25 Nov 2007
Models of Consulting
At first sight, consulting firms seem to carry out one type of activity: solving problems arising in their clients’ firms. However, a closer look allows us to lay out a fundamental distinction among these activities. The most dominant categorization of these activities is found in the work of Edger Schein who classifies the consulting interventions’ activities into three models. This short article illustrates each of these consultation models briefly.
Schein’s Three Models of Consulting
1. The Purchase Model (Purchase of expert information or an expert service)
In this model the buyer (the client) defines a need to something she wishes to know or some activity she wishes to carry out. The client desires information or service from the consultant. However, the client knows what kind of information or service she is looking for. The client has the expectation that the consultant is the expert who can satisfy her needs. The success of this kind of interventions depends on whether the client has correctly diagnosed her needs and whether the consultant is able to satisfy these needs correctly. I call this model the classical model as it is the most known and practiced throughout consulting firms.
2. Doctor/Patient Model: Diagnosis and Prescription
Within this model of interventions the company decides to bring a consultant in order to “look them over”, the consultant is supposed to find out what is wrong with which part of the organization. The client knows that something is going wrong but does not know what the problem is. Often the client singles out some unit of the organization where she is having difficulty or where performance has fallen off and asks the consultant to determine what is going wrong with this department. In spite of this model's popularity it is fraught with difficulties. One of the most famous examples is that the patient department may be reluctant to reveal the kinds of information the consultant needs in order to make her diagnosis. The success of this kind of intervention depends on the organization climate and the client's willingness to solve the problem as sometimes the patient is unwilling to believe the diagnosis or accept prescription offered by the consultant. In his article, Schein (1995) argues that this model is the most appropriate one for consultation and organization development projects because its assumptions fit better the realities of organizational life and are more likely to reveal important organizational dynamics. However, here I would like to point out that using this model requires a consultant with excellent analytical skills in order to analyze the power-relations and the organizational culture within the intervention’s settings.
3. Process Consultation: Creating a Helping Relationship
Schein (1999, p.20) defines Process Consultation as “The creation of a relationship with the client that permits the client to perceive, understand, and act on the process events that occur in the client’s internal and external environment in order to improve the situation as defined by the client.” This model involves the client and the consultant in a period of joint diagnosis. The importance of this joint diagnosis derives from the fact that the consultant can seldom learn enough about the organization to really know what a better course of action would be for that particular group of people with their particular sets of traditions, styles, and personalities. In addition, the consultant who may recognize early in her work what some of the problems are in the organization and how they might be solved does not advance them prematurely because she might be wrong or because the client might be defensive and might not listen to the diagnosis. In short, the consultant in this model guides the client to discover what is going wrong and which action to be taken without recommending the action explicitly. This could be accomplished using various techniques or methodologies such as Soft System Methodology (SSM) or Strategic Options Development and Analysis (SODA).
Here I would like to notify that this model categorization is a result of Schein's (1969) argument that organizations are networks of people whose interactions mediate the organizations’ functions. The better understood and diagnosed processes are the greater will be the chance of finding solutions to the problems the organization faces. In addition, I would like to point out that solving any problematic situation requires viewing the “big-picture” of the situation form all possible angles. This model allows the consultant to present all the viewpoints of the client in order to facilitate solving the problem.
Moreover, Schein (1999) argues that no one of these models will be used all the time. But at any given moment, the consultant can operate from only one of them and she has to choose the mode that is most appropriate to that immediate situation and that will build a helping relationship.
Finally, it is not “what” model you adopt that guarantees success; but it is “how” you use it.
Suleiman Shannak – MSc, SMC, ChMC, AORS, CEC, MPM
Strategy Consultant – The Economic and Strategic Studies Department
AGCON
References
Schein, E.H. (1969). Process consultation: Its role in organization development, Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Schein, E. H. (1995). Process consultation, action research and clinical inquiry: are they the same? Journal of Managerial Psychology, 10(6), 14.
Schein, E. H. (1999). Process consultation revisited: building the helping relationship, Reading, Mass, Addison-Wesley