Symbols of consultancy

Kaarst-Brown (1999)[1] has suggested five symbolic roles to consultancy. These symbolic roles indicate something about the stage that a consultancy project is at, and that symbol can relate to Lewin's stages of unfreezing, changing and refreezing. The symbol is useful to indicate the stage. However, if the client perceives a symbol at the wrong time, then the project incorrectly moves into another phase.

Her research arises from her consultancy experience, realising that at least one project that she and her colleagues were involved in, had not completed all the expected tasks even months after the consultancy project had been signed off and the consultants had left.

The consultant can deliberately use symbols to indicate the phase of the project. It's of relevance to my research because it relates to the client-consultant interaction. That interaction involves the consultant getting the client to be accountable for using consultancy services and symbol may explain failed projects. One reason for using a consultant might be political, because the consultant legitimises the management action, so that the manager is seen to have another authority justifying the possibly unpopular or criticised decision. Whilst Kaarst-Brown says that there is an inadvertent symbolism associated with the presence of an external consultant, the symbolism can be consciously used manage a project.


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[1] Kaarst-Brown, 1999, Five symbolic roles of the external consultant: Integrating change, power and symbolism, Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol. 12 No. 6, 1999, pp. 540-561.