In-house Consulting - an answer to building change capacities in complex organisations?

Abstract

Systemic in-house Consulting (SIHC) is a new phenomenon in many German-speaking multinational companies. Triggered by the increase in parallel change projects (particularly in bigger organisations), SIHC faces an almost Munchhausen-like paradoxical task: to consult and change organisations from within. In this article, we explore the SIHC phenomenon and argue that increasing change needs have the potential to stimulate organisational change capacity. SIHC can also be interpreted as one way to build up internal change capacities. The article illustrates the new SIHC phenomenon, using the case of an automotive supplier building up SIHC as a resource to cope with the multiple, heterogeneous and parallel change processes. Systemic In-house Consulting, Multiple Change, Organisational Change Capacity, Neither approach particularly encourages organisation-wide change capacity development. One interesting phenomenon in the German change management field is 'systemic organization consulting' (SOC), a practice strongly influenced by system theory (Luhmann, 1995, 2000). The SOC has developed in the last 30 years from a niche phenomenon to a wellrecognized consulting approach in German-speaking countries. Compared with traditional management consulting approaches, SOC differs in its analysis of organisations from a system theoretical perspective. This theory holds that organisations are constituted of communication, leading to the incorporation of systemic consulting principles (e.g. consultant neutrality, reflexivity, multi-perspectivity and a systemic understanding of interventions) and the application of systemically inspired tools (e.g. second-order observation, appreciative inquiry, solution-focused questions, clarification of context and expectations) (Schumacher, 2013). Zooming in on the field of SOC, a less-visible phenomenon-the systemic in-house consulting (SIHC)-comes into focus. Systemic in-house consultants work like their external The number of education programs, masters' courses, seminars and training sessions offering systemic training in organisational development and change management suggests a conservative estimate of 10,000 people who have undergone training and work in organisations (Krizanits, 2011). However, there is no precise and reliable data about SIHC dissemination. The article explores the phenomenon of SIHC, based on the observation that (particularly) bigger organisations have established a systemic form of SIHC for organisational The article is structured as follows; first, we briefly outline the challenges organisations face in establishing change capacity. Then, we outline our method, briefly introduce systemic consulting in Germany and describe the empirical context. Next we present the case of a German automotive supplier consulting department and illustrate its actual activities, using