Management Consultancy and Organizational Uncertainty

Abstract

This study analyzes one of the most neglected dimensions of uncertainty in the field of management consultancy—the fragile existence of consulting organizations and organizational units. Drawing on interview data from internal consulting units, the authors ask what the key sources of organizational uncertainty are that consultant actors face and how these actors address them. In doing so, a fourth, organizational, form of uncertainty is added to those already established in studies of consulting (namely, product, relationship, and institutional uncertainty). The findings also improve our understanding of uncertainty in the broader theoretical context of professionalization through non-traditional means by raising questions about the stability of securing legitimacy as a "corporate profession."

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