Exploring the Professional Identity of Management Consultants

The volume is based on the presentations and discussions from the Fifth European Conference on ManagementConsulting sponsored by the Management Consulting Division of the Academy of Management which took place June2011 at Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam the Netherlands. The conference theme - Exploring the Professional Identity ofManagement Consultants - attempted to capture the highly ambiguous social status of this young and emergingprofession. Management consulting does not have professional standards or accreditation criteria like those found inmedicine or law there are low barriers to entry and a broad range of tasks are undertaken in the name of consulting. As aresult a crucial aspect of what constitutes such a loosely defined profession is the identity of its members. Theprofessional identity of management consultants is continuously developing through the interplay of how consultants areseen and valued by clients as well as in the larger society and how consultancy firms and consultants identify and positionthemselves.This theme includes a variety of topics ranging from the interaction between consultants and their clients consultant rhetoric and self-presentation and the plethora ofbooks media and public discourse on consulting to human resource policies and practices knowledge development activities of consultancy firms career and life storiesof consultants and consultancies and consulting associations accreditation bodies and education programs. All of these factors contribute either directly or indirectly toidentity construction in the field of management consulting.