Abstract
No organization stands alone in any business or corporate setting. There is always the need to conduct a fact-finding session or a self evaluation program. When these activities can be done within the organization after a specified period of time, there are instances where the company needs to hire consultant services to carry out this procedure. It is important to understand the rational behind this process, and this is discussed in the essay below.
Organizational Consultation
In the contemporary business world, the competition level has gone quite high, raising the bar a bit higher for the competing organizations. Though technological advances have opened up more business opportunities for organizations, the same developments have led to a need for organizations to improve the quality of their products and services, since the competition goes higher. The consumers also become more informed and therefore have an understanding of their civil rights as pertains to the quality of the services that they should get from the organizations. To keep up with this pace, the organizations in this field of play just have to improve their products and services. This calls for an evaluation of the mechanisms used by the firm. This brings in the issue of consultation.
Ms. Saba started off by defining organizational consultants. These are the specialists hired by companies seeking to improve the employee productivity and annual profits. They advice the companies on how to minimize costs while maximizing the productivity. The consultation services are foreseen by the human resource department. The department initializes the services which are threefold: one, the consulting solutions which comprise of surveys and studies which are diagnostic in nature. These studies focus on the HR policy, strategies and the business solutions. Secondly, there is the HR consulting which comprises of the recruitment and the payroll sections. Lastly, the services focus on the training and development services. As clearly seen from these functions, the services are tailored towards improving the efficiency of the firm. Therefore, the organization consultants employ a great deal of time in analyzing how the resources of the company are put to use and whether they can be put to a more economical use.
The consultants can also assess the environment of the business set up, such as the buildings and offices. The main issue here is that the environment has a direct impact on the output of the workers, and should provide the optimal conditions for better performance. In other instances, the consultants are also hired to asses the employees themselves, or the departments of the firm. The aim is to find out whether the same output can be achieved by fewer employees. This last aspect puts the consultants in a rather unpopular position where they at times have to recommend the laying off of some employees. Of course, this does not sit well with many employees.
According to Ms. Saba, every organization has its goals and objectives. These sprout from the vision of the firm. The vision is the driving force of the firm, since it determines where the organization wishes to be after a given period of time. The activities that are undertaken to achieve this mission constitute the mission of the organization. The mission can be broken down into various subsections. Organizational consultants therefore follow on this lead to formulate a methodology that is aimed at helping the organization achieve its goals and objectives. These services are aimed at providing valuable insights on specific issues that clients face. These services are usually a subsection of a larger consulting solution but more often than not, they are offered as stand-alone services. The consultation services can be offered in a customized manner for the organization, but they can also be offered as a training program for the firm.
With this understanding, we sought the general information as to why organizations need to hire consulting services. Ms. Saba went on to explain that the organization can find it necessary to hire these services when it suffers from an insufficiency or needs some assistance in identifying some pertinent personnel needs the consultants therefore analyze the structure of the business, just as other management consultants do . from their findings, they come up with a report which give the various solutions that can be undertaken by the organization in order to improve its performance. The recommendations can include redefinition of some employee roles. The major focus of the developers usually lies in the goal setting, communication and cross-departmental cooperation, besides the clarification of goals within the organization. However, it is worth noting that the ultimate goal of the organizational consultant is to improve the relationships within the organization. That is, to smoothen the interactions between the managers and staff, within teams and across department lines. As Ms. Saba put it, organization developers often recommend, design, and implement corporate education programs which are tailored for the managers and employees to develop productive professional relationships. It is also worth noting that due to the importance of organizational consulting, some large organizations hire permanent specialists to work within the human resource department.
After giving such a deep insight into the work of organization consultants, Ms. Saba concluded by highlighting some crucial aspects of this field. First, she summarized the job duties of the consultants as maximizing the efficiency of the firm while retaining its employees. As such, there are responsibilities which include conducting interviews, collecting and analyzing data, evaluating workers, organizing training and training developments, and making recommendations on how to increase the efficiency of the organization in general.
It was then that Ms. Saba went on to show the various ways through which the consulting services can help to achieve the goals of the company. These avenues of improvement include consulting, advising, and designing programs to fill the gaps between the actual situation and the ideal one. To achieve this, there is the need to centre all the activities of the consulting firm to the mission and vision of the organization. As a result, the communication within the firm is improved and the performance is boosted. However, to come up with an effective strategy, there is the need to conduct a needs assessment. This helps the organization consultant to know quite some background information about the firm. This information can include but not limited to the company’s organizational structure, the human resources, the vision, mission and goals, competition, feedback from all the stakeholders, market share, and marketing strategy among others. This helps to come up with a solid background and understanding of the company. Lastly, Ms. Saba gave some sample questions that the organization consultants are likely to ask. This would help the firm seeking the consultation services to have a rough idea of what to expect, and therefore be ready for the exercise.
In conclusion, it can be inferred from the above discoveries that organizational consulting can help to improve the performance of a firm. Though there are times that the consultants can brush shoulders with the employees, it is not disputable that the services are necessary for the success of any business entity in the current times.
Reference
Saba, (Consultant, ENOC Petroleum). (2011). Organizational Consulting. (Personal Information).
