The client in management consultancy research: Mapping the territory

Sturdy, Andrew; Werr, Andreas; Buono, Anthony F.

doi:10.1016/j.scaman.2009.05.008

Cited by 47 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…We deliberately avoided monopolizing the role of designers of the new format, on the one hand by challenging the employees to clarify the reasoning behind their contributions, and on the other hand by helping them improve the quality of these contributions. We view consultancy as a collaborative and interactive process in which advisors and their clients are the co-producers of knowledge (see, for example, Sturdy et al, 2009 on new directions of consultancy research). During the first and fourth stage, however, we took a more detached approach.…”

Section: Research Process and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of consultant-researchers in the design and implementation process of a programme budget in a local government organization

Bogt

Helden

2011

Management Accounting Research

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Section: Research Process and Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of consultant-researchers in the design and implementation process of a programme budget in a local government organization

Bogt

Helden

2011

Management Accounting Research

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“…Their service is immaterial and produced together with the client (Sturdy and Wright, 2011). Consulting practices are thus characterized by constant negotiation over the purpose and meaning of the assignment at hand (Macdonald, 2006;Sturdy et al, 2009). The task of consultants is to deal with a variety of expectations, tensions and contradictions in the client organization, and this involves a great deal of rhetorical manouvering (Berglund and Werr, 2000;Sturdy, 2004;Whittle, 2006;Alvesson et al, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

And then there are none: on the exclusion of women in processes of executive search

Tienari

Meriläinen

Holgersson

et al. 2013

Gender in Mgmt: Int J

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Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to explore the ways in which gender is "done" in executive search. The authors uncover how the ideal candidate for top management is defined in and through search practices, and discuss how and why women are excluded in the process. Design/methodology/approach -The study is based on in-depth interviews with male and female Austrian, Finnish and Swedish executive search consultants. The authors study the ways in which consultants talk about their work, assignments, clients, and candidates, and discern from their talk descriptions of practices where male dominance in top management is reinforced. Findings -The ways in which gender is "done" and women are excluded from top management are similar across socio-cultural contexts. In different societal conditions and culturally laden forms, search consultants, candidates and clients engage in similar practices that produce a similar outcome. Core practices of executive search constrain consultants in their efforts to introduce female candidates to the process and to increase the number of women in top management.Research limitations/implications -The study is exploratory in that it paves the way for more refined understandings of the ways in which gender plays a role in professional services in general and in practices of executive search in particular. Practical implications -Unmasking how gender is woven into the executive search process may provide openings for "doing" gender differently, both for consultants and their clients. It may serve as a catalyst for change in widening the talent pool for top management. Originality/value -Research on gendered practices in executive search is extremely rare. The study provides new insights into this influential professional practice and its outcomes.

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“…One contribution of this paper is that it further elaborates on the active roles that clients play in the process of consulting knowledge production, which has been outlined in recent research (e.g., Alvesson et al, 2009;Sturdy et al, 2009a;Sturdy et al, 2009b). We argue that clients influence knowledge production within consulting teams on a number of levels:…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 78%

“…Because of the difficulties clients have in evaluating the quality of the delivered consulting service even ex post (Clark, 1995;Løwendahl, 1997), consultants and clients need to actively shape non involved clients' impressions of the developed problem solution in order to be seen as successful. Schein (1997) emphasizes that project teams are embedded in the client organization and interact continuously with members of the client organization who are not directly involved in the project (see also Sturdy et al, 2009a;Sturdy et al, 2009b). The indirect clients are often represented by a steering committee overseeing the consulting project, or in the case of strategically important and financially very significant projects, by an executive committee consisting of senior executive managers.…”

Section: The Team/client Organization Interactionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Knowledge production in consulting teams

Reihlen

Nikolova

2010

Scandinavian Journal of Management

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The central thesis of this paper is that the production of knowledge in consulting teams can neither be understood as the result of an internal interaction between clients and consultants decoupled from the wider socio-political environment nor as externally determined by socially constructed industry recipes or management fashions detached from the cognitive uniqueness of the client-consultant team. Instead, we argue that knowledge production in consulting teams is intrinsically linked to the institutional environment that not only provides resources such as funding, manpower, or legitimacy but also offers cognitive feedback through which knowledge production is influenced. By applying the theory of self-organization to the knowledge production in consulting teams, we explain how consulting teams are structured by the socio-cultural environment and are structuring this environment to continue their work. The consulting team's knowledge is shaped and influenced by cognitive feedback loops that involve external collective actors such as the client organization, practice groups of consulting firms, the academic/professional community, and the general public who essentially become co-producers of consulting knowledge.

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The client in management consultancy research: Mapping the territory

Cited by 47 publications

References 13 publications

The role of consultant-researchers in the design and implementation process of a programme budget in a local government organization

The role of consultant-researchers in the design and implementation process of a programme budget in a local government organization

And then there are none: on the exclusion of women in processes of executive search

Knowledge production in consulting teams

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