Connecting Power Dynamics and Knowledge Sharing within Consultants’ and Clients’ Relationships

The aim of our study was to further investigate how power dynamics affect knowledge sharing through the perspective of consultants and within their relationships with clients. More specifically, we are hoping to better understand how consultants’ perceived power dynamics affect their collaboration with their clients and how they share their expertise. We have chosen to conduct a qualitative study with and have semi-structured interviews with consultants. According to our findings, the two concepts are highly connected since power and knowledge seem to be inseparable. Looking through the different consultants’ and clients’ relationships, this study reveals the existence of mutual dependencies and imbalances which affect the movement of knowledge as an outcome of the working process. The presence of collaboration is evident in our results and the existing resistance that clients show appears to facilitate knowledge sharing. Providing different examples of collaboration by the consultants, we argue that power dynamics evolve differently in different relations between the two main actors of the study and either work as an obstacle or facilitate the exchange of information, expertise, skills and know-how