Dissolved Before It Surfaces - A Qualitative Study of How the MBB Firms Discursively Navigate Institutional Complexity Between High Performance and Wellbeing in Employer Branding

Sammanfattning

This thesis examines how McKinsey & Company, Boston Consulting Group, and Bain & Company discursively navigate institutional complexity between the competing logics of high performance and wellbeing in their employer branding. While these firms consistently rank among the most attractive employers for graduates, they operate under structural conditions where performance demands and wellbeing expectations are difficult to align. Drawing on qualitative text analysis and thematic coding of career-facing content from their corporate websites, the study identifies key mechanisms through which this discursive navigation unfolds - including strategic ambiguity, selective visibility, and the construction of an ideal candidate. It further shows how wellbeing emphasis functions as legitimacy work, and suggests that the persistence of tension may itself serve a strategic positioning purpose. Theoretically, the study challenges an underlying assumption in institutional complexity research: competing logics must first become visible before organizations respond. In response to this problematization, it introduces the concept of a pre-recognition logic, in which a tension can be dissolved before it becomes visible. It further contributes to employer branding research by showing how the multidimensionality of wellbeing constitutes both a resource and constraint for discursive navigation. The findings carry practical implications for prospective candidates, the MBB firms, and the broader field of elite professional services.