Examining the buyers - How Director Generals' observable characteristics influence the spending on management consulting services in public agencies

Sammanfattning: Public organizations have during the past decades rapidly increased their spending on management consulting services (MCS). However, surprisingly little is still known about the hiring of management consultants. Many authors have focused on how and why organizations hire management consultants, but very few have looked at who is involved and even fewer at what role managers' characteristics play. The purpose of this thesis is to shed light on the buyer side of MCS purchases by public agencies, i.e. Director Generals (DG). The aim is to examine the links between DGs' characteristics and spending pattern on MCS as well as possible explanations for the spending patterns. Drawing on upper echelon theory, we formulate hypotheses which are tested using longitudinal data on 103 DGs in 43 Swedish public agencies during 2003-2011. Moreover, six DGs have been interviewed to generate a holistic picture. Key findings include: (i) DGs have a strong influence on the decision to hire consultants. (ii) Consultants are perceived as synonymous to change agents. (iii) DGs who have run public agencies before are spending significantly more (64-69%) on MCS than first-time DGs. (iv) Gender, age, and type and level of education show no significant effects on the spending. (v) A DG's tenure significantly affects the spending on MCS. The thesis contributes to the empirically-driven research of the contextual perspective on management consulting, research on public managers and the power of upper echelon theory. It holds several implications for civil servants, policy makers, and management consulting firms.