The Role of an External Consultant in Introducing Organizational Change
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.37886/ruo.2021.031Keywords:
organizational change, consultant, management, introduction of changes, process, consultancy industryAbstract
Research Question (RQ): Does the company need an external consultant to make organizational changes?
Purpose: We want to examine the role of external consultants in introducing organizational change in an organization.
Method: In our article, we will use: systematic review guidelines, integrative study review guidelines, meta-analysis guidelines, and literature review scope guidelines. We selected the literature through the main academic bibliographic databases Web of science, Elsevier, Jstor, Emerald. We used the following keywords to search for relevant literature: Organizational Change, Consultant, Management, Introduction of changes, Process, Consultancy industry.
Results: While the added value that consultants can add to a company has long attracted the attention of management, critical interest in the consulting process is relatively new. However, the growing interest in consultants has also brought about a growing critical debate on the justification for hiring consultants. In our article, we will present the pros and cons of hiring external consultants.
Organization: The organization always needs sober thinking or needs an external consultant when introducing changes.
Society: Progress and success in the organization can be achieved without expensive external experts and always new approaches, simply by using "common sense". With this approach, we achieve that as many organizations as possible are dedicated to the implementation of this common sense in their processes.
Originality: The article highlights the key elements that need to be considered when introducing organizational changes in order to avoid costly external consultants.
Limitations / further research: The basis of the article is the theoretical findings of world authors from the studied field, the results of empirical research would be interesting.
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