Client-consultant interaction: the dynamics of and conflicts in value co-creation and co-destruction

Abstract

The paper explores how value is co-created and co-destructed in the social interaction between consultants and clients. Prior research on management consultancy as service production has elaborated on the question of how value is co-created in the same context as this paper. However, how value is co-destructed has remained little studied. In this paper, a workshop facilitated by a consultant for a client is studied to conduct a micro-analysis of the dynamics and tensions of co-creation and co-destruction of value. In management consultant services, it is suggested that value and, more specifically, consultant-client relationships can be both co-created and co-destructed through the approach-avoidance motivation of the consultant and the client.