Defining Management Consulting And Exploring Its Knowledge Creation Potential
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Defining Management Consulting and Exploring Its Knowledge Creation Potential
This article proposes a definition of management consulting, which aims to identify the distinctive features of this particular service activity and emphasizes the mainly cognitive nature of its value-creation potential. The proposed framework is corroborated by revealing (though short) anecdotal evidence. It highlights the fact that the potential of entrepreneurial knowledge creation of management consulting (and the consultant-client relational dynamics it triggers) lies in the possibility that it can generate new entrepreneurial knowledge, such as new interpretative skills and new experience-based capabilities. The value of this knowledge for both the client and consultant goes far beyond the solution of the specific problem for which the consultant was engaged.
The Knowledge Creation Potential of Management Consulting
Author: Francesco Ciampi
language: en
Publisher: SAGE Publications Limited
Release Date: 2008-06-02
The Knowledge Creation Potential of Management Consulting interprets management consulting from a knowledge perspective, and proposes a general conceptual framework for investigating and interpreting that potential. To begin with, the main dynamics of change that characterize today’s demand for management consulting is outlined, and is it suggested that firms are becoming increasingly aware of the real cognitive (rather than only the economic) value generation potential that can be activated through the consulting relationship. Also, the possible pathways for evolutionary transformation of consulting practices, models and roles that consulting firms could follow if they want to take advantage of the important changes that are taking place, are looked at. Next, a definition of management consulting is proposed, which aims to identify the distinctive ontological (real, essential and relatively stable) features of this particular service and emphasizes the mainly cognitive nature of its value-creation potential. Furthermore, two approaches to interpreting management consulting are discussed: the diachronic approach, and the synchronic approach. To conclude, the theories interpreting knowledge creation processes as knowledge conversion processes are explained, and applied to the specific context of management consulting relationships.
Emerging Trends and Issues in Management Consulting
The ninth volume in the Research in Management Consulting (RMC) series—much like the volumes that preceded it—underscores that management consulting is a multifaceted field with a truly eclectic nature. Management consultants range from sole practitioners and those working in small boutique firms to members of global consultancies that literally span the world. Their interventions can consist of relatively simple, commonly available services focused on mid- to lower level organizational members, to those that are far more esoteric in nature, providing vital assistance and direction to key players at the upper echelons of the corporate hierarchy. As consultants we can have individuals, groups and work units, or organizations as our “client,” and engagements can be dominated by junior-level specialists or guided by senior-level gurus and advisors. The volume contains 11 chapters that continue the RMC series’ commitment to enhancing our understanding of and insight into management consulting and the consulting process from a cross-cultural, global perspective. The book is divided into three sections that explore emerging issues and challenges in the management consulting industry, trends and techniques in management consulting interventions, and reflections on consulting and the consulting process. This volume, which captures the dual nature—possibilities and challenges — associated with management consulting, adds to the Janus-faced portrayal of the field. Drawing on the interplay between practice and scholarship, the volume adds to the series goal of gaining a fuller understanding of management consulting theory in practice and practice in context in a quest for actionable knowledge about consultants, consultancies and the consulting process.