The objectives of the research was to identify how knowledge, learning and reflection is mediated in communities of practice. The overall aim was to base the evidence from the lived experiences of those who are part of the communities of practice under study. The research was undertaken through a qualitative inquiry using a social constructionist perspective. The research was pursued through participative action research in one case study organisation, and through participative observation, or observation in fifteen others. The key findings of this inquiry include six sociological elements which were common to all sixteen organisations. Further, four key knowledge flow processes were consistent across all cases. In total forty-one main findings were identified to the pursued research questions. Two conceptual models of learning and reflection were presented as ways to help understand how knowledge, learning and reflection are mediated in communities of practice. The models can be used at different levels of abstraction and conceptualisation. The study provides original insights into consulting activity within communities of practice, and highlights key themes based upon the lived experiences of the participants in the inquiry.

O conhecimento é visto por muitos como o principal ativo das organizações na atualidade. Entre as empresas que primeiro tiveram essa percepção e se lançaram ao desenvolvimento e uso de práticas de gestão do conhecimento estão as empresas de consultoria. Essas empresas, genericamente designadas como empresas de serviços profissionais, além do pioneirismo na gestão do conhecimento, enfrentam uma série de mudanças internas e externas, da mesma forma que muitas das demais empresas de serviços profissionais. O tema desta tese explora a intersecção dos dois temas: discutindo aspectos da gestão do conhecimento em empresas de consultoria. O ponto de partida escolhido é o modelo estratégia - aprendizagem - competências. Em poucas palavras, o modelo advoga que as estratégias da organização moldam as suas competências, que por sua vez guiam as suas escolhas estratégicas. O vínculo é estabelecido através da capacidade de aprendizagem que a organização possui. Tomando esse argumento, este trabalho elabora sua discussão em dois estágios. No primeiro parte-se de uma proposição encontrada na literatura que argumenta que a estratégia de produto/mercado de uma organização guia sua estratégia de gestão do conhecimento. Essa proposição é analisada à luz de um estudo qualitativo em sete empresas de consultoria. Dado o apoio limitado que se encontrou, desenvolveu-se um segundo estágio de pesquisa, com o desenvolvimento de um quadro de análise mais abrangente para se entender o uso dos processos de gestão do conhecimento. Esse quadro foi avaliado através de um segundo estudo qualitativo em três grandes empresas de consultoria, que usa entrevistas com 29 profissionais de escritórios localizados em dois países. Os resultados indicam que as competências existentes na organização são tão influentes no uso de práticas de gestão do conhecimento quanto suas escolhas estratégicas. / Knowledge management has received much attention in the last few years, as knowledge is increasingly seen as the core asset to organizations. Consulting firms are among the leading organizations in the development and use of knowledge management processes and systems. At the same time, those firms, broadly classified as professional service firms (PSF), are, as most of the PSF, undergoing several and deep changes. This dissertation places itself in the intersection of these two fields of research, analysing knowledge management processes in consulting firms. The study\'s starting point is the strategy-learning-competence model, which proposes that an organization strategic choices shape its competencies, as well as its competencies guide its strategy formulation processes, closing a self-reinforcing cycle. As the driving force that makes the cycle to be closed, stand the learning capabilities of the organization. Thus, learning links strategy to competencies. Drawing on this argument, this dissertation engages itself in a two-stage study. In the first, it takes one proposition found in the literature that claims that a firm\'s market strategy shapes its knowledge management processes. Using a qualitative study, it investigates the proposition on seven consulting firms. Since the linkage is found not to be not as strong as claimed, a second stage unfolds, developing a more comprehensive framework to explain the use of knowledge management practices. Theframework is used in a second qualitative study within three consulting firms that gathers data from 29 interviews with consultants from two countries. Results indicate that firm\'s existing competencies are as strong as market strategy in shaping knowledge management practices.

O conhecimento é visto por muitos como o principal ativo das organizações na atualidade. Entre as empresas que primeiro tiveram essa percepção e se lançaram ao desenvolvimento e uso de práticas de gestão do conhecimento estão as empresas de consultoria. Essas empresas, genericamente designadas como empresas de serviços profissionais, além do pioneirismo na gestão do conhecimento, enfrentam uma série de mudanças internas e externas, da mesma forma que muitas das demais empresas de serviços profissionais. O tema desta tese explora a intersecção dos dois temas: discutindo aspectos da gestão do conhecimento em empresas de consultoria. O ponto de partida escolhido é o modelo estratégia - aprendizagem - competências. Em poucas palavras, o modelo advoga que as estratégias da organização moldam as suas competências, que por sua vez guiam as suas escolhas estratégicas. O vínculo é estabelecido através da capacidade de aprendizagem que a organização possui. Tomando esse argumento, este trabalho elabora sua discussão em dois estágios. No primeiro parte-se de uma proposição encontrada na literatura que argumenta que a estratégia de produto/mercado de uma organização guia sua estratégia de gestão do conhecimento. Essa proposição é analisada à luz de um estudo qualitativo em sete empresas de consultoria. Dado o apoio limitado que se encontrou, desenvolveu-se um segundo estágio de pesquisa, com o desenvolvimento de um quadro de análise mais abrangente para se entender o uso dos processos de gestão do conhecimento. Esse quadro foi avaliado através de um segundo estudo qualitativo em três grandes empresas de consultoria, que usa entrevistas com 29 profissionais de escritórios localizados em dois países. Os resultados indicam que as competências existentes na organização são tão influentes no uso de práticas de gestão do conhecimento quanto suas escolhas estratégicas. / Knowledge management has received much attention in the last few years, as knowledge is increasingly seen as the core asset to organizations. Consulting firms are among the leading organizations in the development and use of knowledge management processes and systems. At the same time, those firms, broadly classified as professional service firms (PSF), are, as most of the PSF, undergoing several and deep changes. This dissertation places itself in the intersection of these two fields of research, analysing knowledge management processes in consulting firms. The study\'s starting point is the strategy-learning-competence model, which proposes that an organization strategic choices shape its competencies, as well as its competencies guide its strategy formulation processes, closing a self-reinforcing cycle. As the driving force that makes the cycle to be closed, stand the learning capabilities of the organization. Thus, learning links strategy to competencies. Drawing on this argument, this dissertation engages itself in a two-stage study. In the first, it takes one proposition found in the literature that claims that a firm\'s market strategy shapes its knowledge management processes. Using a qualitative study, it investigates the proposition on seven consulting firms. Since the linkage is found not to be not as strong as claimed, a second stage unfolds, developing a more comprehensive framework to explain the use of knowledge management practices. Theframework is used in a second qualitative study within three consulting firms that gathers data from 29 interviews with consultants from two countries. Results indicate that firm\'s existing competencies are as strong as market strategy in shaping knowledge management practices.

This objectivist, experimental study investigated the influence of virtual expert systems (VES) on the decision accuracy of non-expert consultants within a technology consulting contact centre environment. Because of the overwhelming availability of conceptual information, non-expert consultants experience challenges in making accurate decisions, and would benefit from augmented technologies, such as VES. VES hold the ability to capture and scale large volumes of decision variables for consideration by human experts when making decisions. A total of 40 participants were randomly selected from contact centres in the Eastern Cape and Gauteng provinces of South Africa for this study. Human logic was captured and scaled into a technology fault finding virtual expert and administered as an experiment to group participants. The experimental and control group participants were randomly assigned to the respective groups of 20 participants each. The control group was exposed to the paper-based, fault-finding manual. The pre-test and post-test data were collected based on four decision accuracy measures, namely individual performance, average call handling time, first call resolution and customer service. The Clarify performance system of the participating technology consulting company was used as data collection tool to record the findings used for Chapter 5. Statistical data analyses were performed using ANOVA and two-tailed significance tests to test the relationship between VES and decision accuracy in the pre-test and post-test phases of the study. The study found that the participant scores on the decision accuracy measures were only statistically significant on the measure of first call resolution measure (significance score of a p value <.05). On the other (three) measures, the scores obtained from experimental group participants showed more improvement than that of the control group participants. Consequently, the hypothesis that the use of VES enhance decision accuracy amongst non-expert technology consultants was accepted and the alternative hypothesis rejected. Some limitations pertaining to the resultant Hawthorne effect (the effect when some employees work harder and perform better when they are participants in an experiment) was noted amongst participants. This effect resulted from the use of team leaders in monitoring performance during the experiment and the involvement of the technology consulting company in determining the performance norms of the identified measures. Another limitation of the study related to the size of the sample where only two provinces were included. The limitation may affect the generalisation of results to other future settings when such a study is repeated. It was recommended that future studies in this field should make provision for a larger population, inclusive of other provinces to avoid these limitations.

Systems Psychodynamics is unique as an approach to consulting to organisations in the way it integrates three theory streams: psychoanalysis; group relations and open systems theory. Consultants who work in this way focus on the many layers of interactions and exchanges taking place both within organisations and at the interface between an organisation and its external environment. The territory for collaborative exploration with clients extends from interpersonal and group dynamics to service and product- related systems and processes. It is a holistic approach that creates opportunities for transformational learning at every level of the organisation. As a practice, consulting with a systems psychodynamics approach is complex and difficult to master. Arguably, the most challenging dimension of this work for consultants is developing a capacity to think within a psychoanalytic conceptual framework: to discern and hypothesise about unconscious processes in organisations. But what precisely does this mean and what is this experience like for the consultants? This research project was designed to explore and describe the experience of working with a systems psychodynamic approach from the consultants' perspectives within the Australian context. To this end, 20 consultants who self-selected as working with a systems psychodynamic approach were involved in this research. From the data created in this process, what is documented in this thesis is the first detailed description of the experience of 'working in this way' taken from the combined perspectives of these 20 consultants. Further, a systems psychodynamic approach to research is defined and applied in this thesis. In this way, the systems psychodynamics within the temporary 'system' created by the research was part of the territory under investigation. This process led to an important discovery. 18 of 20 consultants strongly asserted the importance of working with colleagues in pairs or teams when adopting a systems psychodynamic approach. However, at the time of interviewing, all 20 consultants were working alone and only 3 had immediate plans to work with others. An exploration of the reasons for this gap between beliefs about best practice and actual practice became the focus for the analysis of the data. What is discovered through this analysis is that the reasons why consultants are predominantly choosing to work alone are likely to be complex and irreducible. An exploration of the issues that working together can surface for consultants who apply a systems psychodynamic approach is presented under four sub-topics: system domain issues; theory-related issues; interpersonal issues and intrapsychic issues. In this detailed analysis, what is revealed is an absence of 'good enough' containment for the anxieties that are likely to be aroused when consultants work together. To this end, four 'containers' are proposed: organisation/brand-as-container; management-as-container; supervision-as-container and theory/praxis-as container. This research has uncovered some important challenges facing the community of practitioners in Australia. It is the contention in this thesis that they need to be addressed if the practice of consulting with a systems psychodynamic approach is to flourish and continue to grow.

<p>Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att jämföra två olika</p><p>managementkonsulters upplägg, genomförande samt syn på</p><p>framgångsfaktorer i ett av deras vardera konsultuppdrag gällande</p><p>strategiska tjänster och organisationsförändring. Vidare redogöra för</p><p>deras uppdragsgivares åsikter kring uppdragen de utfört.</p><p>Metod: Genom två fallstudier där två managementkonsulter samt deras</p><p>respektive uppdragsgivare intervjuats har vi undersökt hur</p><p>managementkonsulterna arbetar i respektive fall, vilken metodik de</p><p>använder och vilka faktorer de anser vara viktigast för att arbetet ska</p><p>lyckas. Vidare, för att bredda undersökningen har uppdragsgivarna</p><p>intervjuats i syfte att ta reda på hur arbetet gått, vilka resultat som nåtts</p><p>samt hur de utvärderat konsulterna.</p><p>Resultat: Genom fallstudierna har vi kommit fram till att de undersökta</p><p>konsulterna skiljer sig avsevärt i många aspekter. Framförallt har de</p><p>olika syn på konsultation i allmänhet, då ena konsultfirman använder</p><p>ett beteendevetenskapligt synsätt, medan andra konsultfirman mer</p><p>andas företagsekonomi. Dessutom används olika metoder i både</p><p>upplägg och genomförande av konsultation.</p>

<p>The management consultancy profession has shifted from being a deeply academically rootedprofession to a profession where the connection to academic institutions is more indistinct.Where the knowledge within management consultancy firms comes from is more and moreunclear. The gap between management practice and academic research is sometimesdescribed as unbridgeable for several reasons. Our purpose of this study is to see howimportant academic research and theory is to management consultancy firms’ knowledge baseand what impact obstacles and outer pressure can have on this.As our theory base for this study we have the “Three Basic Elements of theKnowledge System and their Interrelations” model by Werr and Stjernberg (2003). We haveredefined and also added some elements to this model and thereby designed our own model“The Knowledge Base System in an Institutionalized Environment” which functions as aground for our analysis.We have performed this study by using the quantitative method ofquestionnaires where we have used two types of questionnaire, one for the companies and onefor the consultants. The conclusions that we can draw is that academic research and theory isvery important to management consultancy firms’ knowledge bases. However, the consultantssay they have greater usage of their experiences in their daily work, even though they useacademic research and theory as a mean to communicate with each other within theconsultancy firm. A conclusion of this is that experience and academic research and theorymight not be in conflict but have different functions and complement each other.</p>

Syfte: Syftet med denna uppsats är att jämföra två olika managementkonsulters upplägg, genomförande samt syn på framgångsfaktorer i ett av deras vardera konsultuppdrag gällande strategiska tjänster och organisationsförändring. Vidare redogöra för deras uppdragsgivares åsikter kring uppdragen de utfört. Metod: Genom två fallstudier där två managementkonsulter samt deras respektive uppdragsgivare intervjuats har vi undersökt hur managementkonsulterna arbetar i respektive fall, vilken metodik de använder och vilka faktorer de anser vara viktigast för att arbetet ska lyckas. Vidare, för att bredda undersökningen har uppdragsgivarna intervjuats i syfte att ta reda på hur arbetet gått, vilka resultat som nåtts samt hur de utvärderat konsulterna. Resultat: Genom fallstudierna har vi kommit fram till att de undersökta konsulterna skiljer sig avsevärt i många aspekter. Framförallt har de olika syn på konsultation i allmänhet, då ena konsultfirman använder ett beteendevetenskapligt synsätt, medan andra konsultfirman mer andas företagsekonomi. Dessutom används olika metoder i både upplägg och genomförande av konsultation.

The management consultancy profession has shifted from being a deeply academically rootedprofession to a profession where the connection to academic institutions is more indistinct.Where the knowledge within management consultancy firms comes from is more and moreunclear. The gap between management practice and academic research is sometimesdescribed as unbridgeable for several reasons. Our purpose of this study is to see howimportant academic research and theory is to management consultancy firms’ knowledge baseand what impact obstacles and outer pressure can have on this.As our theory base for this study we have the “Three Basic Elements of theKnowledge System and their Interrelations” model by Werr and Stjernberg (2003). We haveredefined and also added some elements to this model and thereby designed our own model“The Knowledge Base System in an Institutionalized Environment” which functions as aground for our analysis.We have performed this study by using the quantitative method ofquestionnaires where we have used two types of questionnaire, one for the companies and onefor the consultants. The conclusions that we can draw is that academic research and theory isvery important to management consultancy firms’ knowledge bases. However, the consultantssay they have greater usage of their experiences in their daily work, even though they useacademic research and theory as a mean to communicate with each other within theconsultancy firm. A conclusion of this is that experience and academic research and theorymight not be in conflict but have different functions and complement each other.

When starting an engineering consulting firm, there are many questions such as, “How do I start a business?”, “How do I handle cash flow?”, “How do I get clients?”, and “How do I market?” among others that need to be answered. Since I am a sole proprietorship engineer, I will first start this paper by constructing a foundation. For a start-up, this foundation is how to get your business started. Then I will explain the business plan. This plan for a business is its structural frame that holds up the company. Finally, I will erect the facade of the business. Just like a building’s façade, marketing strategies are the face of the business and some work well while others fail in their application. At the end, I hope to be able to give a clear understanding of what it takes to start your own engineering consulting firm. / text