THE INFLUENCE OF PERSONAL PREFERENCE AND SITUATIONAL FACTORS ON THE INTERVENTION DECISIONS OF MANAGEMENT CONSULTANTS

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THE INFLUENCE OF PERSONAL PREFERENCE AND

SITUATIONAL FACTORS ON THE INTERVENTION DECISIONS

OF MANAGEMENT CONSULTANTS

Master Thesis, Msc BA, specialization Change Management University of Groningen, Faculty of Economics and Business

3 Maart, 2011 EVA PEL Studentnumber: 1669567 Kleine Pelsterstraat 2-10 9711 KN Groningen tel.: +31 (0)6-25487884 e-mail: eva.pel01@gmail.com

First university supervisor: Second university supervisor: Dr. C. Reezigt Prof. Dr. J.I. Stoker

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ABSTRACT

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1. INTRODUCTION

As early as 1974, Tichy wrote that the use of professional change agents, to change and improve social systems increases, and with the increase in the demand for change agents, the number of practitioners and the variety of their approaches have also increased. Nowadays, the amount of change approaches and interventions is still growing. For example, Holman, Devane and Cady describe in The change handbook (2007), 60 methods just for whole system change. According to them, whole system change methods continue to increase in recognition, variety, and use. This is illustrated by the fact that the first edition of their book included 18 methods and just a few years later, there are more than 60 methods in the second edition.

Along with the growing number of interventions, the amount of literature about interventions grows as well. The existing literature seems to concentrate on two subjects. First, to summarize, describe, and arrange the numerous interventions that exist today. For example, Cummings & Worley (2009) who arrange interventions by the type of organizational issues, and Huy (2001) who arrange interventions by the tangibility of the content of change. The second part of the literature gives practical information about the implementation of (new) intervention types and are published in the form of guides, for example: The fifth discipline: the art and practice of the learning organization (Senge, 1996), Open space technology: a user’s guide (Owen, 2008), Power and love: a theory and practice of social change (Kahane, 2010), The power of appreciative inquiry: a practical guide to positive change (Cooperrider, Whitney & Trosten-Bloom, 2010).

Although much is written about the numerous types of interventions and the implementation of it, not much attention is given to the intervention decision that the management consultant has to make. Writers who give attention to the subject, unfortunately, only devote a few sentences to it. Block (2000) stresses the idea of consistency between the ideas of the client and the consultant, regarding the results of the change and the methods that are used. Gallessich emphasizes that alternative interventions should be generated and examined. “In reviewing options, attention is given to the consultants needs, the nature of the problem, the resources available, and the point most amenable to interventions.” (Gallessich, 1982:255).

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requirements of the situation. Therefore, the research question that will be examined in this thesis is:

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2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

2.1 Organizational Change

A general opinion among theorist and practitioners is that today organizations are constantly undergoing change (Kuriger, 2004; Burke, 2010; Senior & Swailes, 2010; Kubr, 2002; Poole, 2000). For example, according to Kerber & Buono (2010) a basic reality of the 21st century is that organizations and managements are faced with unrelenting demands for change. Companies in every industry are increasingly challenged to both respond to and anticipate continuously changing competitive, market, technological, economic, and social conditions to the point where change is described as the "new normal". This idea is underscored by Kubr (1996:73) who argues that organizations do not change for the sake of change, but because they are part of a wider process of development and have to react to new environmental changes, constraints, requirements, and opportunities. Mills (2003) adds that if organizations do not change, they fall behind.

The change that occurs in organizations comes in many forms and is far from a homogenous concept (Senior & Swailes, 2010:34). In literature the most used and basic distinction of organizational change is of planned and unplanned change, or emergent change as it is called often (de Caluwé & Vermaak, 2006; Kubr, 2002; Senior & Swailes, 2010; Burnes, 2004). The idea of planned change is often linked to Kurt Lewin who is considered as the founding father of planned change with its Unfreeze-Move-Refreeze model. Lewin believed that it was necessary to ‘unfreeze’ the forces that restrained change, after which an organization ‘moves’ from its current state to a desired future state which on its turn must ‘refreeze’. De Caluwé & Vermaak (2006) define planned change as only the small part of all organizational change, by which the progress and outcome of a change process can be influenced or controlled to a certain degree. Many writers (Senior & Swailes, 2010; Dunphy & Stace, 1993; Kanter, Stein & Jick, 1992) underline the idea that the main part of organizational change cannot be planned, however, according to Kubr (2002:92) this does not mean planning is unnecessary. He states that planning helps the organization to prepare itself for changes that can be anticipated, and minimizes the number of situations where hasty and costly changes have to be made.

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2.2 Management Consulting

Management consultant’s advice managers. Beyond this rather straightforward tenet, it is less clear what management consultants actually do (Kam, 2004). Nevertheless, there is no doubt that management consulting has developed into a specific sector of professional activity and should be treated as such (Kubr, 2002). Kam (2004) rightfully wonders why doctors and lawyers reinforce their professionalism with university degree and management consultants do not? The answer seems to lie in the variety of competences and skills that professional consultants must posses; since management consultants are expected to work on two sides: the technical side, which concerns the nature of the management or business processes and problems, and the human side, which concerns the interpersonal relationships (Kubr, 2004; de Caluwé & Vermaak, 2006; Cummings & Worley, 2009). According to Block (2000) technical skills are important because consultants need expertise about the management question. The technical skills are acquired either in college or during a job, were consultants are trained in a specific field or function. This might be sales, engineering, accounting or any other field. This is the basic training. However, to function with people, consultants need interpersonal skills, the ability to listen, to give support, to maintain a relationship. Clearly, management consultants cannot acquire such capabilities by theoretical study only. They learn from the experiences of their colleagues and from the consulting firm’s accumulated knowledge. However, experience and knowledge concerning management and business practices come mainly from working with clients (Kubr, 2002). Kam (2004) defines this as ‘education by experience’ and ‘professionalism in practice’.

Wolfe (1980) who outlines five learning phases to become of what he calls ‘the creative consultant’ also describes this development of a consultant’s skills.

1. Conceptual grounding: Consultants familiarize themselves with basic models and theories.

2. Learning the craft: Consultants master a number of basic skills. Theory is no longer enough, skills are required.

3. Practice in the field: Consultants learn by “doing”. They gain experience.

4. Consolidation and integrating competencies: Consultants step back to reflect on their own experiences. What have they achieved so far? What are their weak points? Feedback from other is essential.

5. Creativity: Consultants create their own concepts about change and their own methods. These help to make their professional identity explicit and develop it further.

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as: “An independent professional advisory service assisting managers and organizations in achieving organizational purposes and objectives by solving management and business problems, identifying and seizing new opportunities, enhancing learning and implementing change.” This definition describes management consulting in general. The nature of the problem or management question defines the realization of the consulting activity further and determines what kind of technical background and experience is needed from a consultant.

Although consultancy has many forms, in the different forms it appears that certain elements recur in successful consulting processes. Many models of the consulting process exist (Cummings & Worley, 2009; Kubr, 1996; Block, 2000; Killman & Mitroff, 1979). The model of Rothwell & Sullivan is a good review of these models and is presented in Figure 1. In their model the consulting process starts with the need for change where an individual or group in the organization is looking for help, this is called the entry phase. The consultant enters the picture in the start up phase where he or she contracts the client. During the assessment and feedback phase, the consultant gathers information and gives feedback to the people who are involved. The action planning phase contains collaboration between the consultant, the decision makers and stakeholders on a preferred future state. The action plan is implemented and adjusted during the intervention phase, after which, in the evaluation phase the consultant helps decision makers and stakeholders assess the change effort’s progress and organizational learning. Finally, three possibilities remain: the members of the organization maintain the new state, the consultant prepares for closure and departure, or the process starts all over. In this study, I am interested in the factors that influence the intervention decisions of a management consulting; therefore, I focus on the intervention phase.

FIGURE 1 The Consulting Process

Source: Rothwell & Sullivan, 2005. Start up

Entry

Assessment and Feedback

Action Planning

Intervention Evaluation

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2.3 Interventions

According to Rothwell & Sullivan (2005) an intervention in an organization is an instrument or tool that will enact and accomplish a state or a goal. It is the core of the organization change effect and the hard work of change. Interventions are used to move organizational processes, operations or systems toward a particular change goal. In light of Lewin’s Planned Change Model interventions are implemented in the moving phase, which Lewin describes as an iterative approach of research, action, and more research that enables groups and individuals to move from a less acceptable to a more acceptable set of behaviors (Burnes, 2004). Lewin emphasizes that this phase contains identifying, evaluation, on a trail and error base, to select the best options. De Caluwe & Vermaak (2006), state that things hardly ever go as planned, and therefore, it is quite usual to review and adjust after the completion of a number of interventions. In addition, Schein (2004:204) describes the unpredictable consequences of intervening and argues that the consultant has no way of knowing which of the many possible intervention outcomes are happening. For this reason, one should examine carefully the broad range of interventions available and choose carefully which method to use. However, next to the influence of the knowledge of interventions, the capabilities of consultants to implement interventions are also indicated as a success factor by many writers. For example, Cummings & Worley (2009) argue that failures result when consultants apply interventions beyond their competences. In designing and implementing interventions, consultants should access their experience and expertise against the requirements that are needed. Therefore, the diversified backgrounds and experiences of consultants, which were discussed in the previous paragraph, must take into account in intervention decisions.

Due to differences in backgrounds and expertise, a wide range of intervention techniques exists. A well-known and used overview of intervention techniques is created by Cummings & Worley and presented in Table 1. This overview shows Organizational Development (OD) intervention techniques that exist today and how they are linked to a person’s background or area of expertise.

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must ask themselves in which order the intervention should be carried out, and what will reinforce each other. It is crucial to know how interventions are segmented and phased into a consistent and feasible package.

Now the three basic concepts are clarified it can be discussed in-depth what influences the intervention decision of a management consultant, regarding the requirements of the situation and the personal preference of a management consultant.

TABLE 1 Types of Interventions Human Process Technostructural Human resources

management

Strategic

-Coaching and Training -Process consultation -Third-party intervention -Team-building -Organization confrontation meeting -Intergroup relations -Large-group interventions -Structural Design -Downsizing -Reengineering -Parallel structures -High-involvement organization

-Total quality management -Work-design

-Goal setting

-Performance appraisal -Reward systems -Career planning and development -Managing workforce diversity -Employee wellness -Integrated strategic change

-Mergers and acquisitions integration -Alliances -Networks -Culture change -Self-designing organizations

-Organization learning and knowledge management Source: Cummings & Worley, 2005.

2.4 Requirements of the Situation

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relationship between client and consultant and concluded that a deep understanding of the client’s situation is an important element. Consultants needed to have a thorough grasp of the business, both from their own experience and from insightful questioning. Frustrations arose when consultants failed to appreciate the uniqueness of a client’s circumstances and seemingly imposed a standard, untailored solution (Handley, et al. 2006:52).

Thus, both parties, the client as well as the consultants, state that intervention decisions should be based on, or adapted to, the situational factors of an organization. To measure whether this actually happens in practice Van Nistelrooij, de Caluwé & Schouten (2007) recently did a study among consultants to gain insight in the consultant preferences and their assumptions regarding organizational change. They concluded (2007:251): “On one hand, the management consultants in our research prefer to see change as processes of learning and self-organization, and on the other hand they use intervention methods that clearly specify the results in advance and which make it easy to plan, control, and monitor the change process closely. Furthermore, the participating management consultants in our research seem to work, remarkably, in a complete opposite way as their preferences seem to indicate. (…) It seems plausible that there are some situational factors in play choosing the style and intervention method of intervening. Examples of such situational factors are the preferences in thinking and the set of assumptions managers have about change, success and culture of their own organization”. In essence, consultants prefer a certain approach, however, the situational factors are determining for the intervention decision of consultants.

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Despite the ideas that consultants act objectively and base their decisions on situational factors many writers discuss the (im)possibility of consultants to be completely impartial and objective. For example, Kubr (2002) argues that every consultant is influenced by his or her cultural background and personal value system; this cannot be switched on or off. Therefore, in the next paragraph, the influence of the personal preference on consultants’ actions and decisions will be discussed.

2. 5 Personal Preference of Management Consultants

Ten Have & Ten Have (2004) and Armenakis, Mossholder and Harris (1990) argue that consultants act from a personal preference. According to Armenakis et al. (1990:564) consultants observe phenomena and encode observations via existing models, thereby seeing what they have been trained to see. Kilmann & Mitroff (1979:26) agree on this view and argue that most consultants are only trained in one or two disciplines and therefore they cannot assess whether other approaches to change would really be better suited to the problem situation. Moreover, it appears that each consultant or interventionist applies his own type of method to the problems of the organization, without careful consideration as to whether that type of method is indeed suited for the organization’s particular problems. De Caluwé & Vermaak (2006:123) take it a step further, according to them, the actions and decisions of consultants are not only influenced by what they are trained to see but also by their personal values. They argue that consultant’s preferences refer to ‘what they are good at’ and also ‘what they believe in’.

In an attempt to understand why the personal preference of a management consultant influences their decisions, Armenakis et al. (1990:564) explains that it is impossible for consultants to consider all the interventions or process all the data, for the simple reason the brain is incapable of doing so. Therefore, the choice of interventions of a consultant is influenced by the number of events that can be remembered (e.g. experience in similar instances) or the ease which with instances can be recalled. In addition, Hadar & Fisher adopt a more psychological view. They state that people are naïve realists. According to Hadar & Fisher (2008:668) people believe that their personal beliefs and perceptions are objective, that other rationally minded individuals will see things similarly, and that the failure of others to see things similarly reflects a lack of information, laziness, irrationality, or bias on the part of others.

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(1974) set out a questionnaire among 91 consultants. In this research, he investigates the congruence between the consultant’s values about change, how they conceptualized means of effecting change, the techniques they used to carry out change, their personal characteristics, and their descriptions of their work. He concludes that of the 91 consultants 72 consultants showed a high congruence between their values and the actions in their work and therefore a high influence of the personal preference on a consultant’s decision and actions.

A more recent study of Hadar & Fisher (2008) underscores these finding. In their study they examine whether advisors rely primarily on their personal beliefs or on their estimates of their clients’ beliefs. They drew two important conclusions. First, it is more likely that advisors rely on their personal beliefs when giving advice. Second, advice that is based primarily on personal preferences may differ from advice that is based on advisors’ estimates of client’s preferences. Therefore, Hadar & Fisher (2008:667) suggest that managers should be cautious in accepting advice concerning which alternative ought to be pursued, as advisors tend to instinctively rely on their own preferences, which may differ from the manager’s actual preferences.

The influence of the personal preference on a consultant’s actions and decisions creates a discussion about the benefits and drawbacks it provides. On one hand writers argue that the subjectivity and bias harm the objectivity, which questions the professionalism of consultants (Armenakis et al., 1990; Kilmann & Mittrof, 1979). On the other hand writers emphasize that the probability of success increases when consultants choose an approach they are good at and have experience in (Kubr, 2002; de Caluwé & Vermaak, 2006; Cummings & Worley, 2009).

2.6 Research Questions

This study aims to investigate how the personal preference and the requirements of the situation influence the intervention decision of management consultants, therefore the following research question were formulated:

RQ1a: Does the personal preference of management consultants influence their intervention decision?

RQ1b: Does the situational factors influence the management consultants’ intervention decisions?

RQ2: Does the personal preference of a management consultant or the situational factors have a stronger influence on the management consultants’ intervention decisions?

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To investigate these research questions, two consultant groups were studied, in the methodology section these two groups will be explained in detail. However, for now it means that the differences between the two groups can also be studied which leads to the last research question:

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3. METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research Setting

Twynstra Gudde. This study was conducted at the consultancy firm Twynstra Gudde

(TG). TG is one of the foremost consultancy firms in the Netherlands. They have been active in consultancy for more than forty years and during that period they have obtained expertise in the areas of project management, organization management and change management. The firm currently comprises of 500 consultants and managers.

Measurement. In this study I want to investigate the influence of the personal preference

of management consultants and the situation on their intervention decisions. To do this, the personal preferences as well as the situations and the intervention decisions are operationalized. This operationalization can be based on the color-print thinking theory (color theory) and therefore this theory has an important role in the research methodology of this study. First, the color theory will be discussed in general, then it will be explained how it is used in this study.

The color theory in general. De Caluwé & Vermaak develop the color theory. According

to them, all the change theories and concepts can be integrated into five families of change paradigms, each labeled by a color. Table 2 gives an overview of the change paradigms, which is quoted from a paper of de Caluwé & Vermaak.

TABLE 2

Color-print Thinking Theory

Yellow-print Thinking:

Yellow-print thinking is based on sociopolitical concepts about organizations in which interests, conflicts, and power play important roles. Yellow-print thinking assumes that people change their standpoints only if their own interests are taken into account, or if compelled to accept certain ideas. Combining ideas or points of view and forming coalitions or power blocks are favored methods in this type of change process. Change is seen as a negotiation exercise aimed at feasible solutions.

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standpoints and influence of the most important players. Moreover, for a change agent, the process is difficult to plan and predict.

Yellow is the color of power (e.g., symbols like the sun, fire) and the type of process (brooding and coalition formation around a fire).

Blue-print Thinking:

Blue-print thinking is based on the rational design and implementation of change. Project management one of its strongest tools. In blue-print thinking, it is assumed that people or things will change if a clearly specified result is laid down beforehand. Controlling the change by managing, planning, and monitoring the progress is considered feasible. The process and the result are deemed, more or less, independent of people. Management is able to compel and effect the change. Both outcome and process are planned down to the last detail. Change is considered to be a rational process aimed at the best possible solution. There is continuous monitoring based on pre-determined indicators to check whether the activities are leading to the desired result as planned. If not, adjustments are made to achieve that which has been agreed upon within the frameworks of time, money, quality, information, and organization.

Red-print Thinking:

Change in this way of thinking equates with people changing their behavior. This is accomplished by stimulating people, by making it appealing to adjust behavior. Thus a key concept is barter: the organization hands out rewards and facilities in exchange for personnel taking on responsibilities and trying their best. On top of this however, management’s care and attention are also important. Red print thinking strives to develop competencies and making the most of people’s talents. The aim is a good “fit” between what individuals want and what the organization needs. Red-print thinking makes abundant use of HRM tools. People are rewarded (salary, promotion, bonus, a good evaluation) for desired behavior or “penalized” (demotion, poor evaluation) for undesired behavior. Career paths, assessments, recruitments, out-placements, work design (task enrichment and enlargement) and employee wellness programs are all relevant interventions. Management gets up on a soap box, gives speeches and seduces people into embarking on a change. Social activities and team building are used to create a positive atmosphere and social cohesion.

The color chosen here refers to the color of human blood. The human being must be influenced, tempted, seduced, and stimulated.

Green-print Thinking:

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preferably collective ones as these allows people to give and receive feedback as well as to experiment with more effective ways of acting. Green-print thinking is concerned with allowing and supporting people to take ownership of their learning. Typical interventions are coaching, simulations, survey feedback, open systems planning, action learning, feedback and leadership training. The change process takes time: you can’t force learning. It is a fluctuating process of learning and unlearning, trial and error. The change agents play a facilitating role, not a controlling one. They design learning situations, give feedback, support experimenting with new behavior, structure communication and are learning themselves in the process. Thinking and doing are tightly coupled. Empathy, creativity and openness are important attributes of the change agent.

The color green is chosen because the objective is to get peoples’ ideas to work(with their motivation and learning capacity), giving them the “green light.” But it also refers to “growth,” as in nature.

White-print Thinking:

In white-print thinking, the dominant image is that everything is changing autonomously, of its own accord. Where there is energy, things change. When this is the case, ‘the time is ripe’. Complexity is regarded as the enriching nature of things, not as disruptive chaos. Influencing the underlying dynamics is a favorite approach. White print thinkers try to understand where opportunities lie and searching for the seeds of renewal and creativity.

Sense-making plays an important role in this, as does the removing of obstacles and explicitly relying on the strength and soul of people. In a way white-print change agents catalyze the emergence of more white print change agents. They call on people’s strengths, self confidence, inspiration and energy. Whereas interventions that take away obstacles can seem to be of a very different color (e.g. delayering the organization), interventions that tap people’s energy are more easily identified: e.g. open space meetings, appreciative enquiry, dialogue, search conferences, self steering teams. The inner desires and strengths of people, both individually and as groups, are the decisive factors.

The color white reflects all colors. But more important, white denotes openness: it allows room for self-organization and evolution. The outcome remains somewhat of a surprise.

Source: de Caluwé and Vermaak, 2004.

Color theory in this study. The role of the color theory in this study lies in the

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groups of respondents (one with a blue personal preference, one with a white personal preference), four situations because they also range from clear to ambiguous (clear white, ambiguous white, clear blue, ambiguous blue), and 14 intervention techniques, that can be characterized as white and blue. To avoid that the quasi-experiment (see below) would be too obvious two green and one red intervention were added to the intervention list. Figure 1 clarifies the research design.

In this study I assume that an intervention decision is right when it is based on the situational factors. With the situation as starting point, the operationalization of the personal preference comes down to: does the personal preference fit the situation or not. The operationalization of the intervention decision comes down to: does the intervention decision fit the situation or not.

FIGURE 2 Research Design

3.2 Research Design

In total 24 respondents participated in this study. Each respondent received four cases, in which the four situations (see Figure 2) were described. After reading a case the consultant was asked to choose the three intervention techniques from a list of 14, which they thought were most appropriate in that specific situation.

Blue Consultants

Clear blue situation

1. Intervention decision of blue consultant in clear blue situation.

2. Intervention decision of white consultant in clear blue situation Ambiguous blue situation Clear white situation Ambiguous white situation

3. Intervention decision of blue consultant in ambiguous blue situation.

4. Intervention decision of white consultant in ambiguous blue situation

5. Intervention decision of blue consultant in clear white situation.

6. Intervention decision of white consultant in clear white situation

7. Intervention decision of blue consultant in ambiguous white situation.

8. Intervention decision of white consultant in ambiguous white situation

White Consultants

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The ‘color’ of a consultant was determined by the ‘color test’, which is created by de Caluwé & Vermaak. For this study, only consultants with an outcome ‘blue’ or ‘white’ were allowed to participate. In the end, 12 blue consultants and 12 white consultants participated. Because in this study I am interested in the intervention decisions of professional consultants, the research was conducted among employees of TG. Of the 24 consultants 22 are still working at TG, two are currently working for another consulting company but started at TG.

I created the cases that are used in this study. To do this in a right way, I used ‘the six basic questions’ that are established by de Caluwé & Vermaak. ‘The six basic questions’ can and are used as guidelines to describe and analyze situations; they are presented in Table 3. Table 4 shows the classification and titles of the used cases. The complete cases can be found in Appendix 1. In addition, to make sure the cases were presented in the right way, my internal supervisors of TG, who are both familiar with the color theory, checked the cases. At last, a pre-test was conducted. The pre-pre-test group consisted of four consultants that were representative for the participants.

The intervention techniques that are used in this study come from a research by Van Nistelrooij, Schouten & de Caluwé (2007), which is based on the color theory (Table 5).

TABLE 3

Six Basic Questions that Precede the Choice of a Change Strategy 1. Where does it happen? (boundaries of the system)

2. What has to change? (the outcome)

3. Who are the key figures that play a role in the change process? 4. What are the origin and impetus of a problem?

5. Suffices the same strategy? 6. What moves people?

Source: de Caluwé & Vermaak, 2006.

TABLE 4 Cases White Blue Clear Case 1 Noordpak Case 2

Amron bv & Bouw bv

Ambiguous Case 4 Jongehond

Case 3

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TABLE 5 Intervention list

Balanced Score Card – Blue Total Quality Management – Blue

Auditing – Blue Working in projects – Blue

Implementing self-managed work teams – White Implementing competence management – Red

Gaming - Green Business process redesign (BPR) – Blue

Appreciative Inquiry – White Future Search – White

Strategic Management – Blue Intergroup relation interventions – White

Open Space – White Mentoring and coaching – Green

Quasi-experiment. The research design that is used is called a quasi-experiment. To

understand a quasi-experiment it is useful to understand what is meant by a true experiment. McBurney & White (2009:276) define a true experiment as: “Research procedure in which the scientist has complete control over all aspects.” The quasi-experiment differs from true experiments in the fact that there is no random assignment; participants are assigned to groups, in this study according to their personal preference. “Quasi-experiment is a research procedure in which the scientist must select subjects for different conditions from preexisting groups.” (McBurney & White, 2009:345) Subsequently, this harms the validity of an experiment because as a researcher you do not have full control over all the independent variables. However, because I am interested in the personal preference, which defines the two groups, I chose this research method.

3.3 Data Collection

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end, it measures if the color of the intervention decision corresponds with the color of the situation or not. Due to this classification, the independent variable becomes binominal wherefore dummy values are used, which are presented below. The dependant variables are on scale level. These numbers for all 24 respondents in the 4 situations were put into SPSS and were statistically analyzed by ANOVA.

TABLE 6

Variables and Dummy Values

Variables Values Indep. variable: Situation 0 = ambiguous situation 1 = clear situation Indep. variable: Personal preference

0 = the personal preference does not fit the situation 1 = the personal preference fits the situation

3.4 Data Analysis

ANOVA. ANOVA examines the effect of two or more factors on the response variable

(Keller, 2005) To calculate this, ANOVA uses the variance of the samples to determine if the population means differ between groups. If the variability among the sample means is ‘small’ there is more evidence for the conclusion that the population means are equal, if the variability among the sample means is ‘large’, more evidence is found to conclude the population means are not equal (Anderson, Sweeney, Williams, Freeman & Shoesmith, 2010). ANOVA breaks down the total variability into component parts, the between-groups variance and the within-group variance. The between-groups variance represents the effect of the treatment, or factor. The difference of between-groups implies that each group was treated differently. The within-groups variances results from variability among subject and from random variation, often called error (Cooper & Schindler, 2006). To significantly test whether the population means differ between the groups, the F-ratio is used. The F-ratio tests if the variability attributable to the treatment exceeds the variability arising from error and random fluctuations (Cooper & Schindler, 2006). The F-ratio is calculated by dividing the between-group variability by the within-group variability. The higher the F-ratio the more influence the factor has on the response variable (Huizinga, 2006).

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of the populations. Third, the observations must be independent (Anderson et al. 2010). In this study, these first and third requirements are met. To measure the second requirement Levene’s test is used and will be presented in the method section.

Research questions and research methods. First, Levene’s test will be done to test if the

variance of the response variable is the same for all of the populations and if ANOVA can be used for this study.

The first two research questions concentrate on whether the situation and/or the personal preference influence the intervention decision, and if one antecedent dominates the other. A two way ANOVA is used to investigate the influence of the two factors. Because the two factors both have two levels (see Table 6) this study has (2x2) 4 treatments, with each 24 observations. To know whether a factor affects the response variable ANOVA measures the differences between the 4 treatment means and calculates the Mean Square, F-ratio and the Significance. The significance level determines if the influence is significant. In this study, a significance level of p > .05 is used. The Mean Square and F-ratio are used to determine the strength of the influence of the variable.

With regard to the third research question, which concentrates on whether the influence of the clarity of the situation differs if the personal preference fits the situation or not, the interaction effect will be measured. Again, a significance level of p > .05 is used.

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4. RESULTS

The intervention decisions of the 24 respondents in the four cases, are presented in Appendix 2. The binominal and scale values that are redirected from these results can be found in Appendix 3.

4.1 Results Levene’s Test

First, Levene’s test is used to determine whether the variance of the response variable is the same for the two populations. Table 7 presents the results of Levene’s test and shows no significant difference between the variances of the populations (.771). Hence, the data meet the requirements of ANOVA.

TABLE 7

Levene’s Test of Equality of Error Variances

F df1 df2 Sig.

.376 3 92 .771

4.2 Results two-way ANOVA

The complete results of the two-way ANOVA can be found in Appendix 4. Table 8 represents the descriptive statistics that are derived from these data to provide an overview of the 4 treatments. Table 9 presents a summary of the most important ANOVA results.

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consultants value blue intervention techniques higher in a blue situation than white interventions in white situations, and white consultant’s value white interventions higher in white situations than blue interventions in blue situations. However, to affirm these statements the results for blue consultants and white consultants must be separated. Therefore, in the next paragraph, the results will be separated by the use of a three-way ANOVA. Hence, the last research question, which concerns if there is any difference between the intervention decisions of blue and white consultants, will be investigated.

TABLE 8

Descriptive Statistics - Means

ALL RESPONDENTS Clear Situation Ambiguous situation Pers. pref. fits the situations 0.76 0.53

Pers. pref. does not fit the situation 0.50 0.38

TABLE 9

Tests of Between-Subject Effects

Source Sum of Squares df Mean Squares F

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FIGURE 3

Interaction effect two-way

Estimated Marginal Means of Intervention Decision

0 0,1 0,2 0,3 0,4 0,5 0,6 0,7 0,8 Ambiguous Clear Cl arity of Situation E st im a te d M a r g in a l M e a n s

Personal prefrence fit s the situation

Personal prefrence fit s not the situation

4.3 Results three-way ANOVA

In the three-way ANOVA, three factors are included in the analysis: clarity of situation, personal preference, and groups. Whereby, the factor ‘groups’ is divided in the types of consultants; the blue and white consultants. Appendix 5 presents the results of the three-way ANOVA. Table 10 presents the descriptive statistics that are derived from these data. Figure 4 presents the graphics of the three-way interaction to illustrate whether the intervention decisions differ between blue consultants and white consultants. When an interaction effect is found this implies that the two-way interaction between the factors, ‘personal preference’ and ‘clarity of the situation’ is modified by the factor ‘groups’ and thus modified by the type of consultant.

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Based on these results, it can be stated that white consultants are more influenced by their personal preference than blue consultants are, because in white situations white consultants value white interventions much higher than they value blue interventions in blue situations. In contrast, blue consultants value white interventions higher in an ambiguous white situation than they value blue interventions in an ambiguous blue situation. This could indicate a degree of objectivity and independence, since the blue consultant is able to set aside its personal preference in the ambiguous situation and base its intervention decision on the requirements of the situation.

TABLE 10

Descriptive Statistics - Means

BLUE RESPONDENTS Clear Situation Ambiguous situation Pers. pref. fits the situations 0.65 0.37

WHITE RESPONDENTS Clear Situation Ambiguous situation Pers. pref. fits the situations 0.87 0.68

FIGURE 4

Interaction effect three-way

0 0,1 0,2 0,3 0,4 0,5 0,6 0,7 Ambiguous Clear

Blue C onsul tants

E st im a te d M a rg in a l M e a n s 0 0,2 0,4 0,6 0,8 1 Ambiguous Clear W hite C onsultants Personal prefrence fits the situation Personal prefrence fits not t he sit uat ion

4.4 Conclusion

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5. DISCUSSION

5.1 Discussion & Practical Implications

This study aims to investigate how the personal preference of management consultants and the requirements of a situation influence the intervention decisions of management consultants. To provide an answer to this research question four sub-research questions were formulated. Below each sub-research question and the corresponding results will be discussed in detail. In addition, the practical implications of the outcomes will be discussed as well.

Firstly, the findings of this study show that the requirements of a situation as well as the personal preference of management consultants have a significant influence on their intervention decision. Put differently, the subjective side (the personal preference) as well as the objective side (the requirements of the situation) of a management consultant influences his or her intervention decision. A consultant is often hired for its objectivity and independence (Cummings & Worley, 2009) however; the results indicate that a consultant is not always capable of being objective regarding to its own biases. Kubr (2002) discusses the impossibility of being completely objective and the gap this causes between the expectation of a client and the abilities of a consultant. He argues that clients who turn to professional management consultant expect to receive objective advice. Clients assume that the consultant will be free of biases, prejudices, preconceived ideas, and prefabricated and prepackaged solutions. The true professional aims to be objective as possible, controlling emotions and not letting prejudices erode the value of advice. In practice, however, absolute objectivity is difficult, if not impossible, to attain. Also Killmann & Mitroff (1979:26) argue that in consultancy subjectivity play a determining role: “of course most consultant do assert that it would be unethical to use change methods, including their own, if these were not appropriate for the organization. But one must consider whether the consultant can really be objective in such decisions because most consultants are only trained in one or two disciplines.” In sum, both writers underline the empirical findings of this study. A consultant is expected to work objective and independent regarding his or her own biases, however, even for a professional consultant this seem almost impossible because, as Cummings & Worley (2009:52) state it, “despite the growing knowledge base and sophistication in the field consulting is still a human craft”.

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because objectivity is often defined as a characteristic that contributes to the professionalism of consultancy. For example, the ROA (Raad van Organisatie-Adviesbureaus) expects consultant to work independent, self-critical, and transparent. Independent regarding the management question and client, self-critical in the way of the ability to reflect upon its own functioning and transparent so the consultant can justify its actions. On the other hand, the results are quite logical because, as Cummings & Worley already stated, consultancy is a human craft. Legge (2002) argues that the subjective side of a consultant influences his or her actions and decisions because the personal character and personal preferences seem to be an integral part of a consultant’s professional competences. In other words, Legge states that the subjective side of a consultant is a valuable competence, one that cannot and should not be excluded in the work of a consultant. Therefore, consultants as well as clients should be aware of the personal and subjective character of consultancy and take into account the limitations it brings. Remarkable is that only Tichy (1976) found statistical evidence that support these statements. In his article, he found congruence between the values and actions of consultants. According to Tichy (1976:180) one of the factors that allow congruence is that consultants are probably not aware of any congruence between their values and actions, because their work does not require explication and systematic focus on their assumption; consultants are not forced into clear articulation of their goals and assumptions. In essence, consultants are probably not clearly aware of their own preferences, because their work does not require this.

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Mitroff state that to enhance a consultant’s objectivity regarding change approaches more consultants should be brought in. “A single consultant can be expected to be considerable less effective than a team of consultants because a single consultant brings just his or her own viewpoint and area of expertise to the organization” (Kilmann & Mitroff, 1979:32). At last, Newton (2010) advices to be realistic about how objective you can be as a consultant. He states that there is always a certain degree of subjectivity in consulting.

Contrary to the findings that the personal preference of management consultants has a stronger influence on their intervention decision than the requirements of a situation, other results in this study imply that, when the decisions of all consultants are taken together, consultants are more likely to choose interventions that match the situation when situations become clearer. This implies that in clear situations consultants are more likely to base their intervention decisions on the requirements of a situation. De Caluwé & Vermaak (2006:375) underscore these findings and argue that if problems and contexts are not too complicated and persistent situational thinking suffices. However, when a problem becomes ambiguous, complex, and persistent this changes. Therefore, from a practical point of view, it is must be considered how clear situations can be in reality. According to Cummings & Worley (2009) consultants often have to process complex and ambiguous information, and following the color theory of de Caluwé & Vermaak (2006), organizations are multi-colored; there are always other colors present in subcultures or departments. Most of the time, people are involved with multiples perspectives on change and management, because organizations consist of complex social systems. This implies that in ambiguous situations the view of a consultant can be blurred because of the many different opinions, meaning, and views of people who are involved. In clear situations, the decision is straightforward for a consultant; however, in ambiguous situations the many different ideas can confuse a consultant. De Caluwé & Vermaak (2006) advice to cope with the complexity of the different views, they argue that the color theory is a good tool to clarify and use the different perspectives that exist in an organization. Nevertheless, the color theory is only one of the many tools in change management. Therefore, it is helpful for a consultant to be informed broadly about the tools, models, and methods that exist in change management today, through which a deliberate and well-considered choice can be made.

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implies that blue consultants are more objective in their intervention decision and white consultants are more subjective. From a client’s point of view, this would mean that blue consultants do their work better and more professional than white consultants would do. However, this would be too easy. In some change strategies subjectivity is exactly what is needed, for example, in human process consulting, which is highly subjective (Czerniawska, 2000). In such change strategies it would be senseless and ineffective to hire a blue consultant, because he or she would focus on the wrong aspects. Especially the subjectivity of a white consultant adds value in this type of change strategy. This also partially explains why white consultants act more subjective, because in white interventions there is more attention for the ‘soft’ aspects of an organization, like patterns and persons, which has a more subjective character. White consultants discuss with the clients the emotions and motivation that give rise to the problems within their organisation and focus on the behaviours of people. Besides this, in white interventions there is less attention for objective facts. For example, in appreciative inquiry the data for the inquiry are the narratives people hold, instead of the objective facts. Also in Future Search data is gathered rather for the purpose of presenting multiple possibilities and perspectives than bringing objective facts to bear on the situation or producing an objective diagnosis (Marshak & Bushe, 2009). Regarding the blue interventions, the focus is more on the ‘hard’ aspects of an organization, like buildings and information systems. Blue intervention focus on clearly defined goals, which can easily be measured and controlled. Typical blue intervention techniques are: Management by Objectives, whereby results are often defined using the SMART method (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely) and Business Process Redesign whereby business processes and workflows are analyzed and redesigned to achieve breakthrough improvements in performance measures (Davenport & Short, 1990). These types of interventions have a more objective character.

In sum, white interventions focus more on the subjective side of change; as a result, white consultants are likely to be more subjective. In contrast, blue interventions focus on the objective side of change, whereby they are able to act more objective.

5.2 Limitations and Future Research

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this was: clear or ambiguous. Consequently, this study did not investigate the aspects that determine a consultant’s personal preference, or the requirements of the situation. A suggestion for future research can be to include more variables and further investigate the many aspects, which determine the personal preference of a consultant or the requirements of a situation. For example, the personal preference could be divided in the variables: education, experience, or gender (Church et al. 1994). The requirements of the situation can be divided in: the assumptions the client has about change, the industry the organization is active, or the culture of the organization (Sminia & Van Nistelrooij, 2006).

The second limitation comes from the use of a quasi-experiment, which is used to gather the empirical data for this study. Bryman & Bell (2007:50) describe quasi-experimental studies as: “studies that have certain characteristics of experimental designs but that do not fulfill all the internal validity requirements.” The two groups in this study were not randomly assigned, but preexisting groups were used. Consequently, as a researcher I had no full control over all the independent variables, which harms the validity of the results. However, because a goal of this study was to investigate the influence of a consultant’s personal preference, which defined the two groups, this research design was necessary.

The third drawback concerns the degree of reality in the used cases, which was often mentioned by the consultants self. According to the respondents, the cases could not be completely compared with real life situations. Their main argument was that in the cases situations were described in a static and definitive way, though, in real life situations are never static. In the literature, Feagin, Orum, and Sjoberg (1991) highlight this, their argument is that social reality is too complex and multifaceted to be adequately grasped by case study. The respondent as well as in the literature, it is stated that case studies simplify reality and (can) not take into account the emotions that are present and play an important role in social reality. For example, with regard to this study, the tone of voice of the client and consultant, the nature of collaboration, gut feeling, and intuition. According to the respondent these factor play a highly decisive role in the decision making process of consultants. An idea for future research is to include some of these factors in the research, for example, by making a detailed investigation of the interactive process of consulting. Whereby, consultants and clients can be observed and interviewed during the consulting process, and where shifts and differences in expectations and opinions can be described.

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APPENDIX 1: CASES Casus 1: NOORDPAK BV.

Noordpak bv. is een verpakkingsbedrijf gevestigd in Groningen. In de afgelopen 15 jaar heeft het bedrijf in een stroomversnelling gezeten. Noordpak bv. is begonnen met het leveren van verpakkingsmaterialen voor vleeswaren, vis en brood, maar heeft het productassortiment inmiddels uitgebreid met o.a. verpakkingen voor kantoorartikelen, hygiënischeproducten en kadopapier. Niet alleen het assortiment is uitgebreid, Noordpak heeft zich ook internationaal op de kaart gezet en levert nu ook in Duitsland, Italië en de Benelux.

De directie merkt dat de ‘oude’ bureaucratische structuur waarmee het bedrijf is opgestart niet meer functioneert in de huidige omgeving. Door de top-down benadering, de regels en de procedures die er bestaan duurt het lang voordat beslissingen worden genomen en laat men kansen liggen in de markt. Om goed op de markt te kunnen inspelen vind de directie dat het beslissingsproces aanzienlijk verkort moeten worden. De werknemers moeten de bevoegdheid krijgen om zelf beslissingen te nemen en krijgen een grotere verantwoordelijkheid.

Doordat Noordpak internationaal is gaan opereren merkt het bedrijf dat andere landen, andere eisen en andere wensen hebben. De vertegenwoordigers komen vaak met nieuwe ideeën en nieuwe verzoeken vanuit de internationale markt.

De directie wil een omslag van een product en aanbod georiënteerde onderneming naar een meer markt en klantgerichte onderneming, waarbij de rol van de vertegenwoordigers meer naar voren komt. Door het naar binnen brengen van de buitenwereld kan er sneller worden ingespeeld op de behoefte uit de markt. De directie wil nu weten hoe het komt dat beslissingen zo lang op zich laten wachten en wil proberen meer initiatief, creativiteit en ondernemerschap uit de medewerkers te laten komen die dichtbij de markt staan.

Interventie technieken:

Welke van de onderstaande interventies vindt u het meest van toepassing op de bovenstaande situatie en welke interventies het minst?

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Invullen topstructuur (balanced score card) Total quality management

Auditing Werken in projecten

Het invoeren van zelfsturende teams Competentiemanagement

Gaming Business process redesign (BPR)

Appreciative Inquiry Future Search

Strategisch Management Intergroep conflictoplossing

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Casus 2: BOUW BV. & AMRON BV.

Bouw bv. en Amron bv. zijn twee ingenieursbureaus die gevestigd zijn op de Veluwe. Door de recessie van de afgelopen 3 jaar in de bouwsector hebben de twee bureaus besloten om te kijken naar de mogelijkheden om samen te werken of zelfs te fuseren.

Ondanks dat de berichten hoopvol zijn en experts zeggen dat de markt weer aantrekt laat de daadwerkelijke groei nog op zich wachten. Het idee van beide partijen is om de krachten te bundelen, om zo de positie te versterken in de markt en een hogere productiviteit en efficiënte te bereiken. Hiernaast heeft de fusie ook een sterk financieel doel. De directie heeft aangegeven pas wat in een fusie te zien als dit een financieel voordeel oplevert.

BOUW BV.

Bouw bv. bestaat al meer dan 50 jaar en is opgericht door de gebroeders Bouw. In deze tijd hebben zij de kleine onderneming weten uit te breiden tot een toonaangevend bureau binnen Nederland. Er zijn ongeveer 80 mensen werkzaam.

De zoon van de oudste broer Bouw staat tegenwoordig samen met een oud medewerker aan het roer van de organisatie. Zij geven leiding aan de managers die ieder verantwoording dragen voor afdelingen als: Huisvesting, Infrastructuur, Constructie, etc.

De werkprocessen zijn analytisch en rationeel. Men ontwerpt, bewaart de ‘best practices’ en voert het werk volgens plan uit. En dat werkt. De werkprocessen beïnvloeden de aard van de organisatie: men vindt het nodig om heldere organisatiestructuren te hebben, duidelijke verantwoordelijkheden en sluitende procedures. Als er gevraagd wordt hoe de organisatie er uitziet, wordt er verwezen naar het organogram.

Bouw bv. staat bekend als een stabiel bedrijf met een vaste groep medewerkers die incidenteel wordt aangevuld met parttime of freelance werkers.

AMRON BV.

Amron bv. is het resultaat van een fusie tussen 3 kleinere ondernemingen bijna 4 jaar geleden. Deze fusie verliep chaotisch en men is dus blij met enige rust in de tent. In deze periode zijn enkele medewerkers vertrokken, Amron bv. schrijft dit toe aan een slechte voorbereiding van het fusieproces en de hieruit voortvloeiende onzekerheid. Zij geven aan behoefte te hebben aan extra kennis op het gebied van samenwerken en fusies.

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Amron bv. staat bekend om zijn nauwkeurigheid in het werk. Projecten worden tot in detail uitgestippeld en uitgewerkt. Er is een drang om dingen volledig te willen begrijpen. De medewerkers zijn analytisch aangelegd. De structuren zijn duidelijk en een ieder neemt verantwoordelijkheid voor haar of zijn opdrachten.