<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>This article reflects on the disproportionate academic and media attacks that management consultancy seems to attract and links this to the failure of developing strong professional institutions on the example of comparable professions such as law and accountancy. In particular, whilst a professional project was initially at play within this sector, it eventually lost support from key stakeholders, in particular the large firms who employed a majority of management consultants. As such professional associations in the management consultancy field engaged in a series of accommodation strategies to win back some corporate support. The result was a weaker form of corporate professionalism.</p>
</abstract>

This article reflects on the disproportionate academic and media attacks that management consultancy seems to attract and links this to the failure of developing strong professional institutions on the example of comparable professions such as law and accountancy. In particular, whilst a professional project was initially at play within this sector, it eventually lost support from key stakeholders, in particular the large firms who employed a majority of management consultants. As such professional associations in the management consultancy field engaged in a series of accommodation strategies to win back some corporate support. The result was a weaker form of corporate professionalism.

Failed Professionalization and Management Consultancy’s Image Problem - a UK Perspective

Management Consulting Journal

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

This article reflects on the disproportionate academic and media attacks that management consultancy seems to attract and links this to the failure of...

Failed Professionalization and Management Consultancy’s Image Problem - a UK Perspective

Published Online: Jun 10, 2024

Page range: 85 - 93

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/mcj-2024-0010

© 2024 Daniel Muzio et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.