Freedom but Insecurity: the Business Consulting Profession in the Post-Industrial Service Society

Abstract

In the post-industrial era, the service sector has been expanding and professional tasks have been transformed into service-oriented knowledge work, that is, the business consulting profession. The variety of employment patterns has increased with the deregulation of the labor market, and the employment pattern of those professionals working in the service sector has been characterized by short-term assignments and employment contracts. Despite this contingent employment, the position of the business consulting professionals in the labor market is not necessarily degrading, as they are highly-qualified and competent actors, who can deal with the challenges of the business world. Thus, their position and coping strategies relate not only to the precarious employment but also to their professional, independent work. The study deals with the dilemma of insecurity and freedom of business consulting professionals, which is recognized in the Nordic countries. The methodology is qualitative.

Innovación y competitividad en las organizaciones

“…Las micro y pequeñas empresas deben contar con una formulación de una estrategia de desarrollo a cor to, mediano y largo plazo. Se examina el impacto de la consultoría empresarial con el objetivo de mejorar la eficiencia de la organización, para aumentar la par ticipación de mercado (Crabowski & Stawasz, 2017;Haapakorpi 2020).…”

“…La consultoría empresarial es una práctica orientada al servicio de las empresas que se ha incrementado y ha expandido en los últimos años. Los profesionales deben estar preparados para los diferentes componentes administrativos que se puedan presentar, a fin de enfrentar los desafíos empresariales (Haapakorpi, 2020;Forrest & Liu 2022;Juusola 2023).…”

Voice in non-traditional employment relationships: a review and future research directions

“…For this paper, integrating the classification criteria from previous scholars (Cappelli & Keller, 2013;Pfeffer & Baron, 1988;Spreitzer et al 2017), we define non-traditional workers as workers with limited temporal, physical, and administrative attachments to the organisations they work for, restricted directive control from the employer, total control of their work scheduling and process; and highly flexible in their timing and location of work. Concisely, NTERs are characterised by limited degrees of attachment, low employer's control, and high flexibility, without necessarily implying vulnerability or precarity (Haapakorpi, 2021;Standing, 2018). For example, highly skilled and sought-after professionals in non-precarious jobs have limited temporal, physical, and administrative attachment to the different organisations they work for (Flinchbaugh et al, 2020), are not under the direct control of the employer (Cappelli & Keller, 2013), and are flexible with their timing and location of work (Menger, 2017;Spreitzer et al, 2017).…”

Konsulttityö joustavana asiantuntijatyönä jälkiteollisilla työmarkkinoilla

“…Tutkimuksessa selvitetään myös, miten konsultit kokevat kontingentin ansiotyön turvaavan toimeentuloa ja millä tavoin he muokkaavat toimintaansa toimeentulonsa turvaamiseksi. Työajan laatua on tutkittu jo aiemmin (Haapakorpi 2021). Tässä työhön käytetyn ajan merkitystä analysoidaan osana työn laadun koko naisuutta.…”

“…Siten epävarmuuden lisäksi kyse oli myös työajan laadusta tai työn ja vapaaajan laadusta. Useiden samanaikaisten sopimusten tai toimeksiantojen toteutus ruuhkautui toisinaan, sillä aikataulut eivät välttämättä noudattaneet sovit tuja suunnitelmia (Haapakorpi 2021).…”