Abstract
This book deals with one of the most ubiquitous phenomena of management practice in the past two decades namely, organizations' increasing use of external providers of various forms of managerial expertise. Instead of having people employed with an certain expertise or specialized competence, it has become increasingly common for organizations to temporarily contract experts from external markets whenever their expertise is needed. In the past few decades in particular, the management advice industry has exploded and today occupies a large and increasing number of people. Although organizations have long relied on advice from lawyers and auditors, during the past two decades we have witnessed an exceptional growth of services such as investment banking, IT consulting, temporary staffing and management consulting. New organizations have emerged to deliver these services, and older types of organizations, such as auditing firms, have added new advisory services to their traditional service portfolio.