The Cultural Behavior: What Makes A Good Consultant?

WHAT MAKES A GOOD CONSULTANT?
What Makes A Good Consultant?
Kubr (2002) emphasize that prior to defining what is consulting we first must consider two approaches. One approach would be is to look at a broad functional view of consulting. Another approach is to view consulting as a special expert service and accentuates certain features that a service must have. According to Robert Metzger and Larry Greine (2002):
Management consulting is an advisory service contracted for and provided to organizations by specially trained and qualified persons who assist, in an objective and independent manner, the client organization to identify management problems, analyze such problems, recommend solutions to these problems, and help, when requested, in the implementation of solutions (p.3).
In alike and simpler terms, the International Council of Management Consulting Institutes (ICMCI) (2002) defined consulting as:
Management consulting is the provision of independent advice and assistance about the process of management to clients with management responsibilities.” (p. 3).
According to Office (2002), consultants have five broad roles. These purposes are: Achieving organizational purposes and objectives, solving management and business problems, identifying and seizing new opportunities, enhancing learning and implementing changes (p.10).
A consultant, either in physical or quantitative contribution, must enhance the worth of the client’s organization in order to achieve the client’s principal purposes (Office, I. L., & Kubr, M., 2002, p.10).
According to the article entitled “Engagement and Culture: Engaging Talent in Turbulent Times” (2009):
Engagement is the emotional and intellectual commitment of an individual or group to build and sustain strong business performance”
They also defined culture as:
The behaviors and belief characteristics of an organization as exhibited by the stated and unstated rules and expectations, prevailing values, norms, behaviors and systems that define an organization. Culture is created and maintained by leadership actions, operating systems, and process that influence employee and organizational behaviors.” According to a research, a culture that lives on high performance usually attracts and engages high-potential talent thus energizing the company’s core values.
For the purpose of research and academics, business researchers and sociologists have been in collaboration with each other to understand and quantify key cultural averages for years. The first sociologist to contribute is Geert Hofstede. He concluded that there are six key dimensions where culture diverge in the business scene. These dimensions are the following: power distance, indulgence, pragmatism, individualism, masculinity and uncertainty avoidance. On a more recent study, Oded Shenkar, argued for the need to avoid from the idea of cultural distance and forward to cultural friction. Cultural friction encompasses on the interaction, situation or specific circumstances, and of factors from different culture. It is still true that today, cultural differences still affects the workplace and is a challenging issue (Garbis).
According to Greet (2014), data collection is considered to be a primary data while collation is termed as the secondary data. The type of data collection depends on what kind of data is needed. Retrieving existing data usually includes formal policy documents or official statistics to name a few. While collecting data from individuals or groups will involve interviews such as key informant, focus group or projective techniques. Questionnaires or surveys are essential in collecting data from individuals or groups. Data can also be collected through observation. Under observation, data collection is by participation or recording. Lastly, physical measurement is collected through biophysical measurements or geographical information.
Darnell Lattal (2013) claimed that there is:
A need for an ethical framework to force systematic review of actions against a longer-term perspective or a wider consideration of stakeholders who may be affected by these actions”. She said that acts of clients or businesses can be measures against a range of ethical yardsticks. Her example, moral pluralism, as one method of evaluating ethical behavior. Moral pluralism are acts of a person or company that must be balanced or weighted against values like justice, common good, rights and self-interest.
Lattal also created a guide for business managers and the like in making ethical decisions easier. One of these could be applied in managing and engaging a client is a consultant should establish first his guiding principle. This is in order for one to evaluate his own dimensions of ethical actions from intact absolutes to teaching opportunities. A good consultant should also make ethical behavior part of business and performance reviews. It is also essential to work on ascending moral sensitivity from different perspective and the more views there are the better. Lastly from the guide is to “encourage, model, and help others establish a method to discuss actions and increase alertness to the ethical issues in everyday decisions”. And as what Don Knauss (2010) said in his article, “When a company models that kind of behavior inside and out, when it walks the walk, then it establishes a solid foundation of trust. It solidifies its reputation and makes business transactions and partnerships happen much more quickly”.
According to Cecere (2016), after five years’ time or by 2020 consulting will significantly change and one of the factors that contribute to this change is the advancement of technology that is easy accessible today. Marc Cecere claimed that there are six themes that will define the future of consulting. One of these themes is that the traditional high revenue, technical work will shrink and change. This is the effect from the growth of design, integration and specialized consulting areas. Consultants in the technical fields needs to adjust and adapt to the growing demands in business, customer experience design and many more aspects in order to be able to efficiently deliver their clients demands. The next change would be that asset based consulting will change delivery and revenue models. Future consultants will use modern software tools and technologies to improve customer or consumer interaction. What was manually done before which would take weeks and a lot of personnel would then be condensed to days and done with much less effort at the same time quality of service is still the same or even better. Projects in the future will be small, more virtual, and global and will even use centers. This is in response to the companies in the past and even today that have less patience for projects that would take years to accomplish and would even cost a lot but in the end might not be able to achieve what they expect. Technology and expertise are again the essen...