Hired to be fired? Exploring top management team use of consultants as professional scapegoats

This paper explores the risk-mitigating benefits of management consultant use by top management teams (TMTs). It is argued that in addition to the traditional factors surrounding management consultant use (e.g., expert advice, time compression diseconomies, and social capital), top managers hire management consultants to mitigate risks involved with implementing the difficult change. Management consultants provide expert sensemaking to the organization that can be crafted to support the agenda of top management. Additionally, management consultants are expendable to the client organization, and this allows them to be used to effectuate experimental and risky organizational, technological, or strategic change. Finally, given that management consultants are expendable, they provide excellent scapegoats to top management if the desired outcomes are not achieved. Moreover, management consultant teams (MCTs) and management consultant firms (MCFs) are minimally affected by a client firm's scapegoating. The paper closes with a discussion of implications and future research.