The Consultancy Process — An Insecure Business?
研究了管理顾问与客户之间的互动，提出基于身份和控制需求的互惠模型，揭示管理者在抵制咨询中的主动角色及顾问面临的压力。
This paper examines the practices and perceptions of management consultants and their clients. The existing literature, which emphasizes managerial anxiety in accounting for the persistent use of consultants and, relatedly, the transience of management ideas is critically developed. It is argued that such accounts tend to be abstracted from the power relations of organizations and capitalism and to portray management as passive victims of confident consultants. An alternative interactive model is proposed, which is based on reciprocal and self‐defeating concerns of clients and consultants to secure a sense of identity and control. This is explored empirically, highlighting the hitherto neglected active role of managers in resisting consultancy and the pressures and anxieties experienced by consultants. The account selectively draws on secondary sources as well as interview, documentary and survey research of IT strategy consultants and clients in the UK financial services sector.