IAP BOOK SERIES

Research in Management Consulting

Information Age Publishing is pleased to announce that Professor David Szabla, Western Michigan University, is the new incoming editor for the Research in Management Consulting Book Series. As an active member of the Academy of Management’s Management Consulting Division, David brings a wealth of experience to the role. His work on leadership and organizational change is a perfect fit for the focus and orientation of the RMC series. He is also one of the editors of the highly successful Palgrave Handbook of Organizational Change Thinkers. His first book in the RMC series—Management Consulting in the Era of the Digital Organization—with coeditor Margaret Gorman Kirchoff is currently in process.

IAP would like to thank the founding editor of the RMC series, Tony Buono, Bentley University, for his long-term commitment and dedication to the study of management consulting, producing 25 volumes over the past 18 years. We look forward to working with David and Tony during the transition and to the continued success of the RMC series.

Research and theory building in management consulting have grown rapidly during the past several years. Complexity and uncertainty in today's fast-paced business world are prompting a growing number of organizations - profit and not-for-profit alike - to seek guidance in their concomitant change efforts. External and internal consultants and change agents have become increasingly visible in most, if not all, organizational change initiatives. Individual consultants and consulting firms are becoming increasingly involved in not only providing organizational clients with advice and new ideas but in implementing those ideas and solutions as well. Yet, despite this rapid growth and influence, management consulting is still often criticized for its mystery and ambiguity.

The basic objectives of this research series are to further the links and dialogue between applied scholars and scholarly practitioners in the consulting field, capturing innovative empirical and conceptual research and field experience, and disseminating the resulting insight to a broad range of practitioners, academicians and organizational executives. Targeted articles will focus on a wide range of topics, encompassing research on: the consulting industry itself, including the management, marketing and expansion of professional services firms; critical examination of current trends in the consulting field; conceptualization and evaluation of intervention techniques and strategies; and reflections on consulting experiences. Interdisciplinary and international perspectives on these different topics are strongly encouraged, as are perspectives from both internal and external consultants and change agents.