The Uncertain Management Consulting Services Client

Abstract

Management consultants are often said to be in the business of uncertainty reduction. By providing knowledge, expertise, simplifying views of reality, or affirming the managerial role, they are argued to reduce managers' anxiety and uncertainty. At the same time there are indications that the actual use of consultants creates uncertainties for the client. The current study sets out to explore these uncertainties created by the use of consultants. Based on interviews with high level managers, four types of clients are identified: the Controlling Client, the Instrumental Client, the Trustful Client and the Ambivalent Client. These clients have different views of the use of management consultants and the uncertainties involved in hiring and managing them. The article contributes to a nuanced and empirically grounded understanding of the uncertainties involved in the use of management consultants. This understanding questions universalistic images of client uncertainties deriving from stable characteristics of the service. The article suggests that client uncertainties should, rather, be viewed as a central aspect of the complex interplay between individual managers, consultants, and their organizational contexts.

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