Management Consultancy Firms and Hythloday’s Island: Utopian Visions of the Most Desired of Workplaces

ABSTRACT Many business graduates regard management consultancy firms as a desirable, even utopian, career destination. Hythloday’s description of the island of Utopia identifies several characteristics that resonate with aspects of the management consulting industry. They include its separation from the rest of humanity, the Utopians’ attitude to acquiring knowledge, their commitment to their way of life, their attitude to work, the governance structure of their state, and their attitude to wealth. These characteristics may be compared and contrasted with management consultancy firms’ elite identities, their knowledge intensity, their use of standardized methods, their cultural commitment to intensive work, the autonomy that they allow their members in their practice, and their commitment to achieving ambitious financial targets. This article uses Thomas More’s Utopia (1516) as an analytical framework for understanding the utopian visions of management consulting that some business graduates form, and for exploring how alternative, perhaps better, visions might be imagined.