ABSTRACT
In Chapter 4 and subsequently this book has reiterated the need for management consultants to have very high professional standards and to behave ethically. But what does ‘behaving ethically’ mean? We usually take this to mean something simple like ‘doing the right thing’, but as McNamara (2006: 32) points out, in consulting ‘the right thing is not always easy to identify’. Poulfelt (1997: 65), in one of the very few academic studies of ethics for management consultants, agrees, commenting that consultants ‘operate in situations which are characterized by ambiguity, ignorance, uncertainty and sensitivity’. Poulfelt also makes the important point that it is not just the consultant who needs to have a strong sense of ethics; clients also need to behave in an ethical manner, and Poulfelt characterises consultancy engagements as having a set of ‘dual ethics’.
