Page 69 - Crossing Cultural Boundaries - Cees den Teuling

A variety of definitions on Management Consultancy (MC) are developed and used in the recent decades. One of the many variants is the definition of Greiner and Metzger (1983, p. 5), according to which it is “an advisory service contracted for and provided to organisations by specially trained and qualified persons who assist in an objective and independent manner the client organisation to identify management problems, analyse such problems, recommend solutions and help, when requested, in the implementation of solutions”. As a definition for MC the one proposed by the Institute of Management Consultants (UK) is adopted for this research, according to which “Management Consultancy is the service, provided to business, public and other undertakings, by an independent and qualified person or persons in identifying and investigating problems concerned with policy organisation, procedures and methods, recommending appropriate action and assisting to implementing those recommendations” (www.cimcglobal.org).
The process of consulting can be divided into seven basic stages, which are Scouting, Entry and Contracting, Diagnosis, Negotiating, Intervention and Planning Action, Evaluating, Continuation or Terminating (McLarty & Robinson, 1998). Biech and Swindling (1999) describe advising styles of consultant’s intervention as directing, coaching, supporting and delegating. According to the author, they should be complemented with advising skills as flexibility, diagnosis and contracting. When discussing consultancy and the “Third Party Role”, Kakabadse (1986) indicates that although consultants occupy third party roles, it is misleading to assume that only consultants act as third party facilitators. From medium-size to large organisations, where issues of co-ordination are as paramount as issues of control, line managers are increasingly utilized as third party facilitators. To be effective, they have to develop third party skills, so that they can act as a consultant to other colleague line managers and work with consultants themselves.
Exponential Training and Assessment (2010) separated and defined “Expert Consulting Style” and “Process Consulting Style”, as well as the role of cognitive styles in business and management. According to Farey (2008) the definition and clarification of the roles as Catalyst-developer, Involver-facilitator, Listener-counsellor, Supporter- helper, Researcher-analyst, Instructor-enforcer and Lecturer-director is instrumental for the implementation of SVC in recipient’s organisation. Grolik, Kalmring, Lehner and Frigerio, (2003) characterise the business models of consulting firms and argue that they “depend on the re-employment of experience, as well as on the standardisation of their approaches and methodologies to analyse client problems and issues and provide
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