Sahir, Rita (2016) The Representation of Consultants as Experts in the Popular Press. Masters thesis, Concordia University.
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Abstract
The consultancy profession has become a norm over the years and continues to record increasing entry rates (Glückler & Armbrüster, 2003). A proof of this trend is the growing use of consultants by managers, and the increasing reliance on them, sometimes even without tangible results at the end of their collaboration (Fincham, 1999; Stumpf & Longman, 2000). This phenomenon has not gone unnoticed by academics. Over the past few decades, the consultancy profession has been increasingly discussed and researched in the management literature, but the existing studies seem to display little or no empirical evidence. If academic sources appear to be limited on the subject, the consultancy profession seems to be more exposed in the popular press. Thus, to understand the profession and chart its evolution, studying its representation in the popular press was essential. The popular press bears the responsibilities to disclose the truth to the public and at the same time reflects the latter’s opinion. The credibility granted to the consultancy profession through the press would explain the increased visibility and influence over the years. In order to know whether or not consultants were more used by journalists as sources to corroborate their facts, names and titles of direct quotes from 1978 to 2011, present in the front-page articles of the Business Day Section in the New York Times, were extracted for analysis. The results offer, among other things, a detailed picture of the representation of the consultancy profession over the years, compared to other business human sources used by journalists; valuable insights from journalists and consultants; and the data on consultants contextualized with major financial events.
| Divisions: | Concordia University > John Molson School of Business > Management |
|---|---|
| Item Type: | Thesis (Masters) |
| Authors: | Sahir, Rita |
| Institution: | Concordia University |
| Degree Name: | M.A. Sc. |
| Program: | Business Administration (Management specialization) |
| Date: | 17 March 2016 |
| Thesis Supervisor(s): | Brutus, Stéphane |
| Keywords: | Consulting, Consultancy, Consultants, Experts, Popular Press, New York Times, Business Human Sources, Representation |
| ID Code: | 980969 |
| Deposited By: | RITA SAHIR |
| Deposited On: | 17 Jun 2016 14:39 |
| Last Modified: | 18 Jan 2018 17:52 |
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