Consultants and organization concepts; tracing routes of reception

The aim of this paper is to explore how organization concepts evolve within consulting organizations. These companies are characterized by specific historical backgrounds, organization forms, particular services and include consultants with their own professional interests and competencies. As a consequence, organization concepts will likely take different journeys in different consulting companies and may leave a wide array of different traces. Drawing on interviews with leading consultants from a large variety of different consulting firms, this study seeks to develop several central elements in the internal reception trajectories. Firstly, the empirical material suggests a large range of alternative routes in the way organization concepts condense and crystallize consulting organizations. Secondly, the research found that the continuous processes of sedimentation and erosion of organizational knowledge that such concepts may bring along within consultancies suggests a more multifaceted view on stability and change than often is asserted by management fashion literature.