The Role Of Consultancy In Organisational Change Essay

Introduction

Organizational change is an imperative issue in the organizations. It is a fundamental issue within the management, organization theory, and accounting. In the present climate of evolving political priorities and economic pressure, organizational change is turning out to be an increasing priority within the organizations. Ideally, organizational change takes place as a response to a present crisis or as a response to an ever-changing environment. Organizational change is primarily a planned effort to enhance the capacity of a business to get work done and serve its market better. Thus, it entails a process in which the organizations optimize their performances as they work toward becoming their ideal states. Organizations can only introduce a change program when their human resources have confidence and fully understand it, implying that organizational change is about the individuals. Nevertheless, change is a complicated process, which can have positive and negative results. As a result, the change process should be conducted as effectively and efficiently as possible after looking at the available evidence. The effective and efficient change process within the organizations demands professionals who offer the best solutions. For this reason, this paper critically evaluates the role of consultancy in organizational change.
In past decades, consultancy as a management practice has turned out to be an emergent occupation that includes a team or individual consultants who facilitate the change within the organizations. These change agents act as educators, data gatherers, meeting facilitators, coaches, and advisors to the organizations. In fact, consultancy has played a significant role in recent times in offering professional solutions for the organizations desiring to operate more efficiently and effectively to enhance their operations. As a management practice, consultancy has helped the organizations to enhance their performances through providing organizational change management assistance. In helping the organizations optimize their performances toward becoming their ideal states, the management consultants bring their proprietary frameworks to guide the finding of problems and solutions of the same.
The lean organizations that are no longer capable of resourcing their complex needs internally essentially look outside for knowledge sources and frameworks for change (Kenton, Moody, & Roffey Park Institute Limited, 2004). These organizations have adopted different approaches to meet the unknown levels of change. For instance, they have been using the management consultants who specialize in change management. The management consultants are the change agents who are either internal or external. They usually operate at a process level in the organization, offering, expertise, advice, or process skills in facilitating the organizational change. The consultants have the contractual and psychological distance as they are not so embedded within the organization. The consultants support the organizational leaders in offering a containing environment for the reflection as well as emergency to take place even in the middle of the work pressure (Cameron & Green, 2012). For this reason, consultancy allows more latitude for a growing approach to change.
In facilitating the organizational change, the consultants are supposed to follow a consultancy process to achieve meaningful results. An explicit consulting process best supports the contracting between the leadership line in the organization and the change agents or consultants. There are some phases in the consulting process that the change agents or consultants ought to follow to help in bringing meaningful change within the organizations. The consultants should possess cognitive skills and different sets of knowledge at the various stages of the process of consulting. The entry phase is the initial stage of the consulting process. The stage demands a great deal of organization and concentration. The consultants should have good communication skills to be able to establish an initial relationship with the organization along with building the basis for involvement. In addition, they should build commitment and trust and be able to assess change readiness in the organization. The entry stage helps in establishing a clear definition as well as understanding of the problem that the organization is experiencing (Kubr, 2002). Additionally, it helps in establishing the skills, strategies, and techniques needed to resolve the problem.
In the second stage, diagnosis, the change agents gather the necessary statistics, data, and information to fully comprehend the cause and nature of the problem. In this phase, the consultants should maintain a positive relationship with the organizations. The solutions that the consultants recommend at the diagnosis stage depend wholly on where, when, how, and who gathers the data. At this stage, the change agents identify the central purpose of the problem, the obstacles they need to overcome, and restrictions they may experience (Kubr, 2002). They then use the operational and academic tools to comprehend the problem that the organizations are experiencing. The consultants also utilize their experiences to analyze all the collected data while using the necessary models such as SWOT and PEST, among others. What’s more, the consultants keep the organizations up to date with their progress after collecting and analyzing the necessary data.
After the diagnosis phase, the consultants move to the planning stage where they use all their creativity and imagination to develop solutions, evaluate the alternatives, make proposals to the organizations, and prepare for the implementation. Subsequently, the consultancy process enters the implementation phase where the change agents are supposed to be part of the process since the organizations do not possess the experience and expertise to implement the recommended solutions in most cases. At this stage, the consultants act as team leaders of the management team, training the staff, and implementation team. The consultants are required to ensure accountability and quality, remain adaptable and flexible, encourage learning and development, and gain commitment and ownership to facilitate the implementation of the solution. In addition, the consultants should help the organizations with the change management since particular solutions may affect the organization stakeholders or some employees (Kubr, 2002). In the final phase, both the consultants and organizations evaluate the results accomplished through the chosen solution. The consultants are supposed to submit a concluding report of the organization’s change program, elucidating the reasons for success and planning for any required follow-up.
The consultants/change agents should facilitate both individual and team change within the organization to achieve a momentous organizational change. The change agents are required to aid the staff in the change process. As a result, both the employees and consultants should know their incompetence and competence levels. Ideally, the consultants should have an understanding of the employees’ motivational levels, learning styles, and personalities to aid them go through the phases of organizational change (Cameron & Green, 2012). The consultants should also deal with the groups of people experiencing change within the organizations. They are supposed to identify the kind of the team and what is required to change in its structure and the role it will carry out during the organizational change process. Conclusively, the effective change of both individual employees and groups of employees facilitates a successful organizational change.

References

Cameron, E., & Green, M. (2012). Making sense of change management: A complete guide to the models, tools & techniques of organizational change. London: Kogan Page.
Kenton, B., Moody, D., & Roffey Park Institute Limited. (2004).The role of the internal consultant. Horsham: Roffey Park Institute.
Kubr, M. (Ed.). (2002). Management consulting: A guide to the profession. International Labor Organization.