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Micro-consultants are from small independent consultancy practices; who sometimes work directly with a single client on embedded assignments. Embedded microconsultants operate within the ambiguous and fragmented environments of their client’s. Micro-consultants have to quickly make sense of their client’s working environments; adapting their operations and identities within these, to ensure appropriate advice and support is provided. When embedded, micro-consultants are usually expected to represent their client; whilst also retaining their independence. Consequently, micro-consultants can sometimes be unsure who they represent (themselves or their client) and which identity aspects they should be promoting. Identity is the sum of, lifestyle, experiences and knowledge of an individual which is developed over time, and provides awareness and guidance for future activities. To some extent micro-consultants can choose which aspects of their identity they wish to promote or suppress. However, some groups can enforce aspects of their identity on their members which can contradict the micro-consultant’s base awareness and guidelines which can lead to dilemmas and uncertainties. This research explores the interactions, changing identities and ensuing tensions of a micro-consultant during a long term embedded assignment with a single client. The ethnographic study uses authoethnographic narrative, along with participant observation techniques and reflective practices, to provide insights on the key influences and other factors which can affect micro-consultant identities. This thesis also provides an indication of the complexities and ambiguities faced by a micro-consultant working on an embedded assignment. The research also highlights some of the many dilemmas and uncertainties facing a micro-consultant in this environment; focussing on identity related dilemmas. These lead to a number of identity related paradoxes for the micro-consultant; including assignment success, relationships and the provision of knowledge. There have been many corporate ethnographic studies examining different parts of organisation behaviour, including consultancy houses and organisation change environments. However, this is the first study to provide detailed insights into the world of a micro-consultant change management specialist, his operations interactions and dilemmas; providing a significant contribution to the world of management consultancy and organisation behaviour.

This thesis makes a generalisable contribution to the development of a dynamic relationship approach to the theory and practice of quality management in professional services. A value generation system and practitioner tools are proposed as a result of a synthesis of literature from multiple disciplines, grounded in empirical research. The methodology involves an analysis of detailed case studies carried out by the author when acting as a consultant researcher. This is supported by the findings of a skills questionnaire sent to client contacts who had experienced ISO 9000 consultancy, together with a key incident survey of satisfying and dissatisfying incidents. Customer service research provides an analysis of customer perceived value within a service exchange (Zeithaml et al, 1990; Ghobadian et al, 1994; Patterson et al, 1997; Groth and Dye, 1999). Relationship marketing literature provides an analysis of customer perceived value in a relationship between two organisations (Halinen, 1997; Hakansson, 1995; Storbacka et al, 1994; Payne, 1995; Juttner et al, 1994, Ford et al, 1998). A relationship process structure identified in counselling literature is shown to be complementary to consultancy at the episode level. Comparable higher relationship levels relating to the assignment process and account development processes are identified within consultancy and relationship marketing literature respectively and integrated within the proposed system. A critique of the registration approach to quality management systems (ISO 9000: 1994 and its successor ISO 9000: 2000) is included as a necessary factor in forming an opinion about the generalisability of the research findings.

Les prestations de conseils se développent de façon ininterrompue depuis plusieurs décennies et la relation client-consultant apparait selon les travaux en sciences de gestion comme un facteur explicatif essentiel de leur performance. Cette revue de littérature montre que le thème du conseil reste peu développé, notamment en France, et qu’il nécessite un large développement dans les années à venir, notamment avec le changement des environnements et pratiques professionnels. Également, la plupart des travaux s’intéressent à la figure du consultant et assez peu à la relation de conseil. Ainsi nos travaux ont pour objet de contribuer à une meilleure compréhension de ce qu’elle est et de sa dynamique.Nous proposons dans cette contribution d’utiliser les apports du courant de la sociologie pragmatique et de la sociologie de la traduction (ANT : Actor Network Theory) afin de définir le processus de relation de conseil. À partir d’une démarche qualitative, nous avons identifié un modèle de la relation de conseil, appelé LES (Listening, Support, Ethic) décrivant ses trois principales variables (nommées « attributs essentiels ») dans le processus d’opération de traduction de la relation de conseil.L’apport managérial est conséquent car il concerne les acteurs du conseil (conseil en stratégie, management, opérationnels et également les experts-comptables et auditeurs) et quasiment l’ensemble des entreprises de toutes tailles qui font appel ou peuvent solliciter un prestataire pour les accompagner dans leurs activités. / Consultancy services have been developing continuously for several decades and the client-consultant relationship appears according to the work in management sciences as an essential explanatory factor of their performance. This literature review shows that the topic of consulting remains underdeveloped, especially in France, and that it will require significant development in the coming years, including through the change in environments and professional practices. Furthermore, most of the studies focus on the consultant and rather little on the advisory relationship. Thus our work aims to contribute to a better understanding of what it is and its dynamics.In this research, we propose to use the contributions of the current of pragmatic sociology and translation sociology (ANT: Actor Network Theory) in order to define the process of the consultancy relationship. Through a qualitative approach, we identified a model of the consulting relationship, called LES (Listening, Support, Ethic) describing its three main attributes (called "essential attributes") in the process of translating the consulting relationship.The managerial contribution is significant because it concerns the actors of consulting (strategy consulting, management, operational and also chartered accountants and auditors) and almost all companies of all sizes that call upon or can solicit a service provider to support them in their activities.