scholarly journals Aristotle and the Management Consultants: Shooting for Ethical Practice

2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-44
Author(s):  
David Shaw
Keyword(s):  
Management Consulting ◽  
Virtuous Person ◽  
Ethical Behaviour ◽  
Ethical Practice ◽  
Human Flourishing ◽  
Management Consultants ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
Management Consultant ◽  
Management Consultancy ◽  
Positive Target

AbstractThe academic literature on management consulting raises many questions about the ethics of management consulting. The uncertain, emergent, and often socially constructed nature of management consultancy knowledge limits the scope both for regulating the industry in the manner of the established professions, and for evaluating management consultants’ work objectively. The character of management consultants is therefore a central issue in how far clients and other stakeholders can trust them. This paper considers three questions, using Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics as a guide. These are, first, ‘What is the function of a management consultant?’, second, ‘How should a management consultant act in order to be a good management consultant?’, and third, ‘Where does the boundary lie between the ethical responsibilities of the management consultant and those of the client and other stakeholders?’ Aristotelian virtue ethics are valuable in answering these questions. Their focus on character is well suited to the distinct ethical problems of management consulting. Aristotle’s overarching concern with human flourishing, and an ethically balanced approach towards benefiting from the good things to which a virtuous person may aspire, has more promise as an influence on consultants’ behaviour than the lists of prohibitions that typify codes of ethical practice in the industry. Aristotle’s call for leaders to habituate their people to ethical behaviour should be heard by the leaders of management consultancy firms. In accordance with Aristotle’s philosophy, this paper proposes a positive target at which management consultants can aim in shooting for ethical practice.

scholarly journals Management Consulting: The Road Ahead

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-4
Author(s):  
Simon Haslam
Keyword(s):  
Business Models ◽  
Management Consulting ◽  
Global Management ◽  
The Road ◽  
Management Consultants ◽  
Management Consultancy

Abstract This is a view of the $150bn global management consultancy industry, abridged from a masterclass presentation given to the Institute of Management Consultants and Advisers in Ireland in November 2020. The paper looks forward and explores the implications of current sector dynamics. It is structured into two sections: the global management consulting market, and the implications for consulting business models.

Becoming a Knowledge Management Consultant

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 8-11
Author(s):  
Mostafa Sayyadi
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Improve Performance ◽  
Management Consultants ◽  
Management Consultant ◽  
Management Consultancy ◽  
The Impact ◽  
First Time

Abstract The focus of this article is the critical role of management consultancy in providing a rich basis to understanding the mechanisms by which knowledge management and operations risk is influenced. This article raises vital questions as to how management consultants can successfully contribute to knowledge management and subsequently improve performance at all levels of the organization. I extended the literature by showing how management consultants can contribute to knowledge management, facilitating and fostering a firm’s capabilities. Insufficient consideration of the impact of management consultancy on the effectiveness of knowledge management has been exposed and I attempt to address this concern for the first time.

Case study 3

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ewan Ferlie ◽  
Sue Dopson ◽  
Chris Bennett ◽  
Michael D. Fischer ◽  
Jean Ledger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Public Services ◽  
Management Consulting ◽  
Organizational Redesign ◽  
Management Consultants ◽  
Management Knowledge ◽  
Problems And Solutions ◽  
Financial Interests ◽  
The Way

The chapter discusses management consultants and consulting knowledge in health care, highlighting significant expenditure on consultancy and how consultants have shaped thinking in public services, which some critics suggest has served consultants’ own (financial) interests. The chapter then discusses the way consultants mobilize management knowledge and frame clients’ problems and solutions. It discusses an empirical case study of a consultancy project to redesign NHS organizations to make substantial ‘efficiency savings’. Here, consultants framed the NHS’s problem and solution, and then imposed an organizational redesign. Local NHS managers and clinicians framed the NHS’s problem differently, doubting the consultants’ framing and proposing redesign, but feeling unable to engage in dialogue about these concerns. Consequently, they engaged with the project in a calculated and defensive way, superficially accepting the redesign while waiting for its implementation to fail. Thus, the chapter demonstrates framing politics surrounding management consulting knowledge.

scholarly journals Fragmented fields: Professionalisms and work settings in Italian management consultancy

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lara Maestripieri
Keyword(s):  
Professional Service ◽  
Specific Work ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Professional Service Firms ◽  
Work Settings ◽  
Management Consultants ◽  
Self Employment ◽  
Management Consultancy ◽  
Professional Service Firm

Abstract Management consultancy has long been a contested terrain in the sociology of the professions. Although the professionalism of management consultants has always been emphasized by practitioners themselves, the lack of a strong community of peers has been an impediment to their professionalization. In this article, I argue that professionalism is not the outcome of a process of regulation and institutionalization but that it has to be conceived a discourse comprising norms, worldviews, and values that define what is appropriate for an individual to be considered a competent and recognized member of this community. Given the diversity characterizing the field, there are multiple discourses surrounding professionalism of management consultants, and these discourses are shaped by work settings. Work settings are a combination of the type of organization professional partnership or professional service firm and the employment status (employee or self-employed). Drawing on the empirical evidence from various work settings (professional service firms, professional partnership, and self-employment), I investigate four clusters of practitioners identified in 55 biographical and semi-structured interviews conducted with management consultants in Italy. Four types of professionalism emerge from the clusters. Organizing professionalism is the sole professionalism that appears in all work settings. Other discourses (corporate, commercialized, and hybrid professionalism) are context-dependent and more likely to be found in specific work settings.

Gurus and Indian Epistemologies

2007 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 180-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edwina Pio
Keyword(s):  
Management Consulting ◽  
Management Consultants ◽  
Field Report ◽  
Textile Sector

This article intertwines pedagogy and Indian epistemologies by offering the use of parables in the education of management consultants, particularly those seeking to work in India. Through the presentation of a field report in the form of parables constructed from lived-in and lived-through consultancy assignments, this article highlights the labor-intensive textile sector of India that employs approximately 35 million people. The parables are presented in a format that can be utilized to understand and unpack the complexity of India that is a far cry from the glossy images of India's expanding IT prowess. The article argues for the need to develop consultants who, in grappling with knowledge and action, can move beyond Western templates in management consulting.

Determinants of perceived success in management consulting

2016 ◽  
Vol 39 (6) ◽  
pp. 706-738 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matias Bronnenmayer ◽  
Bernd W. Wirtz ◽  
Vincent Göttel
Keyword(s):  
Structural Equation ◽  
Success Factors ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Management Consulting ◽  
Management Support ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Top Management Support ◽  
Management Consultants ◽  
Order Construct ◽  
Sorting Test

Purpose This paper aims to conceptualize perceived management consulting success, derive relevant success factors based on principal-agent theory and the resource-based view as well as investigate the particular factors’ influence. Management consulting has become important for improving the competitiveness of a variety of firms. Surprisingly, there is little empirical evidence clarifying what constitutes a successful management consulting project. Design/methodology/approach The authors conduct a survey to empirically investigate the hypotheses. They develop the survey instrument through a literature review, expert interviews, a pre-test and an item-sorting test. To analyze the data from 348 management consultants, the authors apply structural equation modeling. Additionally, they choose a triangulation approach by asking secondary informants about the originally surveyed consultants’ responses. Findings Initially, the authors develop the second-order construct perceived management consulting success, consisting of the factors compliance with budget and schedule, degree of target achievement, profitability as well as expansion and extension. Additionally, they develop an understanding of management consulting’s success factors. In this regard, five of six factors show a significant impact on perceived management consulting success. Originality/value According to the results, the factor intensity of collaboration is of highest importance for perceived management consulting success. Further, the factors common vision, consultant expertise and top management support show comparably strong significant influences. Yet, the authors have to reject the hypothesis about trust. This result conveys the complicacy of the consultant–client relationship and shows that building a trustful relationship between both parties is hard to accomplish.

scholarly journals DEVELOPMENT OF THEORETICAL BASES OF ADMINISTRATIVE CONSULTING

2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 162-168
Author(s):  
Гузалия Клычова ◽  
Guzaliya Klychova ◽  
Алсу Закирова ◽  
Alsu Zakirova ◽  
Альфия Юсупова ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Basis ◽  
Comprehensive Analysis ◽  
Modern Concept ◽  
Management Consulting ◽  
Highly Qualified ◽  
Management Consultancy ◽  
Complex Projects ◽  
Model Of Management ◽  
Professional Assistance ◽  
Current Stage

Management consultancy at the current stage of economic development is a factor that contributes to the efficiency and competitiveness of most enterprises through a comprehensive analysis of the management system and the solution of key problems, arising in management activities. Implementation of various innovative, anti-crisis, diversification and other complex projects proves the necessity to appeal to highly qualified consultants for professional assistance. The requests of organizations contribute to the modification of technologies and methods of management consulting. The economic essence of management consulting is considered in the article, the conceptual model of management consulting is formed, in which the elements forming the theoretical basis of the modern concept of management consulting are conceptually specified and structured.

scholarly journals Performative seduction: how management consultants influence practices of leadership

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jackie Ford ◽  
Nancy Harding
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Local Level ◽  
Talent Management ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
Management Consultants ◽  
Management Consultancy ◽  
Public Sector Leadership ◽  
Public And Private Sector ◽  
Policies And Practices

PurposeThis paper tracks how a policy recommended by management consultants becomes embedded as an integral part of leadership practice. It explores the launch of the concept of “talent management” by McKinsey & Company and how it becomes adopted as part of expected leadership practices in the English National Health Service. The use of Management Consultants globally has increased exponentially, and the paper considers this phenomenon and the ways in which management consultant advice influences public sector leadership and practice at local level.Design/methodology/approachA case study approach is adopted, focussing on the introduction of the concept of talent management into the English NHS, following the wider emergence of the concept through influential reports published by McKinsey & Company in the late 1990s. An analysis of the emergence of the concept is conducted drawing on this series of reports and the adoption of talent management policies and practices by the English government's Department of Health.FindingsThese influential reports by the management consultancy firm, McKinsey & Company, constituted an urgent need for this newly identified concept of talent management and the secrecy surrounding its reception. It is this mystery surrounding the decisions about a talent management strategy in the NHS and the concealment of decisions behind closed doors, which leads us to offer a theory of management consultants' influence on leaders as one of performative seduction.Originality/valueManagement consultancy is a vast business whose influence reaches deeply into public and private sector organisations around the world. Understanding of the variegated policies and practices that constitute contemporary modes of governance therefore requires comprehension of management consultants' role within those policies and practices. This paper argues that management consultants influence public sector leadership through insertion of their products into definitions of, and performative constitution of, local level leadership.

scholarly journals Insight Series, University of Birmingham

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Moulin-Stozek
Keyword(s):  
Professional Practice ◽  
Ethical Conduct ◽  
Ethical Behaviour ◽  
Ethical Development ◽  
Professional Conduct ◽  
Human Flourishing ◽  
Moral Qualities ◽  
Professional Codes ◽  
Normative Perspective

Ethical behaviour from a normative perspective is usually understood as following rules, decisions based on any potential consequences and fostering internal moral qualities for human flourishing. Although the process of codifying professional conduct is in itself deontological (rule-focused), a code of ethical conduct should still depict a balanced orientation towards compliance with rules, consequences or ethical development. The analysis of the examined documents, however, indicates that professional codes seem to emphasise conformity among its own members to the rules of the codes rather than developing their autonomous interest in ethical professional practice.

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