Abstract:
Conventional representations of consulting stress the need to predict possible
organizational realities associated with improved economic performance. It is conceptualized
as a useful tool from which practice might profit if applied properly. In this
article we explore theory as a means by which practice may not so much be honed by well crafted
advice as interrupted and transformed. Further, we propose a parasitical role for
the management consultant as a source of 'noise' that disrupts established ways of doing
and being by introducing interruptive action into the space between organizational order
and chaos. What consulting can do is open up these spaces and create concepts that
encourage new possible realities and real possibilities. The relation posited between
organization theory and practice has the potential to create new forms of situated
organization/organizing through disrupting established practice rather than by creating
order. Consultants willing to take the risk of working in the productive space between
organization. and disorganization have a potential that questions the usual auspices of the
enterprise.
