What is Going On in Consulting Interactions?: Exploring Meta-themes of Power, Emotion and Values

Abstract

Here I explore what is going on in consulting interactions, through a focus on meta-themes derived from the analysis of my material in Chapters 6 and 7. These meta-themes seem powerfully inter-connected: power, emotion, and values in the commercial process. They surface throughout and were immediately noticed by others reading the material. They are not only striking and consistent, but are themes not convincingly dealt with in the contemporary consulting literature. There power is mostly assigned to either consultant or client; emotion is barely discussed; classical norms of economic rationality are simply assumed in the commercial process; and the pejorative discourse imputes negative intent to consultants, far from any sense of ‘worthwhile’ values.