Corporate consultancy is a high-profile economic sector, with significant growth in employment levels across Europe in recent years. Nevertheless, the sector faces certain problems with regard to working conditions. Research findings indicate that consultancy work is characterised by high workload, increased work pressure, long working hours and considerable demand for mobility.
Corporate consultancy is a typical field of so-called post-Taylorist work forms. Despite its economic importance today, not much evidence exists concerning the working conditions in the sector. In 2005 and 2006, the Working Life Research Centre (Forschungs- und Beratungsstelle Arbeitswelt, FORBA) set out to examine the working life of corporate consultants in Austria. The explorative qualitative study You need a high energy level: The working life of corporate consultants (Man braucht ein sehr hohes Energieniveau. Zum Arbeitsalltag von UnternehmensberaterInnen (summary, 66Kb PDF)) offers initial insights into the working conditions of consultants. It shows that employees pay a high price for interesting and prestigious jobs which are characterised by a great degree of autonomy, project-based work and high income.
Research methodology and sample
The study is partly based on secondary analysis which highlights the main features of this much differentiated sector. The main part of the research consists of an explorative study, including qualitative interviews with 22 corporate consultants in 18 companies; in line with the gender distribution in the sector, seven female and 15 male consultants were interviewed. The interviewees cover the most important areas of consultancy services: management (strategic and process-oriented), corporate finance, information technology (IT), human resources (HR), and marketing and public relations. The study focuses on company structures, employment contracts, work practices, career development and work pressure.
Sector profile
In Austria, consultancy services are mainly provided by small enterprises: 95% of consultancies employ fewer than 10 people. Consultancy services represent high-qualified expert work; the fact that 80% of the sector’s workers have a university degree is an indicator in this regard. Moreover, professional experience and social competence are important employment criteria in the sector: practical experience constitutes a key element of consultancy competence and ‘learning by doing’ represents the dominant mode of knowledge gain. The average age of consultants is relatively young while the employee turnover rate is high; this suggests that it is not easy to grow old in this profession.
Working conditions
Constant work pressure
According to one of the interviewees, ‘you need very high energy levels’. This statement summarises the work profile of business consultants. The sector’s economic situation is characterised by a highly competitive market, combined with fierce internal competition in large consultancy companies. This has a number of negative effects on working conditions in the sector. The short project life cycle and the limited scope for long-term planning, which are an inherent part of consultancy services, entail high workloads, time pressure and long working hours. All of these aspects constitute the main stress factors for workers in the sector.
In addition, a high demand for mobility and stressful client behaviour contribute significantly to the stress level in this profession. Altogether, these aspects lead to high work pressures and constant feelings of excessive demands. It thus appears that a tough and robust physical and mental state in terms of a high stress tolerance is a precondition to work as a consultant.
The high income and prestigious professional status offered, on the one hand, and the great interest in the content of consultancy work, on the other, represent two distinct features of motivation. This also explains why consultants accept such high workloads.
Work-centred approach to life
According to the research findings, consultants live for their work. A 40-hour working week seems almost impossible in terms of working time. Not one of the consultants surveyed worked a 40-hour week: the majority of the interviewees (14) work 50 to 60 hours a week or more, including regular work at weekends. This is especially the case for self-employed consultants.
Work performance and the professional career are the dominant aspects of the personal life of the interviewed consultants. Their private life is thus often reduced to their work environment. As a result, such limitations in terms of maintaining friendships outside work are often compensated through large professional networks. The majority of the interviewees live in partnerships which are compatible with their professional life style. For instance, the partner has the same work-centred approach to life with similar preferences, which ensures that both partners accept cutbacks in their private life. Others prefer the male breadwinner model and use the traditional gender division of labour as a basis for their work-centred approach.
Commentary
The study on the working life of corporate consultants provides an excellent insight into the characteristics of consultancy work – a typical sector of post-Taylorist work forms. The survey findings show that consultants have to pay a high price for a job characterised by high work autonomy, interesting content and generous income. In order to gain these advantages, consultants have to accept heavy workloads, increased time pressure, long working hours and the requirement for mobility. In view of the overall high level of work pressure, including the necessity of a work-centred approach to life, working conditions in consultancy work do not seem to be sustainable on a long-term basis. The low average age of consultants and the high turnover rate underline this conclusion.
Manfred Krenn, Working Life Research Centre (Forschungs- und Beratungsstelle Arbeitswelt, FORBA)