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Jan A. De Jong: Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands
Ilse M. Van Eekelen: Twijnstra Gudde Management Consultants, LE Amersfoort, Netherlands
Introduction
The Consultant"Of all the businesses, by far,""Consultancy's the most bizarre.""For, to the penetrating eye,""There is no apparent reason why,""With no more assets than a pen,""This group of personable men,""Can sell to a client more than twice,""The same ridiculous advice,""Or find in such a rich profusion,""Problems to fit their own solution.""Bertie Ramsbottom, in The Financial Times, April 11, 1981"
Management consulting has been defined as "an advisory service contracted for and provided to organizations by specially trained and qualified persons who assist, in an objective and independent manner, the client organization to identify management problems, analyse such problems, recommend solutions to these problems and help when requested in the implementation of solutions" (Greiner and Metzger, 1983, p. 7). This definition may be describing an ideal instead of a factual state, and it may even be impossible to provide an accurate definition of the job of management consultants (Wilkinson, 1986). But however hard to define, and however despised by Ramsbottom and possible others, management consulting plays an important role in modern business administration. Consultants are regular visitors in many companies. Much has been written on how to perform management consultancy (Barcus and Wilkinson, 1986; Blake and Mouton, 1976; Block, 1981; Burke, 1994; French, 1969; Greiner and Metzger, 1983; Kolb and Frohman, 1970; Lippitt and Lippitt, 1978; Margulies and Raia, 1972; Schein, 1987). Some research has been reported on management consultant values, attitudes, knowledge, and opinions (Church et al., 1994; Church et al., 1996), and on what it takes to be an effective management consultant (Bushe and Gibbs, 1990; Carney and Varney, 1983; Hamilton, 1988; McLean and Sullivan, 1993; O'Driscoll and Eubanks, 1993; Shephard and Raia, 1981; Warwick and Donovan, 1979). Those studies that address management consultant activities usually rely on consultant self reports and occasionally client reports (Fagenson and Burke, 1990; O'Driscoll and Eubanks, 1993). Very little observational data are available on what management consultants actually do on an hour-to-hour basis. The purpose of the present research study is to gain insight into the work of management consultants by answering the following questions:
- (1) What are the characteristics of the management consultants' working days?
- (2)...