Developing a successful client‐consultant relationship

Ford, Charles H.

doi:10.1002/hrm.3930130202

Cited by 8 publications

(10 citation statements)

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“…Furthermore, the heterogeneous and hardly transparent market for management consulting services additionally complicates this situation. To reduce the risk of adverse selection especially from the client's point of view, one widely accepted instrument in the management consulting literature is the development of a common vision between client and consultant (Ford 1974;O'Driscoll and Eubanks 1993;McLachlin 1999).…”

Section: Common Visionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Success factors of management consulting

2014

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Management consulting as a service has become part of almost every medium to big company's daily business. Despite management consulting's high practical relevance the scientific discussion of this discipline is relatively young and needs to advance. Notably, there is little empirical research that focuses on the conceptualization and operationalization of management consulting's success factors from a client perspective. Therefore, in this article we theoretically conceptualize and subsequently operationalize critical success factors of management consulting. Also, we examine those factors' particular impact on management consulting success. Based on a survey of 255 companies and structural equation modeling, we show that six out of seven theoretically derived success factors have a significant positive effect on management consulting success. In particular, Consultant Expertise, Intensity of Collaboration and Common Vision have a strong impact on the performance of management consulting.

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Section: Common Visionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Success factors of management consulting

2014

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“…Since 1961, many authors have generally agreed that the relationships between consultants and clients were key aspects in a successful consulting process (Rogers, 1961;Ford, 1974;Swartz & Lippitt, 1975;Torbert, 1976;Davey, 1979). Kürb (1976), for example, in his work mentions that consulting success consists of reading, listening, being patient and modest, and working in an organized and disciplined way, so that the client perceives what the consultant will do and what the field of responsibility is.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Basis for a Constructive Relationship Between Management Consultants and Clients (Smes)

Costa¹,

Dias

Pereira³

et al. 2020

Business: Theory and Practice

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In a historical retrospective, although the existing literature calls the management consulting industry an extraordinary sector and a unique phenomenon in the business context, in fact these statements are not accompanied by a number of academic studies that emphasize the importance of the effective management consultant’s work. To battle the lack of studies in this emerging area, this article aims to understand the most important factors from the perspective of consultants and managers to build successful relationships in management consulting projects. Semi-structured interviews and questionnaires were conducted to management consultants and SME managers. Our findings suggests competence and experience of consultants, their ability to understand clients, their professionalism and credibility, the transparency of the processes, values and goals they can put in the performance of their work are the five key factors for building successful relationships.

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“…To obviate this risk, analogous to signaling in principal-agent theory, the consultants can assure the client of their adequacy for solving the respective problem. In this vein, one widespread tool in the management consulting literature is the development of a common vision between consultants and client (Ford, 1974; McLachlin, 1999; O’Driscoll and Eubanks, 1993).…”

Section: Conceptual Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Determinants of perceived success in management consulting

Bronnenmayer

Wirtz

Göttel

2016

MRR

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Purpose This paper aims to conceptualize perceived management consulting success, derive relevant success factors based on principal-agent theory and the resource-based view as well as investigate the particular factors’ influence. Management consulting has become important for improving the competitiveness of a variety of firms. Surprisingly, there is little empirical evidence clarifying what constitutes a successful management consulting project. Design/methodology/approach The authors conduct a survey to empirically investigate the hypotheses. They develop the survey instrument through a literature review, expert interviews, a pre-test and an item-sorting test. To analyze the data from 348 management consultants, the authors apply structural equation modeling. Additionally, they choose a triangulation approach by asking secondary informants about the originally surveyed consultants’ responses. Findings Initially, the authors develop the second-order construct perceived management consulting success, consisting of the factors compliance with budget and schedule, degree of target achievement, profitability as well as expansion and extension. Additionally, they develop an understanding of management consulting’s success factors. In this regard, five of six factors show a significant impact on perceived management consulting success. Originality/value According to the results, the factor intensity of collaboration is of highest importance for perceived management consulting success. Further, the factors common vision, consultant expertise and top management support show comparably strong significant influences. Yet, the authors have to reject the hypothesis about trust. This result conveys the complicacy of the consultant–client relationship and shows that building a trustful relationship between both parties is hard to accomplish.

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Developing a successful client‐consultant relationship

Cited by 8 publications

References 0 publications

Success factors of management consulting

Success factors of management consulting

The Basis for a Constructive Relationship Between Management Consultants and Clients (Smes)

Determinants of perceived success in management consulting

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