Advice that resonates: explaining the variability in consultants’ policy influence

Abstract

The increased presence of management consultants in public policy has resulted in concerns from practitioners and policymakers that consultants are too influential. At the same time, there are genuine reasons to downplay consultant influence on policy processes and to instead see consultants as ‘servants of power’. This tension raises questions about how much influence consultants have and the ways in which their influence might vary. Previous studies have shown how two concepts—openness and trust—are useful in understanding variability of consultant influence. As part of this, public decision-makers must be open to the involvement of consultants in a reform process and must also trust the specific consultants involved. At the same time, limited consideration has, to date, been given to discursive explanations of variability. Focusing its analysis on the influence of coalitions on education policy, this paper’s main contribution is to show that consultants will be more influential when their discursive repertoire demonstrates resonance with the narratives of the coalitions they are trying to influence. As part of this, consultants should deploy concepts and language that are recognisable to those coalitions, but which also align with the coalitions’ underlying narratives about the problem being faced and appropriate solutions.