The role of consultants in diffusing general management practices – a consultancy classification framework for the public sector

Abstract

Management consultancies play a major role when it comes to implementing new standards, practices, or technologies. However, not all prove to be successful. In addition, there are different roles of consulting to consider. I aim to find out if we can conclude from the type of consulting whether the implemented innovation will be successful. I focus on the public sector under the assumption that public sector companies are more similar to each other than private sector companies. This paper is conceptual in nature. I use the typology of four consultant roles by Canato and Giangreco (2011) and connect it with insights from Kennedy and Fiss (2009) concerning the framing of adoption decisions as either opportunities or threats to develop a consultancy classification framework for the public sector in order to help shareholders, stakeholders, supervisory boards, and executives better assess the innovations implemented by consulting firms. I find that the radiance of implemented innovations will depend heavily on which of Canato and Giangreco’s (2011) four roles management consultancies have taken. I find that early adopters are more likely to engage knowledge brokers and knowledge integrators depending on the innovation phase in which they need support, whereas late adopters rely primarily on information sources and standard setters. The highest level of innovativeness is expected to come from knowledge brokers, whereas the lowest level of innovation is expected to stem from standard setters. This paper focuses on the public sector. Future research should discuss the applicability for the private sector and consider industry-specific differences. In addition, the propositions stated here should be tested empirically, e.g., in a case study setting. When assessing the use of management consulting in a company, stakeholders should take a critical look at what type of consulting was used to make judgments about the innovativeness and longevity of innovations. This paper is the first to critically evaluate the four roles of management consultants as well as to present a guideline to stakeholders of how to interpret innovations that were developed with management consultancies’ support.