Management as consultancy : neo-bureaucracy and the consultant manager / Andrew Sturdy, Christopher Wright & Nick Wylie.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1.Management as consultancy
a case of neo-bureaucracy
Introduction
a book about management and about consultancy
Towards a framework of neo-bureaucracy
Aims and structure of the book
2.Neo-bureaucratic management and consultancy
Neo-bureaucratic managerial work
activities, occupations and identities
Management and the tensions of organising
Mechanisms of change
towards management as consultancy?
The changing relationships between management and consultancy
Conclusion
3.The research study
Introduction and project background
Research design: the sample
Data analysis
4.The work activities of the consultant manager
Classifying management activities: purpose, structure and relationships
What do consultant managers do? Change, integration and strategic efficiency
Contents note continued: How do consultant managers work? Project/​programme management, methodologies and control
5.Managing relationships as a consultant manager
The consultant manager and `client relations'
relationship management
Adding value
Maintaining independence and autonomy from responsibility
Senior management sponsorship
Managing competition: interactions with external consultants
Collaboration and co-production: social ties and partnership
6.The occupational and career tensions of the consultant manager
Occupational segmentation and the blurring of management and consulting careers
Occupational instability and tensions
7.The identity boundaries and threats of the consultant manager
Organisational membership, boundaries and ambivalence
Crossing internal boundaries: the structural ambiguity of the consultant manager
Contents note continued: Specialist expertise: the distinctive knowledge of the consultant manager
Playing the game: the political boundaries of the consultant manager
Interpersonal aspects of the consultant manager identity
targeting and using client trust and credibility
From stable ambivalence to rejection
the contradictions of being an `outsider within'
8.Conclusion
Management as consultancy
an overview
New and old tensions
Consultancy as management
the external consultant is dead; long live the consultant manager?
Future research
Closing thoughts.

The nature of management is changing: managers are becoming more like consultants, focusing on projects, functional integration, change and 'clients'. This timely book is based on a large-scale, international study of new management practices and examines the emergence of consultant managers. It breaks new ground in our understanding of this hybrid role, uncovering working practices, identities and occupational dynamics, to shed light on both management and consultancy. It unpacks the changing relationship between external consultants and management to reveal important implications for the future of consultancy. Both private and public sectors are covered, with a focus on managers in large and multinational organisations such as former consultants and those in specialisms such as human resource management who adopt consulting roles. In addition to advancing our understanding of changes in management, this book offers a demystifying view of consultancy as a whole, from one of the largest ever studies of this occupation.