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Journal of Purchasing & Supply Management 14 (2008) 55– 68
The changing role of procurement:
Developing professional effectiveness
Rana Tassabehji
, Andrew Moorhouse
1
University of Bradford School of Management, Emm Lane, Bradford BD9 4JL, UK
Received 2 August 2007; received in revised form 22 January 2008; accepted 24 January 2008
Abstract
The major objectives of this paper are to explore, from the perspective of 18 senior procurement professionals interviewed, the current
status of their role and identify the skills they need to develop, in order to effectively manage the changes they are experiencing. The
interviews revealed a schism in perception of the procurement role between professionals (strategic) and their organisations
(transactional). Although skills have a direct impact on the ability of procurement professionals to fulfil their role proficiently, the degree
of organisational support and internal acknowledgement of the role’s importance, were found to be a major barrier to the development
and progress of procurement professionals. A Procurement Skills Effectiveness Framework is presented to enable managers to assess the
likely sophistication level of procurement and its impact, given a set of procurement skills and the degree and type of internal support for
the role.
r2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Strategic procurement; Relationship management; Skills development; Training; Procurement effectiveness; Skills taxonomy
1. Introduction
The evolution of the procurement function is well
documented in the literature. There has been a recognised
shift away from the traditional administrative and trans-
actional role, towards one which involves strategic
partnerships, cooperative alliances and supply network
management (Carr and Smeltzer, 1997;Scheuing, 1997;
Ramsay, 1998;Lamming et al., 2000;Handfield and
Nichols, 2002;Knudsen, 2003). In the literature, procure-
ment is now deemed a core component of many organisa-
tions and considered to be of major strategic importance
(Humphreys, 2001;Paulraj et al., 2006). However, others
argue that the procurement role is still essentially a support
function and that as a tactical role, it performs essentially
low value adding activities (Kaufmann and Carter, 2004;
Cox et al., 2005). Indeed, Ramsay (2004) highlights the fact
that sometimes academic papers do not represent the
reality of the context in which the practitioners operate and
contradicts his previous findings about co-operative rela-
tions in supply chains, as being more fictional than factual.
It is with this in mind that this paper aims to answer the
following research questions related to procurement
professionals:
(1) How do procurement professionals perceive their role
within their organisations?
(2) How has their role changed and what challenges have
they had to face as a result?
(3) What portfolio of skills do they believe will enable them
to fulfil their role effectively?
The first part of the paper reviews different perspectives
on the changing role of procurement from the literature.
From this review, a new taxonomy for categorising
procurement skills in the current business climate is
introduced. The second part of the paper presents the
findings from 18 semi-structured interviews with senior
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1478-4092/$ - see front matter r2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.pursup.2008.01.005
Corresponding author. Tel.: +44 1274 233902; fax: +44 1274 546866.
E-mail addresses: r.tassabehji@bradford.ac.uk (R. Tassabehji),
amoorhouse@btinternet.com (A. Moorhouse).
1
Present address. Huthwaite International, Hoober House, Wentwork,
South Yorkshire S62 7SA, UK. Tel.: +44 1709 710081;
fax: +44 1709 710065.
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procurement professionals across a number of different
industry sectors. A Procurement Skills Effectiveness
Framework is developed, enabling managers to identify
the knowledge, skills and level of support required in order
for the role of procurement to optimise its effectiveness in
achieving organisational objectives.
2. Literature review
Over the past decade, there have been notable changes in
macro-economic trends influencing the business environ-
ment. Increased globalisation, technological advances in
internet based systems, accessibility to complex computa-
tional programmes, increased demands by upper manage-
ment, changing consumer patterns, a shift towards
outsourcing and a greater awareness of corporate social
responsibility have all been influential factors driving this
change (Giunipero et al., 2005, 2006;Zheng et al., 2007).
These changes undoubtedly impact the procurement
function, and there is a widely recognised need for a
developmental shift to keep in line with these changes. Van
Weele and Rietveld (1998) identify six stages through
which the procurement function must develop: from
transaction and commercial orientation, to internal and
external integration, to the final stage where purchasing
strategy is focused on delivering value. Lamming et al.
(2005) also identified an emerging need for change in the
1990s when business began to accept inter-organisational
relationships, which evolved into value adding collabora-
tive relationships. It is now widely acknowledged that
proactive value-focussed rather than passive cost-focussed
procurement strategies are a means of achieving competi-
tive advantage and integral to long-term organisational
strategy (Leseure et al., 2004;Mehra and Inman, 2004;
Noonan and Wallace, 2004).
This dynamic environment and the call for a develop-
mental shift, have led to challenges for the procurement
function within organisations, which are well documented
in the literature (Zheng et al., 2007). These challenges
include increased specialisation, a move from purchasing
functions to processes and from transaction to relationship
management, an increased awareness of and need to
manage the supply chain (Carr and Smeltzer, 1997;
Lamming et al., 2000;Handfield and Nichols, 2002;
Knudsen, 2003). Some of the changes made to the
procurement role, to better cope with such challenges and
maintain organisational competitiveness, include: expand-
ing core processes such as supplier coordination; supplier
development and market research; cost analysis; strategy
formulation and planning; risk management and interna-
tional outsourcing (Giunipero et al., 2005, 2006;Cousins
et al., 2006). In addition new technology, such as e-pro-
curement and ERP systems, means that much of the paper-
based routine tasks have been automated. This allows more
time for procurement professionals to focus on new forms
of supplier relationships, supply management, advanced
planning and value adding activities (Humphreys et al.,
1998;Humphreys, 2001;Croom and Johnston, 2003;
Giunipero et al., 2005).
These trends have facilitated the necessary transforma-
tion of the role from a tactical to a more strategic level
(Giunipero and Pearcy, 2000;Cousins et al., 2006). Paulraj
et al. (2006) acknowledge that different firms might be at
different stages of strategic evolution, but that for
organisations to evolve to the final stage of development,
strategic procurement, they need to optimise their perfor-
mance. Unless organisations and their structures change
with the times to accommodate strategic procurement they
will become dysfunctional (Scheuing, 1997) and the impact
procurement can have on their competitive position will
remain unrealised (Carter and Narasimhan, 1996;Cousins
et al., 2006;Giunipero et al., 2006). However, the evolution
of procurement to the status of a strategic and critical
function is not yet complete in the real world (Cox et al.,
2005). Indeed, Ramsay (2006) maintains that senior
management, influenced by the current anti-clerical bias
in the literature, fail to understand the contribution the role
is making at the administrative level. Although the specific
details might be contested, the implicit message is that since
the procurement professional now operates in a changing
and dynamic environment, there is a subsequent imperative
for procurement professionals to update their existing
skills if they are to contribute effectively to the financial,
operational and strategic success of their organisation
(Reck et al., 1992;van Weele and Rietveld, 1998;Henke,
2000;Giunipero and Pearcy, 2000;Giunipero et al., 2005).
2.1. The organisational impact of procurement skills
Empirical research is emerging to demonstrate the
impact of specific procurement skills on firm performance.
In a study of the impact of strategic purchasing on supply
integration and performance, Paulraj et al. (2006) found
that: (1) a more strategic purchasing function leads to
better supply integration; (2) executives must understand
the key role that purchasing can play in integrating
buyer–supplier dyads by focusing on ‘‘process, relational,
information, and cross-organisational teams’’; (3) strategic
purchasing can create a win–win situation for both buyer
and supplier firms which impacts positively on overall
supply chain performance.
Taking a resource-based view of the firm, Carr and
Smeltzer (2000) found a relationship between specific skills
and overall organisational performance. Technical skills in
particular were found to be a predictor of firm perfor-
mance, while skills techniques (a rather vague term which
incorporates skills that are not purely technical or
behavioural, such as project management, time manage-
ment and communication) predict a strategic purchasing
approach, and behaviour skills predict supplier responsive-
ness. Cousins et al. (2006) also demonstrated the impact
of skills on organisational performance. They found
that purchasers with high skill levels and knowledge
have a significant impact on financial performance and
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operational efficiency in terms of quality improvement,
design and reduction of lead times.
2.2. Changing development needs
While the degree of transition towards strategic procure-
ment might be disputed, it is clear that the skills and
competencies required by professionals in the past are
not the same as those required today. There is overall
consensus that skills are essential to the productivity and
competitiveness of organisations (Thurow, 1994;Borghans
et al., 2001;Briscoe et al., 2001;Keep and Mayhew, 2001).
Show me an unskilled individual, company or country
and I will show you a failure in the 21st century yIn
the economy ahead, there is only one source of
sustainable competitive advantage-skills. Everything
else is available to everyone on a more or less equal
access basis. (Thurow, 1994, p. 52)
There has been much research into the definition of
skills, where the concept of a skill is defined as ‘‘the ability
to carry out the tasks and duties of a job in a competent
manner’’ (Elias and McKnight, 2001, p. 511) and the ability
gained by practice or knowledge within the workplace
(Kolchin and Giunipero, 1993;Carr and Smeltzer, 2000).
Skills are seen to be multi dimensional and have been
categorised in several different ways that incorporate
educational qualifications, competence, work experience
and vocational training (Elias and McKnight, 2001).
Changes in the procurement function and the environment
in which it operates significantly affect the ideal skill set
required for the world-class procurement professional
(Giunipero and Pearcy, 2000). There is a need for
procurement personnel to update existing skills and
develop new perspectives and abilities if they are to
contribute effectively to the success of their organisations
(Henke, 2000;Giunipero et al., 2005, 2006;Cousins et al.,
2006). Van Weele and Rietveld (1998) have tracked the
changing skills needed at different stages in their procure-
ment evolution model, from the procurement specific to an
inclusion of broader business and management skills and
abilities.
Our review of the literature found that there is much
overlap in lists of skills compiled and used in empirical and
theoretical studies on the role and function of procurement
in organisations, over the past couple of decades. Here, we
have included the articles which have been highly cited in
studies focusing on this area of research. The studies
selected are empirical and include comprehensive lists
of procurement skills, grouped according to their generic
skill type, such as behavioural, strategic, etc. and are
summarised in Table 1. Despite the similarities, often the
same skills are grouped under different typologies and
given different nomenclatures, which can be somewhat
confusing. To simplify this, we have listed both the
individual skills and skill categories and have further
classified them according to whether they are procurement
specific or generic management skills. This summary forms
the basis of our literature consolidation and is the first
stage in the development of a new taxonomy of procure-
ment skills to deal with the challenges of the current
environment.
2.2.1. Consolidating procurement skills
The empirical findings of Kolchin and Giunipero (1993)
underpin a large number of procurement skills studies that
followed. Their main aim was to measure purchasing
education and training in US firms and to make predictions
for the future of procurement. Three of the skills groups
(management, interpersonal and individual), can be
broadly applied to other functions and organisational
settings and the technical skills group is mainly specific to
procurement.
Building on Kolchin and Giunipero (1993),Giunipero
and Pearcy (2000) progressed the research by gauging
perceptions of people that do the job rather than focusing
on recruitment selection criteria for the job which provides
a more accurate assessment of the skills required for world-
class purchasing professionals. This study introduced
strategic skills (not measured in Kolchin and Giunipero’s
(1993) study) into the procurement skills portfolio. To
demonstrate the development of the role into one with a
more strategic focus, skills such as managing change and
understanding business conditions, were found to have
increased in importance. The skill types focusing on generic
management, such as process management, team-building,
decision-making, behavioural, negotiation seem to be
growing in relation to procurement specific skills (strategic
and quantitative) reflecting the changes.
As a good comparison, Carr and Smeltzer (2000) collate
35 different procurement skills, believed essential to
enhance corporate competitiveness, directly from the
responses of 85 interviewees. This study was not based
on previous skills listings and was conducted in the
automotive sector, but still there is much overlap with
previous studies, despite skill categories having different
names. For instance, technical skills match Giunipero and
Pearcy’s (2000) quantitative and decision-making skills;
skills techniques map onto Giunipero and Pearcy’s
negotiation skills, process management, and team skills;
behaviour skills map onto Giunipero and Pearcy’s strategic
and behavioural skills. Of these, the technical skills in
particular relate most specifically to procurement. Despite
the similarities, the portfolio of requisite procurement skills
is incremented with the inclusion of skills related more to
the strategic approach.
Professional procurement skills listings, are sophisticated
further as Giunipero et al. (2005) argue the need for
flexibility in the procurement role, achieved by incorporat-
ing entrepreneurial qualities to their skill set. They
demonstrate that common characteristics already exist
between entrepreneurial and purchasing skills (18 out of 30
using Denslow and Giunipero’s (2003) more recent list),
and introduce new skills that can provide flexibility.
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Table 1
Summary of procurement skills in the literature
Source Categorisation of Procurement
Skills: 1, procurement specific; 2,
generic management
Individual skills
Kolchin and Giunipero
(1993) based on division of
18 skills
1. Technical Cost analysis, product knowledge, computer literacy, total quality
management and government legislation global sourcing development
2. Management Market analysis, negotiating with partners, managing internal and external
relationships, change management and planning and organisational skills,
risk taking, written and oral communication, conflict resolution, influence
and persuasion, group dynamics, leadership, problem solving and
international and cultural awareness
2. Interpersonal/group
2. Individual
Giunipero and Pearcy
(2000) based on a total of
29 skills including Kolchin
and Giunipero’s (1993)
skills
1. Strategic Strategic thinking, supply base research
Structuring supplier relationships, technology (planning), supplier cost
targeting, risk taking/entrepreneurship, salesmanship, computational,
technical, blueprint reading, specification development
1. Quantitative
2. Process management Market analysis, negotiating with partners, managing internal and external
relationships, change management and planning and organisational skills
Risk taking, written and oral communication, conflict resolution, influence
and persuasion, group dynamics, leadership, problem solving, and
international and cultural awareness
2. Team skills
2. Decision-making
2. Behavioural skills
2. Negotiation skills
Carr and Smeltzer (2000)
based on a total of 35 skills
1. Technical skills Drafting CAD/computer skills, maths skills, technical business writing,
blueprint reading, forecasting
Understanding: tool capability, manufacturing processes, MRP, materials,
inventory systems
2. Skills techniques Analytical, communication, presentation, co-ordination, negotiating (cost)
and issues, cost analysis, problem solving, quality management, programme
management, organisational (paperwork) time management
People skills (suppliers), internal customers and functions, detail orientation,
proactivity, ability to follow up, flexibility, stress management, team working,
patience, multi-tasking
2. Behaviour skills
Giunipero et al. (2005) Skills to achieve flexibility:
Risk management
Interpersonal communication
Influencing and persuasion
Planning
Decision-making
Internal motivation
Creativity
Cousins et al. (2006) These procurement skills are a subset of the study:
2. Supplier/product market monitoring and interpretation
2. Technical skills to improve products and processes
1. Cost analysis to improve total costs with suppliers
1. Behavioural skills such as perseverance, imagination decisiveness and interpersonal skills
Giunipero et al. (2006) Skills to achieve strategic purchasing:
2. Team-building: leadership, decision-making, influencing; compromising
2. Cross-functional strategic planning: project scoping, goal-setting, execution
2. Communication: presentation, oral, listening, writing
1. Technical skill: web-based research, sourcing analysis
2. Broad financial: cost accounting, business case building
Large and Gimenez (2006) 2. Oral communication Based on ability to:
Pass on information
Persuade
Listen and understand
Oral capability
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Giunipero et al. (2006) emphasise the emergence of the
strategic procurement role and required skills, further
suggesting that the role might even be divided into
the strategic and tactical. The differentiation between
the strategic role focusing on building relationships and
lowering total costs and the tactical role dealing with day-
to-day activities, can be easily categorised into procure-
ment specific and management generic skills as applied in
Table 1. In a similar vein, Cousins et al.’s (2006)
recommendation for a set of procurement skills and
competencies to deal with an intensely competitive
environment, seems to focus mainly on developing generic
management skills and improving procurement specific
skills such as supplier coordination and research, sourcing
strategies, and sophisticated costs analysis. They do
however highlight the importance of procurement skills
and knowledge by demonstrating its impact on organisa-
tional performance, both financial and operational.
Here, Large and Gimenez’s (2006) study is included to
illustrate the application of generic skills to procurement.
They show the importance of oral and written commu-
nication for the procurement role and its impact on
improved efficiency and performance. Their study found
that the largest cluster of purchasing managers were poor
communicators who possessed a good oral communica-
tion capability but poor ability to listen and under-
stand, pass on information and persuade. This is one area
that demonstrably needs to be addressed and is thus
included.
3. Introducing a new taxonomy of procurement skills
From the review of the literature on development of
procurement skills, there is an obvious need to consolidate
the different taxonomies and nomenclatures into a single
consistent and coherent set of categories. Here, we present
a new taxonomy that classifies procurement skills into five
groupings that more accurately mirror the requirements of
modern day procurement professionals. Definitions of
these groupings are:
(1) Technical skills (TS): These are fundamental and basic
administrative skills necessary for any procurement
professional in the 21st century. They include product
knowledge, computer literacy, total quality manage-
ment and government legislation. As part of technical
skills, we include advanced procurement process skills
(APP) such as category management, global sourcing
development, detailed cost driver analysis necessitating
advanced analytical capabilities essential to create
value. We include the need to utilise and manage e-
procurement technology and processes effectively; and
optimise supplier selection to ensure that they capitalise
on the opportunities e-procurement avails (Croom,
2005;Ogden et al., 2005;Tassabehji et al., 2006). It is
acknowledged in the literature (Carr and Smeltzer,
2000;Cousins et al., 2006;Giunipero et al., 2006) that
these basic procurement skills are the foundations for
building more strategic skills.
(2) Interpersonal skills (IS): Necessary for interaction with
people in teams and on an individual level including
written and oral communication, conflict resolution,
influencing and persuasion, group dynamics, leader-
ship, problem solving and interpersonal and cultural
awareness. These skills are required at every level for
effective procurement management.
(3) Internal enterprise skills (IE): These skills relate to the
overall business and how the different functions
interaction. IE skills will enable procurement profes-
sionals for example, to effectively conduct market
analysis, manage internal relationships, global sourcing
evaluation, internal change management and planning
and organisational skills.
(4) External enterprise skills (EE): These skills relate to the
supply chain/network and its stakeholders. These skills
will enable for example, the management of external
relationships, and stakeholder change management.
(5) Strategic business skills (SB): These skills relate to
broader strategic issues and how procurement can
impact on overall organisational value such as planning
and managing strategic partnerships and alliances, risk
management and adding value to the organisation.
The literature review highlighted the changing skills
requirements of the procurement professional, with an
increasing emphasis on skills that can be seen as more
generic and management oriented, applied in a procure-
ment context. This trend can be observed from Table 1,as
over a third of the skills listed in 1993 are procurement
specific, but the proportion of procurement:generic man-
agement skills has diminished over time as business
environments become more dynamic requiring different
skills. Applying the new taxonomy, Fig. 1 demonstrates
this differentiation. Procurement specific skills are a core
requirement for the procurement professional, surrounded
by a whole range of generic managerial skills specifically
honed for procurement, but applicable to other organisa-
tional functions.
4. Methodology
The main aims of this exploratory research were
threefold: (a) to determine procurement professionals’
perception of their role; (b) to identify how their role had
changed and the challenges they have had to face; (c) to
compile a portfolio of requisite skills to enable them to
fulfil their role effectively. In order to fulfil these aims, an
exploratory study was conducted by in-depth interviews
with procurement professionals to obtain details of
experiences, attitudes, needs and ideas relevant to their
organisation and position (Wright, 1996;Rubin and
Rubin, 2004). A less directive and semi-structured
approach was adopted to provide a richness of informa-
tion, which has previously been shown to be more effective
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when eliciting information from senior professionals
(Wright, 1996).
Purposive sampling was adopted to ensure that the views
of a specific profession were elicited about issues related to
their role (Saunders et al., 2003). Procurement Trade
Associations were contacted to forward invitations for
interviews to a random selection of their member database.
However, they were unable to co-operate due to prior
research commitments. A University post experience MBA
alumni database was then accessed for initial introductions
to procurement professionals, and in combination with a
snowball sampling strategy (Atkinson and Flint, 2001), a
total of 22 procurement professionals at senior manage-
ment or director level agreed to be interviewed after a
guarantee of anonymity and a copy of the research
findings. This pool of participants all worked for large
organisations from a range of multinational corporations
and industries, with candidates representing insurance,
financial services, professional services, local authorities,
FMCG, public health service, telecommunications, global
chemicals, aerospace and industrial manufacturing mostly
from the UK and Ireland, but some also represented
organisations in Europe, Africa and the Middle East and
the Pacific Rim (Table 2).
There are limitations by using this sampling strategy—
for instance, lack of generalisability and possible sample
bias. Notwithstanding these limitations, some extremely
valid trends and data can still be achieved for an
exploratory approach, by adopting this type of non-
random sampling (Remenyi et al., 1998) as participants
were readily available to contribute to the study (Robson,
2002).
Four pilot interviews were conducted to scope the
questions being asked followed by semi-structured depth
interviews with the remaining 18 respondents summarised
in Table 2. The semi-structured questions derived from the
literature review and this initial screening process is
included in Appendix. Eight interviews were conducted
over the telephone, while the remainder were face-to-face.
Studies examining the differences between these two media,
have either found no difference in the quality of responses
(Janofsky, 1971), or that these differences were mainly
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Strategic
Business
Skills
(SB)
External
Enterprise
Skills
(EE)
Internal
Enterprise
Skills
(IE)
Interpersonal
Skills
(IS)
Technical
Skills
(TS)
Advanced
Procurement
Process Skills
(APP)
Procurement
Specific Skills Managerial
Skills
Procurement
Function Other Organisational
Functions
Fig. 1. New categorisation of skill types required for procurement.
Table 2
Research participants
Sector Interviewees
Insurance Head of Procurement
Senior Purchasing Consultant
Financial Services Head of Procurement
Head of Procurement Performance
Improvement
Procurement Director
Professional Services Procurement Consultant
Government Department Procurement Manager (x2)
Fast Moving Consumer Goods
(FMCG)
Sector Head (retailing)
Network Manager (manufacturing)
Senior Procurement Manager
(manufacturing)
Public Health Service Senior Procurement Management
Telecommunications Head of Procurement
Global Chemicals Purchasing Manager
Aerospace Purchasing Manager
Manufacturing Procurement Director (Eastern Europe)
Procurement Director (UK)
Consumer Electronics Purchasing Manager
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related to disenfranchised and socially vulnerable people
and response rates (Holbrook et al., 2003), none of which
are relevant in this case. To further mitigate any potential
differences, the telephone interviews were pre-arranged and
the subjects were aware of the topic to be discussed (but
not the questions). The interviewer was aware of the
potential issue of time pressure over the telephone leading
to respondent satisficing impacting on quality of responses
(Holbrook et al., 2003), and ensured plenty of time was
taken in posing questions and eliciting answers. In a review
of the responses, there was no discernable difference in
information quality or length of the interviews. The
interviews were recorded digitally with permission being
granted by all interviewees and full transcripts then made.
Notes were also taken during the interview. These sources
of data were analysed and major themes identified. Further
analysis sought to locate these themes within the text.
Meaning was then extracted from the text according to the
thematic coding in an iterative process (Saunders et al.,
2003). The resulting themes that emerged from this primary
data are presented in Section 5.
5. Findings
Having reviewed both the transcripts, audio recordings
and notes, the semi-structured interviews provided a wealth
and depth of information addressing the research questions
posed in this study. The participants expressed wide-
ranging views and salient quotations are used to illustrate
major themes that arose.
5.1. The perception of procurement in organisations
The interviewees expressed wide-ranging views on how
the procurement function is positioned and perceived
within their organisation. Some felt that procurement in
their organisations was still perceived as an administrative
function, which they were largely unhappy with:
The professional specialist dictates the specification,
which is passed on so procurement can buy. We can
only deal on price and are low down the priority line.
The salary for procurement indicates how unimportant
the role is.
(Senior Procurement Manager, Public Health Services)
We still feel we are viewed as the Procurement Police.
We negotiate contracts and are a major cost reducer but
are often simply viewed as a process that has to be
followed and perceived as intransigent and delay
causers. We certainly are not engaged at different stages
of purchasing decisions.
(Procurement Manager, Local Authority)
The organisation views procurement as an inconvenient
and possibly unnecessary step in the process of securing
the goods or services required.
(Head of Procurement, Financial Services)
Others acknowledged that the procurement function was
perceived to be strategic, adding value to the organisation.
However, even those deemed to have strategic roles with a
mandate to add value, still struggle to communicate the
value of their role throughout their organisation. In the one
instance where the role was reported to be held in high
regard within the organisation and seen as an integral and
core component, the procurement profession was repre-
sented at an executive board level (i.e. CPO):
Procurement’s remit is not to get a 10% discount year
on year, but to work towards a strategic/partnership
model where the price may be 5% more expensive but
you use yresources for competitive advantage. Our job
is all about added value. However, we are struggling
with the [businesses] misconception of our job. Some
stakeholders feel that we are there just to get the lowest
price. They come to us having just done a deal and state
‘‘will you now do the contract’’ our answer is no.
(Head of Procurement, UK Insurance Services)
Whilst procurement is now being seen as strategic by
our company, it is still an uphill battle to ensure early
involvement. It is this early involvement that will reduce
the risk to the business of inadequate contracts and
satisfy the shareholders by benefiting the bottom line.
(Procurement Manager, European Electronics Manu-
facturer)
It is the core of the business, as senior management are
from procurement. Effectively the most strategic part of
the organisation. If you can lower cost of procurement
the profit is incredible.
(Group Procurement Manager, FMCG Manufacturer)
The procurement professionals unanimously agreed that
what they did was strategic and did add value to the
organisation. On the whole, they were dissatisfied with the
way in which the rest of the organisation perceived their
role and their lack of involvement. The majority raised the
issue that the role demands internal recognition for it to
contribute to the organisation’s performance. Involvement
upstream via cross-functional teams appears, from respon-
dents, to be the most effective way to get involvement at
the initiation of ideas.
Not being used as an expert in commercial matters is
frustrating and costs more in terms of money and risk
because our role is not only to save money but mitigate
risk yIf we are involved at the start ygetting all the
departments working with you ythen there is a better
chance of getting a better deal and on time delivery.
(Head of Procurement, Telecommunications)
Interestingly, some felt that the way procurement
performance is monitored and measured (for instance,
through inclusion in KPIs) within organisations, seems to
have an effect on how the function is perceived. If tangible
targets are not achieved, then the professionals are
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considered to have failed impacting negatively on percep-
tions of their role them in the future:
We have targets to achieve and when there are tangible
results this is a good resource, but when it can’t be done,
then we lose favour and are challenged by internal
customers.
(Purchasing Manager, Aerospace)
5.2. The changing procurement role
On the whole respondents felt that change was occur-
ring, but that this was incremental rather than drastic and
seems to have been absorbed with very little impact on
them.
Changes aren’t drastic because our organisation is like
an oil tanker turning so you don’t feel the changes for a
long time.
(Senior Procurement Manager, Public Health Services)
The role is changing but the core values remain constant
whatever you are doing.
(Purchasing Manager, Global Pharmaceuticals)
The role hasn’t changed much ythe basics never
change. We are trying to get the best deal in terms of
value for money but not the cheapest deal.
(Purchasing Manager, Aerospace)
5.3. Challenges and issues created by the change
All respondents identified technology as one of the major
changes impacting their role. None, however, mentioned
technology or other technical issues as being problematic
or challenging. Here, change was seen to be related to new
ways of doing things and introduction of more and more
new techniques.
We are moving further way from previous techniques.
The old purchasing systems are redundant with infor-
mation of MRP.
(Purchasing Manager, Aerospace)
Technology does change your initial approach and now
there is more meaningful data mining and collection.
(Procurement Director, Financial Services)
Most procurement professionals interviewed appear to
manage the implementation of e-procurement. They found
an improvement in negotiation time and relationships with
suppliers through the use of e-procurement applications,
such as e-auctions. However, many felt there was a need for
in-depth cost driver analysis of different e-procurement
applications to ensure that the right decisions were being
made in this new environment.
Negotiation was a skill which all procurement profes-
sionals were confident with and none identified any
problems or challenges related to this. No macro-environ-
mental issues were identified as being real challenges or
problems for procurement professionals. Some practi-
tioners highlighted issues relating to the lack of formal
supplier assessment tools; others identified training their
administrative staff to apply commercially sound business
decisions was a challenge. All except one practitioner
mentioned internal political struggles and a lack of power
to impact the organisation internally, as real issues. The
major challenges faced by the majority of procurement
professionals in their role can be grouped into four main
inter-related categories:
(1) Being acknowledged internally: Many practitioners
highlighted the difficulties of being acknowledged by
the heads of other departments or sectors and being
involved in investment decisions.
We struggle with the concept of advising the senior
directors (budget holders) on where to direct their
funds. Nobody likes to be questioned or challenged
by procurement.
(Head of Procurement, Telecommunications)
People see spend is power—so we find it difficult to
get them to relinquish control.
(Senior Purchasing Consultant, Insurance)
(2) Early involvement in the decision process: An over-
whelming majority complained that they were not
brought in early enough in the buying process to add
any real value. One practitioner demonstrated the low
strategic importance of procurement in their organisa-
tion when they were brought in to negotiation with a
supplier after the invoice had been received.
We need to get in right at the start. We need to get
procurement to the table and do things collabora-
tively—they (the business) should acknowledge that
procurement specialists can bring advice and some-
thing to the table.
(Purchasing Manager, Manufacturing)
(3) Getting internal ‘Buy In’to procurement strategy: Many
practitioners expressed difficulties getting their strategy
accepted by the rest of the company:
The challenge is to get other staff to buy in to our
strategy. The battle is getting in early enough to
make an impact to influence yalignment.
(Procurement Director, Financial Services)
The challenge is to get the business to engage with
your initiatives. There is no culture of ‘‘let the
specialist do their bit’’—we are not empowered or
being used as source of expertise. This ultimately
costs more with more risk. If we are allowed (to do
our bit), then we would save money and mitigate
risk.
(Procurement Manager, Local Authority)
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(4) Cultural barriers and resistance to change: Even those
considered to be in a strategic role face challenges to
impose change on an intransigent corporation, both
within their own teams and those of other departments.
The walls of silos are huge obstacles and internal
communications are a big problem resulting in no
agreement on strategy.
(Procurement Director, Manufacturing)
We have Ivory Tower Syndrome ywe are devolved
from the coal face. yTop level consultants hate us
because they are of the opinion that they are the
decision makers.
(Senior Procurement Manager, Public Health Ser-
vices)
Many respondents highlighted how they are struggling
with less commercially minded people with a closed
mindset of, ‘‘I know the market better than you,there is
no need for change.’’ Some spoke of their struggle to get
board level support for culture change. One individual
explained how their firm hired a large number of very
expensive commercially minded purchasing professionals
who struggled with the culture and subsequently all left the
organisation.
Overall, the major challenges faced by our professionals
were less focused on macro-economic factors and over-
whelmingly to do with internal role recognition and
politics.
5.4. Skills development for procurement professionals
Most procurement professionals felt they were strong on
‘‘bog standard’’ negotiation skills but an overarching trend
was to develop internal selling skills so they can commu-
nicate the value they can bring. Other skills mentioned
were:
(1) ‘‘A core value is influencing skills to get buy in
internally or there is zero adoption of strategy.’’
(2) ‘‘Stakeholder management and people management
skills to communicate and sell benefits of what you do,
to have joint synergy within the firm and create buy in
from different organisation departments.’’
(3) ‘‘Stakeholder mapping: How does the organisation feel
about procurement? Who should be included in
decisions and ensure contact is taken with relevant
stakeholders to find out early enough when things are
happening? Procurement must be proactive and not
wait for people to come to them for help.’’
(4) Cost driver analysis: This featured heavily in develop-
ment discussions especially from the large financial and
insurance firms, without this analytical skill they feel
that have ‘‘zero leverage’’, as ‘‘only procurement know
what levers to pull’’ and that the organisation should
use procurement expertise to analyse market drivers
and estimate the supplier’s cost drivers.
Some practitioners, especially in the financial services
sector, believe that the best way to develop procurement
skills within the organisation is to hire new people with a
‘‘Best of Breed influx of talent’’ and have common
frameworks of tools and processes for measuring their
performance. For one practitioner, their organisation:
ymaintain[s] greatness and standards by recruiting the
best people; high performing teams with a nucleus of
great people with performance metrics to hold them
accountable.
Some firms have adopted training programmes accre-
dited by prestigious Ivy League business schools or
specialist ‘‘world class’’ operations consulting firms.
The potential development areas for procurement
professionals, mentioned by many respondents are sum-
marised in Table 3 and grouped according to our new skills
taxonomy. We have included a comparison with the skills
identified earlier in the literature, to demonstrate the
overlap and clarify differences in skills nomenclature. We
also summarise the implications and impact of the groups
of skills for procurement professionals derived from the
interviews.
6. Discussion
In this section, we summarise the findings in response to
the study’s research questions.
6.1. How do leading procurement professionals perceive
their role within their organisations?
Overall, procurement professionals identified a schism
between their perception of their role within their
organisation, and the organisation’s perception of their
role. While the professionals unanimously agreed that their
role was strategic and added value, the organisations often
did not hold this view. It was widely acknowledged that
there seems to be an internal politico-cultural glass ceiling
preventing procurement professionals from being involved
in organisation-wide business strategic decision-making.
The main reasons are: (1) a lack of internal recognition of
the full impact a capable and skilled procurement profes-
sional can have on organisation-wide performance, and (2)
a lack of internal support for the role. It appears that even
when procurement professionals have acquired a highly
developed set of skills, their organisational status remained
fairly low. This leads to a deep sense of frustration and
ultimately disempowerment. If they are unable to demon-
strate their capabilities, then they will not be able to change
organisational perceptions. The only way of breaking
through this glass ceiling, according to the respondents,
was demonstrated when procurement professionals had a
champion and were represented at board level.
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6.2. How has the role of procurement professionals changed
and what challenges have they had to face as a result?
All the respondents in our interviews agreed that the
procurement role was now very much more strategic than
operational. They implicitly recognised that their role
involved internal and external stakeholder interactions and
managing supply chain relationships rather than transac-
tion management, with a focus on processes rather than
functions. Technology was widely recognised as one of the
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Table 3
Development of requisite professional procurement skills
Competency required Skill reference Implication/impact
Technical skills (TS)
TS Technical knowledge: computing skills, tool capacity,
mathematical skills, blueprint reading, forecasting, e-
procurement applications
Technical skills (Kolchin and
Giunipero, 1993)
Quantitiative, decision-making,
negotiation skills (Giunipero and
Pearcy, 2000)
Technical skills and skills techniques
(Carr and Smeltzer, 2000)
Technical skills (Cousins et al., 2006)
Technical, broad financial
(Giunipero et al., 2006)
Using new technology for effective
procurement decision-making
TS Basic administrative skills such as TQM, legislation, cost
analysis, product knowledge and negotiation, production
systems and processes
Undertaking negotiations and
discussions
TS Advanced procurement process skills (APP), e.g. category
management, global sourcing development, cost driver
analysis and strategic sourcing; project planning, project
management, technical writing, e-procurement, cost driver
analysis
Essential skills for creating value,
improved value focussed and
strategic decision-making
Interpersonal skills (IS)
IS Oral communication, listening, understanding, passing on
information, persuading and influencing
Interpersonal, individual and
management skills (Kolchin and
Giunipero, 1993)
Behavioural, team, process
management skills (Giunipero and
Pearcy, 2000;Giunipero et al. 2005)
Behavioural skills (Cousins et al.,
2006)
Technical skills and skills techniques
(Carr and Smeltzer, 2000)
Oral communication (Large and
Gimenez, 2006)
Effective two-way communication
IS Recognise own strengths: creative thinking, analytical skills Effective personal development,
awareness and managementInvestigation, research, problem-solving, stress management,
time management
IS Leadership: conflict management, decision-making,
organisation, team-building, cross-cultural awareness
Building and managing cross-
functional teams and relationships
Internal enterprise skills (IE)
IE Organisation wide financial skills Cost analysis skills (Cousins et al.,
2006)
Management, team skills (Giunipero
and Pearcy, 2000;Giunipero et al.,
2006)
Higher level business decision-
making
IE Change management skills and cultural awareness Managing internal politics and
barriers
IE Manage internal customers, sales interface, internal
motivation
Resolving internal issues
IE Communicate and sell message/strategy internally Get ‘Buy In’ from different
departments/groups
Relationship influencing skills
External enterprise skills (EE)
EE Work in cross-functional team Cross-functional, team-building
(Lamming et al., 2005)
Strategic skills (Giunipero and
Pearcy, 2000)
Supplier/product monitoring
(Cousins et al., 2006)
Early involvement in purchasing
decisions
EE Supplier relationship management skills, supply chain
management
Collaborating with value-adding
suppliers
EE Stakeholder mapping proficiency, supplier evaluation,
international buying
Effective supplier selection and
stakeholder involvement and
management
Strategic business skills (SB)
SB Demonstrate ability to add value throughout the
organisation
Management (Kolchin and
Giunipero, 1993)
Strategic skills (Giunipero and
Pearcy, 2000)
Strategic planning (Giunipero et al.,
2006;Lamming et al., 2005)
Flexibility (Giunipero et al., 2005)
Recognition of the value of
procurement
SB Manage strategic alliances/partnerships Takes role to the strategic level of
procurementBusiness skills and risk management
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major changes to the role, but there were no challenges or
problems related to this. On the contrary, it was felt to
release time for the professionals to focus on more value
adding tasks. In line with the findings of Lamming et al.
(2005), procurement professionals are aware of the need to
interact with other functional managers to develop
coherent and integrated strategies, but in practice this
seems to be difficult to do, largely because of the cultural
and political barriers that exist in organisations.
6.3. What portfolio of skills do procurement professionals
believe will enable them to fulfil their role effectively?
All the respondents identified an awareness for change
and further skills development. For example, more evalua-
tion tools to improve the effectiveness of the role, advanced
negotiation skills, change management, and sound business
decision-making skills. Some believed this could be achieved
by investing in training whilst others, notably the financial
firms, preferred to buy in the ‘best of breed’ talent.
Concerns about intra-organisation political challenges,
were prominent in identifying skills requirements for the
procurement role. Internal selling abilities were overwhel-
mingly felt to be the most important skill to increase the
effectiveness of the procurement role. Although procurement
professionals are perfectly aware of these needs, already
identified in the literature (Giunipero and Pearcy, 2000;
Vammen, 2005), it seems that these have not had the impact
expected, as it was proving nigh impossible for procurement
initiatives on wider business strategies, to be accepted.
7. The procurement skills effectiveness matrix
The findings from this study suggest that today’s
procurement professional must be a dynamic relationship
manager creating and developing cross-functional strate-
gies and must possess internal selling, change management,
supplier relationship and partnership management skills.
Empirical research has demonstrated (Cousins et al., 2006),
and this study confirms, that internal status and role
integration act as important precursors to achieving
strategic procurement. The role of procurement can only
achieve high status levels within the organisation, by
acquiring strong management support which impacts the
organisation’s attitude and consequent allocation of
resources. By the same token, unless procurement profes-
sionals have a highly developed skill set, they will be unable
to achieve high status levels irrespective of organisational
support. Without either of these two major factors, the
procurement role will have limited actual or perceived
effectiveness on organisational performance.
The extent of effectiveness of the mix of procurement skills
is illustrated in the matrix presented in Fig. 2. Before procure-
ment can be elevated to strategic, the professional first needs
to posses a strong set of these underlying skills and compe-
tencies (Carr and Smeltzer, 2000;Cousins et al., 2006). While
skills related to processes and technology (i.e. technical and
internal enterprise) are important, by themselves they are not
enough to improve a company’s procurement performance
(Reinecke et al., 2007). The list of skills on the horizontal axis
of the matrix, is based on the classification in Fig. 1,whichis
largely cumulative where one builds on the core procurement
skills, to reach the ultimate level of skills to be able to operate
strategically. In order to optimise the role of procurement to
achieve added value and competitive advantage for the
organisation (top right square of the matrix), the procurement
professional must develop technical (including advanced
procurement process skills), interpersonal, internal and
external enterprise and strategic business skills coupled with
a high degree of support and internal recognition.
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Fig. 2. Procurement effectiveness matrix.
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Skilled but disempowered procurement professionals are
unable to become truly strategic without board level
support. Conversely, a board level ‘strategic’ mandate does
not ensure that the firm acknowledges the value of
procurement if the procurement professionals cannot
demonstrate their value internally and have the appro-
priate skills to become strategic. To demonstrate a level of
validity of this framework, we can apply Cousins et al.’s
(2006) empirically derived categories of purchasing man-
agers to our procurement skills effectiveness matrix. This
reveals a consistent message in terms of the organisational
impact of procurement skills sets. Cousins et al.’s (2006)
‘‘strategic purchaser’’ contributes most to firm perfor-
mance and in our matrix has the full gamut of required
skills and internal recognition and support. The ‘‘celebrity
purchaser’’ contributes the least, because of the lack of
skills despite organisational support. The ‘‘capable pur-
chaser’’ has a range of skills, but lacks organisational
support with limited effectiveness and the ‘‘underdeveloped
purchaser’’ requires skills and organisational support to be
more effective.
8. Conclusions
This exploratory study has shown that senior procurement
professionals believe that their role is now strategic. However,
even today, one of the main problems remains that this
strategic role is not acknowledged internally and there are
political and organisational-culture barriers to achieving this
recognition, which is impacting procurement effectiveness.
Our procurement skills effectiveness matrix demonstrates the
impact these barriers can have on the efficacy of the role of
the procurement professional given a portfolio of certain
skills. The skills listed here are based on a consolidation of
past literature and responses collated from participants in this
study. They form the basis of a new procurement skills
taxonomy relevant for the current environment.
In order to be effective, not all procurement profes-
sionals will necessarily be operating on the same level, and
thus will not require all the skills highlighted in the matrix.
Organisations, however, need to ensure that they have all
the skills identified in this study and incorporated into the
procurement skills taxonomy and matrix, within their
procurement team to ensure that they can attain the degree
of effectiveness they require. Whether this will lead to the
role of procurement professionals evolving into a more
multi-disciplinary supply network management role, or be
divided into strategic and tactical with different procure-
ment professionals adopting different roles (Giunipero
et al., 2006), is still unclear. This is one area for future
observation and research.
One of the major limitations of this study is that it is
based on the perceptions of a small sample of procurement
professionals from mainly large corporations. Future
research can build on these findings by examining the
perception of the role of procurement in organisations
from different functional perspectives, such as operations,
supply chain management, finance, marketing and strategy
and different sizes of organisation. Murray (2003) criticises
the procurement literature as being too focused on the
private sector so further investigation of differences in
perception of procurement and its impact on performance
in the public sector may also be relevant.
The issue of cross-functional working was raised as being
important, thus further work can include documenting the
extent of cross-departmental working in organisations, the
practitioners’ skill level and quantifying this effect on the
actual performance of the firm. With a more comprehen-
sive and statistically robust study, these findings could be
used to explore the interaction of other variables on
acceptance of a strategic position and the performance of a
firm in future work.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge the constructive
and detailed feedback of both the anonymous reviewers
and the kind diligence and support of the guest editor. This
feedback has led to a much improved paper.
Appendix. Semi-structured Interview Template
Demographic information:
Company sector/industry
Annual turnover (if public)
Numbers of staff
(a) Perception of procurement in the organisation
1. How do you think you are seen by your organisa-
tion?
2. How do you see your role in your organisation?
(b) Involvement in the overall sales/purchase process
3. To what extent are you involved in decision-making
before the negotiation?
4. What prevents early involvement?
5. To what extent are you involved in post implemen-
tation negotiation?
(c) Changes to the role and challenges faced
6. Do you feel your role is changing? (probe for
strategic purchasing) How and why?
7. What challenges do you face?
8. What is currently disrupting the way you would like
to work?
(d) Procurement technology
9. What is the impact of technology on your role?
10. Do you currently engage in e-procurement?
11. Has e-procurement changed your role? (How?)
(e) Portfolio of skills
12. What skills do you think are required by procure-
ment professionals today?
13. Is the level of training sufficient to cope with
changing role of job?
14. Is there anything you feel that is important that you
would like to add?
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