Single or Multiple Organizational Identities: The Management Consultant’s Dilemma
In this article, we examine the signals consulting firms send to clients and the public through the identities they publish on their websites. The paper begins with a review of academic and practitioner literature on consulting identities and typologies. The literature review leads us to conclude th...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Journal Article |
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Tennessee State University College of Business
2015
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/13956 |
| _version_ | 1848748489020801024 |
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| author | Chelliah, J. D'Netto, Brian Georges, S. |
| author_facet | Chelliah, J. D'Netto, Brian Georges, S. |
| author_sort | Chelliah, J. |
| building | Curtin Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | In this article, we examine the signals consulting firms send to clients and the public through the identities they publish on their websites. The paper begins with a review of academic and practitioner literature on consulting identities and typologies. The literature review leads us to conclude that the consultant cannot be conceptualized by a single definable construct but rather by multiple typologies. To demonstrate this we establish a theoretically informed framework summarizing the main consulting identities from extant literature. The framework is then applied to a sample of 50 consulting organizations currently operating in Australia. Through the application of this framework, the identity of the consulting firms are seen to be multiple and sometimes contradictory in nature. Finally, we discuss the possible strategic implications of identity multiplicity, correlating identity with legitimacy and impression management techniques. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T07:05:51Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | curtin-20.500.11937-13956 |
| institution | Curtin University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T07:05:51Z |
| publishDate | 2015 |
| publisher | Tennessee State University College of Business |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | curtin-20.500.11937-139562017-09-13T15:01:03Z Single or Multiple Organizational Identities: The Management Consultant’s Dilemma Chelliah, J. D'Netto, Brian Georges, S. management consultant typologies content analysis social constructivist ontology consulting strategies organizational identity In this article, we examine the signals consulting firms send to clients and the public through the identities they publish on their websites. The paper begins with a review of academic and practitioner literature on consulting identities and typologies. The literature review leads us to conclude that the consultant cannot be conceptualized by a single definable construct but rather by multiple typologies. To demonstrate this we establish a theoretically informed framework summarizing the main consulting identities from extant literature. The framework is then applied to a sample of 50 consulting organizations currently operating in Australia. Through the application of this framework, the identity of the consulting firms are seen to be multiple and sometimes contradictory in nature. Finally, we discuss the possible strategic implications of identity multiplicity, correlating identity with legitimacy and impression management techniques. 2015 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/13956 10.1353/jda.2015.0073 Tennessee State University College of Business restricted |
| spellingShingle | management consultant typologies content analysis social constructivist ontology consulting strategies organizational identity Chelliah, J. D'Netto, Brian Georges, S. Single or Multiple Organizational Identities: The Management Consultant’s Dilemma |
| title | Single or Multiple Organizational Identities: The Management Consultant’s Dilemma |
| title_full | Single or Multiple Organizational Identities: The Management Consultant’s Dilemma |
| title_fullStr | Single or Multiple Organizational Identities: The Management Consultant’s Dilemma |
| title_full_unstemmed | Single or Multiple Organizational Identities: The Management Consultant’s Dilemma |
| title_short | Single or Multiple Organizational Identities: The Management Consultant’s Dilemma |
| title_sort | single or multiple organizational identities: the management consultant’s dilemma |
| topic | management consultant typologies content analysis social constructivist ontology consulting strategies organizational identity |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/13956 |