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Between innovation and legitimation-boundaries and knowledge flow in management consultancy
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Sturdy, Andrew, Clark, Timothy, Fincham, Robin and Handley, Karen (2009) Between innovation and legitimation-boundaries and knowledge flow in management consultancy. Organization, Vol.16 (No.5). pp. 627-653. ISSN 1350-5084
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1350508409338435
Abstract
Management consultancy is seen by many as a key agent in the adoption of new management ideas and practices in organizations. Two contrasting views are dominant-consultants as innovators, bringing new knowledge to their clients or as legitimating client knowledge. Those few studies which examine directly the flow of knowledge through consultancy in projects with clients favour the innovator view and highlight the important analytical and practical value of boundaries-consultants as both knowledge and organizational outsiders. Likewise, in the legitimator view, the consultants' role is seen in terms of the primacy of the organizational boundary. By drawing on a wider social science literature on boundaries and studies of inter-organizational knowledge flow and management consultancy more generally, this polarity is seen as problematic, especially at the level of the consulting project. An alternative framework of boundary relations is developed and presented which incorporates their multiplicity, dynamism and situational specificity. This points to a greater complexity and variability in knowledge flow and its potential than is currently recognized. This is significant not only in terms of our understanding of management consultancy and inter-organizational knowledge dynamics and boundaries, but of a critical understanding of the role of management consultancy more generally.
| Item Type: | Journal Item |
|---|---|
| Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD28 Management. Industrial Management |
| Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Warwick Business School |
| Journal or Publication Title: | Organization |
| Publisher: | Sage Publications Ltd. |
| ISSN: | 1350-5084 |
| Date: | September 2009 |
| Volume: | Vol.16 |
| Number: | No.5 |
| Number of Pages: | 27 |
| Page Range: | pp. 627-653 |
| Identification Number: | 10.1177/1350508409338435 |
| Status: | Peer Reviewed |
| Publication Status: | Published |
| Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access |
| URI: | http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/17424 |
Data sourced from Thomson Reuters' Web of Knowledge
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