An Exploration of Communitas Among Road Warriors

Abstract

Consulting services, estimated by Gartner at USD 89.6 billion in 2012, refer to the practice of helping organizations improve performance through analysis of business problems and development of solutions ( Heng, 2013 ). Core to the consulting services are road warriors—consulting professionals who spend their workweek away from home at a client site. Inherent to the distributed nature of their work, road warriors are often dependent on technology-enabled communications to connect with members of their professional community. This study explores how road warriors in a professional services firm engage with one another. The study goes beyond traditional descriptions of community to suggest that road warriors intermingle in a virtual third-place of communitas. Findings suggest how a sense of communitas provides support for road warriors as they juggle family, friends and professional duties. The study has implications for how consulting services firms foster a sense of communitas in their ranks, and how in doing so, they may increase retention of their consulting talent.