Juggling Resources and Autonomy: Issues and Opportunities for ‘Specialised Associations’

Abstract

Is there space for the independent advisor of associations in today’s political and industrial environment? Where and how? Throughout the 1980s, major professional services firms realised the potential to sell new business management concepts to a corporate market thirsty for solutions that would allow them to be more competitive and bring results to an increasingly impatient community of shareholders. Business consultants demonstrated the need for corporate downsizing through the application of new technologies, and explained the business management revolution on the grounds of the famous ‘train example’— either you’re inside the train, or you’re standing on the track, in which case you should get out of the way. As a consequence of these and other such illustrations, the role of middle management was severely reduced and empowerment became the corporate buzzword of the decade.