A study of organizational advice giving
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- Despite the fact that advice giving is prevalent in the social world, that, before making an important decision, most of us will consult with advisers (Meltsner 1990), the activity of advice giving has been under-studied and under-theorized (Bonaccio and Dalal 2006). I seek to fill the gap. I show, in particular, that the concerted action of advisers may lead to unexpected outcomes: Even though individual advisers are beset by professional habits, a team of advisers may still provide adequate solutions to problems. The forces of habit may be counterbalanced if the team is composed of both senior and junior advisers organized according to the leverage model, if there is a high rate of turnover among junior advisers, and if advisers collaborate with clients. My findings are based on a four-month ethnography of a leading management consulting firm, as well as 60 interviews with management consultants and 40 interviews with clients. So, my research sheds light on the activity of giving advice. It makes, in addition, a theoretical contribution to the new-institutional perspective in sociology. According to this perspective, management consulting firms play an important role in spreading different institutional elements (e.g., DiMaggio and Powell 1983; Campbell 2004). My findings point to the circumstances under which these institutional elements will and will not spread. Furthermore, studies of expertise show that experts are not particularly good at conveying their knowledge and skill to novices (Hinds 1999; Hinds et al. 2001). My findings suggest that the social structure of work has a significant impact on the application of expert knowledge.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic; electronic resource; remote |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Publication date | 2012 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Associated with | Waisberg, Isaac |
|---|---|
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Management Science and Engineering |
| Primary advisor | Barley, Stephen R |
| Thesis advisor | Barley, Stephen R |
| Thesis advisor | Pfeffer, Jeffrey |
| Thesis advisor | Sutton, Robert |
| Thesis advisor | Zelditch, Morris, Jr |
| Advisor | Pfeffer, Jeffrey |
| Advisor | Sutton, Robert |
| Advisor | Zelditch, Morris, Jr |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Isaac Waisberg. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Management Science and Engineering. |
| Thesis | Thesis (Ph.D.)--Stanford University, 2012. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2012 by Isaac Waisberg
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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