The present investigation looks at management consulting engagements through the project management lens, and explores what practitioners do in the initial stages of their projects. In the understanding that the front-end of the project is a very critical and important stage, this text begins by examining the literature on management consulting and on the definitional phase of projects, and demonstrates that the situations encountered in both domains are quite similar. For this reason, this study explores the project management practices that Swedish management consultants employ in the initial phases of the consulting projects. Particularly, it focuses on the practices that reconcile possible gaps in perspectives and expectations that often exist between client and consultant when this relationship is being formed.  The study had an inductive character and is cross-sectional in terms of time-horizon, focusing on the previous experiences of management consultants. In collecting the data, a survey strategy was usedwith semi-structured interviews involving nine Swedish management consultants from eight different consultancies. The process of analysis implied the use of template analysis, which provided researchers with enough flexibility to code, categorize, and interpret necessary findings. The results show that consultants favor practices that revolve around communication and interaction with the client, including interviews, workshops, and meetings, among others. In addition, they stress the importance of the use of documentation in order to reach an agreement on what the project is about. Moreover, these practices were often clearly connected to the issues that they, as project managers, must resolve at the front-end of projects. Interestingly, the results indicate that these challenges, identified by the management consultants, mostly match the ones identified in the project management literature. There is indeed a connection between project management practices and management consulting, from which both fields can benefit.

Abstract Facing the trend of globalization and new era of regional economy, corporations in the economical fact of ECFA are standing to embrace a whole new beginning for new economy age! The researcher currently works at VATM International Business Managerial Consulting Co., Ltd. and the company¡¦s major services are to provide consultation for financial and tax affairs, and operational management for executive officers. In her own professional development, from offering consultation as an accountant to executive management, operational strategies, and innovative concept, she realized that within the whole process of operational service, the use of time for decision making and abilities for information interpretation become the greatest operational issue that corporations need to face when tackling competition. It is also the most neglected ability that entrepreneurs must cultivate. A consultant from one perspective is to provide major resources for corporation operators¡¦ decision making and from another angle is to sustain the quality of information of corporations. The importance of a consultant is undeniable.In other words, the role of a consultant is not as the doctor of a corporation from the traditional viewpoint, but as the invisible chief staff and external inspector and mentor. The researcher believes that a consultant should take Entrepreneur-Schweitzer¡¦s perspective and face the problems of corporations from a humanist standpoint. The present study focuses on the psychological journey of launching a new business and self-reflection of an individual consultant. The study offers appropriate roles and positions a competent consultant should take. From the whole process of self-reflection and launch for an enterprise, the researcher suggests ¡§ManageAccountanize¡¨(business management accountanize)for consultation field as a concept for problem solving but not the idea of Balanced scored which the consultants use in general. In addition, this study also investigates the consulting industry value chain and knowledge value chain so as to approve the value of professional consultants. The researcher provides insights of the necessities of consultants including academic theoretical applications and establishment of consultation authority.

Peter Drucker said that ¡§knowledge is the most valuable property in the enterprise¡¨. While global economy model shifting to knowledge-based economy, it turns knowledge into the most important resource and strategy in an organization. Enterprises nowadays can not only transfer the invisible knowledge from employees to visible with the implementation of knowledge management, but also create higher values for the enterprises through the transferring, sharing, expanding, and value-adding of knowledge. This research is based on knowledge management, and its impacts and effects to enterprises. With reforming and remodeling process of a management consulting firm in the knowledge intensive industry, we explore its knowledge management strategies and its advances in the flows and architectures of knowledge management. Upon following the steps of knowledge definition, collection and filtering, the case-base is built with consulting and case practices. Based on the case-base, case-base reasoning (CBR) method is used to improve the diagnostic effects of the management consulting company. This knowledge management model could be expended to the other flows of consulting operations, in order to progress the overall consulting operation effects.

The purpose of the present study is to investigate the relationships of different types of perceived parenting style and learned resourcefulness. The sample of the study consisted of 834 (360 males, 474 females) volunteered high school students in Yenimahalle Alparslan High School in Ankara. The data were gathered by administering two instruments, namely Parenting Style Inventory (PSI) and Rosenbaum&rsquo / s Self-Control Schedule (SCS). The results of ANOVA employed to learned resourcefulness scores of the students revealed a significant main effect for parenting style groups. Neither the main effect for gender nor the gender and parenting style interaction effect was significant. The results yielded that there were significant differences between those who perceived their parents as authoritative and those who perceived their parents as neglectful and authoritarian. Significant differences were also found between those who perceived their parent indulgent and those who perceived their parents as neglectful and authoritarian. These findings suggested that those who perceived their parents as authoritative had a relatively high level of learned resourcefulness as compared to those who perceived their parents as neglectful and authoritarian. Findings also suggested that those who perceived their parents as indulgent had a higher level of learned resourcefulness than those who perceived their parents as neglectful and authoritarian.

This study aims to present the state of outsourcing design in the Turkish manufacturing industry, which, in the past, has been scrutinized in a limited sense. An investigation has been carried out in order to reveal the reasons for and procedures of hiring product design services from outside resources and to explore -if any- the benefits gained from this collaboration through a survey conducted with either design or production managers from a sample selection of firms manufacturing and/or marketing products in Turkey. Findings regarding the processes of outsourcing design have been recorded as well as an evaluation of the advantages and disadvantages of external design resources.

The aim of the study is: (1) to investigate effects of new science and technology curriculum on 4th and 5th grade students&rsquo / achievement in terms of knowledge and understanding levels outcomes and higher order thinking skills, (2) to investigate effects of new science curriculum on the students&rsquo / attitudes towards science and (3) to examine teachers&rsquo / classroom activities in lessons. The study was conducted in three conveniently selected public elementary schools throughout Yenimahalle district of Ankara with a total of 302 4th and 5th grade students in 2004-2005 spring semester, two pilot schools implementing new science and technology curriculum were assigned to experimental group and one school applying the traditional science curriculum was assigned to control group. The researcher developed the measuring tools, Science Achievement Test for 4th grade, Science Achievement Test for 5th grade, Science Attitude Scale and Teachers&rsquo / Classroom Activities Scale. v The data were analyzed through multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVA). Results showed that the new science and technology curriculum made no difference on the fourth grade students&rsquo / knowledge and understanding level outcomes and higher order thinking skills. On the other hand, it was effective on the fifth grade students&rsquo / higher order thinking skills. The statistical analyses also showed that there were significant differences between the pilot and control group students&rsquo / attitudes towards science in terms of interest, anxiety, and self-efficacy sub-categories in favor of pilot groups. In addition, there were significant differences between the classroom activities of the teachers of pilot and control groups.

The purpose of the present study was twofold: (a) to design and determine the effect of Father Involvement Training (FIT), which is based on social-cognitive theory principals, on family functioning in father-adolescent relationships, and (b) to examine the effect of Father Involvement Training (FIT) on the quality of the peer relationships of 9th grade high school students, whose fathers participated in the study. The sample composed of twenty- six 9th grade students&rsquo / fathers. The 2x3 experimental design examined pre-training, post-training and six-month follow-up measurements of an experimental group and control group. Experimental group received a ten-week father involvement training which was developed by the researcher while the control group did not receive any training. Parent Success Indicator (PSI) was used to assess family functioning of fathers and Parent Adolescent Relationship Scale (PARS) was used to assess family functioning of children whose fathers participated in the study. In order to assess peer relationships of children, Peer Relationship Scale (PRS) was used. Data were analyzed by employing Mann Whitney U Test, Friedman Test, and Wilcoxon Sign Rank Test. The results revealed that the Father Involvement Training had significant effects on the father-child relationship and family functioning of experimental group&rsquo / s fathers. The experimental group&rsquo / s fathers had gained higher total scores both at the end of the study and at the follow-up measures in PSI. The adolescents, whose fathers participated in the experimental group, improved in close-relationship and sensitivity dimensions at the end of the study. However, the improvements were not maintained after the six months follow-up measurements. In addition, ratings of the children, whose fathers participated in the experimental group, decreased from pretest to follow-up measures on meeting expectations dimension of the PARS. Lastly, there was a significant improvement in trust and identification dimension of peer relationship levels of children whose fathers received the training compared to children whose fathers did not receive the training. The experimental group fathers&rsquo / evaluation reports indicated that fathers perceived improvement in different dimensions such as father child communication, behavioral changes in relationship with their children.

The purpose of the present study is to investigate the relationships of attachment styles and conflict behaviors among male and female university students. Three hundred and twelve university students from various departments and grades of Middle East Technical University in Ankara participated in the study. Turkish version of Experiences in Close Relationships-Revised (ECR-R, Sel&ccedil / uk, G&uuml / naydin, S&uuml / mer and Uysal, 2005), and Conflict Behaviors Questionnaire (Tezer, 1986) was applied to students to collect data. The results of cluster analysis employed on the scores of ECR-R yielded four clusters corresponding to four attachment styles (fearful, dismissing, preoccupied, and secure). A two-way ANOVA (2 gender X 4 Attachment Style) was applied to each of the five conflict behaviors. Results yielded a significant main effect for gender in accommodating behavior and a significant main effect for attachment styles in compromising behavior. In accommodating behavior, independent samples t-test was used to find out any significant difference between males and females and the results showed that the males were more inclined to use accommodating behavior than females. No significant difference was found in any of the other conflict behaviors as a function of attachment styles between males and females.

The present study aimed to investigate optimism level of adolescents&rsquo / aged between 14-18 and its relation with parenting style, gender, and academic achievement. The sample consisted of 1366 students (708 male, 645 female, and 13 missing value) who volunteered to participate in the study from &Uuml / mitk&ouml / y Anatolian High School, T&uuml / rk Telekom Anatolian Technical High School and 75. Yil High School in Ankara. Life Orientation Test (Scheier &amp / Carver, 1985) and Parental Attitude Scale (PAS / Lamborn, Mounts, Steinberg, Dornbusch, 1991) were used as the data collection instruments. The results of one way and two way ANOVA indicated that the main effect of parenting style and academic achievement on optimism level of adolescents was found significant. The results yielded that the main effect for gender, the gender and parenting style interaction effect and the academic achievement and parenting style interaction effect was not significant. Optimism levels of high achiever adolescents were found higher than low achiever adolescents&rsquo / . The results revealed significant differences in optimism scores of the adolescents as a function of four parenting styles. In other words, the results of this study showed that the adolescents who perceived their parents as authoritative had a relatively higher level of optimism than those who perceived their parents as authoritarian and neglectful. Results also indicated that the adolescents who characterize their parents as permissive had a relatively higher level of optimism than those who characterize their parents as neglectful and authoritarian.

<p>Abstract</p><p><strong>Purpose – </strong>The purpose of this paper is to investigate the success of a consulting agency’s KMS, examine the relationships between the factors constituting to its success, and explore possible effects of the knowledge management strategies codification and personalization on these correlations.</p><p><strong>Design/methodology/approach – </strong>This paper is a case study researching a Swedish consulting company’s KMS success using a KMS success model by Wu & Wang (2006). The survey’s results were interpreted using standard multiple regression analysis, which helped to investigate and interpret the correlations between the dimensions constituting KMS success.</p><p><strong>Findings – </strong>The findings in this paper suggest that personalization and codification have an influence on the quality of the correlations between the KMS success dimensions leaving the overall structure intact. Additionally the influence of System Quality on Perceived KMS Benefits and User Satisfaction on System Use were not found significant. <strong></strong></p><p><strong>Research limitations/implications – </strong>This study ‘s main limitiation is a sample size and the case study approach, which limit the generalizability of the results to other contexts.</p><p><strong>Practical implications – </strong>The most important implication of this research is the importance of the user for KMS success. A company needs to focus on improving the benefits a user receives from a KMS, which can mainly be achieved by improving the knowledge made available through the KMS, and by providing a proper basis for the KMS, in order to ensure a minimum level of System Quality. Other factors influencing the success of a KMS are incentives, which can help to increase system use and the quality of system use.<strong></strong></p><p><strong>Originality/value – </strong>The paper shows that when researching KMS success one should take the structure of the company’s knowledge management strategy into consideration. It further proves the applicability of the model in different contexts and its validity for accurately measuring KMS success.<strong></strong></p>