Managing a Consultancy Project through Applying proper Methodology - Literature review Example

Literature review on consultancy project

Table of content

1. Introduction3

2. Managing a consultancy project through applying proper methodology3

3. Business and management problems5

4. Evaluation of ethical issues6

5. Conclusion8

Reference List9

• 1. Introduction

Consultancy approach provides a scope to the businesses in the recent years of globalization, to secure future sustainable growth by implementing effective business solutions after analyzing the market structure (Kerzner, 2013). Under this approach, the business consultant acts as a coach, facilitator, mentor, trainer and expert for addressing the business needs. The main purpose of this report is to analyze the consultancy approach for running the business ethically and securing future sustainable development. The assignment also provides an opportunity to the organisations to analyze the current business environment and gain competitive advantage in the international market. The ethical issues are rising day-to-day due to complexity in the business environment and in this regard, the companies try to identify appropriate consultant who can develop efficient planning ethically after analyzing the needs of the business (Independent consulting boot camp, 2014). Through understanding the business challenges in the recent years, it is possible to understand the importance of managerial consultant for running the business successfully by maintaining all the organizational code of ethics.

• 2. Managing a consultancy project through applying proper methodology

The business consultants use the consulting approach for resolving any organizational problem and improve client engagement through developing effective strategies. The consulting approach includes several organizational philosophy, existing theories and models for developing effective business solutions (Independent consulting boot camp, 2014). The consultancy methodology provides an opportunity to tackle any organisational issues and challenges and generate high profitability by achieving beneficial outcomes (Independent consulting boot camp, 2014). Through applying the consultancy methodology, the organizations can develop new initiatives to achieve the organizational goals and objectives more efficiently. Therefore, consultancy approach is essential for the businesses to hire efficient consultants to develop new strategies and run the business with more creativity and innovations. Kerzner (2013) opined that, the business consultants mainly try to apply consultancy approach to improve organizational performance and their efficiency to run the operational activities successfully. Through this approach, the expertise can identify the actual problem, analyze the market condition to provide objectivity and set further goals and mission for the companies (Independent consulting boot camp, 2014).

Problem solving is the important skills under this approach to perform efficicntly to support the businesses that includes identifying the issues, understanding business environment, generating solutions, implementing effective planning and choosing further recommendations to foster sustainable development in near future (Consulting methodology, 2016). In the first step, the business clients try to build corporate relationship with the business consultants to choose proper path for running the business activities successfully. Proper relationship and trust among the consultant and business people is essential to share organizational information and data through which the consultant can analyze the business environment efficiently (Independent consulting boot camp, 2014). The main things that consultant does under the consultancy approach are provide appropriate information, recommend suitable suggestions, building commitment, implementing corrective actions, facilitating creative learning, realizing business needs, solving internal issues and external challenges as well as improve organisational efficiency (Consulting methodology, 2016).

Lindorff (2007) opined that, the consultancy approach is essential in such a complex business era which provides a better scope to run the business activities successfully. The multinational corporations as well as domestic companies try to implement consultancy approach for temporary assistance, surviving in crisis, selecting experienced personnel and reviewing objectives. Lindorff (2007) stated that, due to increasing the issues of cultural diversity and different requirements of the business people, the companies also try to implement the consultancy approach for conflict resolution through which they can maximize the objective of all the stakeholders of the firm. Accordingly, the demand for consultancy approach is also increasing day-to-day due to rising socio-economic and political changes. In order to manage the socio-economic changes in the country as well as run the business ethically by maintaining all the government’s rules and regulation, there requires appropriate business consultant who can provide proper solutions for running the business successfully (Independent consulting boot camp, 2014).

Therefore, according to Schweriner (2007), under the consultancy management, the employees are beneficial as it provides the opportunity to improve critical thinking skills, research skills and employability skills to get the job done with more efficiency. Kerzner (2013) stated that, this approach is also beneficial for managing organizational projects and lead the team member through building communication and cooperation among the team. Therefore, under the consultancy approach, the business expertise are efficient to maintain transparency and accountability, develop problem solving skills, make effective decisions and mange business clients to foster more development in future (Independent consulting boot camp, 2014).

• 3. Business and management problems

The business people are well established and they are efficient enough to gain more knowledge and information about the business. According to Kerzner (2013), broader economic climate and uncertain atmosphere increases the scope of hiring management consultant for implementing new changes in the business to gain higher profitability and run the operational activities smoothly. Employing experienced business consultant is therefore important for gaining skills to resolve any organizational issues and foster more sustainable development in near future. Kerzner (2013) opined that, the business owner and managerial team of the organizations in the recent years face several issues in identifying an effective managerial consultant who can provide efficient business solutions after analyzing the current business status. The main issue that the organizations face is during identifying actual business objective. It is important to develop appropriate organizational objectives to run the business activities by maintaining suitable track. Without proper objective and goal, it is possible to identify an appropriate consultant as per the business requirements (Consulting methodology, 2016).

Moreover, Kerzner (2013) stated that, it is also difficult to identify the actual issues and challenges in the organization to develop effective planning. Identifying the facts and business information is also other issues for which the brand sometime fails to identify the right business consultant. According to Kerzner (2013), in the recent years of globalisation, the market structure is complex and it is not easy for the companies to identify the right person for the business who can fulfill the business needs. In addition to these, Kerzner (2013) opined that, lack of efficiency in management team is another reason for which the organizations face issues. In this regard, lack of monitoring process and employee’s empowerment further raise issues within the organisation to identify the organizational problems (Consulting methodology, 2016).

The companies also face certain issues to build effective communication with other business people as lack of interaction raises misunderstanding at workplace (Independent consulting boot camp, 2014). Therefore, need recognition and communication with other business stakeholders are important for identifying an efficient management consultant for the business. According to Kerzner (2013), conflict resolution in this context is an important issue that the companies face due to changing needs and preferences of the different business people. It is important for the business owner to maintain proper balance between profit maximization and value creation of the organisational stakeholders by wellbeing maximization (Consulting methodology, 2016). Internal environment and workplace culture are other issues that create problems during selecting an appropriate consultant (Consulting methodology, 2016).

• 4. Evaluation of ethical issues

There are several ethical issues that the consultancy firms face during conducting the consultancy projects within the organization. It is the responsibility of the consultants to implement ethics of business to protect the clients so that the clients do not go under trouble or any doubt. According to Schweriner (2007), first of all it is necessary for the consultant to be honest to build trust and customer’s loyalty which is the main strength of the consultancy projects. As per the description by Lindorff (2007), in the recent era of global competitive market, the organizations hire management consultants to gain their opinion about the market structure and possible strategies or gaining competitive advantage over other existing firms. In this regard, the management consultants try to analyze the business, market growth and demand, organisational resources and performance to set develop appropriate planning for resolving any organizational issues and challenges. Therefore, Lindorff (2007) stated that, it is important to build trust between the consultants and the clients to develop effective strategy which can foster more sustainable development.

According to Lindorff (2007), the clients need to have full faith on the consultants so that they can rely on the strategies offered by the consultancy projects. It is also the responsibility of the consultants to maximize the objective of the clients and concentrate on them to fulfill their business requirements. The consultants need to hear all the problems of the clients in order to develop efficient strategic planning to resolve the existing issue. In this regard, maintaining confidentiality is the main issues in the recent years that raise more issues among the business consultants and the organizational people. Without maintaining confidentiality, it is not possible to build trust among each other (Lindorff, 2007). Moreover, business transparency is another ethical issue raised from mistrust and lack of communication and monitoring process. In this regard, the consultants face issues in gaining authentic information from the clients due to lack of transparency and confidentiality. As stated by Schweriner (2007), the business houses also face the issues regarding protecting the organizational data and information. The consultants need to protect the private data under Data Protection Act 1998. From the organizational point of view, they face the issues of mistrust, confidentially and protections which need to be reduced through applying consultancy approach and selecting efficient consultants.

According to Lindorff (2007), from the point of employees, there are several ethical issues during conducting the consultancy project at workplace such as communication, fairness and honesty, conflict of interest and organisational relationship. Lindorff (2007) opined that, lack of communication may lead to misunderstanding among the team members which is unethical for running the business activities successfully. In this context, the employees need to interact with upper level managers and it is the responsibility of the business consultants to build effective communication and cooperation within the organisation. Moreover, Schweriner (2007) stated that, the business people require fair treatment at workplace and honesty so that there will be no misrepresentation and misinterpretation. Therefore, the business consultants need to maintain business ethics and also need be honest for creating values for all the business stakeholders as well as maximizing organizational goals.

Moreover, Lindorff (2007) described that, in the recent years, the organisations also face some issues related to lack of relationship among the team members which is necessary for getting the job done efficiently with more cooperation. According to Schweriner (2007), organizational relationship is helpful for maximizing the wellbeing of the people and provides them an opportunity to work collaboratively to achieve organisational goals and objectives. In addition to these factors, one of the major ethical issues is related to conflicts of interest. As opined by Schweriner (2007), issues arise when the business owners take advantage of conducting the business and do not share business values and profitability with the organizational staff. In this regard, the business consultants face several issues to maximize the interest of the business owner as well as fulfill the employee’s requirements. These are the main issues for which the business consultants face challenges in conducting the managerial project within the company and meet the organizational goals and objectives (Lindorff, 2007).

• 5. Conclusion

The business consultants therefore play an essential role to show the right path to the companies through which the organization can achieve their goals and objectives efficiently. The management consultants are efficient for both the business owner and the organizational employees as they can choose the right path to maximize own interest. The literature review about the consultancy projects and business ethics are important to gain secondary data. Existing literatures including books, journals and news reports are effective for gaining knowledge about the consultancy approach through which the organizations try to develop the brand successfully. In this context, under consultancy approach, the advisors are efficient enough to manage internal conflicts and provide efficient business solutions so that both the business owner and employees can conduct the business activities cooperatively.

• Reference List

Consulting methodology, 2016. Issue based consulting. [Online] Available at: < http://www.consultingmethodology.com/> [Accessed 5 July, 2016].

Independent consulting boot camp, 2014. Management consulting methodology. [Online] Available at: <http://www.independent-consulting-bootcamp.com/consulting-methodology.html> [Accessed 5 July, 2016].

Kerzner, H.R., 2013. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. London: John Wiley & Sons.

Lindorff, M., 2007. The ethical impact of business and organisational research: The forgotten methodological issue? Electronic Journal of Business Research Methods, 5(1), pp.21-28.

Schweriner, J. H., 2007. Ethics management for project managers for professional service. [Pdf] Available at: <http://www.schweriner.com/writing/EthicsConsiderationsfortheProjectManagerinProfessionalServices.pdf> [Accessed 5 July, 2016].