Title: Determinants of organisational context in management consulting

Authors: Renato Lopes Da Costa; Nélson Santos António; Álvaro Lopes Dias

Addresses: General Management Department, ISCTE-IUL, Av. das Forças Armadas, Lisbon, Portugal ' General Management Department, ISCTE-IUL, Av. das Forças Armadas, Lisbon, Portugal ' Universidade Lusófona, Campo Grande 376, 1749-024, Lisbon, Portugal; General Management Department, ISCTE-IUL, Av. das Forças Armadas, Lisbon, Portugal

Abstract: To present a single and integrated model combining the organisational context and consultants different roles. In a first study, we applied a questionnaire followed by a quantitative analysis to consultants and SME managers to determine the roles of management consultants. Then, to obtain more insights about the complexity of the roles and variables, we conducted a second study supported a semi-structured interviews to the same professional groups. The roles of consultants can not only be defined in organisational variables and consultant status resulting enabling the construction of the model of determinants of organisational context in management consulting. Although the literature labels management consultancy industry as an extraordinary industry and a unique phenomenon in the business context, in fact these statements do not come accompanied by a number of academic studies that highlight the importance of the effective work of management consultants. The proposed model contributes to the existing literature by combining in an integrated model the determinants of organisational context in management consulting.

Keywords: knowledge management; strategy-as-practice; management consulting.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMP.2020.110021

International Journal of Management Practice, 2020 Vol.13 No.5, pp.587 - 603

Accepted: 06 Aug 2019
Published online: 01 Oct 2020 *

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