Objectification

Listening to Irene Skovgaard Smith on consultants in the processes of objectification, she is writing a paper on the materiality that consultants use in their work. She argues that management consultants' services are viewed as intangible, but that the tangible aspects of their service are overlooked. However, key aspects of consultants' work revolve around producing physical objects that materialise the organisation.

In her talk, she described some objects that consultants used (e.g. brown paper, flip charts) and pointed out that in their sessions with clients they held the pen, were the "pen holders". From what she said, it seems to me that she's seen the physical representation of marketing a service, which is old theory (seven Ps of marketing from Booms & Bitner). The problem for her work, she points out, is that the new trend is to talk about materiality, so how does she position her research and where is she going to publish?

It's relevant to my research and it would help me to be able to cite her, when she's published.