Management Consultants Navigating Competing Systems of Engagement

Abstract

The aim of the research was to explore how management consultants experience and navigate between the competing demands of their client, consultancy, and personal systems of engagement. The internal, consultancy-facing role of the management consultant, which involves ongoing responsibilities for the day-to-day operation and success of their consultancy, sometimes alongside their client work, has not been researched sufficiently.The implication for the day-to-day experiences of management consultants, is that they must balance their participation between three, often competing social systems of their client, their consultancy, and their personal life. Their skills in managing transitions between these systems are worthy of study.

Belongingness on the go: Examining road warrior consultants’ experiences of belongingness with their firms

“…Our findings reveal how aspects of their work become instrumental in maintaining belongingness to their own firms. In this sense, our study joins others (e.g., Hartley et al., 2021) that take a more holistic approach towards understanding the nuance of consultants' work involving both their own firms and client firms.…”

“…While there has been enough attention on consultants' role vis‐a‐vis the client, there has been relatively less emphasis on understanding their consultancy‐facing role and studies on the topic remain fragmented (Hartley et al., 2019; Hartley et al., 2021). Consultants perform a variety of roles within their consulting firms such as bringing in new business, managing people and knowledge, and assuming leadership positions (Hartley et al., 2019).…”

Transforming small and medium‐sized enterprises to address the climate emergency: The case for values‐based engagement

“…These tensions reveal a liminality that characterises much of the lived experience of intermediaries, yet remains under-investigated in business and sustainability studies (Bailur, 2010). Consultants and advisors balance priorities between their own objectives, their clients', and in many cases the demands of public funders, adapting their values work for these different worlds (Hartley et al, 2021). Occupying these liminal spaces, we have shown that SME intermediaries often find themselves torn between helping businesses to 'fit-and-conform' or 'stretch-and-transform' (Kundurpi et al, 2021); and between maintaining or disrupting existing organisational arrangements (Sovacool et al, 2020).…”