Responsible Consulting
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Responsible Consulting
Organizations implement change to maintain a competitive edge and improve the quality of service delivery. As organizational development (OD) is inevitable, consultants help organizations or clients to implement management adjustments successfully. Even though consultants help clients resolve impending issues, they are anticipated to uphold a code of ethics. For instance, consultants must remain honest regardless of the problem (Bierema, 2020). Consultants listen to clients’ problems, conduct research by gathering information, and resolve the problem using an action plan. However, situations and specialties determine consultation objectives as consultants specialize in different fields including law, property, human resources, communication, and information technology (Maes & Van Hootegem, 2019). Since OD is inevitable, consultants observe basic steps while assisting clients to resolve issues that prompt organizational change. Besides professional competence, consultants should possess efficient communication skills to persuade clients to adopt effective strategies to implement change. With the increasing demand for consultation services, responsible consulting avails appropriate solutions to emerging OD challenges.
Explain the process to determine the validity of the problem
The initial step in responsible consultation entails establishing the validity of the issue. In this stage, the consultant collects information about the problem to ascertain whether it can be resolved within the organization or through organizational development (Maes & Van Hootegem, 2019). For that reason, the client meets the consultant meet to deliberate on the issue. On the meeting day, the consultant initiates a formal introduction to familiarize with the client. Secondly, the consultant then identifies the problem by listening actively to the client’s presentation (Bierema, 2020). The consultant then gathers information about the issue to discern if the problem requires an action plan. Background research unveils management and leadership inconsistencies in an organization. Effective leaders create a favorable work environment evidenced by service, commitment, and trust (Hamadamin & Atan, 2019). For this reason, competent leaders should act as role models by embracing positive behavior. The consultant examines the organization hierarchy strategically to establish if they should undertake additional training. Focus group discussions and workplace training enhance organization performance as they hone employees’ leadership expertise.
The decision-making approach defines a consultant’s effectiveness. The consultant must determine whether the problem presented requires organizational development change (Bierema, 2020). In this case, the new approach should improve the efficiency of day-to-day activities in the whole organization. For instance, the change may oblige the organization to shift from manual order intakes to electronic or online intake of orders. Even though electronic take order processing is efficient, the organization has to assign employees duties to facilitate the process. For this reason, the ordering process remains the same even if the organization receives orders from a different channel (online forms). However, the organization has to reorganize to accomplish organizational development aims. The change strategy may encompass terminations, transfers, and layoffs (Maes & Van Hootegem, 2019). Consequently, OD consultants would engage the client, conduct background research, analyze the findings, and formulate the most effective plan to implement the change.
Define specific criteria for OD consulting
Effective OD consulting requires consultants to follow an authentic and upfront approach while resolving client issues. The consultant should remain honest and truthful to the client. According to Bierema (2020), consulting profession entails providing honest feedback, enabling the client to overcome difficult situations, and training the client whenever necessary. For this reason, consulting encompasses establishing a good rapport with the employees in an organization and the client to comprehend the problem in detail. The consultant’s response affects the organization’s performance, for instance, if he is dishonest and not authentic then the issue is hardly fixed to promote success (Maes & Van Hootegem, 2019). Besides implementing change, the consultant should assist the client to fix the problem regardless of the presenting circumstances. However, consultants must abide by the code of ethics which entails being holistic, growth excellence, empowerment, health, openness, and authenticity as they accomplish their roles (The International Society for Organization Development and Change, 2019). Overall, consultants must observe ethics as they solve clients’ problems.
The best consulting practices involve the placement of strategic goals, successful allocation, effective communication, and using supportive tools to attain positive results. Consultants implement feasible change by establishing clear requirements using project planning expertise and available resources (Ozkeser, 2019). Once the intervention or change has been implemented, the consultant surveys the organization to gather reviews to enhance adoption. After the proposed solution or change is implemented, the consultant interacts with the client to evaluate the enacted recommendations to ascertain whether they were successful and then terminate the work contract (Hamadamin & Atan, 2019). However, the entire cycle is repeated if the proposed change was unfruitful to ensure that the client receives the intended results. Consequently, the consultant must ensure that the problem is fixed or change is implemented successfully in the target organization.
Prepare an appropriate response to the organization regarding their issue
I am delighted by your decision to consider me as the consultant to address your organizational development issue. I have to admit that implementing a change or intervention must affect operations in the organization including day-to-day activities and employees. The proposed change or intervention must be planned to enhance operations efficiency in the entire organization (Ozkeser, 2019). For that reason, the issue requires a planned change and the OD consultant intends to take the necessary steps to establish the most effective action plan. I will conduct background research by interviewing employees and the client to ascertain their readiness for change (Maes & Van Hootegem, 2019). Moreover, I will examine the management staff to establish the existing loopholes that require change. I will conduct focus group discussions and training to prepare the staff for the intended change or intervention. Therefore, I will give you feedback once the survey is completed.
Our research and consultation report unveils that your organization hardly requires an organizational development consultant to address the issue that you raised. As a team, we have realized that the proposed change does not affect the entire organization but only a portion of it. For that reason, I would advise you to liaise with strategic planning department staff to resolve the issue. The senior administrators in the department should solve the problem by developing an effective plan to improve the process. In this case, they should eliminate activities that result in service delivery inconsistencies. However, our OD team would be willing to help you implement organizational development adjustments in the future. Thank you for considering our services and I wish you all the best.
Planned change solves service delivery loopholes and improves an organization’s performance. The organization development consultant conducts background research to establish the most appropriate strategy to resolve the client’s problem. The consultant then formulates the best approach to enable the organization to implement the proposed change or intervention. Even though organizational development is inevitable, human resource (HR) managers should enforce appropriate plans to improve employee engagement and performance. However, consultants must collaborate with the client and observe the code of ethics to accomplish the intended results. Since OD promotes efficiency, consultants should be trustworthy and authentic when helping a client to resolve organizational issues.
References
Bierema, L. (2020). Organizational Development: An Action Research Approach (2nd ed.). Zovio.
Hamadamin, H. H., & Atan, T. (2019). The Impact of Strategic Human Resource Management Practices on Competitive Advantage Sustainability: The Mediation of Human Capital Development and Employee Commitment. Sustainability, 11(20), 5782. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11205782
Maes, G., & Van Hootegem, G. (2019). A systems Model of Organizational Change. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 32(7), 725-738. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOCM-07-2017-0268
Ozkeser, B. (2019). Impact of Training on Employee Motivation in Human Resources Management. Procedia Computer Science, 158, 802-810. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2019.09.117
The International Society for Organization Development and Change (2019). Code of Ethics. https://isodc.org/ethics