Consultancy's Consequences? A Critical Assessment of Management Consultancy's Impact on Management
Consultancy's Consequences? A Critical Assessment of Management Consultancy's Impact on Management
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DOI：
10.1111/j.1467-8551.2011.00750.x
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发表时间：
2011-09
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
Andrew Sturdy
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Andrew Sturdy
评论家和名人都对管理咨询提出了很多要求。通过塑造和合法化的想法和催化变化，它已经影响到管理实践和人们的生活更普遍。鉴于咨询行业的发展和更广泛的活动，很少有人质疑这些观点。然而，我们有充分的理由谨慎对待它们。特别是，它的影响在地理范围上被夸大了，并与一般的管理思想相混淆——咨询是管理的替罪羊。与此同时，最近管理和咨询的性质和地位的变化使传统的边界区分变得不那么站得住脚，因此咨询的范围和影响可能比通常认为的还要大。总的来说，它的影响被低估了，也被夸大了。因此，我主张采取一种更为谨慎和批判的方法。这承认咨询是管理的一个组成部分，其独特的作用更多地在于其结构位置和模糊的可见性和问责制，而不是其实践、技能或职业/专业身份主张。因此，研究议程成为一个更清楚地确定管理和咨询的后果的议程，部分是通过考虑它们在很大程度上不存在或过去不存在的背景。
Much is claimed of management consultancy by critics and celebrants alike. Through shaping and legitimizing ideas and catalysing change, it has impacted on management practice and people's lives more generally. Given the growth of consultancy as an industry and wider activity, few have challenged these views. However, there are good reasons for treating them with some caution. In particular, its impact is exaggerated in geographical scope and confused with that of management ideas in general – consultancy as a scapegoat for management. At the same time, recent changes in both the nature and status of management and of consultancy have rendered traditional boundary distinctions less tenable such that the scope and impact of consultancy may be even greater than is typically assumed. Overall, its impact has been both understated and overstated. I therefore argue for a more cautious and critical approach. This recognizes consultancy as an integral part of management, where its distinctive role lies more in its structural position and ambiguous visibility and accountability than its practices, skills or occupational/professional identity claims. The research agenda thus becomes one of more clearly identifying the consequences of management as well as of consultancy, in part through a consideration of contexts where they are, or were, largely absent.