| The Challenges of Developing the Role of the Professional Management Consultant |
| | Harris, Marilyn E. | Central Michigan U. | marilyn.harris@cmich.edu | (313)-393-5163 |
| | Abstract: Management Consulting is one of the fastest developing professions and
one of the most challenging businesses in the newly developing global economy. MC has
developed out of the UNCERTAINTY and COMPLEXITY of a double paradigm shift, and has leaned
heavily on the policies and practices of Organization Development and change strategies. It
is now time to define the consulting approach in a Consulting Systems Worldview, describing the
structure, process and function of the major iterative phases: Entry and contracting, Data Collection and
Diagnosis, Redesign and Action Planning, and Implementation and Evaluation. This article gives the
perspective and relevant history of development of the profession and outlines the boundaries of
consulting approach in describing ethics and values in a systems approach. The paper is part of
larger presentation including discussion of a preferred curriculum and certification for management
consultants.
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| | Keywords: management consulting; profession; |
| In Search of an Integrated Approach to Management Consulting Interventions |
| | Bonnet, Marc | U. of Lyon | iseor@univ-lyon2.fr | 33(0)78330966 |
| | Moore, Rickie | ISEOR / E. M. Lyon / U. of Southern California | Moore@em-lyon.com ; ramoore@bus.usc.edu | 33(0)478330966; 213-740-0762 |
| | Over the last five decades, management theorists, practitioners, researchers, consultants, etc., have been engaged in an ongoing effort to resolve the problems which companies faced. Numerous fads and quick fixes have come and gone and the learning they produced seems to suggest the need for new approach to management interventions.
Developed and experimented since 1976, the socio-economic approach to management (SEAM) research scheme creates a synthesis in which different theories and principles of management are assembled. The resulting framework constitutes an overall architecture for management interventions. |
| | Keywords: integrated; intervention |
| Management Consulting for Sensemaking |
| | Stjernberg, Torbjorn | Göteborg U. | | |
| | Werr, Andreas | Stockholm School of Economics | pmoaw@hhs.se | +46 8 7369742 |
| | Sensemaking processes are emphasized as central for accomplishing organizational change. Although this aspect is recognized in process consultation, it is less explicit in approaches based on expert consultation. The question addressed in this paper is "how does sensemaking take place in change processes built on general models (exemplified by a case of BPR consultation), and how does these processes take place in diagnostic interventions more explicitly built on the notion of diagnosis as the sharing of individuals' cognitive maps (as illustrated by a case where images of the organization were constructed)?
In the following we will argue that general models can make a contribution also in consulting approaches where the sensemaking processes of the client organization's members are focused. This line of argumentation also leads us to question the sharp divide between process and expert consultation, concluding that practice often lies somewhere in-between
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| | Keywords: Consulting; Organization diagnosis; Sensemaking |