Importance Of Management Consulting: Thematic Analysis And Evidenced Argumentation

1. The first two guest lectures contain distinct and contradictory ideas (equivalent to the Unstructured Information typically shared during a board/business meeting without prior knowledge of the members). Using your notes, research and ‘board-room’ presentations use thematic analysis to identify connections, either obvious or less clear, between the two lectures that have a common theme. The themes should have potential relevance to individual business managers in the changing nature of work now and in the future.

2. Having identified three or four (maximum) common themes use text books, journals and secondary research to support your unique argument(s) for why managers and leaders should take note of these concerns in their future practice.

3. The work should offer arguments that are directly drawn from these connections and should demonstrate your unique thinking supported by evidence from academic research, and drawing directly on previous learning from within the course. These links must be explicitly grounded in academic concepts and theory, supported by good referencing.

4. A short critical and personal reflection on your approach to dialogue and argumentation should contain no more than 200 words. (Using the word “I” in this section is permissible.)Your answer should be in an assignment format.

Tutor referral will apply to this assessment component.  Tutor–referred work must be resubmitted one week after notification.

The assignment will be assessed in relation to thematic connections, evidenced argumentation and structured insights and reflection.

1. As in assignment one, use your notes, research and presentations and then thematic analysis to identify three to four common connections, but this time based on lectures three, four and five. However, in this second assignment your arguments should be concerned with Issues of Strategic Importance, drawn from the themes, and of general value to any typical business and therefore should be addressed as a paper to the Company Board. (Strategic Direction is concerned with the long-term, beyond the financial year, and not immediate operational performance.)

2. Having identified three or four (maximum) common themes and concerns now use text books, journals and secondary research to support your unique arguments for why The Board should take note that these concerns are significant to them.

3. Therefore, the arguments offered will NOT be concerned with the practice of individual managers but more concerned with the long-term survival and performance of a company as a whole. E.g. If you identify a theme concerned with supply chain management, you should argue, using the lecture and your additional research for how supply chain management in the future is changing and why this might be a concern for businesses in general.

4. The work should offer arguments that are directly drawn from the connections and should demonstrate your unique thinking supported by evidence from academic research and previous learning from within the course. These links must be explicitly grounded in academic concepts and theory, supported by good referencing.

5. A short critical and personal reflection on your approach to questioning should contain no more than 200 words. (Using the word “I” in this section is permissible.)Your answer should be in an assignment format.

Tutor referral will apply to this assessment component.  Tutor–referred work must be resubmitted one week after notification.The assignment will be assessed in relation to thematic connections, evidenced argumentation and structured insights and reflection.

Thematic Analysis

Management Professionals often opt for the coveted profession of management consulting which is a profession that provides help to organizations and individuals in designing and building their internal infrastructure based on their quality of social, environmental and economic stature. This profession had developed when the individuals or the organizations failed to understand their worth in business market and or have invested in projects that were poorly sought after and calculated wrong (Bronnenmayer, Wirtz & Göttel, 2016).

There are various reasons why the consulting services or management consulting professionals have been accepted by the industry to provide their services. On the basis of two contradictory ideas the following essay would produce the thematic analysis on the topic two find out the common theme between the two contradictory ideas (Farja, Gimmon & Greenberg, 2018).

Then the new and unstructured external issues that impinge on the organizational performances would be identified and then the evidenced argumentation based on the common themes would be presented. The essay would then focus on the concerns and why managers and leaders should abide by the importance of these concerns. The arguments would be directly drawn from these concerns followed by the structured insights and reflections on the topic mentioned above.

Thematic Analysis

While performing qualitative researches, one of the most common forms of research is the thematic analysis which focuses on the identification of patterns within a cluster of data. This is required for any kind of research since these data sets form the important description of the phenomenon, which in this case is the reason to find out the reason behind the acceptance of management consultancies by different industries (Harris, Sorensen & Yaeger, 2018). Following would be a presentation of the contradictory ideas that has been presented by two different individuals on the same prospect of the acceptance of the management consultancies in the industry.

Where one perspective is focusing on the how unethical and unnecessary is the use of management consultancies and the other perspective represents the utility of the consulting firms and the ways by which they have been shaping up different organizations and constructing the careers of various individuals (Stanske, Tomenendal & Dörrenbächer, 2017). Thus, the next part of the essay will focus on the organizational performances in the latest business world and would identify the new and unstructured external issues that have been affecting negatively or positively on the performances of various organizations.

New and Unstructured External Issues That Impinge on Organizational Performance

New and unstructured external issues that impinge on organizational performance

There are various reasons that affect the organizational performance in many ways. These factors may affect organizational performances in a positive way or a negative way. The social and economic climate that the business world resides in right now is based upon various factors affecting the performances of the organizations (Tams, Gustafsson & Chudzikowski, 2016). The most essential factors that affect these performances of the organization would be described in this part with the help of the external issues like political, social, economic and technological. It is an irony that these factors have the ability to make an organization be at their topmost level of services (Sturdy & O’Mahoney, 2018).

In the same way these external characteristics of an organization determine the relation of the organization to the external environment in a much broader sense. It is possible that the external issues may include legal issues as well that has the potential to affect the performance in an organization. The internal factors that affect the organizational performances can enhance the external factors that impinge on the organizational performance as well.

Evidenced argumentation

There are many evidences that can be put forward in the form for this essay that would established the fact that organizations often fall short of providing the services are the products to the customers that they have promised (Mühlhaus, & Bouwmeester, 2016). Achieving customer loyalty is the first and foremost priority for any organization.

This is why customer satisfaction and service quality are the leading zones of services that an organization should look about. However this entirely depends upon the managers making decisions and handling project within an organization. It is due to the factors of lack of understanding in these managerial bodies about the market and the corresponding operational issues within the organization that has caused the need of these consultancies to grow (Greenwood et al., 2015). The consultancies help in identifying the gaps in the decision making or the project management methodologies that the organization has been implementing without for the knowledge about the market or the customer requirements.

For example, the organization of nestle had been utilizing various ingredients within their products that were mostly used for the customers to consume. The organization could not make out the toxicity of these ingredients that has been used within the consumer food products and due to this the company has got in a lot of trouble regarding their products. This can be recognized as the real world business problems with the evidence presented in the form of the organization of nestle where they had fallen short of proper recognition of the item or ingredients used in their products which could have been harmful for their customers when consumed.

Evidenced Argumentation

Common themes on why managers and leaders should take note of these concerns

One of the major reasons that the companies are falling short of fulfilling the customer satisfaction and providing service quality is the lack of understanding of the market and the requirements of the customers (Rozdolskaya, Ledovskaya & Bolotova, 2018). When an organization provides good service to the customer it can be implied that it is a result of the organized corporate culture and this can also be considered as the social culture within the organization in general.

 It can also be said that the values of the activities within the organization has a generalized trend and this has been set with the utilization of rules and regulation which standards that concretize the direction of every operational activity. This is entirely the responsibility of the managers handling the projects as well as the operations within the organization and this is been inferred due to various studies and research is conducted over the feedbacks taken from customers. They had been thoroughly asked about their insights about the service quality of the companies they have been receiving services from and based on that the good service quality as well as the perception of a customer is utilized for measuring the services of any organization (Muzio, Kipping & Kirkpatrick, 2016).

Due to this research it could be seen that that have been many organizations that were falling short of providing services to the customers or producing on manufacturing products that were not up to the mark to the customer’s choice. Based on internal and external factors that affect the corporate culture or the operations of an organization a manager should make a plan or device the research throughout the market and manage their products and projects according to the outcome of these results (Back, Parboteeah & Nam, 2014).

Therefore the fact that these consultancies are helping the organization in somewhat way helping the managers and if an organization does not want the involvement of any consultancy out of spite then it is only the responsibility of the managers to identify the gaps in operations or researchers that the organization has been conducting and should mend their ways or innovate new ways to make sure that the consultancies does not need to be contacted.

Arguments that are directly drawn from these connections

For any organization or an individual making a consulting agency order management consultant for form specified project or provide an expert advice can work as a benefit for the organization. As going by the second speaker it can be said that a consultant on contractual basis has the ability to deliver the things that the organization has been missing out so far within a given time (Brussalis & Pallitto, 2017).

Common Themes on Why Managers and Leaders Should Take Note of These Concerns

However, it also has some disadvantages as the consulting agency order management consultant that has been providing expert advisors over the things that the organization has so far been missing out can also be not a fruitful as it has been expected and their mind me chances that the gaps are still there. The reason why this kind of methods of curd is argumentative and from the connections that are mentioned above they can be listed as follows:

• Perspective of the consulting agency:It can offer that a consulting agency that has been introducing the abilities and skills for further benefit of the operations or product manufacturing or providing services to customer maybe absolutely out of expertise (Mosonyi & Gond, 2016). For enhancing the productivity it is very effective that the consultant suggest at setup of a project on training that can enhance productivity at a much higher level within a specified time. However, it is also been found that engaging in this one time activity diminishes the concentration of the employees over the core business.
• Saving the costs:At beginning of a new project, it is very economically prudent that an organization is engaging a consultant for its services. This can also engage the undertaking of changing the business methods or implying marketing strategies. This cuts the time for training and ensures that expensive pitfalls are avoided but there is no time to maintain these consultants like the regular employees and payroll and therefore the organization could see if both on the payroll taxes as well as the benefits (L?z?roiu, 2015). Not having this consultants will also make an organization see on the overhead and management cost that has been so far associated with employee administration.

Unique thinking

Since a consulting agency or a management consultant is not part of the organization right from the beginning there can be situations where these consultants do not have the knowledge of the in house procedures for the organization. It can also occur that the procedures that the consulting agency order management consultant is suggesting the management body of the organization is creating award conflict and the operation management of the entire organization is affected, including the workflow of the regular employees (Larsson, 2018). Independent contractors are all the beyond the control of a management consultant and they can only be guided out through the contract that have been made between them and the organization. Therefore, there are several challenges if an organization wants to implement the use of a management consultant.

However, thinking the other way, where the organizations can benefit from hiring a consultant for the growth of the business is also numerous in numbers. First and foremost the organization learnt how to take advantage of the new skills that had been providing gap in the researchers about the market by the organization itself.

The market dynamics becomes extensive and the knowledge about them is exponentially larger than what the organization has failed to do. The employees are benefited as well since they realize how to effortlessly acknowledge and achieve the short term goals. Therefore merging both the ideas about the advantages and disadvantages of hiring a consulting agency or a management consultant it can be said that the unique idea of researching about the consultant organization is also what any organization can implement before hiring a consultant.

Structured insights and reflection

Since I have heard both the versions about the acceptance of an industry in context of Management consultants I believe that any organization should first and foremost research about implementing any kind of changes within the industry. I believe that hiring in outside organization to manage the operations of another organization is also something that should not be kept out of research because realizing the advantages and disadvantages both at the same time would make sure that have the new change in the organization should be introduced. Damage control techniques and risk management is what I believe that should be thought about before accepting any consultant for a given organization.

Arguments That Are Directly Drawn from These Connections

Conclusion

In conclusion, it can be said that the management professionals that has the potential to help any other organization or individual in finding the gaps in the internal infrastructure based on their social, environmental and economic skills has both its benefits and disadvantages and before implementing them into the operational system of any organization all the aspects should be kept in mind. Certainly there are many pros and cons of the accepted idea that has been put forward through thematic analysis and understanding of the unstructured external issues that affect organizational performances, and before implementing the services it should be well thought about.

The insides that have been presented through the evidenced argumentation and the reasons why managers and leaders should also take note of this concern are thoroughly mentioned above in the essay. Based on this argument action directly drawn from the connections and the unique thinking and personal reflection it can be said that the involvement of the management consulting is also another change in the business process and should always be well thought about the risks and damage it can bring about within the organization, and only then it should be implemented.

References

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Bronnenmayer, M., Wirtz, B. W., & Göttel, V. (2016). Success factors of management consulting. Review of Managerial Science, 10(1), 1-34.

Brussalis, C. W., & Pallitto, J. R. (2017). MANAGEMENT CONSULTING 94-808. Cell, 724, 3517.

Farja, Y., Gimmon, E., & Greenberg, Z. (2018). Growth constraints and management consulting: the case of SMEs in peripheral regions. International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 35(1), 126-141.

Greenwood, R. A., Wren, D. A., Teahen, J., & Bedeian, A. (2015). C. Bertrand Thompson and Management Consulting in Europe. Journal of Management History, 21(1), 15.

Harris, D., Sorensen, P., & Yaeger, T. F. (2018, July). Management Consulting through the work of Dick Beckhard: Improving Client’s Lives. In Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 2018, No. 1, p. 10380). Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510: Academy of Management.

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L?z?roiu, G. (2015). The role of the management consultancy industry in the knowledge economy. Psychosociological Issues in Human Resource Management, 3(2), 71-76.

Mosonyi, S., & Gond, J. P. (2016). Knowledge, Identity, and Power: Taking Stock of Management Consulting Research. In Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 2016, No. 1, p. 15618). Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510: Academy of Management.

Mühlhaus, J., & Bouwmeester, O. (2016). The paradoxical effect of self-categorization on work stress in a high-status occupation: Insights from management consulting. Human Relations, 69(9), 1823-1852.

Muzio, D., Kipping, M., & Kirkpatrick, I. (2016). Governance units and field evolution dynamics: The case of UK management consulting. In Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 2016, No. 1, p. 10672). Briarcliff Manor, NY 10510: Academy of Management.

Rozdolskaya, I., Ledovskaya, M., & Bolotova, I. (2018). CHANGE IN THE FORMAT OF STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT OF COMPANIES BY USING MODERN TECHNOLOGIES OF PERSONNEL CONSULTING. BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, 52.

Stanske, S., Tomenendal, M., & Dörrenbächer, C. (2017). Organizational identity in management consulting firms: Professional partnerships and managed professional businesses compared. In Organizational Identity and Firm Growth (pp. 63-105). Palgrave Macmillan, London.

Sturdy, A., & O’Mahoney, J. (2018). Explaining national variation in the use of management consulting knowledge: A framework. Management Learning, 49(5), 537-558.

Tams, S., Gustafsson, S., & Chudzikowski, K. (2016, June). Situating career agency in the everyday practice of management consulting: a being-in-the-world perspective. In 32nd EGOS Colloquium 2016 (Naples, Italy).