Professional liminality: Independent consultants spanning professions

Cross, David and Swart, Juani (2018) Professional liminality: Independent consultants spanning professions. Academy of Management Proceedings, 2018 (1). (doi:10.5465/AMBPP.2018.14500abstract).

Abstract

Management consultancy has received considerable interest as an arena of consultant and client insecurity where the quality of knowledge work is hard to judge. Attempts to address these issues have included investigations of professionalisation in consultancy. Much of this, and indeed most research on consultancy as a whole, has taken place in organisational settings with scant attention paid to self-employed consultants. Drawing on interviews with 50 independent consultants working in the UK and constructing these individuals as liminal, that is 'betwixt and between' and outside of many conventional structures, we contribute to the understanding of professionalisation in consultancy. Contrary to the assumption that these individuals would want further professionalisation as a mark of credibility, we argue that independent consultants adopt a strategy of professional liminality; an ambiguous and vague identity that enables them to win more business, cope with their outsider status and ultimately survive and thrive in their insecure position that is full of both anti-structure and freedom. Reflecting this back to wider debates, we show that away from the influence of employing organisations independent consultants shun many of the practices of professionalisation and derive credibility and legitimacy from clients and collaborators. We discuss independent consultants as pursuing an alternative to the professionalisation strategies in consultancy, an area that is already following a different path to more traditional professions.

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Contributors

Author: David Cross

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