IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/jomstd/v32y1995i1p23-46.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Role Of Management Consultants In The Development Of Information Technology: The Indissoluble Nature Of Socio‐Political And Technical Skills

Author

Listed:
  • Brian P. Bloomfield
  • Ardha Danieli

Abstract

This paper explores the role of management consultants in the development of information technology (IT) in organizations. Contending that the process of IT systems development is characterized by the exercise of power, the central theme of the argument concerns the indissoluble nature of the technical and socio‐political skills inherent in IT consultancy practice. IT consultancy practice is not just socio‐political when winning a contract ‐ the sales pitch ‐ and technical when developing an IT system. Rather, socio‐political skills centred on the mobilization of discursive and symbolic resources are an inherent part of the construction of such systems.

Suggested Citation

  • Brian P. Bloomfield & Ardha Danieli, 1995. "The Role Of Management Consultants In The Development Of Information Technology: The Indissoluble Nature Of Socio‐Political And Technical Skills," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(1), pages 23-46, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:jomstd:v:32:y:1995:i:1:p:23-46
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-6486.1995.tb00644.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6486.1995.tb00644.x
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1467-6486.1995.tb00644.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. P. Windels & J. Christiaens, 2007. "The Adoption Of Accrual Accounting In Flemish Public Centres For Social Welfare: Examining The Importance Of Agents Of Change," Working Papers of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Ghent University, Belgium 07/451, Ghent University, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration.
    2. Heusinkveld, Stefan & Visscher, Klaasjan, 2012. "Practice what you preach: How consultants frame management concepts as enacted practice," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 285-297.
    3. Quattrone, Paolo & Hopper, Trevor, 2005. "A 'time-space odyssey': management control systems in two multinational organisations," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 30(7-8), pages 735-764.
    4. Leiby, Justin, 2018. "The role of consultants and management prestige in management control system adoption," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 1-13.
    5. Keys, P., 1997. "Approaches to understanding the process of OR: Review, critique and extension," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 1-13, February.
    6. Stefan Henningsson & Christian Øhrgaard, 2016. "IT Consultants in Acquisition IT Integration," Business & Information Systems Engineering: The International Journal of WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK, Springer;Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI), vol. 58(3), pages 193-212, May.
    7. Alessandro Fedele & Andrea Mantovani, 2010. "The Importance of Being Consulted," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 11(2), pages 231-245, November.
    8. Khoirul Aswar & Siti Zabedah Saidin, 2018. "Accrual Accounting Adoption In Java Municipalities: An Empirical Investigation," International Journal of Business and Economic Sciences Applied Research (IJBESAR), International Hellenic University (IHU), Kavala Campus, Greece (formerly Eastern Macedonia and Thrace Institute of Technology - EMaTTech), vol. 11(3), pages 24-30, December.
    9. repec:dau:papers:123456789/8068 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Irvine Lapsley & Rosie Oldfield, 2001. "Transforming the public sector: management consultants as agents of change," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(3), pages 523-543.
    11. Hartnett, Elizabeth J. & Daniel, Elizabeth M. & Holti, Richard, 2012. "Client and consultant engagement in public sector IS projects," International Journal of Information Management, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 307-317.
    12. Khoirul Aswar & Siti Zabedah Saidin, 2018. "The Influencing Factors On The Level Of Accrual Accounting Adoption: A Conceptual Approach," Romanian Economic Business Review, Romanian-American University, vol. 13(2), pages 30-36, June.
    13. repec:vuw:vuwmba:14683 is not listed on IDEAS

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:jomstd:v:32:y:1995:i:1:p:23-46. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0022-2380 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.