Download or read book Emerging Trends and Issues in Management Consulting written by Anthony F. Buono and published by IAP. This book was released on 2009-04-01 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The ninth volume in the Research in Management Consulting (RMC) series—much like the volumes that preceded it—underscores that management consulting is a multifaceted field with a truly eclectic nature. Management consultants range from sole practitioners and those working in small boutique firms to members of global consultancies that literally span the world. Their interventions can consist of relatively simple, commonly available services focused on mid- to lower level organizational members, to those that are far more esoteric in nature, providing vital assistance and direction to key players at the upper echelons of the corporate hierarchy. As consultants we can have individuals, groups and work units, or organizations as our “client,” and engagements can be dominated by junior-level specialists or guided by senior-level gurus and advisors. The volume contains 11 chapters that continue the RMC series’ commitment to enhancing our understanding of and insight into management consulting and the consulting process from a cross-cultural, global perspective. The book is divided into three sections that explore emerging issues and challenges in the management consulting industry, trends and techniques in management consulting interventions, and reflections on consulting and the consulting process. This volume, which captures the dual nature—possibilities and challenges — associated with management consulting, adds to the Janus-faced portrayal of the field. Drawing on the interplay between practice and scholarship, the volume adds to the series goal of gaining a fuller understanding of management consulting theory in practice and practice in context in a quest for actionable knowledge about consultants, consultancies and the consulting process.

Download or read book Management Consulting Today and Tomorrow written by Flemming Poulfelt and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-09-01 with total page 452 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This new edition gathers more than 22 experts to outline the theory behind consulting, providing insight into change processes and management issues in the field. The business of consulting has grown faster than most other businesses, due not only to increased demand by clients, but also to the innovative capabilities of numerous consulting firms as they develop new services. Divided into six parts, the book introduces readers to the consulting industry, addressing the major practice areas, contexts, and implementations of the field. Significant updates detail the effect of the economic troubles between 2004 and 2010 and then 2010 and now; analyze the market response to consulting in recent years; and provide a more thorough understanding of how consulting is applied in the different areas of a business, such as operations, marketing, and finance. Introductions written by the editors offer further insight into the themes and learning goals of each section, helping readers to recognize the elements of a successful consultation, and utilize their new skill set. The text concludes with a look at the future of consulting with regards to ethics standards and how strong manager-client relationships contribute to financial growth. Readers will also learn how the developing field of entrepreneurship creates new economic structures and job opportunities. Practitioners, consultants, clients, faculty, and students of business and management will learn not only how to consult, but also gain the skills needed to adapt to and lead organizational change, giving them a competitive edge when they enter the field.

Download or read book Exploring the Professional Identity of Management Consultants written by Anthony F. Buono and published by IAP. This book was released on 2013-03-01 with total page 391 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The volume is based on the presentations and discussions from the Fifth European Conference on Management Consulting sponsored by the Management Consulting Division of the Academy of Management, which took place June, 2011 at Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The conference theme – Exploring the Professional Identity of Management Consultants – attempted to capture the highly ambiguous social status of this young and emerging profession. Management consulting does not have professional standards or accreditation criteria like those found in medicine or law, there are low barriers to entry, and a broad range of tasks are undertaken in the name of consulting. As a result, a crucial aspect of what constitutes such a loosely defined profession is the identity of its members. The professional identity of management consultants is continuously developing through the interplay of how consultants are seen and valued by clients as well as in the larger society, and how consultancy firms and consultants identify and position themselves. This theme includes a variety of topics, ranging from the interaction between consultants and their clients, consultant rhetoric and self-presentation, and the plethora of books, media and public discourse on consulting, to human resource policies and practices, knowledge development activities of consultancy firms, career and life stories of consultants and consultancies, and consulting associations, accreditation bodies, and education programs. All of these factors contribute, either directly or indirectly, to identity construction in the field of management consulting.

Download or read book Preparing Better Consultants written by Susan Adams and published by IAP. This book was released on 2011-12-01 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume focuses on a relatively neglected area of management consulting, the education of consultants. In today’s business world, we find training programs provided by consultancies, certification programs provided by professional organizations, on-the-job training of consultants with formal or informal supervision, self-taught professionals, and some academic programs and courses. Is that enough? No, better consultants are needed to handle the complexity and changing nature of business. Academe is in the best position to provide the critical thinking preparation necessary. Yet, academic institutions have been slow in embracing this challenge. The role of academia needs to grow in magnitude and in certain directions that educate consultants beyond industry training practices. Chapter authors provide examples of innovative programs, topical approaches for courses, and thoughtful reflections on the role academia can play in preparing better consultants. There are lessons for business schools, consultancies, and aspiring and practicing consultants.

Download or read book Current Trends in Management Consulting written by Anthony F. Buono and published by IAP. This book was released on 2001-10-01 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Volume One in this series focuses on current trends in the management consulting industry. It is divided into three sections: (1) a look at some of the broad changes taking place in the management consulting industry, (2) an examination of recent trends and techniques in the practice of management consulting, and (3) reflections on the current state of affairs in the industry. As this brief overview has hopefully captured, the first volume in this series provides ample insight into and differing perspectives on the multi-faceted world of management consulting. Thanks are due to all the authors for their thoughtful work, good-natured colleagueship, and willingness to contribute their thoughts and insights about the consulting field. This volume would not have been possible without their efforts.

Download or read book Management Consultancy Insights and Real Consultancy Projects written by Graham Manville and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-10-05 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The field of management consultancy research has grown rapidly in recent years. Fuelled by the drivers of complexity and uncertainty, a growing number of organizations – both profit and third sector alike – are looking at management consultancy to assist in their aims for development and change. Consultants have become a common feature in organizational change initiatives, involved in both providing advice and in implementing ideas and solutions. However, despite this growing recognition and influence, management consultancy is still often misunderstood or criticized for its lack of theoretical underpinning. The book seeks to address these issues by offering applied theoretical insights from academics that both teach and practice management consultancy. Written by recognized experts in their field, the contributors combine original insights with authoritative analysis. Uniquely, this book identifies emerging themes with critical discourse and provides rich empirical case study evidence to show the reader how management consultancy projects are implemented. Real-world international consultancy projects are featured as written up cases featuring organizations from multi-national corporations to the public sector. Written for graduate level managers or those who have practical leadership experience, this book will enable readers to apply management consultancy models beyond a classroom context

Download or read book The Dynamics and Challenges of Tetranormalization written by Henri Savall and published by IAP. This book was released on 2013-03-01 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume continues the collaboration between the RMC book series and the French management research think tank ISEOR (Socio-Economic Institute for Firms and Organizations). Those familiar with Henri Savall’s and his colleague Véronique Zardet’s earlier work on the socio-economic theory of organizations will recognize their assessments of organizational dysfunctions and hidden costs – but in a different context. In their current work, the emphasis is on the tensions created by the wider environment – the idea of tetranormalization – and how those tensions shape and influence organizational life. Drawing on a wide range of examples from the news media and popular press, Savall and Zardet paint a disturbing picture of the underlying dynamics and challenges posed by a literal avalanche of standards and norms – which are often ambiguous and conflicting – that literally encompasses all that we do. Their analytic framework is composed of four “poles” – two social dimensions and two economic dimensions – that capture social norms and quality, safety and environment standards (the social dimension), and trade-related norms and accounting and financial standards (the economic dimension). Throughout the volume, Savall and Zardet’s analysis captures the myriad ways in which these dimensions interact, shaping the “rules of the game” that dictate how organizations compete and collaborate. Differentiating the “rules of the game” from “playing with” those rules, they delve into the subtleties and nuances that underlie these “poles,” providing further insight into how these forces are manipulated through lobbying and the seemingly 24/7 cycle of exposing, publicizing and rule-making surrounding social and economic as well as scientific and technological controversies. As Savall and Zardet argue, we are in the midst of a profound upheaval that will play havoc with our economic and social lives for some time to come. If we are going to exert influence on that reality, the challenges that we face moving forward must be conceptualized, constructed and implemented today, for, as they argue, “the road to durable prosperity will be a long haul.” Yet, moving beyond these challenges per se, they underscore that we are also presented with an exceptional opportunity – the very real opportunity to create a sustainable commitment to responsible and responsive organizational performance, one that can be fuelled and financed by our ability to translate the hidden costs that exist in all our organizations into productive, value-added activities and true wealth creation. Their analysis presents an intriguing challenge to traditional notions of corporate social responsibility, delving into the idea of “durably acceptable” responsibility, ways to facilitate greater stakeholder engagement, and how we can capture ongoing and sustainable improvement in organizational performance.

Download or read book Management Consulting written by International Labour Office and published by International Labour Organization. This book was released on 2002 with total page 936 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New topics covered in this edition include: e-business consulting; consulting in knowledge management; total quality management; corporate governance; social role and responsibility of business; company transformation and renewal; and public administration.

Download or read book The Changing Paradigm of Consulting written by Anthony F. Buono and published by IAP. This book was released on 2011-05-01 with total page 465 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 13th volume in the RMC series, The Changing Paradigm of Consulting, is based on the best papers presented at the Academy of Management’s Management Consulting Division’s fourth international conference (2009) on the underlying dynamics within the fast-paced world of business and management consulting. Held in Vienna, Austria, the conference brought together academicians, consultants and organizational practitioners to examine the changes taking place within the consulting field. The book’s 19 chapters are divided into five sections that explore the emergence and implications of this new paradigm, delineating and illustrating the paradigm shift taking placing within consulting, exploring the ramifications for global consulting, examining the challenges inherent in attempts to capture collaboration and cooperation in inter-organizational networks, analyzing the push toward the professionalization – and professionalism – of consultancy, and assessing new approaches to management consulting, focusing on innovative instruments, tools and intervention frameworks. The book captures the myriad complexities and uncertainties faced by consultants and their clients and the concomitant search for appropriate mindsets, attitudes and orientations as well as methods, tools and techniques. As each of the chapters indicates, while there are significant challenges facing the consulting industry, there are also a number of promising frameworks and approaches that can help us successfully meet these challenges.

Download or read book Facilitating Collaboration in Public Management written by Ralph Grossmann and published by IAP. This book was released on 2012-10-01 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Education, Research, Health, Social Security and other “public goods” are organized by a mix of organizations, partly publicly-funded, partly private enterprises, partly public-private partnerships. The quality of the services relies greatly on the coordination and collaboration of these specialized organizations. How can cooperative relationships be built that guarantee trustful communication, binding decisions, and productive team-work? How can collaboration and competition be balanced? What are the differences between loose-coupled networks and tightly built collaborations and which type is the best solution for which tasks? How can mergers be managed as result of such collaboration? How must organizations prepare themselves and their internal structures to engage in trans-organizational collaboration? This volume investigates the potential and challenges inherent in collaborative ventures. It is based on the authors’ rich experiences derived from consulting engagements and research projects in publicly-funded service organizations, non-profit organizations, public-private partnerships, and for-profit enterprises. The focus is on the role that management consultants can play in facilitating such collaborative ventures. Especially within the European context, this particular organizational form is becoming an increasingly common and powerful type of organizational system, and, as such, interventions that can ease and expedite their performance demand our attention and scholarship. As the authors skillfully document and illustrate, cooperative relationships and networks function according to their own underlying logic, which is typically grounded in a spirit of collaboration and negotiation. As they argue, the resulting dynamic reflects a different perspective on building interpersonal, intergroup, and interorganizational relationships, one that is removed from historic attempts at coordination through tight hierarchical control, which, as they underscore, is often “inflexible, bureaucratic, and incapable” of achieving the level of commitment and dedication necessary for success. Collaborative ventures involve goals that must be jointly pursued, the partnerships must strive for levels commitment, involvement and motivation from their members that go well beyond those that hierarchical top-down structures typically provide. As the authors convincingly demonstrate, such high levels of collaboration do not emerge on their own. Mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, partnerships, and strategic alliances are often launched with great fanfare, only to fall well short of pre-venture expectations. To truly work in practice, collaborative relationships and networks must be deliberately formed, developed, organized, and guided. Yet, as this volume amply illustrates, the underlying process is infused with a number of tensions – from the challenge of balancing collaboration and competition, to the appropriate mix of loose-tight controls and linkages, to ensuring commitment from members to the partnership while they maintain allegiance to their primary organization. This volume appeals to an international market. It is part of an effort to continue to learn across cultural perspectives, focusing on current thinking in the European context. The reader will become intrigued by the Austrian approach to organizational intervention, especially in the context of interorganizational settings.

Download or read book Advances in Consulting Research written by Volker Nissen and published by Springer. This book was released on 2018-10-18 with total page 423 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book brings together cutting-edge research on consulting in a single volume, thus helping to make the state-of-the-art in the field of consulting research more accessible, to promote better practices in business, and to spark further research. The respective articles approach consulting from very different angles, taking into account various approaches for and fields of consulting, consulting providers, clients and markets, as well as technologies and trends. The book will benefit all consultants who want to critically reflect on their own methods and approaches in light of recent scientific findings. It also offers a helpful guide for students in Management and IT-related courses who are either considering a career in consulting or want to be informed consulting clients. Lastly, the book provides a comprehensive review of current developments and trends in consulting that will foster future contributions in this important research field.

Download or read book The Qualimetrics Approach written by Henri Savall and published by IAP. This book was released on 2011-06-01 with total page 441 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The impetus for this work emerged from Savall’s belief that there is a doubleloop interaction between social and economic factors in organizations, between behaviors and structures, and between the quality of life in organizations and their economic performance. When managers underestimate this dynamic interaction, the resulting tension ultimately manifests in lowered performance and increased costs, what he refers to as the “hidden costs” of organizational life. Only by delving into the depths of these organizational dynamics can we hope to fully understand – and create the basis for improving – organizational performance. The Qualimetrics Approach presents a different and challenging way of thinking about analyzing organizations, one that draws together quantitative information, financial analysis and qualitative insights into organizational dynamics. As Savall and Zardet argue, to gain a true understanding of what is happening in organizations, intervener-researchers must focus on all three perspectives, as ignoring any one of them will lead to incomplete understandings. Their approach underscores the importance of using qualitative data to validate quantitative depictions (“the numbers”) of organizational performance in understanding the construction of financial statements. The strength of Savall and Zardet’s approach is that it pushes us to go deeper, to fully understand the narratives underlying the numbers and the social construction of our financial assessments.

Download or read book Consultation for Organizational Change written by Anthony F. Buono and published by IAP. This book was released on 2010-09-01 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume is a joint publication in the Research in Management Consulting and Contemporary Trends in Organizational Change and Development series. This dual focus reflects the reality that consulting for organizational change is a special type of management consultation, a complex field of endeavor that requires a broad range of skills and competencies. To be truly effective, change-related consulting requires a unique client-consultant relationship, a special set of consulting skills, an expertise in human and organizational systems, and significant personal qualities. It is in high demand in a world full of change. Yet, we still know relatively little theoretically about this type of consulting and have relatively little empirical evidence about what actually works and why. As the contributors amply illustrate, the Organization Development (OD) field has a well developed set of frameworks, technologies, and models of change. Still we need to focus on and learn more about the role of the OD consultant as a special kind of change agent. A goal of this joint volume is to increase that specific body of knowledge and provide an illustration of much needed collaboration in bringing all possible resources to bear on our understanding of an increasingly critical and essential form of consulting.

Download or read book Work and People written by Henri Savall and published by IAP. This book was released on 2010-03-01 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The reprint of Henri Savall’s classic Work and People, originally published in French in 1974, is part of the Research in Management Consulting series effort to look backward as well as forward in examining trends, perspectives, and insights – especially from different countries and cultures – into the world of management consulting. Savall’s insights into the complexity of organizational life were groundbreaking, articulating the need to examine both economic and social factors as part of the same analysis, assessing technical and behavioral patterns through the lens of an integrated framework. As he has argued, there is a double-loop interaction between “the quality of functioning and economic performance,” and underestimating this socio-economic “tension” leads inevitably to reduced performance and losses, which he refers to as “hidden costs.” This approach, referred to as the socio-economic approach to management (SEAM), has significant potential for our thinking about organizational diagnosis and intervention. As Savall emphasizes, the North American tendency to cast people as human “resources” misses the essential point that human beings cannot be considered as simply another resource at the organization’s disposal. People are free to give or withhold their energy as they desire, depending on the quality of formal and informal contracts and interactions they have with their organizations. As such, the SEAM approach focuses on human “potential,” underscoring the need for managers and their organizations to create the conditions under which people will want to maximize their talents on behalf of the organization. Work and People focuses on the ramifications of this reality, as dysfunctions – the difference between planned and emergent activities and functions – can quickly lead to a series of costs that are “hidden” from an organization’s formal information systems (e.g., income statements, balance sheets, budgets). As his insightful work underscores, as organizations begin to accumulate dysfunction upon dysfunction, they inadvertently undermine their performance and create excessive operating costs, with lower productivity and less efficiency than they could achieve. As readers will discover, the frameworks, tools and ways of thinking about organizations, people and management in this volume – in essence the background to the socio-economic approach to organizational diagnosis and intervention – continue to hold great promise for our attempts to create truly integrative approaches to management and organizational improvement efforts.

Download or read book An Evolving Paradigm written by Anthony F. Buono and published by IAP. This book was released on 2012-05-01 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An Evolving Paradigm: An Evolving Paradigm: Integrative Perspectives on Orgainizational Design, Change, Strategic Management, and Ethics—was prepared specifically for Benedictine University’s doctoral program in organization development (OD). In addressing the myriad strategic considerations that underlie intervening in organizations, questions of posturing, image management, and ethics raise significant challenges for how we think about our role as change agents and the unique set of responsibilities that we assume in that role. An earlier volume in the Research in Management Consulting series, -- Emerging Trends in Management Consulting -- focused on the Janus-faced nature of management consulting. Janus, the Roman god of doorways and gateways, looking backwards and forwards with contrasting perspectives—beginnings and endings, comedy and tragedy, good and evil — is a useful analogy to capture the multidimensional nature—positive and negative—of the consulting realm. For all the challenges and shortcomings the field of OD and change might encompass, there are also those magical moments when our interventions succeed, when our efforts truly enhance organizational performance, and when organizational members grow, develop, and become more satisfied with their roles and activities. The reality is that the latter demands our conscious attention, commitment, and, to some degree, sacrifice. When we are less thoughtful than we should be, when we are distracted by other commitments and obligations, or when we find ourselves in situations where we are less than prepared is when Janus’ other face materializes. The volume explores the possibilities and challenges inherent in OD intervention and change initiatives.

Download or read book Strategic Engineering of the Reed written by Henri Savall and published by IAP. This book was released on 2017-06-01 with total page 383 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume is part of an ongoing partnership between the Research in Management Consulting book series and the Socio-Economic Institute for Firms and Organizations (ISEOR), located in Ecully, France, on the outskirts of Lyon. The socio-economic approach to management (SEAM) provides a pathway to creating more engaged, more responsible and responsive, and more productive organizations. In many respects this volume reflects a culmination of ISEOR’s work, drawing together Henri Savall and Veronique Zardet’s insights and framing them in the context of strategy creation and, just as if not more important, strategy implementation. This volume casts SEAM in the context of strategy development and implementation. Reflecting on the changing nature of work and the workplace, the potential power of—and need to develop and build on—human potential has never been greater. Savall and Zardet have always thought that the Western concept of human resources was misguided, that people are not a resource to use up but rather a source of potential to invest in, develop, and nurture. People bring their potential to the organizations in which they work—and it is their choice as to whether they will apply it in their jobs. Thus, a core managerial challenge is to create an environment in which that potential can be maximized. SEAM-based strategy builds on this premise, developing an approach to economic and social performance, providing direction as to how managers can create and implement strategies that enhance organizational effectiveness and efficiency. As Savall and Zardet argue, strategic vision does not have to be limited by constraints in the external environment—companies “are not compelled to enter in a ‘strategic’ tunnel” that mimics the competition and the market. Instead, companies can experience breakthroughs, turning constraints into opportunities by unleashing their internal energy, power, and cohesion, working and succeeding as a team. The SEAM approach to strategy is grounded in innovation and creation far more than imitation—and, as convincingly illustrated in the volume, that creativity can be self-financed through the value-added created by the elimination of organizational dysfunctions and the hidden costs they generate. The volume provides an insightful guide for enhancing economic and social performance, with a useful mixture of specific tools and techniques—grounded in a conceptual view of organizational life—interspersed throughout that illustrate how it can be done.

Download or read book Ten Years to Midnight written by Blair H. Sheppard and published by Berrett-Koehler Publishers. This book was released on 2020-08-04 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Shows how humans have brought us to the brink and how humanity can find solutions. I urge people to read with humility and the daring to act.” —Harpal Singh, former Chair, Save the Children, India, and former Vice Chair, Save the Children International In conversations with people all over the world, from government officials and business leaders to taxi drivers and schoolteachers, Blair Sheppard, global leader for strategy and leadership at PwC, discovered they all had surprisingly similar concerns. In this prescient and pragmatic book, he and his team sum up these concerns in what they call the ADAPT framework: Asymmetry of wealth; Disruption wrought by the unexpected and often problematic consequences of technology; Age disparities--stresses caused by very young or very old populations in developed and emerging countries; Polarization as a symptom of the breakdown in global and national consensus; and loss of Trust in the institutions that underpin and stabilize society. These concerns are in turn precipitating four crises: a crisis of prosperity, a crisis of technology, a crisis of institutional legitimacy, and a crisis of leadership. Sheppard and his team analyze the complex roots of these crises--but they also offer solutions, albeit often seemingly counterintuitive ones. For example, in an era of globalization, we need to place a much greater emphasis on developing self-sustaining local economies. And as technology permeates our lives, we need computer scientists and engineers conversant with sociology and psychology and poets who can code. The authors argue persuasively that we have only a decade to make headway on these problems. But if we tackle them now, thoughtfully, imaginatively, creatively, and energetically, in ten years we could be looking at a dawn instead of darkness.