Organization and Consultation ─ A Textbook of Foundations and Theories

This broad, balanced introduction to studies devoted to organizational consultation enables the reader to compare and contrast different approaches to the study of professional consulting services. Organizational consultation is a type of interaction between two organizations: client and consultant. The interaction of client and consultant is described and explained from the point of view of nine different theoretical perspectives: symbolic interactionism (Mead, Blumer, Turner), Weberian organizational theory, new institutional economics (Jensen, Meckling, Williamson), dramaturgical sociology (Goffmann), micropolitical approaches (Crozier, Friedberg), functionalism (Parsons), systems theory (Luhmann), neo-institutionalism (Meyer), and postmodernism (Foucault, Derrida, Lyotard). These represent the major theoretical approaches from sociology, economics, and organization sciences.

Nicole J. Saam is a professor of Methods of Empirical Social Research at Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuernberg (Germany). She studied political science, economics and sociology, and has worked at the institutes of sociology of the universities of Munich, Mannheim, Leipzig, Marburg, Erfurt and Augsburg. Her research fields include social theory, social science methodology, sociology of organizations, and political sociology.