The Best and the Brightest: The Construction, Significance and Effects of Elite Identities in Consulting Firms
研究了英国和瑞典四家咨询公司中精英身份的构建机制及其影响，发现精英身份能促进自我纪律、吸引和留住顾问、维护客户形象，并帮助顾问在高不确定性和怀疑的工作环境中有效运作。
The aim of this paper is to investigate the forms, significance and effects of elite identity constructions in four consulting firms based in the UK and Sweden. The paper examines a range of strategic and symbolic mechanisms that were used by the senior members and other actors of these firms to construct an elite organizational identity. In terms of general effects, an elite social identity was found to generate a ‘neoliberal’ form of governance in all of the cases such that consultants could be trusted to act and behave in the interests of the firm. We argue that elite constructions facilitated: (i) the promotion of self-discipline which sustained a want to accomplish high standards of performance; (ii) the attraction and retention of consultants; (iii) the securing of an image that clients were prepared to engage with; and (iv) a degree of ‘ontological security’—a relatively secure sense of self—which enabled consultants to function effectively in high-ambiguity and somewhat sceptical (with respect to clients) work contexts. In the contexts discussed here, consultants not only managed themselves, but they also intensified the commitment to live an organizational life that demanded high standards and often very long working days.