Using Consultants

There are two fundamental types of consultants. Process consultants offer methods to use to solve a problem but rely on the client organization to decide how to use the methods, including making the decisions on what to actually do. The more well-known type of consultation is referred to as expert consultation. These consultants are contracted to fully complete a project or set of tasks. There should be a very detailed process for assessing and selecting a consultant and developing clear plans regarding roles and change activities. Issues, including confidentiality, how “deep” the consultation will potentially go into issues in the organization, and how much the consultation will include developing internal skills and knowledge of staff, are especially important. Organization development is a major process consultation method and field of practice. Such consultants are experts in change management processes, including conducting employee surveys and facilitating workshops and problem-solving groups.

Process Consultation Within and Across Cultures

The purpose of this study is to consider how process consultants can effectively manage challenges both within and across cultures. This study investigates the multidimensional aspects of process consultation for workgroups that consist of diverse individuals in postmodern organizations. A proposed conceptual framework is developed to include factors that are useful for process consultants to consider when working in multicultural contexts. The micro-multicultural framework integrates the cultural mosaic with Schein’s ORJI (Observation, Reaction, Judgment, and Intervention) cycle. The framework represents the multidimensional aspects of cultural identities and explores verbal and nonverbal communication patterns during process consultation. A checklist for micro-multicultural process consultation is also proposed to demonstrate how a process consultant can perform his or her primary role comprehensively while considering process consultation as group-level phenomena.