Understanding One Management Consultancy Practice

Abstract

Management Consulting is a rapidly growing profession, in which large and small firms compete unevenly on the Swedish market. While the larger firms have a competitive advantage in their global knowledge net, the smaller firms are in a position where they need to develop a `unique' practice. The consultant- client interaction was identified as manifesting the core of a management consultancy practice. Consequently, an in-depth case study was conducted to focus on the development of a practice in one smaller consultancy firm. Therefore, the focal point of the research is two diverse projects, each aiming at a mutual change effort. The main findings are: that consultants as active change actors face dilemmas in their interaction with the client; that consultants need self-confidence in their usage of knowledge in the interaction; and that consultants can in fact facilitate sensemaking in clients through the creation of `shared understandings' in the interaction. It is concluded that this management consultancy practice could be developed through the expansion of their structural capital, in relation to an increased conceptual understanding of the self-confidence and manipulation.