Alternative pathways of change in professional services firms: The case of management consulting

Journal of Management Studies

Volumn 50, Issue 5, 2013, Pages 777-807

  Kipping, Matthias ^a   Kirkpatrick, Ian ^b  

^a YORK UNIVERSITY   (Canada)

^b UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Management consulting; New entry; Organizational fields; Professional service firms; Professions

Indexed keywords

EID: 84879167756     PISSN: 00222380     EISSN: 14676486     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/joms.12004     Document Type: Article

References (114)

1. Abbott, A. (1988). The System of Professions: An Essay on the Division of Expert Labor. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
2. Abbott, P. (2008). 'Long range forecast'. Accountancy Age, 9 October, 15-18.
3. Abel, R. L. (1988). The Legal Profession in England and Wales. New York: Blackwell.
4. Ackroyd, S. (1996). 'Organization contra organizations: professions and organizational change in the United Kingdom'. Organization Studies, 17, 599-621.
5. Ackroyd, S. and Muzio, D. (2007). 'The reconstructed professional firm explaining change in english legal practice'. Organization Studies, 48, 1-19.
6. Adler, P. (2001). 'Market, hierarchy and trust: the knowledge economy and the future of capitalism'. Organization Science, 12, 215-234.
7. Adler, P., Kwon, S. and Hecksher, C. (2008). 'Professional work: the emergence of collaborative community'. Organization Science, 19, 359-376.
8. Alvesson, M. and Johansson, A. W. (2002). 'Professionalism and politics in management consultancy work'. In Clark, T. and Fincham, R. (Eds), Critical Consulting: New Perspectives on the Management Advice Industry. Oxford: Blackwell, 228-246.
9. Amis, J., Slack, T. and Hinings, C. R. (2004). 'The pace, sequence and linearity of radical change'. Academy of Management Journal, 47, 15-39.
10. Baron, J. N., Hannan, M. T. and Burton, M. D. (2001). 'Labour pains: change in organizational models and employee turnover in young high tech firms'. American Journal of Sociology, 106, 960-1012.
11. Bartlett, C. A. (1996). McKinsey & Co.: Managing Knowledge and Learning. Case Study. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School.
12. Baum, J. A. C. and Shipilov, A. V. (2006). 'Ecological approaches to organizations'. In Clegg, S. R., Hardy, C., Lawrence, T. and Nord, W. (Eds), The SAGE Handbook of Organizations Studies, 2nd edition. London: Sage, 55-110.
13. Berg, B. L. and Lune, H. (2012). Qualitative Research Methods for the Social Sciences, 8th edition. Boston, MA: Pearson.
14. Bhide, A. V. (1995). Building the Professional Firm: McKinsey and Co.: 1939-1968. HBS Working Paper 95-010, revised March 1996. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School.
15. Bower, M. (1979). Perspective on McKinsey. Written and privately printed for readership by only the personnel of McKinsey and Company, Inc. [private archives].
16. Brock, D. M. and Powell, M. J. (2005). 'Radical strategic change in the global strategic network: the "Big Five" 1999-2001'. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 18, 451-468.
17. Channon, D. F. (1973). The Strategy and Structure of British Enterprise. London: Macmillan.
18. Cooper, D. J. and Robson, K. (2006). 'Accounting, professions and regulation: locating the sites of professionalization'. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 31, 415-444.
19. Cooper, D. J., Hinings, C. R., Greenwood, R. and Brown, J. L. (1996). 'Sedimentation and transformation in organizational change: the case of Canadian law firms'. Organization Studies, 17, 623-647.
20. Craig, D. (2005). Rip off: The Scandalous Story of the Management Consulting Money Machine. London: Original Books Company.
21. Czerniawska, F. (2004). The UK Consulting Industry in 2003/4. London: Management Consultancies Association.
22. Dacin, T. M., Goodstein, J. and Scott, W. R. (2002). 'Institutional theory and institutional change: introduction to the special research forum'. Academy of Management Journal, 45, 45-57.
23. D'Aunno, T., Succi, M. and Alexander, J. A. (2000). 'The role of institutional and market forces in divergent organizational change'. Administrative Science Quarterly, 45, 679-703.
24. David, R. J. (2012). 'Institutional change and the growth of strategy consulting in the United States'. In Kipping, M. and Clark, T. (Eds), The Oxford Handbook of Management Consulting. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 71-92.
25. DiMaggio, P. and Powell, W. W. (1991). 'The iron cage revisited: institutional isomorphism and collective rationality'. In Powell, W. W. and DiMaggio, P. (Eds), The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 63-82.
26. Dorado, S. (2005). 'Institutional entrepreneurship, partaking, and convening'. Organization Studies, 26, 385-414.
27. Edersheim, E. H. (2004). McKinsey's Marvin Bower: Vision, Leadership, and the Creation of Management Consulting. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
28. Eisenhardt, K. M. (1989). 'Building theories from case study research'. Academy of Management Review, 14, 532-550.
29. Faulconbridge, J. and Muzio, D. (2008). 'Organizational professionalism in globalizing law firms'. Work, Employment and Society, 22, 7-25.
30. FEACO (2011). Survey of the European Management Consultancy 2010/2011. Brussels: European Federation of Management Consultancies Associations.
31. Ferguson, M. (2002). The Rise of Management Consulting in Britain. Aldershot: Ashgate.
32. Fincham, R. (2006). 'Knowledge work as occupational strategy: comparing IT and management consulting'. New Technology, Work and Employment, 21, 16-28.
33. Fosstenløkken, S. M., Løwendahl, B. R. and Revang, O. (2003). 'Knowledge development through client interaction: a comparative study'. Organization Studies, 24, 859-880.
34. Freidson, E. (1994). Professionalism Reborn: Theory, Prophecy and Policy. Cambridge: Polity.
35. Galal, K., Richter, A. and Wendlandt, V. (2012). 'IT consulting and outsourcing firms: evolution, business models, and future prospects'. In Kipping, M. and Clark, T. (Eds), The Oxford Handbook of Management Consulting. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 117-137.
36. Gaston-Breton, T. (1999). La Saga Cap Gemini. Paris: Editions Point de Mire.
37. Golden, B. R. (1992). 'The past is the present - or is it? The use of retrospective accounts as indicators of past strategy'. Academy of Management Journal, 35, 848-860.
38. Greenwood, R. and Empson, L. (2003). 'The professional partnership: relic or exemplary form of governance?'. Organization Studies, 24, 909-934.
39. Greenwood, R. and Hinings, C. R. (1996). 'Understanding radical organizational change: bringing together the old and new institutionalism'. Academy of Management Review, 21, 1022-1054.
40. Greenwood, R. and Hinings, C. R. (2006). 'Radical organisational change'. In Clegg, S. R., Hardy, C., Lawrence, T. B. and Nord, W. R. (Eds), The SAGE Handbook of Organization Studies, 2nd edition. London: Sage, 814-842.
41. Greenwood, R. and Suddaby, R. (2006). 'Institutional entrepreneurship in mature fields: the Big Five accounting firms'. Academy of Management Journal, 49, 27-48.
42. Greenwood, R., Hinings, C. R. and Brown, J. (1990). '"P2-form" strategic management: corporate practices in professional partnerships'. Academy of Management Journal, 33, 725-755.
43. Greenwood, R., Suddaby, R. and Hinings, C. R. (2002). 'Theorizing change: the role of professional associations in the transformation of institutionalized fields'. Academy of Management Journal, 45, 58-80.
44. Greenwood, R., Suddaby, R. and McDougald, M. (2006). 'Introduction'. Research in the Sociology of Organizations, 24, 1-16.
45. Gross, C. and Kieser, A. (2006). 'Are consultants moving towards professionalization?'. Research in the Sociology of Organizations, 24, 69-100.
46. Hansen, M. T., Nohria, N. and Tierney, T. (1999). 'What's your strategy for managing knowledge'. Harvard Business Review, 77, 106-116.
47. Hinings, C. R. (2005). 'The professions'. In Ackroyd, S., Batt, R., Thompson, P. and Tolbert, P. S. (Eds), The Oxford Handbook of Work and Organization. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 404-424.
48. Hoffman, A. J. (1999). 'Institutional evolution and change: environmentalism and the U.S. chemical industry'. Academy of Management Journal, 42, 351-371.
49. Huntingdon, M. (1997). 'Consulting born of technology'. Accountancy Age, 22 September.
50. Hyman, S. (1961). An Introduction to Management Consultancy. London: Heinemann.
51. Ing, B. (2000). 'The first global profession'. Management Consultancy, 15 March.
52. Jick, T. D. (1979). 'Mixing qualitative and quantitative methods: triangulation in action'. Administrative Science Quarterly, 24, 602-611.
53. Jones, E. (1995). True and Fair: A History of Price Waterhouse. London: Hamish Hamilton.
54. Kärreman, D. and Alvesson, M. (2004). 'Cages in tandem: management control, social identity and identification in a knowledge intensive firm'. Organization, 11, 149-175.
55. Kärreman, D., Sveningsson, S. and Alvesson, M. (2002). 'The return of the machine bureaucracy? Management control in the work settings of professionals'. International Studies of Management & Organization, 32, 70-92.
56. Kennedy Information (2003). Consultants News: 30-Year Ranking Database. Peterborough, NH: Kennedy Information.
57. Khurana, R. (2007). From Higher Aims to Hired Hands: The Social Transformation of American Business Schools and the Unfulfilled Promise of Management as a Profession. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
58. Kipping, M. (1997). 'Consultancies, institutions and the diffusion of Taylorism in Britain, Germany and France, 1920s to 1950s'. Business History, 39, 67-83.
59. Kipping, M. (1999). 'American management consulting companies in Western Europe, 1920 to 1990: products, reputation and relationships'. Business History Review, 73, 190-220.
60. Kipping, M. (2002). 'Trapped in their wave: the evolution of management consultancies'. In Clark, T. and Fincham, R. (Eds), Critical Consulting: New Perspectives on the Management Advice Industry. Oxford: Blackwell, 28-49.
61. Kipping, M. (2011). 'Hollow from the start? Image professionalism in management consulting'. Current Sociology, 59, 530-550.
62. Kipping, M. and Amorim, C. (2003). 'Consultancies as management schools'. In Amdam, R. P., Kvålshaugen, R. and Larsen, E. (Eds), Inside the Business Schools. The Content of European Business Education. Oslo: Abstrakt, 133-154.
63. Kipping, M. and Armbrüster, T. (1999). The Consultancy Field in Western Europe. The Creation of European Management Practice, Research Report No. 6. Available at http://www.fek.uu.se/cemp/publications/cempreports.html (accessed 4 December 2012).
64. Kipping, M. and Kirkpatrick, I. (2007). 'From Taylorism as product to Taylorism as process: knowledge intensive firms in a historical perspective'. In Muzio, D., Ackroyd, S. and Chanlat, J.-F. (Eds), Redirections in the Study of Expert Labour. Established Professions and New Expert Occupations. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 163-182.
65. Kipping, M. and Saint-Martin, D. (2005). 'Between regulation, promotion and consumption: government and management consultancy in Britain'. Business History, 47, 449-465.
66. Kirkpatrick, I., Muzio, D. and Ackroyd, S. (2012). 'Professions and professionalism in management consulting'. In Kipping, M. and Clark, T. (Eds), Oxford Handbook of Management Consulting. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 187-206.
67. Kitay, J. and Wright, C. (2007). 'From prophets to profits: the occupational rhetoric of management consultants'. Human Relations, 60, 1613-1640.
68. Kubr, M. (2002). Management Consulting. A Guide to the Profession, 4th edition. Geneva: International Labour Office.
69. Langley, A. (1999). 'Strategies for theorizing from process data'. Academy of Management Review, 24, 691-710.
70. Lawrence, T. B. and Suddaby, R. (2006). 'Institutions and institutional work'. In Clegg, S. R., Hardy, C., Lawrence, T. B. and Nord, W. R. (Eds), Handbook of Organization Studies, 2nd edition. London: Sage, 215-254.
71. LBS (1986). The Management Consulting Industry. Case study. London: London Business School [MCA Archives, Box 3].
72. Leblebici, H., Salancik, G., Copay, A. and King, T. (1991). 'Institutional change and the transformation of inter-organizational fields: an organizational history of the US radio broadcasting industry'. Administrative Science Quarterly, 36, 333-363.
73. Leicht, K. T. and Lyman, E. C. M. (2006). 'Markets, institutions and the crisis of professional practice'. Research in the Sociology of Organizations, 24, 17-44.
74. Løwendahl, B. R. (2005). Strategic Management of Professional Service Firms, 3rd edition. Copenhagen: Copenhagen Business School Press.
75. MacDonald, K. M. (1995). The Sociology of the Professions. London: Sage.
76. Maister, D. H. (1997). Managing the Professional Service Firm. New York: Free Press.
77. Malhotra, N. and Morris, T. (2009). 'Heterogeneity in professional service firms'. Journal of Management Studies, 46, 895-922.
78. Malhotra, N., Morris, T. and Hinings, C. R. (2006). 'Variation in organizational form among professional service organizations'. Research in the Sociology of Organizations, 24, 171-203.
79. McDougald, M. S. and Greenwood, R. (2012). 'Cuckoo in the nest? The rise of management consulting in large accounting firms'. In Kipping, M. and Clark, T. (Eds), The Oxford Handbook of Management Consulting. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 93-116.
80. McKenna, C. D. (2006). The World's Newest Profession: Management Consulting in the Twentieth Century. New York: Cambridge University Press.
81. McKenna, C. D. (2007). 'Give professionalization a chance! Why management consulting may yet become a full profession'. In Muzio, D., Ackroyd, S. and Chanlat, J.-F. (Eds), Redirections in the Study of Expert Labour. Established Professions and New Expert Occupations. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 204-216.
82. Meyer, A. D., Brooks, G. R. and Goes, J. B. (1990). 'Environmental jolts and industry revolutions: organizational responses to discontinuous change'. Strategic Management Journal, 11, 93-110.
83. Meyer, A. D., Gaba, V. and Colwell, K. A. (2005). 'Organizing far from equilibrium: non-linear change in organizational fields'. Organization Science, 16, 456-473.
84. Miles, M. and Huberman, A. M. (1994). Qualitative Data Analysis. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
85. Mintzberg, H. (1980). 'Structure in 5's: a synthesis of the research on organization design'. Management Science, 26, 322-341.
86. Mintzberg, H. (1993). Structure in Fives: Designing Effective Organizations. London: Prentice Hall.
87. Morris, T. and Empson, L. (1998). 'Organisation and expertise: an exploration of knowledge bases and the management of accounting and consulting firms'. Accounting, Organisations and Society, 23, 609-624.
88. Muzio, D., Kirkpatrick, I. and Kipping, M. (2011a). 'Professions, organizations and the state: applying the sociology of the professions to the case of management consultancy'. Current Sociology, 59, 805-824.
89. Muzio, D., Hodgson, D., Faulconbridge, J., Beaverstock, J. and Hall, S. (2011b). 'Towards corporate professionalization: the case of project management, management consultancy and executive search'. Current Sociology, 59, 443-464.
90. Neogy, I. (2004). Human Resource Management in the UK Consulting Sector. Unpublished MBA thesis, Leeds University Business School.
91. Pettigrew, A. M. (1987). 'Context and action in the transformation of the firm'. Journal of Management Studies, 24, 649-670.
92. Pettigrew, A. M., Woodman, R. M. and Cameron, K. S. (2001). 'Studying organizational change and development: challenges for future research'. Academy of Management Journal, 44, 697-713.
93. Pinnington, A. and Morris, T. (2002). 'Transforming the architect: ownership form and archetype change'. Organization Studies, 23, 182-210.
94. Powell, M. J., Brock, D. M. and Hinings, C. R. (1999). 'The changing professional organization'. In Brock, D. M., Powell, M. J. and Hinings, C. R. (Eds), Restructuring the Professional Organization: Accounting, Health Care and Law. London: Routledge, 1-19.
95. Ragin, C. C. (1994). Constructing Social Research: The Unity and Diversity of Method. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.
96. Reed, K. (2007). 'Professional problems for management consultancy'. Accountancy Age, 22 November.
97. Robertson, M. and Swan, J. (2004). 'Going public: the emergence and effects of soft bureaucracy within a knowledge intensive firm'. Organization, 11, 123-148.
98. Robertson, M., Scarborough, H. and Swan, J. (2003). 'Knowledge creation in professional service firms: institutional effects'. Organization Studies, 24, 831-858.
99. Sako, M. (2006). 'Outsourcing and off-shoring: implications for productivity of business services'. Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 22, 499-512.
100. Scott, W. R. (2008). Institutions and Organizations, 3rd edition. London: Sage.
101. Starbuck, W. H. (1992). 'Learning by knowledge-intensive firms'. Journal of Management Studies, 29, 713-740.
102. Stinchcombe, A. L. (2005). The Logic of Social Research. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.
103. Suddaby, R. and Greenwood, R. (2005). 'Rhetorical strategies of legitimacy'. Administrative Science Quarterly, 50, 35-67.
104. Suddaby, R., Cooper, D. J. and Greenwood, R. (2007). 'Transnational regulation of professional services: governance dynamics of field level organizational change'. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 32, 333-362.
105. Suddaby, R., Greenwood, R. and Wilderom, C. (2008). 'Introduction to the Journal of Organizational Behavior's special issue on professional service firms: where organization theory and organizational behavior might meet'. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 29, 989-994.
106. Taylor, S. (1999). 'IMC Journal - IBM consultants measure their mettle with CMC'. Management Consultancy, 2 November.
107. Tewksbury (1999). 'Profile: Jeremy Asher - this man enjoys watching his employees run in'. Accountancy Age, 2 November.
108. Thornton, P. H. (2002). 'The rise of the corporation in a craft industry: conflict and conformity in institutional logics'. Academy of Management Journal, 45, 81-101.
109. Tisdall, P. (1982). Agents of Change. The Development and Practice of Management Consultancy. London: Heinemann.
110. Ventresca, M. J. and Mohr, J. W. (2002). 'Archival research methods'. In Baum, J. A. C. (Ed.), The Blackwell Companion to Organizations. Oxford: Blackwell, 805-828.
111. von Nordenflycht, A. (2010). 'What is a professional service firm? Toward a theory and taxonomy of knowledge intensive firms'. Academy of Management Review, 35, 155-174.
112. Wadden, D. (1997). 'Consultants and the IT revolution: pervasive fact of business life'. Financial Times, 19 June.
113. Werr, A. and Stjernberg, T. (2003). 'Exploring management consulting firms as knowledge systems'. Organization Studies, 24, 881-908.
114. Zardkoohi, A., Bierman, L., Panina, D. and Chakrabarty, S. (2011). 'Revisiting a proposed definition of professional service firms'. Academy of Management Review, 36, 180-184.