Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Business consultants'

Problem: A decisive majority of Swedish firms are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and studies indicate that most of these lack, among other things, financial resources, which often limit smaller firms from implementing sustainable practices. Since SMEs compete with larger enterprises, with more established departments and therefore, they cannot strategize their sustainability work to the same extent. The problem emerges when requirements from stakeholders, based on the 2030 agenda, cannot be met due to lacking organizational abilities. Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to gain an understanding of how sustainability consultants support SMEs in their sustainable development work. The research, therefore, investigated the practical processes of consultants when they work with SMEs. The varying processes between sustainability consultants will also be investigated, so similarities and differences can be discovered in their processes. Method: The research conducted follows a grounded theory, an exploratory approach, an abductive research design, all under an interpretive philosophy. The primary data collected consists of semi-structured interviews with sustainability consultants in the Jönköping area. Following the grounded theory, this included three stages of analysis namely open coding, axial coding, and selective coding. During selective coding, it is critical to use an abductive design to ground the empirical findings in existing literature and theory. The analyzed findings were thereafter transformed into a proposed model which is supported by both the empirical findings and theory. Conclusion: Sustainability consultants can support SMEs with their knowledge and expertise when developing sustainable business practices in smaller firms. This research also contributes to a proposed model that shows the process for SMEs and further explains how SMEs and consultants can work together to develop strategic goals for regenerative firms. However, it is noted that contextual factors and specific gains in knowledge cannot be conveyed in a model. Although, describing the processes of knowledge transfer using an adaption of agile methodology was found suitable for this study. Conclusively, the model’s success is highly based on contextual factors such as firm maturity and the knowledge of the consultant in the specific field under development.

Across the world, the global economy that is emerging since the last decade of the 20^th century has resulted in levels of complexity within the business environment, organization are undergoing changes in different form in response to a global competitive business environment. This business environment characterized by uncertainty, increasing risk and decreasing forecast ability may requires a new managerial mindset focused on flexibility, creativity, innovation and possible transformation (Crossan et al. 2008; Wu et al. 2007).

The research study is stimulated within the management and development process in the organization that help leader think and work toward transformative possibilities, for organization to achieve effectiveness it is crucial that the unique talent of its employees be developed and utilized. Furthermore, organization involved in adapting, recreating and transformation might require a leader with transformative behaviors. However, the possibility of the leaders’ lack of time and knowledge in implementing his or her vision may require the organization to external sources and competences such as the consultant (Ciulla. 2004; Liden et al. 2008)

The objective of the study is to understand the nature of transformation within organization, the processes involved and the possible roles consultants might play if any within the processes that lead to transformative possibilities.

The theoretical framework of the research is built on the many researches by Bass (1998), Bass & Riggio (2006),Northouse (2004) of transformational leadership as an effective leadership development in the full range leadership model. The research methodology was qualitative by means of the grounded theory approach, case interviews of two consulting firms in Sweden was made. Unstructured open ended interview was conducted with four respondents.

The empirical data analysis shows that consultants are involved in the transformational leadership processes within organization with the consultant being aware or not as a result of the peculiarity of the Swedish management style that embodies traits suitable and compatible with transformational leadership concept.

In conclusion, there are many processes that the consultant can be useful within the organization in achieving effectiveness and the consultant may play different roles in different context within the processes of transformational leadership.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2000.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Management consulting refers to the area of intervention, which is assistance to entrepreneurs, managers and other decision-makers in business management and the public sector. The study will cover the area of management consulting and the primary focus of this study is companies presently doing business as Management Consulting firms with a global presence. The study excludes software vendors and management consulting firms that specialise only in implementing computer software systems like Oracle, SAP, etcetera. There are a great number of firms offering management consulting among other services like auditing for example. Prominent among these are the major accounting firms namely Ernst and Young, Deloitte Consulting, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, and Arthur Andersen. They form part of this study. Marketing has become a more critical need than ever and it has become an important and influential factor in building and maintaining a profitable enterprise. The marketing of a product and or service is very important and the question can be posed whether management consulting firms have clear marketing strategies and tactics, or whether they stumbled onto their success in attracting clients per chance. The purpose of this study is to identify existing marketing strategies and tactics being used by management consulting firms. The objective is to determine the nature of the compilation of a structured framework for an effective standardised marketing strategy plan. The problem statement is the following: "How can marketing strategies and tactics for management consulting firms be used as an effective marketing tool to attract business for the consulting firm?" The greatest problem concerning this study is the fact that minimal research and literature has been directly compiled on thé topic. It was therefore a study on opinions, viewpoints, books in general on the topic of marketing as well as the daily media was researched to determine and evaluate possible existing marketing strategies and tactics. Since the field of marketing strategies and tactics for management consulting services and firms is relatively new, the exploratory research approach was used. Chapter 1 deals with the purpose, objective, problem statement and research methodology. Chapter 2 involves a literature study to define the term and scope of management consulting, and an overview of the management consulting process is given. Chapters 3 identifies and evaluates the existing marketing strategies and tactics of management consulting firms. Chapter 4 explores differentiation based on service and skills as well as industry specialisation. The question that needs to be answered is whether management consulting firms should be specialists or generalists. Chapter 5 addresses pricing. The different approaches to costing and fee setting are discussed. The study is completed in chapter 6 with conclusions and recommendations.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Bestuurs konsultasie verwys na die area van intervensie waar hulp aan entrepreneurs, bestuurders en ander besluitnemers in die private en publieke sektor verleen word. Hiedie studie dek die area van bestuurs konsultasie en die primêre fokus van die studie is firmas wat tans konsultasie firmas bedryf met 'n internasionale teenwoordigheid. Hierdie navorsings verslag fokus op die bemarkings taktiek en strategieë van bestuurs konsultasie firmas. Die studie sluit sagteware firmas en bestuurs konsultasie firmas uit wat uitsluitlik spesialiseer in die implementering en instandhouding van rekenaar sagteware. Voorbeelde van sulke firmas is Oracle en SAP. Daar is 'n groot aantal firmas wat bestuurs konsultasie saam met ander dienste soos byvoorbeeld ouditering aanbied. Prominent onder hierdie groep is Ernst and Young, Deloitte Consulting, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, and Arthur Andersen. Hulle vorm deel van hierdie studie. Bemarking van die diens word al hoe meer belangriker as ooit en dit is 'n kritiese faktor om 'n winsgewende firma te bedryf. Die bemarking van 'n produk of diens is baie belangrik en die vraag kan gevra word of bestuurs konsultasie firmas uitgewerkte bemarking strategieë en taktiek het om kliënte te werf, en of hulle per toeval daarin slaag om besigheid te kry. Die doel van hierdie studie is om bestaande bemarkingstrategieë en-taktiek wat deur bestuurskonsultasie firmas gebruik word, te evalueer. Die doelwit is om die aard van die gestruktureerde raamwerk vir 'n effektiewe gestandardiseerde bemarkingsplan te bepaal. Die probleem stelling is as volg: "Hoe kan bemarkings taktiek en strategieë vir bestuurskonsultasie firmas gebruik word as 'n effektiewe bemarkingsmiddel ten einde besigheid vir die konsultasie firma te lok?" 'n Groot probleem is dat minimale navorsing en literatuur aangaande die onderwerp opgestel is. Dit gaan dus 'n studie wees van opinies, standpunte, asook boeke in die algemeen oor die onderwerp bemarking. Die daaglikse media gaan ook nagevors word om die moontlikheid van bemarkingstartegiëe en taktiek te bepaal. Aangesien die veld van bemarkingtaktiek en -strategiëe vir bestuurskonsultasie firmas redelik nuut is, gaan die eksploratiewe navorsings metode gebruik word. Hoofstuk 1 behandel die doel, doelwit, probleemstelling en navorsingsmetodologie. Hoofstuk 2 dek 'n literatuurstudie aangaande die aard en omvang van bestuurs konsultasie, asook 'n oorsig van die bestuurs konsultasie proses. Hoofstuk 3 identifiseer en evalueer die bestaande bemarkingstrategiëe en taktiek van bestuurs konsultasie firmas. Hoofstuk 4 ondersoek differensiasie gebaseer op diens en bevoegdhede sowel as industrie spesialisasie. Die vraag wat beantwoord moet word is of bestuurs konsultasie firmas slegs in een veld moet spesialiseer en of hulle 'n meerdoellige fokus moet hê. Hoofstuk 5 spreek prys aan. Die verskillende benaderings tot prys en koste word bespreek. Die studie word afgesluit in hoofstuk 6 met 'n samevatting en aanbevelings.

This thesis explores how training consultants perceive their networking practices in relation to generating business. The literature recognises the importance of networking to gain business, yet contains little research. Existing material is either quantitative research or personal accounts not within a research context. My qualitative research is based on interviews, informal conversations, personal construct psychology techniques, observation and reflection with 7 main contributors and through 45 other situations including my experiences as a training consultant. It draws on planned and spontaneounsa turallyo ccurrings ituations. Some results contribute to knowledge by bringing together dispersed items in the literature and revealing ways in which they apply to training consultants. These include networking strategies (eg forming consortia, networking as a subject expert, targeting a sector and networking with everyone). Other results confirm the literature which, for example, stresses the importance of trust. My research reveals ways in which training consultants can develop or lose trust. Other findings, not in the literature, make original contributions to knowledge, such as a strategy that involves networking with other providers. It emerged clearly that networking with another primary reason in mind such as self-development can be more effective in terms of gaining business. I found how training consultants can gain visibility, use the Internet to raise visibility, and that there is considerable backlash in the training world against consultants attending events to get to know potential clients. Some factors that lead to discomfort when training consultants network are identified such as dislike of cold calling, uncertainty over networking etiquette, problems with initially meeting people, reputation issues and lack of skill. I reveal the impact of congruency of behaviour, the way in which we look for similarity or difference and the way in which we maintain contact on building and maintaining rapport when networking to gain business.

Aim: The purpose of this study is to create new insights for service marketing in emerging markets by investigating the applicability of the literature on problems (that stem from the unique characteristics of services) that occur during the service marketing process of business consulting companies, and the strategies to cope with these problems. Additionally, this paper intends to elucidate the extent to which the position on the emerging market spectrum was related to the problems (that stem from the unique characteristics of services) during the service marketing process, and the strategies to cope with these problems.

Master Thesis Kevin Siemons & Henrik Steybe

Na (2013) identified human capital as one of the important resources Professional Service Firms (PSFs) use to stay successful. This study examined the past and current literature on skill underutilization, perceived job match, perceived overqualification and perceived overeducation. The relationship that exists between these concepts and skill underutilization was also examined to help understand how the Big Four accounting consultants in the United States perceive skill underutilization. This study adopted a quantitative study to examine how accounting consultants perceive skill underutilization. Survey responses from 119 accounting consultants were used to examine how Big Four accounting consultants perceive skill underutilization. The results of the research reveals that perceived skill utilization was positively related to perceived job match (r = .76, p < .001) while being negatively related to perceived overeducation ( r = -.42, p < .001) and perceived overqualification (r = -.50, p < .001). The three independent variables Perceived Job Match, Perceived Overeducation and Perceived Overqualification together account for 61.5% of the variance in the dependent variable Perceived Skill Utilization. Perceived Job Match accounted for 36.6%, Perceived Overeducation accounted for 0.04% and Perceived Overqualification accounted for 1.2% of the variance. The remaining variance, 23.7% (61.5% - 37.84%), is shared variance among the three independent variables. The variables, Perceived Overeducation and Perceived Overqualification actually contributed very little to the variance in Perceived Skill Utilization beyond that provided by Perceived Job Match, despite being significantly significant. Much of this contribution is due to the inter-correlation of these variables with Perceived Job Match.

Organisations of the 21st century realise that they need to move away from balance sheet accounting systems as the primary tool of management. Intangible assets, such as knowledge, skills and process assets, may be worth much more than their physical assets and require effective management to gain a competitive advantage. Due to the nature of their assignments, management consultancy organisations could benefit even more from leveraging their knowledge, skills and process assets. These firms depend on the expertise of their people, focusing on customer relations, employing multidisciplinary teams of professionals in creatively solving problems in a project management environment. Continuous improvement of their processes and effective reuse of knowledge obtained in previous projects or processes could fast-track solution delivery, reduce costs and consequently increase profits. Many models for process-improvement and knowledge management currently exist, which could be used in leveraging organisational intangible assets. Though the intricate interaction between the domains of process improvement management and knowledge management is clear in current models, a fully-integrated model does not exist. The close-knit relationship between these domains poses the opportunity for integrating improvement models from both domains in synergistically leveraging their improvement results. The aim of this study is to demonstrate the integration possibilities of process improvement and knowledge management in an attempt to improve the practices of both during the same exercise. A content analysis was performed to analyse current improvement models (including performance improvement, knowledge management, process management, maturity and audit models). Maturity models were then selected as a vehicle for integrating the various domains. The selected maturity models were evaluated for comprehensiveness in terms of management consultancy organisations and deficiencies were identified. A blended model was designed (combining and extending current models) and partially validated at a management consultancy organisation. Model validation was enabled by using an appraisal tool (BMAT – Blended Model Appraisal Tool), which was designed and built to incorporate appraisal components from the various maturity models and their required extensions. The results that were obtained from the model validation exercise highlighted organisational problem areas (at the appraised organisation) that would require immediate improvement efforts. The study is concluded by confirming the integration possibilities of process improvement management and knowledge management domains. Further empirical research is proposed for validating the complete blended model.
Dissertation (MEng (Industrial))--University of Pretoria, 2005.
Industrial and Systems Engineering
unrestricted

The objectives of the study were to examine (1) employees' experiences in using mental/life skills and (2) sport psychology consultants' experiences in teaching mental/life skills to employees in business settings. The study was conducted through qualitative interviews. Two interview guides were created to answer the objectives. Six participants, three employees who used mental/ life skills and three consultants who worked both in sports and in business took part in the study. The interviews were analysed inductively. The results pointed towards that mental/ life skills can beneficially be used at workplaces in order to increase effectiveness, improve communication between employees and to develop the employees further. The results also indicated that sport psychology consultants can successfully work in business but additional educations is an advantage. The results of the study are discussed from the point of related theoretical frameworks and research in sport and work psychology.

Micro-consultants are from small independent consultancy practices; who sometimes work directly with a single client on embedded assignments. Embedded microconsultants operate within the ambiguous and fragmented environments of their client’s. Micro-consultants have to quickly make sense of their client’s working environments; adapting their operations and identities within these, to ensure appropriate advice and support is provided. When embedded, micro-consultants are usually expected to represent their client; whilst also retaining their independence. Consequently, micro-consultants can sometimes be unsure who they represent (themselves or their client) and which identity aspects they should be promoting. Identity is the sum of, lifestyle, experiences and knowledge of an individual which is developed over time, and provides awareness and guidance for future activities. To some extent micro-consultants can choose which aspects of their identity they wish to promote or suppress. However, some groups can enforce aspects of their identity on their members which can contradict the micro-consultant’s base awareness and guidelines which can lead to dilemmas and uncertainties. This research explores the interactions, changing identities and ensuing tensions of a micro-consultant during a long term embedded assignment with a single client. The ethnographic study uses authoethnographic narrative, along with participant observation techniques and reflective practices, to provide insights on the key influences and other factors which can affect micro-consultant identities. This thesis also provides an indication of the complexities and ambiguities faced by a micro-consultant working on an embedded assignment. The research also highlights some of the many dilemmas and uncertainties facing a micro-consultant in this environment; focussing on identity related dilemmas. These lead to a number of identity related paradoxes for the micro-consultant; including assignment success, relationships and the provision of knowledge. There have been many corporate ethnographic studies examining different parts of organisation behaviour, including consultancy houses and organisation change environments. However, this is the first study to provide detailed insights into the world of a micro-consultant change management specialist, his operations interactions and dilemmas; providing a significant contribution to the world of management consultancy and organisation behaviour.

Aim: The aim of this study is to describe and analyse the factors that are important when entering a regional market, with a new brand name, within the technical consultant business in Sweden. Method: A qualitative research method has been applied to this study. Two interviews with key members of the chosen organisation have been performed. This is to bring a deeper understanding and together with my own experiences will be used as a base for the analysis of the present subject. Result & Conclusions: This study shows that the foundation of success when entering a new market with a new brand name is to focus on the long term building of relationships and personal networks. This has also shown to be a good strategy during an economical recession that recently has been over the last two years. To gain a competitive advantage in a market one has to be present and interact with the market. When competition increases with market threats from countries far away one has to stand out, be different, from your competitors. Relationship marketing and networking could for this reason be a good strategy because being local and visible makes the entry barriers higher for new entrants that are geographically located somewhere else in the world. 3 The downside of relationship marketing is that it‘s hard to use conventional advertisement because building a network of new relations with customers etcetera will take long time because a relation is build with personal interaction between two parties. One can say that when entering a market with a new brand the person that acts in a brand name is more important than the brand name itself because you have a relationship with persons not with brand names. Suggestions for future research: As years go by everything changes. Therefore the development of relationship marketing in the future could be an interesting case to study. When the economical situation now changes from recession to a positive trend this could be such a change to analyse in a study. Another interesting research might be to evaluate the situation in other countries. Is relationship marketing equally important as it is in Sweden today or does its‘ importance change in accordance to what country you analyze? At last, one can analyze if it is a different situation when entering a new market with a new brand if you work with traditionally employed personnel than it is when working with self-employed organizations. If one is to enter a market with traditionally employees are there other strategies that are successful or is relationship marketing important as well? Contribution of the thesis: This study could be useful for entrepreneurs that seek new ways of gaining success in a market. It has pointed out the advantages of relationship marketing and networking and has shown it could be really successful in practice. I strongly believe on the importance of building relationships within all business areas. Being part of a world that more and more goes toward virtual interaction and increased competition within all areas, both local and worldwide, relationships could be a key to success.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2002.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This Study Project is entitled: "An Investigation Into The Industry Attractiveness Of The. Management Consulting Industry In South Africa". The management consulting industry is by no means a new or fledgling industry, with its roots dating back to the early 1900's where it had a strong engineering orientation. The global consulting industry experienced a massive growth phase during the late 1980's and during the 1990's, and was not only enormously lucrative, but also a highly attractive industry. It now appears that the management consulting industry has been negatively affected by global economic factors (such as recession, globalisation, technology, terrorism) over the last few years, particularly in 2000 to 2002, where is has now reached a stage of maturity and is in a period of major consolidation. This global industry trend has been increasingly evident in South Africa (SA), and judging from the way consulting firms have been restructuring, consolidating and revising their recruitment policies (on a global scale) in the last few years, it appears that the industry could be becoming less attractive than it has been in the past. An important objective of this Study Project was to investigate the key issues and problems facing the consulting industry, largely from the perspective of the clients who ultimately make the decision to bring in a consultant. By conducting a strategic assessment of the management consulting industry in South Africa, the ultimate objective was to determine the fundamental attractiveness of the consulting industry at present. To achieve the above objectives, it was determined that qualitative, investigative research would be conducted, rather than a quantitative, numerative approach to data gathering. The research methodology used in this Study Project was a combination of secondary and primary - research. Firstly, secondary research, in the form of an in-depth, global literature review was conducted on the topic. Having established the key themes and issues facing the consulting industry, primary research could then be conducted. This was achieved by conducting indepth, personal interviews with key decision makers across client industries in South Africa, to determine the current industry attractiveness of the management consulting industry. The current down phase in both global and South African general economic business cycles, has dictated that cost and value-added issues are top of mind in organisations where clients are no longer content to pay high fees, and not see meaningful results. And so, whilst management consulting plays a definite role in a client organisation, a large gap has been created for the small to medium specialist firms to grow, particularly in the local marketplace. Clients feel that the small specialist firms are able to offer better value for money, more personalised service, lower fees (as a result of lower overheads) and build a more sustainable long-term relationship with them. Clients are also relying less on consultants to solve all their problems, and are realising the excellence of their own internal resources. Overall, the management consulting industry, both globally and particularly in South Africa, is only averagely attractive at this present moment. It has definite attractions and uses to clients, whilst simultaneously drawing serious concerns from the client firms who require their services. Being in a mature phase of its life cycle, and given the current down phase in the global economic cycle, the consulting industry is poised to either go into decline or experience a resurgence of growth. Thus, it is how the consulting firms respond to the new economic challenges placed upon them and how they respond to the criticisms which have been brought to light, that will dictate which firms survive and which will not. Finally, it is recommended that the relative attractiveness of the management consulting industry (as conducted in this Study Project) be re-evaluated on a fairly regular basis in order to understand the next stage in the life cycle of the industry, to provide clients and industry players with insight into the factors influencing the consulting industry. And to provide an independent resource to the consulting industry, to guide them in shaping their future strategies for survival.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie Studieprojek is getiteld: "'n Ondersoek Na Die Aantreklikheid Van Die Bestuurskonsultasie-industrie In Suid-Afrika". Die bestuurskonsultasie-industrie is geensins 'n jong, nuwe industrie nie. Sy wortels dateer terug na die vroeë 1900's waar dit 'n sterk ingenieurs-oriëntasie gehad het. Die internasionale konsultasie-industrie het in die laat 1980's en gedurende die 1990's 'n enorme groeifase beleef en was nie net geweldig winsgewend nie, maar ook uiters aantreklik. Dit blyk egter nou dat die bestuurskonsultasie-industrie oor die laaste paar jaar negatief beïnvloed word deur internasionale ekonomiese faktore (soos resessie, globalisering, tegnologie, terrorisme). Dit is veral die geval in die tydperk 2000- 2002, waar dit nou 'n fase van volwassenheid bereik het en 'n tyd van konsolidasie beleef. Hierdie internasionale industrie tendens word al meer in Suid-Afrika gemerk. Dit blyk, veral uit die wyse waarop konsultasie firmas die afgelope paar jaar herstruktureer, konsolideer en hul aanstellingsbeleid (op 'n internasionale skaal) in heroorweging neem, dat die industrie minder aantreklik is as in die verlede. 'n Belangrike doelwit van hierdie Studieprojek was om die sleutelfaktore en probleme wat die konsultasie-industrie in die gesig staar, te ondersoek - grootliks vanuit die perspektief van die klant wat uiteindelik die besluit neem om 'n konsultant te raadpleeg. Deur 'n strategiese ondersoek na die bestuurskonsultasie-industrie in Suid-Afrika te doen, was die hoofdoelwit om die huidige fundamentele aantreklikheid van die konsultasie-industrie te ondersoek. Om bogenoemde doelwitte te bereik, is kwalitatiewe, ondersoekende navorsing gedoen in plaas van 'n kwantitatiewe, numeriese benadering van dataversameling. Die navorsingsmetodologie wat in hierdie Studieprojek gevolg is, is 'n kombinasie van sekondêre en primêre navorsing. Eerstens is sekondêre navorsing in die vorm van 'n indiepte, internasionale literatuurstudie oor die onderwerp gedoen. Na bepaling van die sleuteltemas wat die industrie in die gesig staar kon primêre navorsing aangepak word. Dit is gedoen deur indiepte, persoonlike onderhoude met sleutelbesluitnemers in die Suid-Afrikaanse klantesektor om sodoende die huidige aantreklikheid van die bestuurskonsultasie-industrie te bepaal. Die huidige afwaartse neiging in beide die internasionale en Suid-Afrikaanse algemene ekonomie en sakesektor, het dikteer dat koste en waardetoevoeging prioriteit het in organisasies waar klante nie meer geneë is om hoë fooie te betaal terwyl hulle nie betekenisvolle resultate sien nie. En dus, terwyl bestuurskonsultasie 'n besliste rol speel in klante-organisasies, is daar 'n groot gaping vir klein tot medium spesialiste om te groei, veral in die plaaslike mark. Klante voel dat die klein spesialis-firmas beter waarde vir geld bied, 'n meer persoonlike diens lewer, laer fooie (weens laer lopende koste) het en 'n langtermyn-verhouding met hulle bou. Klante steun ook al minder op konsultante om al hul probleme op te los en besef die uitnemendheid van hulle eie interne bronne. In die algemeen kan gesê word dat die aantreklikheid van die bestuurskonsultasie-industrie, beide internasionaal en veral Suid-Afrika, net gemiddeld is. Dit het besliste waarde en gebruik vir klante, terwyl dit gelyktydig bekommernis bring vir die firmas wat die dienste benodig. Die konsultasie-industrie, gegewe die volwasse fase van sy lewensiklus en die huidige afwaartse fase van die internasionale ekonomiese siklus, kan óf 'n afname beleef óf 'n oplewing wat kan lei tot groei. Dus, dit is hoe konsultasie-firmas reageer op die nuwe ekonomiese uitdagings wat aan hulle gestel word en hoe hulle reageer op die kritiek wat tans uitgewys word, wat sal bepaal watter firmas sal oorleef en watter nie. Dit word aanbeveel dat die relatiewe aantreklikheid van die bestuurskonsultasie-industrie (soos in hierdie Studieprojek gemeet) gereeld herevalueer word om die volgende fase in die lewensiklus van die industrie te verstaan. Sodoende sal klante en rolspelers in die industrie se aandag gevestig kan word op faktore wat die konsultasie-industrie beïnvloed. Dit sal ook 'n onafhanklike bron bied om die industrie te lei in die bepaling van 'n toekomsstrategie om oorlewing te verseker.

The aim of our study was to further investigate how power dynamics affect knowledge sharing through the perspective of consultants and within their relationships with clients. More specifically, we are hoping to better understand how consultants’ perceived power dynamics affect their collaboration with their clients and how they share their expertise. We have chosen to conduct a qualitative study with and have semi-structured interviews with consultants. According to our findings, the two concepts are highly connected since power and knowledge seem to be inseparable. Looking through the different consultants’ and clients’ relationships, this study reveals the existence of mutual dependencies and imbalances which affect the movement of knowledge as an outcome of the working process. The presence of collaboration is evident in our results and the existing resistance that clients show appears to facilitate knowledge sharing. Providing different examples of collaboration by the consultants, we argue that power dynamics evolve differently in different relations between the two main actors of the study and either work as an obstacle or facilitate the exchange of information, expertise, skills and know-how.

This study proposed a model to specify the influence of negative expectations of the manager in regard to working with a consultant, the level of cynicism of the manager, the client-consultant relationship and the level of management change skills on a manager's client satisfaction.

As the risk society has evolved, crisis management has become significant in order to survive a crisis. Crisis consultants have an important role in the risk society and organizations expects a whole lot from the profession. There is a gap in the research about the perceptions of crisis consultant’s role and expectancies in the risk society. Additionally, there is no research connected to the impact of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic on the profession of crisis consulting. The study aims to explore the crisis consultants view of and their role in the risk society. It also seeks to investigate how the crisis consultants have adapted to the Covid-19 pandemic. The study has been conducted through a qualitative case study consisting of various crisis consultants from diverse consultancies. The primary data consisted of eight semi-structured in- depth interviews. Crises in the risk society has become more complex due to the developing technology which has had an effect on the dispersion of information and personal exposures. Crisis consultants are expected to act as change agents who provides an outside perspective and pushes the client forward during crises. The Covid-19 pandemic has had no effect on the types of crisis and neither on the processes used by the crisis consultants. The shift lies within tools and certain procedures where social distancing and digitalization has become the new standard. Although the alterations have been challenging in some situations, the crisis consultants have still managed to fulfill their tasks and increase their workload.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2005.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The purpose of this study project was to research different consulting courses with the primary goal to identify a general framework to be used for a consultancy course. This framework will also serve to expand and support the current consultancy course used by the University. The initial goal was to get an understanding of the different skills required of a successful consultant. Secondly, to identify a general framework the consultant can use to understand a business problem, to solve it and to implement the solution successfully. Ultimately this study project was to expand upon these skills and framework to increase the consultant's cumulative knowledge. Resistance and change were focused upon with the goal of giving the consultant a set of skills to lead successfully. The skill of negotiation, identified by several sources as an integral part of consultancy, was also discussed in detail. The framework that has been identified is comprised of information gathering, problem identification and solution, feedback to the client, scope, priorities and estimates and lastly, implementation and engagement. Several sources have been identified to support the consultant in finding further information to ensure successful consultation endeavors.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die doel van hierdie studieprojek was om verskillende konsultasie kursusse te ondersoek met die primêre doel om 'n raamwerk te identifiseer wat gebruik kan word vir 'n konsultasie kursus. Dit sal dan ook dien as uitbreiding en aanvulling tot die huidige konsultasie kursus wat deur die Universiteit aangebied word. Spesifieke doelwitte was om eerstens die vaardighede wat suksesvolle konsultasie vereis, te verstaan. Tweedens was dit om 'n algemene raamwerk te identifiseer wat die konsultant kan toepas om 'n besigheidsprobeem te verstaan, op te los en om die oplossing suksesvol te implementeer. Die verdere doel van hierdie studieprojek was om dan verder uit te brei op daardie vaardighede en raamwerk om die konsultant te ondersteun gedurende projekte. Daar is klem gelê op die proses van verandering en weerstand met die doel om die konsultant te help om dit suksesvol te lei. Die vaardighede van onderhandeling, wat deur verskeie bronne as 'n integrale deel van konsultasie geïdentifiseer is, is ook bespreek. Die raamwerk wat geïdentifiseer is, is om inligting in te samel, probleme te identifiseer en op te los, terugvoer aan die kliënt, omvang, prioriteite en benaderings en laastens implementasie. Verskeie bronne vir selfstudie is ook geïdentifiseer om die konsultant te ondersteun om verdere kennis op doen om konsultasie projekte suksesvol te voltooi.

Background: The importance of sustainability is growing; however, the mindset of many businesses remains in the profit-driven take-make-waste economy, aiming for limitless growth. Humanity cannot continue with business-as-usual, and a paradigm shift must occur to ensure a future for the planet. SMEs represent 99% of the businesses in the EU, and to ensure a safer tomorrow for all, they need to evolve to reach sustainable development and capture the opportunities of regenerative strategies. Nevertheless, regenerative business practices are not widely appropriated in practice. Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to explore the phenomenon of regenerative businesses on SME level through the perspective of Swedish sustainability consultants. The authors aim to gain an understanding of the transformation processes in order to investigate if SMEs can reach a regenerative stage and, if so, how? Method: The study was conducted with an inductive qualitative approach under the interpretivism paradigm, and a multiple case study approach was chosen to best capture the phenomenon. The primary data was collected through semi-structured interviews with sustainability consultants from various SMEs in Sweden, and a thematic data analysis was conducted to interpret the empirical findings to relate them to the theories presented. Conclusion: The findings pointed to eight factors that enable and restrict SMEs in transitioning to a regenerative phase. Internally, SMEs are impacted in their transition by the mindset, values, sustainability awareness, strategy and communication, and the organizational structure of the business. In addition, the main external factors influencing the transition are the ambiguity regarding the sustainability concept and pressure from various stakeholders. The findings also highlighted the interconnectedness of the factors and the importance of a paradigm shift to whole systems thinking.

The management consulting industry has been growing exponentially during the last two decades influencing the relationships between business schools, corporations and universities, achieving a significant role as a modern "knowledge creator". This thesis studies the process of knowledge creation undertaken by management consultants. The academic mode of creating knowledge as described by Kuhn (1996) was used to direct this exploration of consultants as a knowledge creating community. The purpose of using the scientific method of knowledge creation is not to compare or to judge consulting knowledge, but to use it as a way of entry to explore consultants' practices. In a complementary way to Kuhn's core concepts, a brief Foucauldian overview identified concepts like inclusion and exclusion, discourse and the notion of practices, which are used in the analysis. An empirical research was conducted focusing specifically on a group of practicing consultants in New Zealand. Thirteen consultants who specialize in corporate governance advice were interviewed. Corporate governance was chosen as a field of advice because it is a clearly separable area of management consulting. In this study, the categories of community and paradigm served as a point of entry to explore knowledge creation practices. The data was analyzed qualitatively in search for evidence of community belonging and patterns in consultants' knowledge creation practices. It has been found that consultants, in spite not having a formal regulating professional body, behave as a professional community that has entry requirements, exit procedures and credentials for belonging. Consultants define their identities in the intersection of overlapping communities, which sometimes include their former educational backgrounds, their professions and their current practice. Research findings show that consultants in governance share a paradigm, which trascend particular consulting firms and reach a larger group of consultants. This paradigm has quality control processes such as reputation and re-engagement, and common methods in dealing with governance problems. In addition, in terms of the body of knowledge shared, there are certain factors that determine the value of that knowledge for consultants such as novelty, commercial value, utility and accessibility.

Purpose - The purpose of this master thesis is to identify critical factors and create guidelines for traditional consultant brokerage firms to stay competitive in a digital economy. Methodology - This qualitative study with an abductive approach, gathered data primary from semi-structured interviews. A total 18 interviews were conducted with travel agency executives as well as buyers, sellers, and matchmakers of consultant services. Collected data were analyzed using thematic coding. Findings - The main findings of this show that traditional matchmakers can take actions to stay competitive if a digital platform enters the market. In addition, the study suggests proactive and reactive measures that organizations can take to address these disruptive forces. Theoretical implications - The study will provide an understanding of consultant brokerage and their function as a matchmaker in the marketplace. Besides, it will provide an insight into how some traditional matchmakers can survive in a digital economy. Practical implications - This thesis will provide managers with concrete guidelines on how to react in the event of disintermediation of a matchmaker market. Keywords - Disintermediation, Business strategy, Reintermediation, Matchmakers, Intermediates, Consultants, Brokers Paper type - Master thesis

Corporations unceasing exploitation of our planet and its people have resulted in the implementation of several laws, regulations and standardisations. To please their stakeholders, corporations engage in Corporate Social Responsibility, nonetheless, few succeed in operating responsible. Social Intrapreneurship is a relatively new concept, aimed at creating long-lasting social and environmental impact, while aiding the company in its mission. Given that Corporate Social Responsibility has failed to bring sufficient social change, social intrapreneurs can be the new solution to many of the great social problems of today. The aim of this study was to examine what enables employees to engage in social intrapreneurial behaviours. Six semi-structured interviews were conducted with consultants located in Stockholm. 24 interview questions about the respondents’ corporate climate and culture, Corporate Social Responsibility work and possibilities for social innovation, were asked. The empirical findings showed that, to enable employees’ intrapreneurial behaviours, they required encouragement, clear communication, time and a network. These findings were in line with prior studies conducted in the field of intrapreneurship and social intrapreneurship.

ABSTRACT Leadership consultants bring specialized knowledge into their clients' organizations. Advisor leadership consultants (ALC) trained as psychotherapists apply concepts from human behavior theories as advisors to business leaders. They also bring service-oriented professional norms and values of objectivity, neutrality, and lack of self-interest. Their business clients in the market sector operate according to norms and values of pragmatism, financial self-interest, and advocacy. In order to establish credibility in the organizational field of business clients, leadership consultants must negotiate between these different value systems. This study is a grounded theory inquiry using narrative analysis tools to study how ALCs navigate across the boundaries of psychotherapy practice and consultation in the corporate setting. How do they describe their practice choices as well as the principles and theoretical framework underlying those choices? In-depth interviews were conducted with a convenience sample of 10 leadership consultants credentialed and experienced as psychotherapists. A snowball method of participant recruitment from my social and professional network yielded a group of 10 ALCs aged 50 to 86. Each of these ALCs entered their careers with a predisposition for business from their families. They each experienced significant loss in early life and followed divergent educational and career pathways. They have built their leadership consulting practices accepting business practices to gain access to clients while incorporating important relationship principles. As institutional entrepreneurs, they managed conflict with values in both the service and the marketplace sectors through innovative therapy, consulting and business practices.

Strategy tools are an important part of strategy work. However, there is considerable debate in the management literature about their actual role, deployment, and conceptualization. Scholars claim that there is a lack of fine-grained analyses to explain strategizers’ activities with regard to their interactions with strategy, their supporting knowledge base, and associated artefacts or tools, despite growing contributions towards the understanding of strategy work dynamics. This study aims to contribute to this gap by discussing research undertaken through ethnographic methods on the day to day work of in-house strategy consultants. By interacting with in-house consultants through active participation and observation, this study observes and analyses the enactment of strategy tools in action. The study focuses on the use of strategy tools, the process they are placed in, and the ultimate purposes they serve. A “strategy-as-practice” lens is adopted, theoretically accessing the use of strategy tools through “reflection in action” and sensemaking. By working with and for consultants, this dissertation obtains insights related to both frontstage and backstage aspects of strategy work, obtaining results that contribute to the skewed existing evaluations on the use of strategy tools. This study proposes a reflexive account on the roles of strategy tools in everyday work by laying out a variety of data items and rhetorical devices. Analysing data, obtained from observations, interviews, written material, and focus groups, takes the findings into first and second order analysis. Based on hundreds of pages of observations, 47 interviews, two focus groups, numerous data files, and other follow up talks, the continuous engagement with data is conveyed to the reader through data outputs, including narratives, vignettes, and visual representations, which give space to a vivid display of what was encountered in the field through this ethnographic study. The findings show that strategy tools are used more than we think, especially in the backstage work of strategy teams. In addition, the use of strategy tools tends to be sequential (some strategy tools are used more in specific phases of strategy projects). In addition, their presence in strategy projects is not always evident at first sight – tools tend to be disassembled and reassembled by their users to create new tools, which are thereafter addressed explicitly or implicitly by strategizers and their audiences. Hence, the thesis proposes an “invisible presence of strategy tools”, especially as observed in the work of experienced strategy workers. By embarking on a journey of Cheshire cats and continuous reconfigurations of sensemaking cues, the reader is invited into what makes the adventurous work of strategy practitioners, and the lege artis their work encompasses.

The primary aim of this thesis is to explore, through organisation development (OD) consultants' accounts, the meaning of 'capacity building' in the South African development context. The need for theory development in this area is apparent from two interrelated vantage points. Firstly, while 'capacity building' is an increasingly espoused development approach, it is seen to be a confusing and ill-defined concept, for which there exists no adequate theory. Secondly, there is an growing call within the OD field to perfonn 'recOIlllaissance' (Weick,1990) on OD as it is being practised in different socio-historical and organisational contexts, so as to discern future trends for this discipline. Due to the lack of documented debate which grounds OD issues in the South African development sector, OD practitioners' 'capacity building' interventions were seen to provide suitably unchartered terrain for this study. Given that theory generation was intended, the general epistemological principles provided by Glaser and Strauss's (1967) 'grounded theory' methodology were adopted. As a way of avoiding some of the criticisms and limitations of this approach, this thesis followed later conceptualisations of this method, in particular its reframing within the social constructionist idiom. In accordance with this perspective, this study directed attention to the ways in which OD consultants, in a non-governmental organisational (NGO) sector known as 'intermediary' NGOs, accounted for their 'capacity building' role in this development context. The results, based on in-depth interviews with ten OD consultants, indicate that 'capacity building' is an elusive and inchoate concept with more than one meaning for the participants. Their narrative account variously constructs 'capacity building' as value-driven OD process facilitation; funder and market regulated service provision; and people-driven product delivery. As a result of this multi-vocal construction, the participants' accounts reveal that OD consultancy in this sector is primarily concerned with 'managing the tensions' of the consultants' ambiguous and contradictory roles. By examining how the tensions articulated by the consultants inhere in their relationship to the environment in which they operate, this thesis firstly explores how the contradiction and anlbiguity attached to this concept can be traced to different stakeholder expectations of 'capacity building'. Secondly, it exanlines how these different stakeholder discourses conflict with each other and with an OD perspective. Thirdly, through an explication of the core category of 'managing tensions', it explores the image of OD consulting as a 'shifting and inconstant balancing act'. Fourthly, it shows how there exist wider contextual forces operating in the development sector which serve to throw these consultants 'off balance' and into delimited and 'received' service provision roles which run counter to their raison d'etre. Finally, the research examines new ways of approaching the 'capacity building' question and of understanding the nature of OD consultancy. It concludes with an attempt to respond to a conceptual aporia in OD literature by examining possible alternative images and metaphors for the role of the OD consultant.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2001.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This assignment attempts to create a framework on the model of the business plan which consultants can use when consulting small and micro enterprises. Business consultation has been put in perspective and the most important characteristics of it have been highlighted. The most important skills that a consultant need have been mentioned and the importance of interpersonal relationships in the consultant client relationship has been pointed out. The consultation process has been investigated and after that the different phases in the consultation process has been highlighted. The conclusion has been reached that the arising of conflict between the consultant and the owner/manager when consulting small and micro enterprises, is one of the biggest dangers. A detailed framework in the form of a business plan has been suggested which can be used to help small and micro enterprises to identify problems.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die werkstuk poog om aan die hand van die sakeplan 'n raamwerk daar te stel wat konsultante kan gebruik wanneer konsultasie by klein- en mikro-ondernemings gedoen word. Bestuurskonsultasie is in perspektief gestel en belangrike kenmerke daarvan is uitgelig. Die belangrikste vaardighede waaroor 'n konsultant moet beskik is aangehaal en die belangrikheid van interpersoonlike verhoudings in die konsultant en kliëntverhouding is uitgewys. Die konsultasieproses is ondersoek en daarna is die verskillende fases in die konsultasieproses toegelig. Die gevolgtrekking word gemaak dat die ontstaan van konflik tussen die konsultant en die eienaar/bestuurder tydens konsultasie by klein- en mikro-ondernemings, een van die grootste gevare is. 'n Omvattende raamwerk in die vorm van 'n sakeplan is voorgestel wat die konsultant kan gebruik om die klein- en mikro-onderneming te help om probleme te identifiseer.

ABSTRACT

The conditions on the market are rapidly changing and businesses in Sweden need to seize signals of change in time, in order to have a strong market position. The ability to make the right decisions and react in time is vital due to the increasing competition and a mistake can have devastating consequences for a company. The aim of this thesis is to investigate what tools and methods businesses use to analyse the surrounding world, which has lead to following research question:

How do businesses analyse the surrounding and predict trends and what factors in the society should a company be attentive to while performing an analysis?

Analyses of the surrounding heritage from a term called Business Intelligence, which consist of internal and external factors. This thesis focuses of analyses of external factors, in other words the surrounding. These external aspects enrich the understanding of the internal factors and together they are the foundation that strategic planning originates from. An analysis can be performed in many different ways for instance with collaborations with consultants or by observing the society. A World Mapping method can be used to chart trends or important changes and a company can also try to identify unpredicted events by using the factor X-model. Theories by Bengt Wahlström have also been used in the study to display how trends can be analysed.

This study will analyse large food producers who have established brands on the Swedish market. A qualitative approach has been conducted where six food supplier companies and three consultant companies specialised in analysing the surrounding have been interviewed. The method has been deductive where the empirical findings has been analysed with the theoretical framework. The outcome of the research shows that collaborations with consultants is a commonly used instrument and practical methods such as scenario planning and in real life scanning are preferred as visualising factors simplifies the managing of them. Media plays a significant role, both as a tool to search and track trends but also as a tool that can increase the affect of trends and unforeseen occurrences.

Background - The demand for management consultants in projects has been growing. However, many projects fail to integrate knowledge due to communication issues. Management consultants therefore need to be able to communicate and integrate knowledge in projects. Informal communication is very important and can be used to integrate knowledge efficiently in projects. Thesis aim - The aim of the thesis is therefore to enlighten how informal communication affects the integration of management consultants’ knowledge in projects. Methodology - This is a qualitative cross-sectional study, where primary data was collected through semi-structured interviews with twelve management consultants from nine different companies. Findings - Informal communication affects management consultants’ knowledge integration in projects in several ways. Most commonly by creating trust and strong relations, which enhances the knowledge integration in projects. However, unfavorable unstructured communication can lead to uncontrolled knowledge that threatens the knowledge integration. Therefore, informal communication needs to be balanced, used in the right way and used in combination with formal communication to be as efficient as possible for knowledge integration in projects.

Introduction: Over half of the Swedish IT-projects get delayed and more expensive than budgeted. Large corporations and governmental institutions stand before the process of investigating in new IT-systems in intervals of three to five years. In order to decrease the cost, an external consultant with large experience in IT-purchases could be used by the customers. These consultants does today work solely for the customers, helping them to find the best solution. We want to see if an external consultant instead could act as an inde-pendent moderator between the supplier and customer in the IT-systems lifecycle.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to describe and analyze problems and possible solutions related to the involvement of third party consultants in larger IT-projects. In particular, we will investigate when and where in the project cycle it could be beneficial to use an independent moderator.

Method: We have conducted semi-structured interviews with six organizations to get an understanding about consultants in IT-projects. Four of the interviewed were IT-managers at organizations were large IT-systems are bought and implemented. Then, two of the in-terviewed represented the supplier companies that sell large IT-systems.

Frame of reference: Transaction cost theory and agency theory has been used. Transac-tion cost theory is a theory on whether you should conduct the service internally or purchase it from external firms. Agency theory describes problems in the relationship between a principal and an agent. The agent has a diversified interest towards the principal. In our case, the agent is a consultant.

Conclusion: The implementation phase benefits from using an external moderator who monitors what the customer needs, and then in a continuous interval measures if the project is aligning towards the stated goal. This can lower the failure of information and identify problem areas early and thereby prevent costly adjustments later in the project. An in-dependent moderator with a high degree of routine and specific knowledge could enhance communication, create a better fit of the implemented system and foresee opportunistic advices from suppliers. In the pre-study phase there are benefits for the customer with evaluating the need, stating specific demands and define a clear goal.

Introduktion

Det har pågått en diskussion om konsultverksamhet är ett yrke eller en hel industri. Många tänkare har kommit fram till att det är både och. Konsultfirmorna erbjuder idag också många olika typer av service, den här uppsatsen har sitt fokus på förändringsledningsområdet samt att beskriva managementkonsultens roll som förändringsagent. Trots att det ofta är svårt att se vilka effekter förändringar har på organisationer så är det viktigt att förändra. Förändringsledning är dock mycket svårt och därför misslyckas många förändringsprojekt.

Syfte

Syftet med denna uppsats är att beskriva managementkonsultens roll som förändringsagent samt att identifiera problem i och omkring förändringsprocessen. Vidare hoppas man kunna hitta exempel på problem och framgångsfaktorer för att förbättra förändringsledning.

Metod

Den här studien är gjord utifrån ett deduktivt synsätt. De empiriska data har sedan insamlats genom användandet av kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer. Det främsta skälet till valet av en kvalitativ undersökning var att få en djupare kunskap inom undersökningsområdet samt att det ansågs vara bästa sättet för att uppnå syftet. Författarna undersökte tre olika projekt genom att intervjua en konsult och en klient inom vart och ett av projekten. På grund av uppsatsens fokus på förändringsagenter så säkerställdes att alla tre konsulterna hade denna roll när de ansvarade för ledning av förändring.

Resultat

Många faktorer påverkar implementeringen av förändringar i organisationer. I konsultens roll som förändringsagent är det viktigt att inte bli en implementerare, i slutändan är det klientens organisation som ska förändras. För att uppnå framgångsrik förändring har författarna kommit fram till några slutsatser som är vitigare än andra, bland dessa finner man, skapandet av involvering och gemensamt engagemang för förändring, hitta det verkliga problemet samt att man inte glömmer vikten av att involvera chefer och ledare.

 

 

The interest in the concept of corporate reputation is growing. Prior research has recurrently shown that a good corporate reputation has a positive relation to organisational performance and gives organisations competitive advantages. Because of this, understanding the antecedents and how to manage corporate reputation is important. The industry of PR consultancies has grown on the Swedish market over the last decades and their services offered aims to help organisations with their communicative efforts. The purpose of this study is to examine how the work of PR consultants relates to their clients’ corporate reputation. The empirical findings are based on qualitative interviews to get a deeper understanding of the services provided by PR consultants. In the analysis the interviewees’ understanding the concept of corporate reputation is linked to a theoretical background of the antecedents and management of corporate reputation.  In our conclusions we propose that the PR consultants’ work, seeking to affect the comprehension of stakeholders’ minds about organisations through corporate messages, also relates to the forming of corporate reputation.

The present study was conducted to capture the collective voice of expert organizational development consultants. Until now, very few studies have been conducted that take into account the collective voices of organizational development consultants. More specifically, the purpose of the present study is to explore and gain a deeper understanding of the approaches expert organizational development consultants use throughout their engagement with their clients in an attempt to add value to and enhance organizational capacity. To understand the process used by this distinct group of leaders, phenomenological qualitative inquiry was the methodology used to conduct this study. Data were collected through in-depth, face-to-face interviews with seven practicing expert consultants in the Jacksonville, Florida area. Seven themes emerged through careful analysis of the data, supported with relevant concepts from the professional literature. The study has meaningful implications for the study of organization development consulting. It concludes with recommendations for consultants and researchers in the field of organizational development and change.

The digital revolution is challenging both individuals and organizations to be more comfortable using various digital technologies. Digital technologies enable and generate high amounts of data, but people are not very good at interpreting or making sense of it. This study aimed to explore the role of digital competencies and data literacy in digital transformations and identify the consequences the lack of digital competencies and data literacy can cause within digital transformation projects. The authors studied technology consultants' perspectives with experience in digital transformation projects using an exploratory qualitative research design building on the empirical data gathered from semi-structured interviews. The authors were able to identify that the technology consultants perceived digital competencies as crucial skills for individuals to possess in digital transformations. At the same time, data literacy was not considered a crucial skill in the context of digital transformations. Regarding the consequences of a digital skills gap, the technology consultants saw issues within the implementation of the project, delays, or indirect waste of resources like monetary assets.

Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2013.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis uses narrative analysis to explore the ways by which consultants seek to improve their perceived trustworthiness in initial client-consultant interactions. It is argued that consultants rely on identity-based trust perceptions by the clients and that this basis for trust can be favourably presented, within certain constraints, through narrative positioning. This narrative positioning, in the service of identity construction, is called identity positioning in the thesis. The thesis is situated in the literature on management consulting aimed at micro-level high-contact client-consultant interactions. These kinds of interactions trade on trust and identity. The various bases for trust are described, namely identity, structural, and dispositional based trust. Amongst these three bases, identity trust is highlighted as the most dominant in the context of clientconsultant interactions, especially in initial interactions where the consultant is unknown to the participants. It is to be expected in initial interactions that there will be a lot of scope for identity construction. A framework is then developed to relate identity construction and trust, which can be used as the basis for narrative positioning analysis. The framework consists of two dimensions along which identities can be positioned: social obligations and relational positioning latitude. It is argued that dispositional trust relates to relational positioning latitude, whereas structural bases of trust relates to social obligations. Identity based trust therefore indicates where the consultant fits within the structural or dispositional bases of trust. It is then shown how context moderates which of the trust bases will be dominant, and how this might manifest in the narrative of the consultant. It provides three general contexts, each leading to the emergence of a particular dominant basis for trustworthiness perceptions by the clients. The particular case analysed in this thesis correlates to a specific contexts within the framework. This context is where the consultant is unknown. The last part of the thesis illustrates the use of the framework and context as it guides the analysis of a particular consultant’s personal narrative during an initial interaction with clients. The analysis is then repeated for the consultant's software product narrative. The structures of the two narratives are then compared to show how the consultant also attempted to extend the identity-based trust to his software product.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis maak gebruik van narratiewe analise om die maniere te verken waarop konsultante die persepsies van hul betroubaarheid probeer verbeter in die aanvang fase van kliënt-konsultant interaksies. Daar word aangevoer dat konsultante staatmaak op identiteit-gebaseerde vertroue persepsies deur die kliënte en dat dié basis van vertroue gunstig aangebied kan word, binne sekere beperkings, deur middel van narratiewe posisionering. Hierdie narratiewe plasing, wat in die diens van die konstruksie van identiteit is, word identiteit posisionering genoem in die tesis. Die tesis is geleë in die literatuur oor bestuurs konsultering met die oogmerk op mikrovlak hoëkontak kliënt-konsultant interaksies. Hierdie soort interaksies handel in vertroue en identiteit. Die verskillende basisse vir vertroue word beskryf, naamlik identiteit, strukturele, en disposisionele gebaseerde vertroue. Onder hierdie drie basisse, word identiteit gebaseerde vertroue as die mees dominante in die konteks van die kliënt-konsultant interaksies uitgelig, veral in die eerste interaksies waar die konsultant onbekend is aan die deelnemers. Dit is verwag, in die aanvangs fase van sulke interaksies, dat daar baie ruimte vir die konstruksie van identiteit is. 'n Raamwerk word dan ontwikkel om die konstruksie van identiteit en vertroue in verband te bring, wat dan kan gebruik word as die basis vir die analise van narratiewe posisionering. Die raamwerk bestaan uit twee dimensies waarlangs identiteite kan geplaas word: sosiale verpligtinge en relasionele posisionering omvang. Daar word aangevoer dat disposisionele vertroue betrekking het tot relasionele posisionering omvang, terwyl die strukturele basis van vertroue verband hou met sosiale verpligtinge. Identiteit gebaseerde vertroue dui dus waar die konsultant pas binne die strukturele of disposisionele basisse van die trust. Daar word dan getoon hoe konteks modereer welke van die vertroue basisse oorheersend sal wees, en hoe hierdie kan manifesteer in die narratief van die konsultant. Dit bied drie algemene kontekste, wat elk lei tot die opkoms van 'n bepaalde dominante basis vir betroubaarheid persepsies deur die kliënte. Die besondere geval geanaliseer in die tesis korreleer met 'n spesifieke kontekste binne die raamwerk. Hierdie konteks is waar die konsultant onbekend is aan die kliënte. Die laaste deel van die tesis illustreer die gebruik van die raamwerk en konteks waar dit die ontleding van 'n spesifieke konsultant se persoonlike narratief tydens 'n aanvanklike interaksie met kliënte lei. Die analise word dan vir die konsultant se sagteware produk narratief herhaal. Die strukture van die twee verhale word dan vergelyk om te wys hoe die konsultant ook probeer het om die identiteit-gebaseerde vertroue uit te brei na sy sagteware produk.

The study of the Clackamas Small Business Development Center's Small Business Management Programs (SBM) had three research objectives: to ascertain what information should be transferred to small business owners and how best to transfer that information; to ascertain what information is presently being transferred to clients and what methods are used in transferring the information; and to survey clients in order to develop a current demographic profile, measure their level of satisfaction with the assistance received, and ascertain what they perceived were the benefits of the program to their companies. Prior to the study, there had been little systematic research of what information should be transferred to SBDC clients and the most effective methods for transferring that information. The small business growth stage literature was used to develop the recommended body of information. The adult learning literature was used to develop the recommended methods for transferring that information to clients. The majority of respondents were women, well educated, middle-aged, and from companies in service related industries that employed few workers. The findings suggest that clients desire an increase in both the appropriateness of the program's informational content and the level of their involvement in tailoring the SBM program to the needs of their organizations. As suggested by the Small Business Growth Stage Models, a statistically significant decline in client satisfaction of the program's informational content was found to exist between stage two and stage three business owners. The study found that instructors did not utilize specific business factors (such as sales levels, numbers of employees, etc.) in developing the informational content of the SBM programs. Instructors also did not utilize client preferred learning styles, or formal client involvement in developing the instructional design of the SBM program. The study found that clients and center personnel appear to differ in their perceptions regarding the role of the instructor and the purpose of the SBM program. Clients appear to envision the role of the instructor as more of a consultant, while instructors view their role as preparing clients to solve their own problems.

There has been nothing written, as far as we researched, about the decision-making when a family manager decides upon the advice of an external consultant. With this research we tried to build an understanding on the topic with a special focus to the role of emotions in the process. Five family managers of five different family businesses in Sweden were interviewed. The interviews were semi-structured so that the factors that play a role in the decision-making could be explored. The factors that were identified were coded and afterwards further analyzed, together with the help of new gathered theory. In other words an abductive approach was used. We found that emotions in the decision-making mainly arise when the advice is given in the field of expertise of the family manager concerned. The emotions arise from a psychological ownership of the family manager over a pre- formed solution or approach to the issue the consultant is hired for. In order for the advice to be accepted, the advice has to be in the line of the preformed solution or approach. We believe these findings to be valuable to encourage more research on the topic, but also the findings can contribute to the everlasting field of research to find the optimal technique to consult to family businesses.

Recent research findings have reinforced the importance of soft skills for managerialsuccess. Consequently, there is an ongoing practical need for and research interest ineffective soft skill training. In order to improve the soft skills of their employees,companies have begun to turn to performing artists in the hope of achieving a hightraining effect. While this phenomenon has created excitement, it has hardly been thesubject of serious investigation guided by research questions and executed researchmethodologies. In particular, hardly any insights exist into the exercises artists use whenproviding soft skill training and coaching for a business audience. In order to exploresuch activities in a systematic way, this thesis turns the attention to the performing artshigher education curriculum for identifying relevant exercise categories and for linkingthem to soft skills. This is accomplished through in-depth interviews conducted withclassical singing and drama teachers in Germany. In order to achieve a transfer to thebusiness world, HR representatives from German-based management consulting firmsare also questioned through in-depth interviews in order to explore relevant soft skillsaddressable by performing arts interventions. The results show transfer links betweeneight performing arts curriculum items and seven soft skill categories. Apart fromexploring the relationship between arts-based exercises and managerial soft skills, theresearch results confirm the benefit rationale for arts-based training and highlightsuccess factors. The outcomes are visualised in a suggestive model aimed at providing asystematic orientation for arts-based trainers and for organisations considering soft skilltraining based on the performing arts. However, the research has also limitations,especially a too conservative number of connections between performing arts curricularitems and soft skill categories. Other limitations include a regional and cultural focus onGermany, as well as the reduction of arts-based training activities to the boundaries offormal performing arts education. These shortcomings are used for motivating futureresearch.

Knowledge Management has evolved over time into the domain of Information Technology (IT), where codification, storage and retrieval of explicit knowledge is believed to lead to a competitive advantage for an organisation. More recently, knowledge management literature has suggested that knowledge is socially constructed and inseparable from the communities of practice in which it is held. This dissertation examines the interpersonal process by which payload knowledge (a concept that emerged from the research data as comprising that specific distillation of knowledge, both tacit and explicit, required to resolve an applied problem in context) is exchanged in a consulting firm�s communities of practice. Through a qualitative case study design involving sixteen in-depth interviews with consultants from a medium sized consulting firm, the nature of the interpersonal knowledge exchange process was illuminated. In this study, two inter-related research questions were addressed: What is the interpersonal process by which knowledge is exchanged between consultants? And, Why do consultants prefer to participate in the interpersonal knowledge exchange process in preference to using stored explicit knowledge ? This detailed examination of consultants as knowledge workers, resulted in the proposal of a process based model of interpersonal knowledge exchange. Utilising the concept of payload knowledge, the interpersonal knowledge exchange process is shown to be predicable in terms of passing through eight identifiable stages, yet unpredictable in terms of knowing how each community interaction will lead to payload knowledge. Within this process, the sourcing, handover, distillation and implementation of payload knowledge are seen as an artistic endeavour, characterised by social community based exchanges that �hop� the consultants toward their specific contextual need. Key advantages of this interpersonal process are the decontextualisation and recontextualisation processes carried out at both the request negotiation stage and the knowledge handover stage. This process uses the community�s shared language, mental models, social etiquette and cultural norms to compress and funnel the meaning of the payload knowledge into a form that can be transferred meaningfully to a requesting consultant. Through participating in the interpersonal knowledge exchange process, consultants save time, and are provided with an opportunity to confirm their personal knowledge as up-to-date and relevant to the specific context. By using the interpersonal process, consultants conform with and confirm the community�s social etiquette, which dictates its preference for the identified exchange mechanism. The interpersonal process allows them to practice and learn the consulting community�s professional artistry and, in consequence, to enjoy the exchange experience, and to have fun. This dissertation contributes to making one aspect of the interpersonal knowledge exchange process explicit. The process, by its very nature however, appears to remain tacitly understood by those within the consulting community of practice. Through understanding the process and the reasons that consultants prefer to engage in interpersonal knowledge exchange processes, it is anticipated that managers will be better able to produce a knowledge-based sustainable competitive advantage for their firms.

Professionals currently working in consulting firms and job-applicants aiming to work in this industry are very often finding themselves in a situation where they experience a skill-gap regarding the skills consulting firms have claimed as the must-have ones. Confusion about which are those skills has increased since from academics to professionals, from researchers to higher education institutions and from students and graduates to job-searchers, they all have a different understanding of which ones are those skills. In fact even from one consulting firm to the next one the skills differ. Moreover current and available literature is yet to explore deeper the project teams working for consulting firms in order to grasp a real understanding and easy identification of these skills, since studies so far have provided mixed set of skills for traditional project teams rather than for consulting project-teams leading to mixed discoveries and inconclusive results. The findings in this study provide support for a controversial discussion occurring when trying to identify the skills consultants affirm their employer require and how these companies acquire, foster and retain these skills.

This study provided needed information on consulting as a profession for health promotion and wellness practitioners. Of the 211 participants from consultancy listings for the Association for Worksite Health Promotion and the National Wellness Association, 65 completed the questionnaire designed for this study. Participants completed a 23 item questionnaire inquiring about their current consulting services, marketing strategies, roles performed, job-setting, annual revenue, as well as possible services and marketing strategies for the next five years. The majority of services offered by consultants included health education seminars, health risk appraisals, educational resources, and health screenings. The marketing strategies used most included personal contact/sales, word of mouth, and letters. Health promotion and wellness consultants identified their primary role as information specialists. Chi-square analysis identified three statistically significant findings: health education seminars are a strong revenue source for independent consultants, the annual income range is larger for consultants in a firm, and the annual marketing budget is higher for consultants in a firm. From this study, additional information is known about consultants, including their services, roles, marketing expenses and strategies, revenue, and the development, delivery, and marketing processes of being a health promotion and wellness consultant.
Fisher Institute for Wellness

L'objectif de cette thèse est d'analyser les pratiques des consultants dans la gestion des risques psychosociaux au travail (RPS). Phénomène au cœur de l'actualité mais mal défini, les RPS peuvent faire l'objet d'une approche restrictive, tendant à individualiser le risque, à limiter la responsabilité de l'employeur et à soigner le travailleur ; ou d'une approche élargie, appréhendant la dimension organisationnelle du risque, étendant la responsabilité de l'employeur et soignant le travail et son organisation. Il s'agit d'un champ stratégique autour de l'imputation de la responsabilité du risque, opposant principalement employeurs et représentants du personnel. Sur la base d'un échantillon de 37 consultants et d'une démarche exploratoire qualitative, ancrée dans le paradigme interprétativiste pragmatique, nous avons souligné l'hétérogénéité de leurs pratiques, pouvant se traduire dans le choix du commanditaire, le profil disciplinaire du consultant, le contexte d'intervention et les modalités de questionnement, d'analyse et de " mise en marche " de la démarche. Il existe ainsi trois " pratiques-type " : les pratiques co-constructives, adaptatives et militantes. Inscrits dans une logique de marché, les consultants sont des acteurs hybrides, oscillant entre co-construction et adaptation, voire militantisme, en fonction des marges de manœuvre et des besoins du commanditaire. Un second terrain d'enquête, un établissement de soins privé ayant eu recours à l'intervention d'un consultant, a permis de mettre en évidence l'une des limites des pratiques des consultants : la " réappropriation stratégique " des préconisations et du contenu du rapport de mission par l'employeur.

Syfte: Studien avser att kvalitativt undersöka faktorer som underlättar initiala samarbeten och långsiktiga relationer, mellan konsulter och deras uppdragsgivare. Med konsultföretagens design thinkers som utgångspunkt, kommer samarbetsprocessen och relationsskapandet att analyseras, för att på så sätt uppnå djupare förståelse i ämnet. Metod: Studien har genomförts kvalitativt och en iterativ forskningsansats har antagits. Tre kreativa företagskonsulter har intervjuats och en pilotintervju har genomförts. Ett målinriktat urval antogs och intervjuerna var semistrukturerade. Empiri: Vår empiriska data består av tre kvalitativa intervjuer med representanter från olika konsultföretag, som arbetar med design thinking. Följande personer har intervjuats: Eva-Karin Anderman, Robert Bau och Helena Frisk . Teorier: Business-to-Business, Service Dominant Logic of Marketing, Project Marketing, Inter-Organizational Projects, Client-Consultant Interaction, Relationship Marketing, The Firm-Client Relationship och Successful Innovation. Slutsatser: Studien har funnit ett antal faktorer som konsulterna arbetar med för att bilda och vårda affärsrelationer med sina uppdragsgivaret. Dessa innefattar värdeskapande processer tillsammans med sina kunder och användare i en social interaktionen
Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to explore factors that facilitate initial collaborations and long-term relationships between consultants and their clients. From the consultants perspective (who works with design thinking), the formation and maintenance of business relationships will be analyzed in order to achieve a deeper understanding. Methodology: The study was conducted qualitatively and an iterative research approach has been adopted. Three creative business consultants have been interviewed and a pilot interview was conducted. A targeted selection was adopted and the interviews were semi- structured. Empirical foundation: Our empirical data consists of three interviews with representatives from various consulting firms, working with design thinking. Those who participated in the interviews are: Eva-Karin Anderman, Robert Bau and Helena Frisk. Theoretical perspectives: Business-to-Business, Service Dominant Logic of Marketing, Project Marketing, Inter-Organizational Projects, Client-Consultant Interaction, Relationship Marketing, The Firm-Client Relationship and Successful Innovation. Conclusions: The study has found a numberous of factors that consultants work to form and cherish business relationships with their clients. These include value-added processes with its customers and users in a social interaction.

Diversity comes in many shapes and forms as it can also refer to gender, culture, ethnicity, sexuality and religion amongst other forms. All of these forms of diversity do not seem to be part of the discussion when speaking about corporate diversity. A large portion of the management consultants proceed to become highly influential people in the corporate world as they often end up in leadership positions in large corporations. Therefore, it becomes of high interest to examine how different forms of diversity can be improved and what that would imply for the companies and nation as a whole. The basis for the results of this study is a literature review of theories about ethnic diversity in combination with gender theories as they both are relevant in the discussion of minorities. Moreover, 12 management consultants based in Stockholm, Sweden were interviewed by the authors of this study. The results showed that recruitment processes in consulting firms clearly aim to be as standardized and immune to bias as possible. However it seems unavoidable for these processes to escape the implications of targeting certain profiles and traits in a candidate. Relationship-building with clients and engaging in internal activities are assessment areas that favor certain types of people in the promotion processes. Similarly, the implications of targeting certain schools/programs also favor people with a certain background. Having these expectations on the candidates leads to the candidates reconstructing their persona into having these favorable traits that can be seen as typical swedish traits. The overall culture at the various consulting firms seem to be different depending on their size but they all act in a fairly similar way regardless of their size. Employees with migrant backgrounds do not seem to fit into the culture of their respective company even though they stated that their corporate culture is great in many ways . Moreover, even though the culture seems to be open and inclusive it requires the employee to have certain interest and personality traits for them to fully fit in. There seems to be a lack of ethnic representation within the management consulting industry. The reasons for this are many according to our interviewees. However, a theme that was recurring and seems to be one of the more important factors is that the pressure to become more diverse is governed by the society (external) and the employees (internal) at the various firms. Since there is a lack of representation, there is no internal pressure at these firms. Furthermore, there does not seem to be any external pressure for ethnic diversity. The reasons for the lack of ethnic diversity is mainly pointed to external factors (e.g.inherited problem, limited diversity in the talent pool etc.) within these interviews. However, given the answers surrounding the culture at the various firms, the current culture does not seem to be inclusive to people who do not fit into the norm of amanagement consultant.
Mångfald kan uttryckas i många olika former då det kan hänvisa till kön, kultur, etnicitet, sexualitet och religion bland annat. Alla dessa former av mångfald verkar inte vara en del av diskussionen när man talar om mångfald inom näringslivet. En stor del av managementkonsulter blir väldigt inflytelserika i näringslivet eftersom de ofta hamnar i ledarpositioner hos stora företag senare i sin karriär. Därför blir det av stort intresse att undersöka hur olika former av mångfald kan förbättra företag och vad det skulle innebära för företagen och samhället som helhet. Grunden för resultaten i denna studie är en litteraturstudie av teorier om etnisk mångfald i kombination med könsteorier eftersom de båda är relevanta i diskussionen om minoriteter. Dessutom intervjuades 12 managementkonsulter baserade i Stockholm av författarna till denna studie. Resultaten visade att rekryteringsprocesser i konsultföretagen tydligt syftar till att vara standardiserade och immuna mot partiskhet. Men det verkar oundvikligt, eftersom att dessa processer riktar in sig på vissa specifika profiler och egenskaper hos en kandidat. Relationsbyggandet med kunder och deltagande i interna aktiviteter är utvärderings områden som gynnar vissa typer av människor i befordran processerna. På liknande sätt gynnar fokuset på vissa skolor / program även människor med en viss bakgrund. Att ha dessa förväntningar på kandidaterna leder till att kandidaterna rekonstruerar sina personligheter till att hadessa gynnsamma drag som kan ses som typiska drag som associeras med svenskhet. Den övergripande kulturen hos de olika konsultföretagen tycks vara olika beroende på deras storlek men de agerar alla på ett ganska likt sätt oavsett storlek. Anställda med invandrarbakgrund verkar inte passa in i kulturen i respektive företag trots att de sagt att deras företagskultur är bra på många sätt. Även om kulturen verkar vara öppen och inkluderande kräver den att den anställda har vissa intresse- och personlighetsdrag för att de ska kunna passa in. Det verkar vara brist på etnisk representation inom managementkonsultbranschen. Skälen till detta är många enligt våra intervjuade. Men ett tema som var återkommande och verkar vara en av de viktigare faktorerna är att trycket för att bli bättre på mångfald styrs av samhället (externa) och de anställda (internt) vid de olika företagen. Eftersom det saknas representation är det inget internt tryck hos dessa företag. Dessutom verkar det inte finnas något externt tryck för etnisk mångfald. Orsakerna till bristen på etnisk mångfald pekas huvudsakligen på externa faktorer (t.ex. problem som företagen har ärvt, begränsad mångfaldi talangpoolen etc.) i dessa intervjuer. Med tanke på svaren kring kulturen hos de olika företagen verkar emellertid den nuvarande kulturen inte vara inkluderande för människor som inte passar in i en normen av en managementkonsult.