<p>Background: The management consulting industry has been facing difficulty. Since knowledge is described as such an important asset it is in our opinion interesting to study how it is managed in times of uncertainty. </p><p>Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to study how management-consulting companies follow their knowledge management strategies in times of uncertainty. </p><p>Procedure: Personal interviews were conducted with three consulting firms. </p><p>Result: The consulting firms we interviewed have not been focusing on knowledge management questions during the uncertain last two years because of a lack of both time and money. Therefore, according to our findings management-consulting firms interrupted the previously followed knowledge management strategy. Knowledge management issues instead had to remain unchanged, which in the case companies seem to be close to the personalisation strategy</p>

In the dominant management discourse, managers and consultants are credited with the ability to move their organisation in a planned, controlled way towards an idealised future. The assumptions underpinning this discourse include the following: organisations are thought of as systems that can be designed and steered in an intended direction; culture is seen as a control system to align employees’ conduct in support of the organisation’s strategy; consultants are viewed as experts in designing and implementing effective and efficient interventions, being on top of the process. These assumptions are grounded in the natural sciences of certainty, in which rational, formative and linear causality are presumed. I argue in this thesis, through a reflexive enquiry of my own practice, that these assumptions do not sufficiently resonate with my experience as an internal consultant on leadership and culture change. I am offering a critique of the dominant way of understanding organisations, culture and control, with the implication of coming to reappraise the involvement of a consultant in processes of culture change. In understanding organisations to be self-organising patterns of human interaction, culture is a social phenomenon, as it continually emerges as social control in the day-to-day local interactions of people making sense of experience. Using webs of significance, present in one’s personal history and in society, people interpret and give order to their life as they negotiate and evaluate their engagements together. In their engagement, participants will negotiate how to functionalise general values in particular situations that involve differences and can cause anxiety or even conflict. In this process of negotiation and evaluation, they are forming and being formed by each other. In this interaction no one is in control, determining in a predictable way what will happen. The participants have an influence that impacts on potential next steps in their interaction. An internal consultant’s involvement is in facilitating these processes of local interaction, enabling participants to have the conversations they tend not to have themselves, perhaps due to the anxiety of the interaction being unpredictable and predictable at the same time while no one is in control of the process or the outcome. A consultant is, as fellow participant, involved in the interaction while forming and being formed by it. He is at the same time detached: by inviting participants to work with and reflect on their experience of engaging, he enables reflexive awareness of what they are involved in together. The internal consultant, through temporary leadership, facilitates the conversation by focusing on the present, and working with differences, allowing the potential for novelty and change to occur. This temporary leadership is not a designated role or the authority of being the expert, but emerges in social interaction, through recognition and acceptance of participants acknowledging the consultant as leader in having a stronger influence than others. I propose that this alternative perspective does not offer a set of techniques, a causal framework to improve organisations in an intended and controlled way, as supposed in the dominant discourse. Rather, the perspective of complex responsive processes of relating enables a better understanding of human interaction processes; of culture emerging as social control and consulting as a social process, within the paradoxes of predictability and unpredictability, of being and not being in control, and of stability and change at the same time. It requires an internal consultant to assume a form of temporary leadership by enabling participants, through reflexive understanding of their experience, to be responsible in a critically aware manner of the ways in which they influence the next steps of engaging.

The purpose of this DBA is to develop a Customisation Blueprint so that consultancies can provide a more tailored, responsive service to clients. This study seeks to find out what matters to clients when purchasing consultancy, how clients substantiate this and how it affects their decision-making. This study also seeks to establish if the factors influencing buyer’s evaluation of the consultant can be favourably influenced by the consultants. By fulfilling client requirements more precisely and effectively, consultants are able to better serve their clients. In this way they are also able to enhance both ongoing relationship and reputation. The history of consultancy is examined to establish the unfurling and growth of the industry and to understand the forces which have shaped its evolution. Relational and Operations literature is examined to establish what previous research is able to contribute to this quest for understanding what consultants need to do to better serve their clients. Financial Services and Utilities are the two largest private-sector buyers of consultancy. Managers involved in the purchase of consulting services from a selection of these companies were interviewed to capture how consultants are engaged and what selection criteria are the most important. A combination of guidance from the literature and an understanding of what matters to clients is used to develop a systematic approach for consultants to more clearly identify and articulate client needs and thereby serve them better. The outcome is the development of a Customisation Blueprint, a framework to personalise responsiveness and thus enhance customer satisfaction.

This thesis researches how the consultant can participate in the creation of successful processes in organizations using multiple theoretical and practical traditions and a pragmatic reflexivity. The research shows how the consultant can do this using a heuristic model developed in the thesis called the consultancy room consisting of three dimensions: distinctions of position, distinctions of system, and distinctions of time. The thesis shows 6 different and distinct positions that the consultant can use in practice: the OD, systemic, solution-focused, appreciative, narrative and strategic position. To show their practical usefulness multiple examples of developing teams are described. The research shows that positions are firstly to be understood as theories that the consultant knows from experience and literature and brings to the organization and secondly the research also shows how such positions are created and coordinated with the customer before and during the consultancy process. The thesis further shows how the consultant can work with multiple distinctions of system. Three prototypical distinctions of system are introduced: the individual, the group, and the organization as part of the consultancy room to help the consultant increase his orientational abilities in practice. And a further distinction between the conversational and the linguistic system is made to help the consultant reflect in and on practice. The conversational system addresses the design of the process by reflecting with the customer about who should talk to whom in order to develop the situation. The linguistic system addresses how the system in focus is being talked about. The thesis shows how the different positions look at and give different possibilities for action in relation to the different distinctions of system. Finally the thesis shows how the consultant can work with multiple distinctions of time. Three prototypical distinctions of time are introduced: the moment, the meeting, and the process as part of the consultancy room to help the consultant navigate in practice. Again the different positions give different ideas of how to act in the moment and how to design meetings and longer processes. The research is done using the researchers own practice as data. A pragmatic research method is created and based in particular on the work of John Dewey (Dewey 1916 1938, Brinkmann 2006) and Gregory Bateson (Bateson 1972 1984)looking at similarities and differences between multiple examples from the researchers practice.

Šio darbo magistro darbo užsibrėžtas tikslas - nustatyti konsultavimo sistemos poreikį trijose Alytaus rajono Simno seniūnijos bendruomenėse. Magistro darbe buvo analizuojami įvairių Lietuvos ir užsienio autorių kaimo plėtros ir konsultavimo sistemos teoriniai aspektai. Tyrimo metu pasitvirtino teorinė prielaida, kad užtikrinant tolygią kaimo ekonominę ir socialinę plėtrą, būtina didinti žmonių sugebėjimą dirbti rinkos ekonomikos sąlygomis, plėsti šviečiamąją veiklą, o kaimo gyventojų švietimas bei konsultavimas turi tapti kaimo plėtros, pažangos žemės ūkyje įgyvendinimo priemone. Taip pat pasitvirtino mokslinio tyrimo hipotezė, kad Lietuvoje yra sukurta ir veikia bendra konsultavimo sistema, tačiau tik keletas iš institucijų ir įstaigų, plėtodamos konsultavimo paslaugų teikimo tinklą, siekia konsultavimo paslaugas teikti kompleksiškai. / This Master‘s Theses is an independent section of a collegial research project. The goal of the authors of the project is to determine efficiency of the consulting system in three communities of Simnas country district. The Master‘s Theses analyses theoretical aspects of the system of rural development and consulting presented by different Lithuanian and foreign authors. The survey confirmed a theoretical assumption that in order to ensure equivalent rural economic and social development, it is necessary to increase people‘s ability to work under conditions of Market economy, expand educational activities, whereas education and consulting of rural inhabitants has to become a means of rural development and implementation of progress in agriculture. The survey also confirmed the hypothesis that even though a general consulting system is created in Lithuania and it is in action, only a few of the institutions and organizations, while expanding the service supply network, try to supply complex consulting services.

Vykstant šalies ūkio restruktūrizacijai, didėja nedarbo skirtumai tarp atskirų šalies rajonų. Ilgalaikio nedarbo tendencija labiau pastebima kaime. Kartu su nedarbu auga ir kitos socialinės problemos, nustumdamos atskiras gyventojų grupes socialinei izoliacijai. Darbu žmogus užsitikrina pragyvenimą. Tačiau ne visi gyventojai turi galimybę dirbti. Ne kiekvienas norintis dirbti gali gauti darbą. Senyvo amžiaus žmonės, slaugantys ligonį namuose, turintys negalią – tai asmenų grupės, kurioms apribotos galimybės gauti gerai apmokamą ir patinkantį darbą. Bedarbystė visuomet sukelia sudėtingų socialinių problemų ir neigiamų socialinių pasekmių. Pasirinkto tyrimo pagrindu tapo Giddens (2005) teorijos teiginiai, kad svarbiau žmogui padėti surasti darbą, nei teikti jam socialinę paramą, kadangi pagal Friedlanderio ir Burtlesso (2005) atlikto tyrimo išvadas, žmogus gan lengvai pripranta prie teikiamos socialinės paramos ir nenoriai įsitrukia į darbinę veiklą. Kaip prieštara šiems teiginiams pateikiamos Walker (2005) atliktų tyrimų išvados, kuriuose konstatuojama, jog pragyvenimas iš socialinės paramos anaiptol nėra pasirinkimas. Į šią padėtį dažniausiai pakliūva žmonės dėl skaudaus savo gyvenimo įvykio. Remiantis įvardintais mokslinių teorijų ir tyrimų teiginiais, atskleidžiamas darbo biržos uždavinys - įvertinti klientų ir darbdavių poreikius, siekiant kad tarpininkavimas būtų priimtinas, kad jis padėtų didinti asmenų užimtumo lygį, nulemtų ekonomikos augimą. Tai leido suformuluoti... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Distinctions between unemploement at different country regions rise due to the state economy restructurisation. Long term unemployment is mostly noticed in the countryside. Other social problems occur with unemployment taking distinct groups of population into social isolation. Government supports unemployed people giving social assistance for living (pensions, allowances, e.t.c.). Jobcentre orients to the nonmaterial help, looking for a job, acquiring profession, preparing unemployed to the labour-market. Scientific problem analysed in the paper: contradictions between giving social assistance (material and nonmaterial) and job centre consultant activity, taking efforts integrate unemployed to the labour-market. Objectives of this paper to assess the role of jobcentre service activity, securing of social assistance, during people integration to the labour-market. Formulated tasks for goal achievement: 1. To define the social assistance conception. 2. To define and describe the aspects of consultancy service taking by Jobcentre. 3. To assess effectiveness of jobcentre consultancy service as social assistance, integrating people to the labour-market. An object of paper: jobcentre consultancy service application. Research theoretical basis consist of Giddens (2005), Walker (2005), Poviliūnas (2001) and other theories and findings. The results of investigation showed, unemployed are more interested to get nonmaterial support, delivered by jobcentre, contrary to the... [to full text]

Darbo tikslas – išanalizavus teorinius personalo valdymo sistemų kūrimo aspektus ir ištyrus jų kūrimo konsultavimo poreikį, parengti personalo valdymo sistemos kūrimo konsultavimo modelį. Tyrimo objektas – personalo valdymo sistemos. Tyrimo uždaviniai: 1. Išanalizuoti mokslinius požiūrius į personalo valdymą ir pagrįsti sisteminio požiūrio į personalo valdymą būtinumą; 2. Išanalizuoti personalo valdymo sistemas ir jų kūrimo procesą; 3. Ištirti personalo valdymo sistemų kūrimo konsultavimo poreikį; 4. Pateikti personalo valdymo sistemos kūrimo konsultavimo modelį. Šis mokslinis tiriamasis darbas parašytas vadovaujantis moksline, mokymo metodine, publicistine literatūra lietuvių, anglų, rusų kalbomis, teisės aktais ir informacija, gauta interviu, anketos pagalba, dokumentų analizės metodais bei kitais šaltiniais. Naudota mokslinės literatūros analizė ir sintezė, sisteminė ir loginė analizė, loginis modeliavimas. Pagrindiniam tikslui pasiekti ir minėtiems uždaviniams įgyvendinti, buvo atlikti du tyrimai. Pirmasis – kiekybinis tyrimas – apklausa, antrasis – kokybinis, atliktas interviu metodu. Tyrimo metu buvo siekiama nustatyti Plungės rajono kaimiškose vietovėse veikiančių įmonių, organizacijų personalo valdymo sistemų kūrimo konsultavimo poreikį. Išanalizavus teorinę ir sociologinės apklausos metu sukauptą informaciją, pateikiamas personalo valdymo sistemos kūrimo konsultavimo modelis. Šiam darbui atlikti panaudotas modeliavimo metodas. / The purpose of the study - a theoretical analysis of the personnel management aspects of systems development and testing of the development of counseling needs, develop a personnel management system development-consulting model. Object of study - the personnel management system. Objectives of the study: 1. Analyze the scientific approaches to the management and staff based on a systemic approach to staff management is the need to. 2. To analyze the personnel management systems and their development processes. 3. Investigate the need of personnel management systems. 4. Provide the personnel management system development consulting model. This research were written in accordance with scientific, teaching methodology, publicist literature in Lithuanian, English and Russian languages, laws and information obtained in interviews, questionnaires aid, methods of analysis of documents and other sources. For the purpose of the study scientific literature were used, analysis and synthesis, systematic and logical analysis, logic simulation. Two researches were carrying out to reach the main objective and to implement studies aims. First – quantitative research – survey, second – qualitative research, conducted the interview method. The study was design to determine the Plunge district, in rural areas of the companies, organizations, personnel management systems, creating the need for counseling. After analysis of the theoretical and sociological survey accumulated information, the... [to full text]

Įvairūs autoriai skirtingai apibūdina socialinės rizikos (disfunkcines, daugiaproblemines) šeimas, bet kiekvienas jų įžvelgia, kad joms būdingas negebėjimas savarankiškai spręsti savo problemų, šeimos funkcijų sutrikimas, jos narių poreikių netenkinimas. Todėl socialinės rizikos šeima tampa socialinio darbo objektu. Galima teigti, kad socialiniu darbu siekiama atstatyti socialinės rizikos šeimų funkcionavimą. Socialinės paslaugos teikiamos šeimai tam, kad būtų užtikrintas pozityvus šeimos funkcionavimas. Šiame darbe socialinis darbuotojas dažnai susiduria su problemų neigimu, priešinimusi pagalbai. Todėl socialinis darbuotojas turi pasitelkti savo kompetenciją, kad įveiktų priešinimąsi ir padėtų socialinės rizikos šeimai modeliuoti problemų sprendimo variantus. Šiame kompleksiškame procese socialinis darbuotojas turi atlikti daugybę tarpusavyje persipinančių vaidmenų. Dirbdamas su socialinės rizikos šeimomis socialinis darbuotojas etapiškai įgyvendina socialinio darbo procesą, kurio tikslas - šeimos išsaugojimas ir pagalba jai problemų sprendimo procese. Įgyvendindamas šį procesą socialinis darbuotojas atlieka keletą vaidmenų, kurių pagrindiniai yra: konsultavimas ir tarpininkavimas. Socialinis darbo raida Lietuvoje atsilieka šimtmečiu. Tik narystė ES įtakojo, paskatino Lietuvos socialinių paslaugų reformą. Socialinis darbuotojas pripažįstamas kaip socialinės kaitos ir socialinio stabilumo skatintojas, problemų sprendimo ir žmogiškųjų santykių harmonijos užtikrintojas... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Various authors describe social risk (dysfunctional, problematic) families differently, but each of them witnesses that the common things between such families are: incapability to solve their problems on their own, malfunction of family functions and incapability in meeting the needs of family members. Therefore, social risk family becomes an object of social work. It can be said that social work aims at restoring functionality of social risk families. Social services for families are provided in order to ensure positive family functionality. In this thesis the social worker usually meets with denial of problems and resistance to be helped. Therefore, the social worker has to reach its competence in order to overcome resistance and to help social risk family to simulate different variants of problem solving. In this complex process the social worker has to perform many interlaced roles. The social worker implements the process of social work by stages when working with social risk families. The goal of social work process is family retention and helping in problem solving process. The social worker performs several roles when implementing such process. The mail roles of such process are consulting and mediation. The development of social work in Lithuania is century behind. Only the EU membership influenced and stimulated the reform of social services in Lithuania. The social worker is recognized as a stimulator of social changes and social stability, a person ensuring... [to full text]

Eilės poliklinikose – sena ir labai opi Lietuvos sveikatos apsaugos sistemos problema. Todėl iškyla būtinybė tirti medicinos paslaugų kokybę nulemiančius veiksnius, ir analizuoti priežastis, dėl ko medicinos paslaugų prieinamumas poliklinikose netenkina medicinos paslaugų vartotojų – pacient��. Darbo tikslas – įvertinti oftalmologinės pagalbos prieinamumą universitetinių klinikų konsultacinėje poliklinikoje. Darbo uždaviniai: 1. Įvertinti įvairaus profilio oftalmologinių paslaugų prieinamumą konsultacinėje poliklinikoje. 2. Palyginti oftalmologinės pagalbos prieinamumo skirtumus miesto ir kaimo gyventojams. 3. Nustatyti eilių susidarymo konsultacinėje poliklinikoje priežastis Tyrimo metodika. Tyrimas atliktas KMUK akių ligų konsultaciniame diagnostiniame centre apklausiant pacientus anketinės apklausos (n = 180) ir kokybiniu struktūrizuoto interviu (n = 10) metodais. Tyrimo rezultatai analizuoti SPSS 14 versijos kompiuterine programa.Statistiniam reikšmingumui pagrįsti naudotas Chi kvadrato kriterijus. Rezultatai. Nustatyta, kad visiškai patenkintų suteiktomis oftalmologinėmis paslaugomis KMUK yra 50 proc., pacientų iš kitų miestų grupėje – 54 proc., o pacientų grupėje iš kaimo vietovių tik 41 proc. Paskirtu laiku priimama tik pusė pacientų, kitai pusei tenka laukti eilėje nuo pusės iki valandos laiko. Penktadaliui pacientų tyrimai neatliekami tą pačią dieną, kai jie atvyksta konsultuotis. Paskirtų papildomų tyrimų kai kuriems pacientams tenka laukti net iki 15 dienų... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Constant lines in the clinics have been a significant problem of the Lithuanian health care system for a number of years. Hence, there is the necessity to analyze the factors which determine the quality of medical services, and to analyze the reasons which cause the disappointment of the medical service recipients – patients. The goal of the study is to research and evaluate the access to ophthalmology services in a consulting clinic. The tasks of the study: 1. To evaluate the access of various profile ophthalmology services in a consulting clinic. 2. To compare the differences of accessibility of ophthalmology services for a city and village residents. 3. To determine the causes for the lines formation in a consulting clinic. The methodology of the research. The research was conducted in the Consulting and of the Clinics of Kaunas University of Medicine, inquiring the patients in the methods of quantitative survey (n = 180) and qualitative structural interview (n = 10). The results of the research were analyzed with the help of the SPSS 14 software, using the Chi-square criterion as the basis of the statistic significance. The results. It was determined that 50% of the respondents were completely satisfied with the quality of the provided ophthalmology services at the Clinics of Kaunas University of Medicine, in the group of patients from other cities – 54% and in the group of patients from the rural areas – only 41%. Only half of the patients got their... [to full text]

Magistratūros studijų baigiamasis darbas, 66 puslapiai, 15 paveikslų, 2 lentelės, 43 literatūros šaltiniai, 6 priedai. RAKTINIAI ŽODŽIAI: kokybės sistema, kokybės vadyba, konsultacija, konsultantas, konsultavimas. Tyrimo objektas – Lietuvos žemės ūkio konsultavimo tarnyba. Darbo tikslas – parengti konceptualų kokybės vadybos sistemos diegimo modelį Lietuvos žemės ūkio konsultavimo tarnyboje. Uždaviniai. Nustatytam tikslui pasiekti, sprendžiami tokie uždaviniai: 1) išanalizuoti kokybės vadybos sistemos koncepcijos esmę ir reikšmę paslaugų kokybės valdymui, nustatyti paslaugų kokybės vertinimo kriterijus; 2) išnagrinėti paslaugų kokybės valdymo procesą ir nustatyti kokybės lygį lemiančius veiksnius; 3) išanalizuoti kokybės vadybos sistemos įgyvendinimo prielaidas teoriniu aspektu; 4) parengti žemės ūkio konsultavimo paslaugų kokybės tyrimo metodiką; 5) sumodeliuti kokybės vadybos sistemą lietuvos žemės ūkio konsultavimo tarnybai. Tyrimo metodai: mokslinės ir ekonominės literatūros analizė ir sintezė, loginė analizė, palyginimas, anketinė apklausa, grafinis vaizdavimas. / The final work of Master‘s studies, 66 pages, 15 picture, 2 tables, 43 literature sources, 6 appendices. KEY WORDS: quality system, quality management, consultation, consultant, consulting. Research object – Lithuanian agricultural consulting company. Reasearch aim – to formulate conceptual quality management system implementation model for Lithuanian agricultural consulting company. Objectives: 1) to analyze quality management system conception essence and meaning for services quality control, to identify services quality assessment criterions; 2) to inspect services quality control process and to identify quality level elements ; 3) to analyze quality management system realizable assumption; 4) to formulate quality exploratory methods for agriculture consulting services; 5) to model quality management system for Lithuanian agricultural consulting company. Research methods: scientific literature analysis, comparison, analysis and synthesis, graphical description, data collation, questionnaire inquiry, interview.