Management consultancy’s role in delivering lasting [triple bottom line] benefits

Abstract

This paper presents an investigation of the impact of interventions by management consultants and how their work influences organisational growth and sustainability through the performance improvement work that they carry out for and with their clients. The paper presents the findings of a questionnaire survey of 440 respondents from 206 countries; 197 of respondents were Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs), 243 large organisations. There is a particular focus on knowledge transfer in terms of urgency and impact of the work with regard to the extent to which consulting interventions in SMEs as well as large multinational corporations embed long-term sustainability practices.

Developing SME performance management practices: interventions for improving productivity

“…The third aspect of the intervention design is the core pattern of how, when, and who is involved in the interactions, and the nature of this interaction, referred to here as the "intervention archetype". Done et al (2011) posit that best practice interventions (BPI) typically have a mixture of preparation activities, workshops and follow up consultations supported by (Reid et al, 2019). Farrukh et al (2019) identify the resource implications of these interaction patterns, and stress the need for balance between extensive, lower cost interactions such as a 1-many workshops, versus the number of intensive of 1-1 consultations with individual firms.…”

“…The use of intensive 1-1 consultations is important because fidelity; the customisation, adaptation and reconfiguration of "standard" best practices or "templates" to the local business context, is critical to successful diffusion and development of practices (Alwazae et al, 2020;Done et al, 2011;McGovern et al, 2017). One common mechanism for achieving this is the use of expert transfer agents (Done et al, 2011;McGovern et al, 2017;Reid et al, 2019), who act in a coaching mode (Vidal-Salazar et al, 2012;Farrukh et al, 2019;Gray et al, 2011).…”

“…Done et al . (2011) posit that best practice interventions (BPI) typically have a mixture of preparation activities, workshops and follow up consultations supported by (Reid et al. , 2019).…”

“…, 2011; McGovern et al. , 2017; Reid et al. , 2019), who act in a coaching mode (Vidal-Salazar et al.…”

Salient Complexities of Engaging External Consultants in Information Systems Projects

“…Seeking to stem the high failure rates of their projects, many organisations have sought to engage consultants [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12]. Consultants are primarily subject matter experts [13] and knowledge brokers [14] [15] whose work primarily focuses on the translation of shared knowledge, experience and skills [16] [15] [11] [12] [17]. Consultants also play a major role in efforts by organisations to when necessary, intentionally discard well-established knowledge within the organisation in order to allow new knowledge to be created [18] [19].…”