Assessment and selection of management consultants: A comparative cognitive study between small- and large-scale companies

This paper explores alternative ways of evaluating and ultimately hiring a generalist consultancy for short- and medium-term projects, and how this is shaped by the size of the clients’ company. What buying factors do managers of small and large firms have in mind when hiring consultants for their projects?Instead of employing surveys incorporating predefined buying factors based on what the researchers think would be important, a cognitive mapping methodology - the repertory grid technique - is applied to investigate the underlying phenomena. Using the repertory grid technique to draw mental models is a novel research technique within the supply management field. Recent behavioral supply chain management research found the behavior of managers to be critically influenced by mental models: the lenses through which managers perceive, simplify and interpret the world.Results show differences between the buying factors used in small- and large-scale companies: managers of large companies are more ‘reputation and outcome-oriented’ and managers of small businesses are more concerned with ‘how the services are rendered’. However, both constituents stressed the importance of expertise, quality and the relationship between the client and the management consultancy, although the character of such a relationship differed between small- and large-scale firms. Results also point out criteria that managers of small and large companies employ to discriminate between good and poor performing consultancies and to judge service delivery. The practical implications for both companies hiring consultancies and the consultancy companies are discussed. For consultancies, our findings can help tailoring their efforts to a differing clientele when marketing and selling their services. For companies hiring consultancies, fixating too much on particular buying factors may lead to biased decisions.     

Seeing the Need for ISO 14001

ABSTRACT    Many firms worldwide have adopted environmental management systems, and some have taken the extra step and had their systems certified for the international standard ISO 14001. While institutional pressures and market demand often motivate firms to adopt an EMS, the reasons why they certify for ISO 14001 are less clear. In this study, we interviewed members of the Canadian pulp and paper industry who had either an EMS or ISO 14001 certification to understand why they may have become ISO 14001 certified. We found that task visibility and environmental impact opacity lead to differences in a firm's approach to ISO 14001 certification in the absence of coercive pressures.     

Knowledge transfer across permeable boundaries: An empirical study of clients’ decisions to involve management consultants

We investigate the relationship between the knowledge requirements of projects and clients’ decisions whether to procure services from external management consultants for the execution of these projects. Using data from interviews with client decision-makers regarding the execution of 86 projects, we find that knowledge requirements are strongly associated with the decision whether or not to involve external consultants. The results highlight the closeness of the relationships between clients and consultants, supporting Kitay and Wright's [Kitay, J., & Wright, C. (2004). Take the money and run? Organisational boundaries and consultants’ roles, The Service Industries Journal, 24(3) 1–18] view of the permeability of the boundaries between many client organizations and their consultants. The findings also confirm our expectation that clients use the services of external management consultants in order to procure functional or industry-specific knowledge which consultants can pool and apply efficiently across many projects.     

Seeing Like a Theorist

Warren Magnusson sees a problem endemic to political thought and practice: we see the world in ways that presume and reaffirm the necessity of a sovereign territorial state, on pain of violent disorder in its absence. The solution is to ‘see like a city’, shaking off the dualism of sovereignty versus anarchy and finding a richer space of political possibilities. I admire and applaud Magnusson's critical efforts to challenge dominant categories and illuminate possibilities, but these aims rest uneasily with his polemical contrast between sovereignty and cities.     

How to not get burned by consultants

Benefit consultants run the gamut, from specialized independents to international corporations employing various types of benefits people. Find out how to choose a consultant that is compatible with your organization.     

Management consultants as improvising agents of stability

Relatively few studies have paid theoretical as well as empirical attention to what use organizations have of management consultants and their services. By studying how buyers and sellers of management consulting services describe what management consulting is and represents, this study questions common understandings in the literature, i.e., that management consultants act as agents of change or as standardizers of organizational practice around the world. It is argued that consultants can be understood as playing the role of improvisers because there is considerable uncertainty among both buyers and sellers as to what use organizations really have of them. Playing a recognizable, yet indefinite role based on an institutionalized foundation, in both discourse and practice, of what actors such as consultants are supposed to do in certain situations, helps client organizations to reduce the uncertainty experienced. The conclusion is that management consultants can therefore be understood as agents of stability rather than agents of change.     

Accountability: the force behind empowerment

The first part of this article will focus on an examination of the more traditional practice of "process accountability," which typically uses policy-based methods that rely on the development, measurement, and reporting of standards. This will be followed up by an examination of the more ephemeral, though vastly more valuable and powerful "attitude" of "personal accountability."     

Testing the assumptions behind importance sampling

Importance sampling is used in many areas of modern econometrics to approximate unsolvable integrals. Its reliable use requires the sampler to possess a variance, for this guarantees a square root speed of convergence and asymptotic normality of the estimator of the integral. However, this assumption is seldom checked. In this paper we use extreme value theory to empirically assess the appropriateness of this assumption. Our main application is the stochastic volatility model, where importance sampling is commonly used for maximum likelihood estimation of the parameters of the model.     

Seeing and Doing: the Concept of Causation

This note is an extended review of the book by Judea Pearl (2000) on causality, in which the basic concepts therein are explained in a form that statisticians will hopefully appreciate, including some comments on their relevance to inference and decision-making.     

《在竞争中学习竞争》专栏之二 会当凌绝顶,一览众山小——从爱立信事件看供应链管理

最近,有一篇关于首届中关村最具发展潜力中小高新技术企业推荐活动的报道,其中指出,"目前中关村中小企业开始高度重视技术创新,与早期单纯的贸易型或制造型企业有了相当大的不同","在调查过程中,众多中小企业认为,作为中小高新技术企业,他们感到缺乏管理是企业现阶段发展的瓶颈,是急需解决的首要问题".①为了在激烈的竞争中保持不败,高技术企业必须始终抓住技术创新不放,同时要加强管理.现在管理书籍、讲座、咨询公司多如牛毛,哪些是当前国内外成功企业所采用的可能产生较显著效益的方法呢?下面先从实际案例的分析入手,引出当前一个热门的理论与实践课题.     

On the fundamental thought behind voting rules

The theme is Arrow's requirement in his theorem of 1951 on methods for group choice, that the choice be independent of irrelevant alternatives. The attention is drawn to (1) his own explanation of this requirement in 1972, which is a quite different understanding than has been discussed in the voluminous literature on the theorem, (2) that Arrow, in fact, in 1985 showed an understanding for how irrelevant alternatives might in a meaningful way influence the group choice, (3) that admittedly the border-line between irrelevant and relevant alternatives in Arrow's original statement is arbitrary, and (4) that Arrow, if he had observed the final thought in the origin of the group theory by Borda, which he admittedly did not, might have realized that Borda's method stringently estimates the relevance of each alternative for the result.The author expresses his surprise that a theoretical conclusion based on an arbitrary fundament has been admired so long.     

腐败从幕后走向台前

提起腐败,社会各界人士都切齿痛恨,即使一些腐败官员自己,在谈到腐败时也会拍案而起,慷慨陈词,把腐败骂得一无是处,体无完肤.近几年来全国性的反腐败大行,确实收了显著的成效,官场腐败得到了有效遏制.但遏制并非根绝,仍有少数营员在顶风作案,不过他们变换了手法,使腐败变得更为狡猾和贪婪,让人不易觉察,甚至从"幕后走向了台前,由掩掩藏藏、偷偷摸摸到合法化、公开化、大众化,自个人行为、小团体行为到政府行为、组织行为、集体行为,应该说,这是本反腐峁的新形势下出现的新的腐败形式.     

交通拥堵现象背后的社会问题

分析了北京交通拥堵的症结,论述了应遵循的交通理念,提出了改善交通拥堵的建议.     

新加坡:从房屋转售看地产市场

新加坡建屋发展局房地行政与产业处处长叶振铭这样表示:"公共住屋(组屋)、教育、医疗劳动福利,这是新加坡社会的4大支柱,而公共住屋(组屋)又是其中的重中之重."……     

保龄宝巨头背后的快公司

“取得了可口可乐的供货商资格，就相当于在跨国公司中获得了免检证书。”保龄宝公司在全球500强食品企业中排名第37位，在国内驰名商标企业供货商名单中排名第48位     

从沏宝模式看连锁经营的发展趋势

本文阐述了连锁经营的发展和基本模式,通过对"沏宝模式"优势的分析,提出了对连锁经营发展趋势的几点建议。     

Champions,adapters, consultants and synergists: the new change agents in HRM

At the centre of many HRM approaches to organisational transformation and culture change is the concept of the personnel or HR professional as change agent. Storey highlighted the emerging significance of the 'changemaker' role in the UK almost a decade ago, and Ulrich has offered a powerful reinterpretation of the personnel function that affirms the significance of the HR change agent in championing competitiveness in many large US corporations. However, while the scope and influence of this role has often been questioned, the variety of forms it takes has not been satisfactorily addressed. The new survey findings and interview evidence from major UK companies presented here indicates that the change agent role has grown in significance and complexity.To partly capture these changes, a new four‐fold typology of HR change agent roles is proposed: champions, adapters, consultants and synergists.