Adopting Methods and Tools for All Consulting Jobs - Essay Example

Number Adopting Methods and Tools for all Consulting Jobs Throughout this essay, the notion that prescribed methods and tools can be developed for all consulting jobs will be analysed for the development of novel arguments. The main source of data that will be used to back the assertions in the thesis statement will be in-class role plays. The notion that prescribed methods and tools can be developed for all consulting jobs is based on the principle that most organisations face comparable forms of problems. Most of the contemporary organisations are facing stiff competition in the marketplace. This has prompted many organisations to seek advanced management concepts, lean production through Total Quality Management, business process re-engineering (BPR) techniques, and leveraging. Leveraging mainly refers to the techniques of multiplying gains and losses. In this regard, leveraging ratio cannot be avoided by organisations. Leveraging ratio is typically the amount of organization’s equity in relation to debt. This aspect, in management consultancy, implies to the knowledge and skills that an organisations has in terms of human capital to what the organisations lacks according to Carmeli (2005). Organisations are constantly striving to improve efficiency, as such; consultants bring with them a multitude of tools and methods, many of which can add great value to the client (O’Mahoney & Markham 2013). The consulting industry is broad and encompasses a wide range of projects. Any organization for instance, an organisation might require changes to its human resource structure, as seen throughout ROLE PLAY (?). Management consultancy is a new form of management that deals with execution of ideas and knowledge, and therefore it requires commodification of knowledge in its expansion. Commodification in this context means the process of transforming management ideas in a particular manner that can be sold on a market for management solutions (Heusinkveld & Benders, 2005). The process of knowledge commodification is unproblematic and linear since it is concerned with only turning new ideas into marketable commodities. Therefore, methods and techniques used in management consultancy are applicable to all organisations; as all organisations strive for ideas that are marketable. Consulting firms are capable of packing management knowledge into a saleable form then they transmit these solutions by advising the organization appropriately. Most organizations are profit and growth driven, and the techniques developed by consulting companies should be the same. Demand for new commodities is stimulated through the commodification of knowledge (Suddaby & Greenwood, 2001). A Management Consultant firm can capitalise this concept by forming user’s manual that entails cases and problems that different organisation faced but were solved using application of specific and tools and management. Consultancy is also a field that can be used to advocate markets for fair trade, which is built on business opportunities. A market for fair trade is referred to as ‘markets for virtue’ (Vogel, 2005). Management consultants play a significant role in the conceptualization of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) commodification, which is presented as a multifaceted process of market construction (Brès and Gond, 2014). The role of management consultancy can be used to develop CSR to be a profit-making tool. Management consultants involve themselves in the field of CSR since they are involved in the commodification process (Faust, 2012; Kipping & Clark, 2012). ManagementConsultancy shape and package the content of CSR by developing their supply, which is enhanced by the provision of sustainable concepts. The process of CSR commodification in identifying market opportunities can be problematic in sensitive domains that relate to environmental and social issues (Malsh, 2013). Some stakeholders are likely to re-evaluate and contest the reliability of CSR issues subjected to translation. Translation is a political process that and is essential to understanding the manner in which business compliance works and can be an efficient method of changing corporate behaviour (Brès and Gond, 2014). The fact CSR is an imperative issue for many organizations, it justifies the thesis statement that consulting firms should have a prescribed tools and methods since organisations find it problematic in tackling CSR issues. Firms have changed in terms of political realignment, globalisation, and information technology. Business Process Reengineering (BPR) is a technique that has seen such changes transforms the organization to an impeccable height of success. The demand for BPR projects has seen a rise of BPR consultants, which is arguably the reason why consultants of BPR should have a prescribed methodologies, techniques and tools for conducting BPR projects. Business re-engineering is required for the formulation of new ideas and innovation. Early introduction of re-engineering saw it characterized with problematic issues since it was based on ‘trial and error,’ since there was no lack of accepted methods. Therefore, BPR consultants positioned themselves and came up with proven techniques. Methodologies are a representation of the highest-level abstraction for conceptualizing problem-solving methods (Kettinger et al., 1997). For instance, a BPR methodology that was developed by Gateway, a consulting firm that consisted of six phases: Preparation, Identification, Vision, Solution: social design and transformation: technical design (Klein, 1994). Leading consultants have been very successful in their execution of services because they use similar BPR methodologies. BPR can entail cutting the operation costs of an organisation, and this is a problem that Management Consultancy can solve by using a technique like laying-off dormant workers. There is a positive correlation between human resource strategy and competitive advantage (Boxall & Steeneveld, 1999). Human resource management is an imperative issue when it comes to the performance of the business activity. Boxall and Steeneveld (1999) revealed through their longitudinal investigation of engineering consulting firms, the results indicated that those firms that survived business traumas of 1980s and early 1990s adopted related structural, operational, competitive and responses related with their ‘industry recipe.’ Strategic HRM is a very critical field in any organization since it offers a distinctive and competitive advantage to an organization. Problems associated with formulation and execution of strategic HRM is similar in most organization. Consultancy firms dealing with HRM should, therefore, have a given method and tools that should be used to make sure that an organization has attained a secure and maintained ‘industry membership.’ A consultancy firm can use a technique of matching the talents, skills and knowledge of workers with jobs and tasks that suite them best and this will fix some strategic human resource challenges Services provided by consultancy firms are of strategic importance to human resources and their activities, which is stressed by the resource base of consultancy firms (Lepak and Snell, 2007).There are voids that exists in understanding dynamics that affect the management of consultants and employment relations in consultancy companies (Suddaby et al., 2008). Consultants’ and employment environment is characterised by triangulated relationship structure that go beyond the confines of the firm and shape the behaviours and attitudes of consultants (Nesheim et al., 2007). Therefore, this situation will be prone to an environment that develops synergies and conflict of interest, between parties involved in such relationships (May et al., 2002). A mutual advantaged will be achieved when there is a perfected balancing of the acts between the two parties (Donnelly, 2011). Management of human resources to attain competitive advantage is very easy for consultancy firms since they are knowledge-intensive firms. The only way that consultancy firms can deliver their services effectively is by engaging the employees of that particular organisation. It can, therefore, be concluded that consultancy is a people-centred business; therefore, their HRM practices of consultancy firms will be similar. The success of consultancy firms will largely depend on how effective and efficient they manage their human assets (Richter et al., 2008). Ambiguity is also experienced when the value is tried to be captured and created in consultancy firms since they are Knowledge-intensive organisations (Donnelly, 2011). The knowledge-based views and resources of consultancy organisations assume that such ambiguity generates competitive advantage, but the challenge of tension created among employees is not addressed. However, this problem is prevalent among many consultancy organizations. Tensions arise because consultants want to share knowledge and be recognized by a particular firm. It indicates that human resource management within a consultant firms is very problematic and trick, and it can be resolved by application of prescribed tools and methods. To summarise, consultancy central feature is a knowledge-based firm, the firms develop ideas that are meant to solve a particular problem in an organization. The challenges faced by consultancies face are similar in almost each dimension because they operate in the same manner. Organizations contract consultancy firms in matters relating to IT, professional services such as accounting and engineering, HRM and restructuring of the organization to enhance profit. Such issue is a concern of many organizations since organization is about profit maximisation. Therefore, the assertions presented in this paper are proof that prescribed methods and tools can be developed for all consulting jobs because all Organisations eventually have the same type of problems. Commodification of knowledge is a concept that the management to make it easy in offering comprehensive advice to a particular organization with a certain problem. Ethical issues that organisations engage in can be enhanced by contracting management consultancy. Issues such as corporate social responsibility (CSR) poses a challenge in many organisation in terms of balancing shareholders’ interest and the corporates’ obligations. Business Process Reengineering (BPR) has proven to cause success in many organisations, and the fact that there are BPR consultants, the challenge of ‘reengineering’ a business can be solved by management consultant who have specialised in such a course. Leveraging human resource offers a competitive advantage opportunity for any opportunity, management consultancies have the necessary knowledge and skills to leverage human capital. Therefore, it can be concluded that management consultancy can solve unlimited challenges that most organisation face by formulating tools and techniques of solving such challenges. Reference List Boxall, P. and Steeneveld, M., 1999. Human Resource Strategy and Competitive Advantage: A Longitudinal Study of Engineering Consultancies. Journal of Management Studies 36(4), pp. 463-463. Brès, L., 2014. The visible hand of consultants in the construction of the markets for virtue: Translating issues, negotiating boundaries and enacting responsive regulations. 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