Although now awaiting a return to the heady years of the late 1990s, the modern management consultancy industry is still vast. So, too, is the number of managers experienced in the use of management consultants. But the expansion of management consultancy has also attracted new customers among...

The forces pushing management researchers inexorably closer to the managers they study are strong, strengthening and generally welcomed. This paper sees disadvantages in such proximity and common interest. Much of the work of management researchers is not rigorous, not sensible, and not useful,...