This study examines the variance in methodologies employed by executives and Procurement professionals to engage management consultancy services. The exclusion of Procurement from specific categories of consultancy expenditure is then viewed in the context of its aspirations to be a strategic function. The conclusion drawn is that such aspirations are flawed. Literature in the areas of services marketing, consultancy, value choice, and sourcing are examined. It is noted that the services and consultancy literature refers to the subjective approach of the individual to assess value. In addition, literature that stresses the role of individual contingency in value choices concludes that individuals will not necessarily refer to price when making such assessments. In contrast, the sourcing literature adopts objective organisational approaches to value. This dissonance is reflected in the research data which concludes that senior executives procuring strategy consultancy or ‘coaching’ services tend to use subjective value constructs to make selection decisions. This situation is problematic for procurement professionals who refer almost exclusively to objective value constructs that are specifically designed to produce benefits at an organisational level. This situation makes unlikely the full integration of procurement at a strategic level within the organisation. The choice of a subjective approach to the research using ideographic methodology produced rich and complex data. Semi-structured interviews with senior executives and an extended observation of a consultancy engagement were used. Access of this nature would normally be problematic due to the time constraints under which executives work and the sensitivity of the material. A rare opportunity, however, was presented by the status of the researcher as employee and this was exploited to gain privileged insights into executive behaviour.

No / Our need for certainty in an uncertain world is not new, but the narratives we choose have to resonate with the times we imagine. In the 21st century, management discourses focus on rapid technological and societal changes to highlight a radically open future that is fundamentally different from the past. Where once oracles used the exploits of Zeus, Apollo and Dionysus to dispense wisdom and provide direction in our collective struggle for survival, we now look elsewhere. With the rise of scientific management in the early 20th century, it has been to Management Consultants that the corporate world and public institutions have looked towards to provide the certainty they require. Not surprisingly with its rise, commentators and critics have sought to understand the nature of the industry and why it has become such a significant part of the business environment. Paradoxically, despite over twenty five years of writing, and many authoritative voices the nature of the industry remains rather vague (Harvey et al. 2016). To shed light on why this might be, this paper draws on Greek mythology, focussing on the god Hermes; the fleet footed traveller who like an ancient consultant was despatched from the heavens to bring messages and wisdom to mortals on Earth.

Management consultancy has received increasing academic interest due to its growing importance in the global economy. However, current research has been predominantly focused on consulting companies in Anglo-American and European countries. This thesis aims to provide a focused study of the practice of global management consultancies operating outside of the western context. China is commonly regarded as having distinctive market and industrial conditions that distinguish it from western developed countries. Based on empirical evidence from interviews and participant observation, this thesis examines the activities of global consulting companies at market, firm and client project levels in China, with a focus on the deployment of their global knowledge resources. The central question explored in the thesis is whether and to what extent the Chinese context has limited the diffusion of global management consultancies and the applicability of their western management knowledge. This thesis finds that in China global management consultancies have emphasized their international image and extensively replicated global models of management. While importing global knowledge assets has had mostly positive effects at market and firm level of practice, it has caused a mix of benefits and challenges during the actual consultation process due to insufficient and inappropriate adaptation.

This diploma thesis deals with the subject of external human resource consultancy. It introduces the comprehensive view on consultancy process and describes in detail the range of human resources agendas associated with consultancy. The entire document links theoretical findings with business practice and demonstrates how the external consultancy can be applied in organizations. It reflects common problems in companies with emphasis on extended description of human resource outsourcing. Empirical part of the thesis looks into on-line offers of consultancy services in human resource management. This topic is subject of qualitative survey aimed at describing contemporary human resources consultancy market in Czech Republic. Survey findings present structure of consultancy services. Key words: consultancy, management consultancy, human resources consultancy, outsourcing, human resources outsourcing (HRO).

Background Temporary work agencies have been around for several decades. An emerging outgrowth from these has been expanding in the industry, known as master vendor arrangements. Furthermore, much research has been devoted to the usage of temporary working agencies but less attention has been devoted to the master vendor arrangements and the consequences from using such an arrangement. Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore the strategic decision of implementing a master vendor arrangement offered by a consultant brokerage firm and the impact of such a decision on the company. Method This study is using an inductive approach, where the empirical findings are gathered through semi-structured interviews as well as corporate documents. The empirical findings are collected trough an interview study and analysed through a template analysis. The theoretical framework helped us build our constructs from which we have structured the overall themes in our semi-structured interviews. Conclusions An implementation of a master vendor arrangement is complex and can generate several consequences. In this study we identify six major consequences that end clients have experienced. By considering these factors a greater understanding of how to look upon a master vendor arrangement can be formed.

<p>IT executives face nowadays a theme that underlies for all questions in today's business – the change! The main factor that accelerates the “pace of change” is globalization. Globalization conducts to severe competition; it conducts also to shorter product life cycles that are necessary aspects for companies in order to increase competitive advan-tage. A good alternative to be more efficient and gain access to better information is to implement an ERP system that will allow companies to improve efficiency and be more proactive. The main benefits of an ERP system are that it gives more controls over the company's assets, and business processes such as financial supply chain management and profitability assessments of employees, departments and customers. Most of the companies after implementing the system choose to end their relationship with the ERP system supplier and believe that they have the capacity to maintain and develop the sys-tem by themselves. The post-implementation represents the use and operation after the ERP system is put into use.</p><p>The definite purpose is to investigate why some companies choose to reject the perma-nent external support concerning the maintenance and further development of the ERP post-implementation stage. The paper will present the diverse reasons to why the re-spondents choose to not use permanent external support.</p><p>In order to find accurate information we have interviewed companies within the Jönköping's county that are in the post-implementation stage. Our purpose was to un-derstand the reason to why some companies reject permanent consulting and how they are developing and maintaining the used ERP system. To make this study more accurate we have used theories about ERP systems and the post-implementation stage that will help us to support and give value to our results.</p><p>One of the main results of this research were that companies have only personal moti-vation concerning the consulting activity choices and they affirmed that the result of the implemented ERP system would be the same no matter which alternative they choose for maintaining and developing the ERP system. The overall impression concerning consulting activities is quite positive among the interviewed companies.</p>

University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Education. / This thesis is an exploration of my practice as a teacher consultant in the area of gender equity. Focusing on my consultancy practice with teachers in primary school settings, the study explores my development as a teacher consultant. The study is a self-study in teacher education practices and considers the following questions: • How do I experience and understand my practice as a gender equity consultant? • How can I improve my practice as a consultant? • How does self-study contribute to professional learning about consultancy? My learning about consultancy is explored using narrative inquiry methods including field notes, journal entries, in-depth and focus group interviews with participating teachers, and reflections on critical friend interactions. These methods were used to develop stories of teacher professional learning and consultancy that informed my understandings about my work with teachers, and subsequent changes to practice. I argue that the process of becoming a teacher consultant is one of continual construction and reconstruction as one reflects on and reframes experience, based on interactions with teachers, colleagues and the professional literature. This process of reconstruction enables one to come more clearly to know the self in practice, and therefore, better understand the needs of others in teacher professional learning contexts. Finally I argue that self-study of teacher education practices offers teacher consultants the means to investigate their practice in ways which result in transformative learning about their support of professional learning for teachers in school settings. This study has implications for self-study of teacher education practices as it expands this methodology to include its usefulness for understanding the practice of teacher consultants supporting the professional learning of experienced teachers in schools.

Business consultancy mainly offers consultation such as general managing, manpower training, analysis, planning of system and improving, services of coaching to enterprises. How the business consultancy firm let one's own consultants possess enough knowledge, experiences and technology will influence the development of the business consultancy firm. As to small-scale business consultancy firms, they employ less employees so most of them are unable to execute as the models and methods of regular human resource management; however, if only the medium and small business consultancy firms still need to hire consultants, they have to deal with the practical process of human resource management. This research is analyzed and summed up to actual practices of human resource management of small-scale business consultancy firms of Taiwan in-depth interview way. This research finds out the result to the present situation of the business consultancy firm, and realizes the application in the practice of human resource management in small-scale business consultancy firms. Sum up the following conclusions finally: 1. The method characteristic of employing talents: In knowing-well prerequisite, don't use the disclosure employee channel; recruit the staff according to the development of business, pay attention to the staff's initiative study, and use staff's efficiency to maximize. 2. The method characteristic of fostering talents: There isn¡¦t the norm of educational training in stipulation and the way of master and apprentice. 3. The method characteristic of retaining talents: It is not a reward and simple system rule of the money.

University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Education. / This thesis is an exploration of my practice as a teacher consultant in the area of gender equity. Focusing on my consultancy practice with teachers in primary school settings, the study explores my development as a teacher consultant. The study is a self-study in teacher education practices and considers the following questions: • How do I experience and understand my practice as a gender equity consultant? • How can I improve my practice as a consultant? • How does self-study contribute to professional learning about consultancy? My learning about consultancy is explored using narrative inquiry methods including field notes, journal entries, in-depth and focus group interviews with participating teachers, and reflections on critical friend interactions. These methods were used to develop stories of teacher professional learning and consultancy that informed my understandings about my work with teachers, and subsequent changes to practice. I argue that the process of becoming a teacher consultant is one of continual construction and reconstruction as one reflects on and reframes experience, based on interactions with teachers, colleagues and the professional literature. This process of reconstruction enables one to come more clearly to know the self in practice, and therefore, better understand the needs of others in teacher professional learning contexts. Finally I argue that self-study of teacher education practices offers teacher consultants the means to investigate their practice in ways which result in transformative learning about their support of professional learning for teachers in school settings. This study has implications for self-study of teacher education practices as it expands this methodology to include its usefulness for understanding the practice of teacher consultants supporting the professional learning of experienced teachers in schools.

No / The field of Management Consulting research has grown rapidly in recent years. Fuelled by the drivers of complexity and uncertainty, a growing number of organizations - both profit and third sector alike - are looking at Management Consulting to assist in their aims for development and change. Consultants and change agents have become a common feature in organizational change initiatives, with individual consultants and consulting firms now involved in both providing advice and in implementing ideas and solutions. Management Consulting needs to demonstrate value through the application of academic thinking to real life challenges faced by organisations. The book seeks to address these issues by offering applied theoretical insights from academics that both teach Managing Consultancy and are also practicing management consultants. Written by recognized experts in their field, the contributors combine original insights with authoritative analysis. Uniquely, this book identifies emerging themes with critical discourse and provides rich empirical case study evidence to show the reader how Management Consulting projects are implemented. The second part of the book features real-world consultancy projects, written up as cases conducted for organizations. The organizations themselves range from SMEs to multi-national organizations and the public sector. The case studies are international by context and composition, covering several continents.