Critical Consulting New Perspectives on the Management Advice Industry

This timely volume provides innovative perspectives on the management advice industry from leading contributors in critical theory, organizational behaviour, sociology, psychology, actor-network theory and narrative analysis. It addresses such fundamental questions as: What is management knowledge? How is it created and sold? What is the role of consultants, gurus, academics in this process? Does the management advice industry add value? What is the nature of the client-consultant relationship? The development of interest in the management advice industry, both within the business press and the social sciences, reflects the need to answer these questions. The critical analysis presented here evaluates what management consultants offer as well as investigating the emergence of their industry as a contemporary social phenomenon. This volume provides the first critical evaluation of the different actors and activities that comprise the management advice sector, and will be invaluable both to those teaching courses in consultancy and to analysts who are trying to make sense of the explosion in the management knowledge industry.

Timothy Clark is Professor of Organisational Behaviour at the University of Durham Business School. He has written or edited seven previous books including Managing Consultants (1995) and has written numerous articles in a range of leading journals. He is also an Assistant Editor of Human Relations.

Robin Fincham is Senior Lecturer at Stirling University. He has written or edited three previous books, including Principles of Organizational Behaviour (1999), now in its third edition.