The Temporal and Spatial Boundaries of Work and Nonwork of Business Travellers: A Study of a Multinational Firm in the Consulting Industry

This qualitative study explores the work-nonwork challenges and spatio-temporal role boundaries of hypermobile management consultants working at a Big Four professional firm. It makes three central contributions. First, frequent business travel emerged as a “necessary evil” with adverse consequences at the individual and organisational level. Second, consultants’ spatio-temporal role boundaries were found to be unusually elusive. This contribution offers intellectual opportunities for theorising work and nonwork in novel ways; that is adopting a more fluid perspective on the role content of time and space. Finally, this study offers actionable recommendations which can help management consultancies to achieve a competitive advantage through the strategic management of labour hypermobility.