The consultants responsibility to facilitate client decisions

The advisers responsibility to facilitate invitee findingsManagement consulting can be defined as the creation of value for organizations, through the application of acquaintance, techniques and assets to purify bloodline performance. This is achieved through the rendering of objective advice and/or the implementation of business consequence (MCA 2009 as express in Matthias 2011). Central to the nonion of counsel consulting is the ability to identify a worry, research and recommend a solution and help implement that solution.The utilization of the advisor have become inter mixed bag to the life of mevery organizations, today the question isnt how many companies atomic number 18 victimization advisers but how many be non using adviser (Pellegrinelli 2002). hitherto the design of the advisor and their impact on the decision qualification member in leaf node organization has been the subject of many debates. This assay examines the role of consultant in decis ion devising motion of a knob.The essay starts by looking at the role of the consultant as a facilitator of the customer decision, without altering such decision. Then proceed to look at the role of consultant as an respectable who can be seen as being responsible for the decision and outcome for the execution of project. Furthermore, the two manifest roles are considered side on side and we look at opposite get a pertinaciouses to decisions making in the consultant lymph glands relationship.Facilitating Clients DecisionDecision making is matchless of the most important management decisions, if non the most important of both management activities (Mintzberg 1989 as stated in Buchanan and Huczynski 2010). The consultant goal is to lick decision making in organization, on that pointfore it is pertinent that the consultant renders how decisions are made in organizations. Wickham and Wickham (2008) suggests that there are three major decision making panachels in practic e, the normative decision making model, the descriptive or the prescriptive model of decision making.Facilitation is the border of providing opportunities, resources, encouragement and support for a free radical to succeed in achieving its objectives, and to do this through enabling the group to take control and responsibility for the way they proceed (Matthias 2011, p6). Facilitation is a complex, reiterative surgery which en competents things to happen (Velden and Leenknegt 2006). At the center of figure out facilitation is the need to take a leak relationship. The facilitator primitive responsibility is to help client with process-type interventions to sack up decisions.The goal of process facilitation is to increase the client systems capacity for learning so that it can build its receive puzzles (Schein 1999). Here the decision-making and action lies predominantly in the hand of the client (Whittle 2006) with the consultant playing a passive role. Sometimes the consu ltants may deliberately enroll internal champions to create internal ownership of ideas (Fincham, 2002 as stated in Whittle 2006).Different authors have used unlike name in defining the role of the consultant as a facilitator including Schein who c eithered it the process consulting model. He suggested that consultants are facilitators who help to empower the clients to solve his own problem and not own the problem. Similar to the process model is the role of the married person (Block 2000 as stated in Cameron and squirt 2004). too, Nees and Greiner defines a facilitator as the warm co-pilot in their model (Appelbaum and Steed 2005), associating the cognition found of the facilitator to business experience.The application of facilitation in practice however, depends largely on what level of change is needful and organisational development. Sherwood and Callahan (2006) developed strategical process consulting where they used undergraduates to facilitate the changes in the st rategic processes in two organizations with the client making the disclose decisions but at their level of expertise. Also, Ambler 2006 used a combination of part tuition/ part facilitation/ part consulting to engage in a consulting project that indispensable managers in clients organization to take more responsibility. Both projects had to deal with facilitating changes in non-technical part of the business. However Stager (1986) and Cameron and Green (2004) argue that facilitation can be useful even in technical field similar IT. at that place are different assumptions that the process model is built on first, the client not only helps in making the diagnosis, they likewise benefit from participate in the diagnosis curiously when the problem is a nontechnical one. Secondly, the client has helpful intent and has some problem solving ability, threely the client knows the form of intervention or solution that allow work better(p) in the organization because he or she unde rstand contextual issues like power and governing in the organization. The clients problem solving abilities is improved upon as clients engage in the diagnosis of the problem and the selection and implementing the solutions (Rockwood 1993). Facilitation is useful when there are Complex (unknown or conflicting) objectives, the process is complex, there are disagreements, buy-in is essential, eight-fold inputs are required, Ownership is required and lastly, managing hierarchical issue (Matthias 2011).Advantages of the facilitator model includes that it offers saucy approaches to solutions. Secondly, they are able to spot risk and focus on issues not agendas and, they are able to see potential for wider application NCAS (2006). Also the process consultation model is important for building long term relationships because it focuses on the future of the organization client and also helping to build the required expertise in the clients organization. Matthias (2011) suggests that the process consulting model is most useful in achieving long term result.Buckenmyer and Stough (1998) argue that the concepts of authorization, participation and involvement are not always 100 percent positive. One consequence of unbridled empowerment can be dysfunctional organization. Also processes facilitation exposes clients to the risk of group presuppose and group polarization which does not lead to the optimal solution being chosen (Buchanan and Huczynski 2010). Facilitation is more time consuming than content models (Stager 1986), and sometimes clients beseech quicker and proactive intervention (Whittle 2006).Expert decision makingThe election approach to client consultant decision making argument is to understand when the client places the decision making powers to the consultant. The concept of consultant having decision making power or significant influence in decision making is plausible when the consultant plays the expert role. Edgar Schein developed content models wh ich are dissever into the purchase of expertise model and the doctor-patient model. Schein purchase-of-expertise and doctor-patient models are similar to Blocks expert and pair-of- men roles of the consultant respectively. Appelbaum and Steed (2005) suggests that Scheins content models are similar to Nees and Greniers model for role of consultancy. They link the intellectual adventurer to the expert role, the strategic navigator, management physician and system couturier to the doctor-patient model.The purchase-of-expertise model suggests that consultant needs to provide some type of expertise this model allows the client to remove themselves from the problem (Rockwood 1993). This model is useful when the problem is straightforward and client organization does not possess the compulsory expertize (Schein 1978). In the expert role, the client delegates full authority to the consultant to plan and implement the changes. Decisions are made by the consultant on the base of his or he r judgment, Client responds only when asked to. The goal is to solve the immediate problem (Cameron and Green 2004). The expert role is a specialist area (Witham and Witcham 2008) and requires technical knowledge Werr and Linnarsson (2001).However, the problem of the purchase-of-expertise model is that it places enormous responsibility on the client to bring up the problem properly and the also difficult to use when the problem is glib and difficult to diagnose and the consultant is not held responsible for wrong consequences (Schein 1978). It is questionable if any expert body of knowledge exists in management dry land (Williams and Rattray 2004), and the consultant doesnt know everything (Stager 1986). An opposite problem with the expert approach is that the client is distanced from the process of problem solving. They also downplay the role of power and politics in the client organization. In addition, placing decision making in the hands of the client may create a superior/i nferior relationship, which is sickish to some clients (Stager 1986).Role of clientsThere is no doubt, that there exist different client roles in consulting project, however authors like Appelbaum and Steed (2005), Pellegrinelli (2002) argue that in worldly concern the question of client is ambiguous and problematic. However, Schein (1997) proposes a model to understand different types of client relationship, he place five types of clients The first is the contact clients, the various(prenominal) who is first contacted by the consultant the intermediate clients, the individuals or groups who gets involved in different activities as project evolves the primary clients, is the client who ultimately own the problem and they are the ones who are responsible for paying the consulting bills. The unwitting clients are the clients who will be affected but who are not apprised that they would be impacted. The indirect clients are members of the organization who are aware that they will be affected but who are unknown to the consultant. Ultimate clients are those whose welfare must be considered, they include the thorough community and the total organization.This raises the ethical dilemma as the consultant needs to be able to manage the different types of clients and their different interest, influence and level of participation. Pellegrinelli (2002) suggests that facilitation model requires the consultant to be far more conscious of their various clients and stakeholders while the expert model, the interest of the senior manager commissioning the work tends to suffice. Also not all interventions are assumed to be helpful. The very presence of a consultant, and even mere data gathering changes things for the client/subject, and/or their stakeholder (Williams 2001). Also the fact that the facilitator does not own the problem raises the question of the contribution of the consultants (Wickham and Wickham 2008). no matter of the mode of consulting employed, the con sultant runs the dilemma of choosing between what needs to be do and what the paying client expects to be done (Williams 2001).In our understanding of the consultant roles and decision making, it is important that we identify who owns and makes the decision. Bartecko (2010) argued that the clients should not allow the consultant make decision for them, she attributes the failures of many projects to the escape of ownership on the project. The expert role can be susceptible to the risk of being used as rubber stamp and tools in the hand of senior management especially when making tough decision (Shapirro et al 1993). While the facilitator can also be used to push managements agenda to the group and the facilitator can skirt the group (Matthias 2011) however, the purchase of advice can be interpreted as a sign of managerial ineffectiveness or if consultants renew the management concerns they were enlisted to diminish (Whittle 2006).Organisational LearningThe knowledge and the lear ning objectives of the client have impact on what role the consultant wants to play and how it is received within the organization. One of the key requirements sought by clients is that the consultant must be knowledgeable (Minter 1994). The trade model is seen as a specialist area and it is known to be technical (Wickham and Wickham 2008). The facilitator seems non-technical and deals with the soft skills in organization (Cameron and Green 2004). The authoritative leadership or expert can make the consultant appear absolute and insensitive in the eyes of clients (Shapiro et al Clark and Fincham, 2002 as stated in Whittle 2006). Werr and Linnarson (2001) also opine that the traditional expert role creates a dangerous situation where the client loses knowledge to the consultant making them mutualist on the consultant. From the foregoing it is arguable that the consultant facilitating helps build and retain organizational learning. The lack of success in consulting process isnt s o much the lack of experience but not understanding what it is to help someone and not operating by those principles (Schein 1999).An example of the failure of the expert model of changing clients decision can be seen with the take hold of positive, a Business analytic thinking consulting company from India winning on a project in FCMB a bank in Nigerian. Nett positive took the expert role and were arduous to reintroduce an online performance management system which was the brief from the bank. However, they had two problems that entranced the project, firstly they ignored the power and conflict in the organization and secondly they were seen to be protecting the interest of the contact client and not the primary contact. As the expert moved to try and develop the data needed as required by the client, the client decided to challenge the knowledge in-house to design the same system. So a cross functional team from IT, Finance and Sales was formed and given the mandate to desi gn the task. lastly the new performance management system was designed and the contract with Nett Positive was cancelled.Bridging the different ApproachesWhile authors like Schein as stated in (Rockwood 1993) and (Velden and Leenkgert 2006) suggest that consultants decisions often time lie between facilitating and expert mode based on the situation and context. Schein however proposed that what is important is that all consultant and client relationship should be based on helping the client. Schumacher (n.d.) identified three new approaches to consulting. The first is the complimentary consulting which tries to integrate the expert and process consulting modes in a complete and cooperative manner. The integrated consulting was developed based on shared understanding of communication, feedback mechanism and reflection loops. However, the integrated approach does not have concrete realization in practice (Schumacher n.d.). The third modus of consulting is the client ownership-role of his problem and does not delegate to the consultant. The consultant only offers cooperation architecture and acts as sparring partner. However for long term stability of organizations, any model that places the decision in the hands of the client and the consultant as a partner is arguable better.ConclusionFacilitating client decision is all about the consultant helping the clients to make accurate decision. The strengths of the argument for the consultant facilitating clients decision is that the client was part of the process that developed the solution. On the other hand the consultant can change clients decision by taking on the role of the expert, in this mode the decision actually lies in the hand of the consultant however the effectiveness of this method is contentious. However the consultant that chooses to facilitate needs to be able to manage the different clients roles in the organization without being seen to be protecting the interest of any group. Facilitation helps t he consultant to ensure that the client grows the knowledge required to make good decisions. finally the FCMB, net positive case was studied to see the failures associated with the consultant move to change clients decision instead of facilitating it. This example further reiterates the fact that for long term sustainability and growth of the client-consultant relationship, the consultant should encourage facilitation instead of trying to change the clients decision.