Management Consultant Talk: A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Normalizing Discourse and Resistance

TLDR

Professional identity construction in management consultancies is embedded in a normalizing, gendered discourse of the ‘ideal’ consultant, yet alternative discourses that delineate different life spheres also appear in consultants’ talk. The article explores how men and women construct their professional selves as ‘knowledge workers’ in multinational management consultancies and demonstrates the relevance of contextualizing micro‑discourses through a comparison of British and Finnish consultants’ talk. The authors compare the talk of British and Finnish consultants to contextualize micro‑discourses. In the UK, ‘work/life balance’ discourse may serve as a form of resistance at the subject level, whereas in Finland, the ‘balanced individual’ discourse reflects a societally bound normalizing narrative, illustrating that cultural context influences resistance forms in knowledge work.

Abstract

In this article, we explore the discursive possibilities available to men and women when they construct their professional self as ‘knowledge workers’ in multinational management consultancies. We argue that this professional identity construction is embedded in a normalizing, gendered discourse of what it means to be an ‘ideal’ consultant. However, representations of an alternative discourse, which constructs different spheres in an individual’s life, can also be traced in the consultants’ talk. Through a comparison of British and Finnish consultants’ talk, we show the relevance of placing micro-discourses in context. In the UK, discourse on ‘work/life balance’ may be understood as a form of resistance at the level of subjectivity. In Finland, discourse on the ‘balanced individual’ can be seen to be an articulation of a societally bound normalizing discourse. The cultural context can thus be said to have an effect on forms of resistance in knowledge work.