Management Consultancy Introductory Slides for Students

1. Managing
Consultancy &
Change
C11BC
Lecture 1
Introduction
Prof Julian Randall
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2. Who am I?
• Programme Leader
• Researcher & writer
• Practitioner (management consultant)
• Your mentor
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3. Programme Introduction
• Overview of course
• Introduction to topic – change and consultancy
• Connection with your career – visiting speakers
• Graduate attributes – tutorial/seminars
• Knowledge is power – but only if you have the skill to mobilise it
• Qualifying; negotiation; closing skills
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4. Staff • Core Tutors
• Prof Julian Randall
• Dr Tom Pfefferkorn
• Networking
• Consultancy employers
• Contributors to the set
book
• Peer group contacts
• Recruitment experts
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5. Syllabus
• Managing organizational change
theories
• Organisational change approaches
• Consultancy change in practice
• Presentational skills
• Interview skills
• Negotiation skills
• Facilitational skills
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6. Literature
• Read widely
• Student texts, research monographs, journal articles, newspaper
reports, TV programmes
• I will send you links with current articles from important journals
throughout the year
• Be selective, relevant to your interests & your assessed team project,
sample across the lecture programme references
• Electronic journals through the library catalogue
• http://www.hw.ac.uk/library/ejournals.shtml
• Heavy demand textbooks
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7. Texts
• Randall, Burnes and Sim (2019) Management consultancy / The
role of the change agent (set book)
• Burnes (2004) Managing Change.
• Dawson (2003) Understanding Organizational Change.
• Hayes, J. (2014) The Theory and Practice of Change Management
• King & Anderson (2002) Managing Innovation & Change.
• O’Mahoney & Markham (2013) Management Consultancy
• Paton & McCalman (2000) Change Management.
• Wylie, N. & Sturdy, A. (2018) "Structuring collective change agency
internally: Transformers, enforcers, specialists and independents",
Employee Relations, Vol. 40 Issue: 2, pp.313-328 .

8. Questions for you
• What does ‘organizational change’ mean to you?
• What did it mean to your grandparents?
• Has the pace of change at work & in society changed?
• Why is organizational change important?
• How can we manage organizational change?
• How has the post-Covid world affected management
change?

9. Remember the background
• In my first year lectures I used to say that there is no such thing as
an organization (it is an abstract concept)
• Organizations have no eyes, no ears and no brain
• So, it makes no sense to say ‘The organization sacked 50 workers’
• It is correct to say ‘Senior managers decided to sack 50 workers’
• Most commentators today speak of ‘organizing’ not ‘organization’
(Chia, 1996)
• So managing change is reorganizing
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10. What is ‘organizational change’?
• Introducing ‘new ways of organizing & working’ (Dawson,
2003: 11)
• Focuses on policies, strategies, procedures, protocols,
practices & resources
• Implies a transition (change) within an organization from one
state to another over time
• Implicates different groups of people & levels within an
organisational hierarchy

11. What is ‘change management’?
• The process by which organizational change initiatives are
managed
• Involving different people & stakeholder groups – employees,
managers, unions & customers
• Implies intentionality & purposeful action (intervention) to change
organizational practice
• Includes responsibility for deciding not to introduce change or for
failure to manage change successfully
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12. What the
study of
organizational
change
involves
• Critical issues facing managers &
employees within organizations
• Significant multi-disciplinary topic
within organizational studies literature
– economics, management,
psychology, sociology
• Ongoing debate concerning links
between theory & practice
• Contrast between the reasons for
change & the results of change
initiatives (70% of radical changes fail)
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13. How does it link with other areas
of management?
• How does change link with strategic management?
• How does change link with operations management?
• How critical are workers to the success of change?
• How can change agents avoid resistance?
• Why does Bottom-up change works better than imposed change?
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14. Why organizations want change
• Seeking how best to organise the activities of employees to
provide goods or services (can we improve efficiency
factors?)
• For greater effectiveness in the sector
• For profit in the private sector (external performance
demands = customers & competition)
• Both quantity & quality improvement in work outputs and
outcomes
• Getting more out of investment (Overhead: staff = 75% of a
service business on-cost)

15. How has
organisational
change theory
developed?
• Technical organisation of work –
strategy & structure
• Cultural dimensions of work –
workplace beliefs & values
• Political aspects of work – political
processes & power relations
(Dawson, 2003: 12)
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16. Summary 1
• Organisational Change
– Internal & external triggers of
change
– Issues of content, scale, scope &
pace
– Political & cultural dimensions
• Change Management
– Focus on tasks, activities &
decisions
– People are central
– Flexibility is crucial (time, number,
cost and functional)
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17. Summary 2
• Key Message
• Change affects all aspects of our lives – work & home
• Change presents opportunities & threats
• People have to accept the need to change
• Implementation is critical to success
• Exploding Myths
• Change is optional
• Change happens quickly
• Change requires perfect plans & solutions
• Resistance to change is bad
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18. Traditional hierarchy
• Executive
• Supervisory
• Functional
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Uf

19. Weber & Bureaucracy
• Academic, Economist & Sociologist
• 3 forms of legitimate authority
• Rational-legal
• Traditional
• Charismatic
• 5 concepts for rational-legal authority
• Specialisation of activities & duties
• Hierarchy of control & supervision
• Rules & procedures for decisions & actions
• Separation between office (post) & office-holder (person)
• Appointed officials with technical qualifications
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20. Fayol’s management steps
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Plan
Organise
Command
Coordinate
Monitor

21. Fayol &
Management
Duties
• Planning
• Making decisions & developing
future plans
• Organising
• Pooling human & material
resources, refining structures
• Commanding
• Instructing employees on their
jobs (Communication)
• Co-ordinating
• Harmonising different activities
towards common goals
(Monitoring – remember
MBWA)
• Controlling
• Ensuring that plans, instructions
& commands are executed
(Review)
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22. Taylorism & Fordism
• Application of Scientific Management by Henry Ford
• World’s first mass produced car – Model T
• Applied scientific principles to the redesign of production –
fragmented tasks & automated skilled jobs
• Introduced a moving assembly line to move the car to the worker;
not the worker to the car
• Doubled production & decreased the workforce
• Significant change to a whole industry
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23. Mayo & Hawthorne Experiments
• Discovered the ‘Hawthorne Effect’ – research interest modifies
behaviour
• Highlighted the importance of informal work groups within the
formal organisational structure
• Emphasised the human need for recognition, security & belonging
at work
• Demonstrated that human factors rather than physical working
conditions determine worker satisfaction & performance
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24. Tavistock Institute
• Workplace studies on technological change
• Mechanisation of Coal Mining (Reg Revans)
• Introduction of assembly line cutting method destroyed social relations
• New technology does not automatically increase efficiency
• Developed socio-technical systems theory
• Must reconcile human needs & worker productivity with technical
efficiency
• The social system (relationships between people) must ‘fit’ the technical
system (tasks, equipment, layout)
• Birth of Action Learning/Action Research
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25. Shamrock organization
Handy (1989)
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Core
Sub-
contractor
Consultant

26. Organisational Forms
• Modern
• Rigid bureaucracy
• Mass markets
• Technological determinism
• Differentiated, demarcated,
deskilled jobs
• Centralised, standardised
employment
• Postmodern
• Flexible networks
• Niche markets
• Technological choice
• Multiskilled jobs
• Complex, fragmented
employment
Clegg, 1990; Burnes, 2000
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27. Questions for you 2
• How can the change agent bring about awareness of the need
for change?
• Will managers always know what the need for change is?
• How can change agents influence what managers believe about
change?
• Is the change agent a doctor (diagnosing problems and
prescribing treatment)?
• Is the change agent a sounding board (listening and reflecting)?
• Is the change agent just an implementer?
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28. So, you the change agent
• Broad experience beyond your specialism
• Experience in more than one sector
• Knowledgeable and aware of current challenges
• Probes and asks questions
• Good listener
• Interested and reflective
• Builds bridges with different people
• Uses summary questions
• Uses silence
• Takes notes and reads back
• Takes one step at a time
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29. Your qualities
• At ease with yourself
• Puts others at ease
• Not judgmental
• Perceptive
• Absorbs people
• Is kind and supportive
• Good sense of humour
• Able to take criticism, reflect, and give it back (if needed)
• Spends time with others
• Is patient
• Can make decisions fast when necessary
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30. Practise your key skills
PLOD
Probe
Listen
Observe
Decide
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