Legitimation of consultancy in different institutional contexts: A comparative analysis in business, administration and science

由于知识和知识工作日益增长的社会经济相关性，管理咨询不仅在商业部门，而且在公共管理和属于科学领域的组织中已经成为一种广泛存在的现象。然而，在这些领域中，合法化的形式和程度各不相同。迄今为止，对管理咨询的研究主要集中在通过咨询授予的合法性上。例如，外部咨询主要被分析为组织的合法资源。很少有人关注管理咨询的合法性，即咨询本身合法化的条件。有了这个重点，我们的研究项目旨在从理论上和经验上与顾问的合法性达成协议。我们特别关注不同社会层面的合法化过程，以及这些过程在顾问作为合法社会行动者的构成中的相互作用。哪些过程可以在互动的微观层面和组织的中观层面进行分析，它们与参与者的构成是如何相互关联的？这些在项目和组织层面的合法化过程如何涉及商业、行政和学术界不同制度逻辑的宏观层面？此外，就咨询公司的类型而言，合法化的过程有何不同？这些问题将在定性研究设计中得到解决，在咨询发生的三种不同机构背景中，每种情况下都有两个案例研究。在很大程度上，组织分析的理论基础来自于新制度主义。在此基础上，我们对管理咨询的正当性进行了首次科学的比较研究，同时考虑了不同咨询背景下的制度逻辑。这项研究很重要，原因有很多。首先，管理咨询的研究将受益于我们的项目，因为我们开发了一个理论模型，其中分析了微观，中观和宏观层面之间的多层合法化过程。此外，在不同的部门，其中管理咨询发挥作用，第一次在系统和比较的角度进行了分析。第二，本研究对新制度主义组织分析具有启示意义。我们将不同层次的合法化过程整合为一个综合的方法来分析行为人的构成；这对于新制度主义的微观基础至关重要。第三，我们为组织的比较研究做出贡献。组织对外部顾问干预的反应的异同促进了我们对不同类型组织性质的认识。

Due to the growing socio-economic relevance of knowledge and knowledge work, management consultancy has become a wide-spread phenomenon not only in the business sector, but also in public administration and in organizations belonging to the scientific field. In these fields the forms and degrees of legitimation, however, vary. Research on management consultancy so far has focused on the legitimation granted through consultancy. For instance external consultancy was mainly analyzed as a resource of legitimation for organizations. Much less attention has been devoted to the legitimation of management consultancy, i.e., the conditions of legitimation of consultancy itself. With this focus, our research project aims at theoretically and empirically coming to terms with the legitimation of consultants. We focus in particular on processes of legitimation on different social levels and on the interplay of these processes in the constitution of the consultant as a legitimate social actor. Which processes can be analyzed at the micro-level of interactions and at the organizational meso-level and how are they interrelated with regard to the constitution of actors? How do these processes of legitimation at the project and the organizational level refer to the macro-level of different institutional logics in business, administration and academia? In addition, how do processes of legitimation differ with regard to the type of consultancy? These questions will be addressed in a qualitative research design with two case studies in each of the three different institutional contexts, where consultancy takes place. To a large extent, theoretical foundations come from the new institutionalism in organizational analysis.With this, we conduct the first scientific comparative study on the legitimation of management consultancy while taking into account the institutional logics of different contexts of consultancy. This research is important for a variety of reasons. First, research on management consultancy will benefit from our project as we develop a theoretical model in which the multi-layered processes of legitimation between micro-, meso- and macro-levels are analyzed. Furthermore different sectors, in which management consultancy plays a role, are analyzed for the first time in a systematic and comparative perspective. Second, our research has implications for the new institutionalism in organizational analysis. We integrate processes of legitimation at different levels into a comprehensive approach to analyze the constitution of actors; this is of paramount importance for the micro-foundation of the new institutionalism. Third, we contribute to comparative research on organizations. Similarities and differences concerning organizational reactions to the interventions of external consultants adavnce our knowledge on the nature of different types of organizations.