ISBN : 9780199685165
Management consultants of various kinds play an important role in the world of business, and within other types of organization. The Oxford Handbook on Management Consulting is a comprehensive overview of thinking and research on management consultancy with contributions from leading international scholars. The first section provides an account of the historical developments in management consulting research, and how current thinking has evolved from prior work. The second section focuses on disciplinary and theoretical perspectives, their diversities, areas of synergy, and parallel concerns. The following sections examine consulting as a knowledge business, consultants and management fashion, and the relationship between management consultants and their clients. The Handbook concludes with an assessment of areas of future research and debate. By bringing together a wide range of research and thinking on management consulting across different disciplines, sub-disciplines, and conceptual approaches, the Handbook provides a comprehensive understanding of both current thinking and future directions for research.
1. Introduction
SECTION 1: HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF MANAGEMENT CONSULTING
2. The Engineering Origins of the Consulting Industry and their Long Shadow
3. Human Relations and Management Consulting: Elton Mayo and Eric Trist
4. Institutional Change and the Growth of Strategy Consulting in the United States
5. Cuckoo in the Nest? The Rise of Management Consulting in Large Accounting Firms?
6. IT Consulting and Outsourcing Firms: Evolution, Business Models and Future Prospects
SECTION 2: DISCIPLINARY AND THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES
7. Sociological Perspectives on Management Consultancy
8. Consultants in Context: Global Dominance, Societal Effect and the Capitalist System
9. Professions and Professionalism in Management Consulting
10. Economic Approaches to Consulting
11. The Geographies of Management Consultancy Firms
SECTION 3: CONSULTING AS A KNOWLEDGE BUSINESS
12. Knowledge Management and Management Consulting
13. Consultants and Organization Concepts
14. Structuring Consulting Firms
15. Managing Consultants: Control and Identity
SECTION 4: CONSULTANTS AND MANAGEMENT FASHIONS
16. Consultants in the Management Fashion Arena
17. Management Gurus as Celebrity Consultants
18. Consultants, Business Schools and the Media
SECTION 5: CONSULTANTS AND THEIR CLIENTS
19. The Nature of Client-Consultant Interaction
20. The Client in the Client-Consultant Relationship
21. Consultants and Clients from Constructivist Perspectives
22. Management Consultants and Governments
SECTION 6: NEW AVENUES FOR RESEARCH
22. The Future Research Agenda
23. Consulting and Ethics
24. Gender in Consulting: A Review and Research Agenda
25. Management Consulting in Developing and Emerging Economies: Toward a Post-colonial Perspective
