Volume 22, Issue 2 p. 120-149
Original Article

Management Consulting: Towards an Integrative Framework of Knowledge, Identity, and Power

Szilvia Mosonyi

Corresponding Author

Szilvia Mosonyi

School of Business and Management, Queen Mary University of London, London, E1 4NS UK

Corresponding author email: [email protected]Search for more papers by this author
Laura Empson

Laura Empson

Cass Business School, City, University of London, London, EC1Y 8TZ UK

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Jean-Pascal Gond

Jean-Pascal Gond

Cass Business School, City, University of London, London, EC1Y 8TZ UK

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First published: 28 November 2019
Citations: 23

Abstract

This paper reviews the past 28 years of scholarship on management consulting to synthesize the field and establish more broadly its contribution to management research. Through a systematic review of 219 articles, we identify three core conceptual themes – knowledge, identity, and power – that have dominated the literature to date. Through a thematic inductive analysis of a subsection of articles, we then investigate how these themes have been defined, used, and linked. This allows us to uncover and problematize the relationships between these themes. In making explicit underlying theoretical assumptions and relationships between knowledge, identity, and power, we induce a unique framework that can guide and support future studies, instigate metaparadigmatic dialogue, and thus help consolidate the field.

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