Inflated Expertise, Deflated Ethics? Navigating the Ethical Dilemmas of Confidence versus Transparency in Consulting

Sweering Eva

Management Consulting Journal, 2025, vol. 8, issue 2, 63-68

Abstract: This essay explores the ethical implications of expertise inflation in the management consulting industry, a practice where consultants present uncertain or speculative knowledge as definitive. Drawing on qualitative insights from an anonymized case study featuring an Associate Manager at a global consultancy, it critically evaluates this issue through consequentialism, moral disengagement theory and virtue ethics. Additionally, a comprehensive stakeholder analysis demonstrates the broader impact on clients, consulting firms, employees, and society. Acknowledging the limitations of current professional codes, such as the Dutch OOA Code of Conduct, the essay proposes practical solutions including enhanced ethical training, explicit ethical guidelines, and fostering an organizational culture of transparency and integrity.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.2478/mcj-2025-0009 (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:vrs:mancon:v:8:y:2025:i:2:p:63-68:n:1003

DOI: 10.2478/mcj-2025-0009

Access Statistics for this article

Management Consulting Journal is currently edited by Simon Haslam

More articles in Management Consulting Journal from Sciendo
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Peter Golla ().