“Consultobabble” and the client‐consultant relationship

Consultants are never far from criticism not least because of the so‐called “consultobabble” used it is argued to hide their lack of objectivity or deficiencies in terms of providing useful solutions to improve management processes. Utilising Erving Goffman’s role theory and the idea of conspicuous consumption to explore the client‐consultant relationship and the place of consultobabble within it, this paper suggests however that clients are not really so passive and exploited. Consultobabble is a product of a complex consultant‐client (supply and demand) relationship.