward these clients. These strategies reflect their lack of power compared with that of clients, their belief that clients are disloyal, and the lack of embedded ties between clients and headhunters that could create a basis for enforceable trust.

[1]  R. Dore.  Goodwill and the Spirit of Market Capitalism , 1983 .

[2]  A. Portes,et al.  Embeddedness and Immigration: Notes on the Social Determinants of Economic Action , 1993, American Journal of Sociology.

[3]  B. Uzzi,et al.  The Sources and Consequences of Embeddedness for the Economic Performance of Organizations: The Network Effect , 1996 .

[4]  W. Baker.  Market Networks and Corporate Behavior , 1990, American Journal of Sociology.

[5]  Kenneth J. Cole.  The Headhunter Strategy: How to Make It Work for You , 1985 .

[6]  Richard C. Rowson.  : Getting into Print: The Decision-Making Process in Scholarly Publishing , 1986 .

[7]  R. Burt.  The contingent value of social capital. , 1997 .

[8]  R. Emerson.  Power-Dependence Relations , 1962, Power in Modern Societies.

[9]  James E. Coverdill,et al.  The Search Game: Organizational Conflicts and the Use of Headhunters , 1998 .

[10]  Michael J. Smitka,et al.  Competitive Ties: Subcontracting in the Japanese Automotive Industry. , 1992 .

[11]  Robert R. Faulkner,et al.  Hazards of the Market: The Continuity and Dissolution of Interorganizational Market Relationships , 1998 .

[12]  Robert G. Eccles,et al.  Doing Deals: Investment Banks at Work. , 1989 .

[13]  Daniel A. Levinthal,et al.  Role of Individual Attachments in the Dissolution of Interorganizational Relationships , 1992 .

[14]  W. Powell,et al.  Getting into print : the decision-making process in scholarly publishing , 1987 .

[15]  David Knoke,et al.  Organizations in America : analyzing their structures and human resource practices , 1997 .

[16]  B. Uzzi,et al.  Social Structure and Competition in Interfirm Networks: The Paradox of Embeddedness , 1997 .

[17]  Robert R. Faulkner,et al.  Music on Demand: Composers and Careers in the Hollywood Film Industry. , 1984 .

[18]  M. Johnson,et al.  The Human Marketplace: An Examination of Private Employment Agencies. , 1978 .

[19]  Andrea L. Larson.  Network Dyads in Entrepreneurial Settings: A Study of the Governance of Exchange Relationships , 1992 .

[20]  P. Hirsch.  Undoing the Managerial Revolution? Needed Research on the Decline of Middle Management and Internal Labor Markets , 1993 .

[21]  Daniel A. Levinthal,et al.  Duynamics of Interorganizational Attachments: Auditor-Client Relationships , 1988 .

[22]  Mark S. Granovetter.  Getting a Job: A Study of Contacts and Careers , 1974 .

[23]  G. Simmel.  The sociology of Georg Simmel , 1950 .

[24]  W. Powell,et al.  Getting into Print: The Decision-Making Process in Scholarly Publishing. , 1986 .

[25]  EMBEDDEDNESS AND IMMIGRATION: , The New Economic Sociology.

[26]  Steven B. Andrews,et al.  Structural Holes: The Social Structure of Competition , 1995, The SAGE Encyclopedia of Research Design.

[27]  C. Geertz.  The Bazaar Economy: Information and Search in Peasant Marketing , 1978 .