Psychiatrisierung, Personifizierung und Personalisierung Zur personenzentrierten Beratung in Organisationen

Psychiatrization, personification and personalization. Individual-centred consulting in organizations The individual-centred consulting already achieved high popularity in supervision and coaching. Based on system theory this article aims to define the functions of individual-centred consulting approaches — such as supervision and consulting — for organizations. The function of person-centred consulting is less an obvious manifest function of human resources development and more an invisible one for isolating conflicts in special interactional contexts. The organization achieves protection of its structure through coaching and supervision, because it is able to isolate its conflicts interactionally and therefore these conflicts remain to a large extent without any consequences for the organization.     

Organisationsaufstellung im Konfliktmanagement

The present article views organisational constellation as approach for conflict resolution. After looking at the basics of communication using the ??Four-dimensional Model of Communication??, we also look at the systemic background of organisational constellation and its procedure. Using a systemic setting, we illuminate certain questioning techniques commonly used in organisational constellation. Finally, we discuss in which way organisational Constellation can be used in conflict management. Additionally, the state of the science is commented upon.     

Getting the most benefit from information systems consultants

Consultants are usually well-meaning people who enjoy the variety of organizations and problems they face in their work. Most do not like to get bogged down in fruitless and wasteful consulting engagement any more than managers of health care organizations like to supervise them, but at least the consultants are paid for their time. The health care organization that defines a project poorly, does not know what it wants from consultants, or does not direct consultants will pay the price in increasingly scarce resources squandered. The tips in the following article for managing an information systems consulting engagement apply to most consulting engagements and to the use of other expensive advisers, such as attorneys and engineers. But information systems is a field particularly foreign, and often threatening, to most administrators and physician executives, so the risk of wasting money on unsuccessful consulting engagements is high.     

Reflexion als Herausforderung in der Organisationsberatung Ein kritisch-organisationspädagogischer Blick auf die Professionalisierung

Reflection of the consultants advances to a central attribute of professional organizational consulting. Particularly the systemic and process consulting render outstanding services to this strategy of professionalization. This strategy bases on the assumption, that especially reflection enables to structure experiences und the role of the consultants in consultation projects in order to learn from them, i. e. to professionalize. A (self-)critical view to practical experiences, as the article focusses on, points up the challenges, which accompany reflection: Consultants – as well as their clients – have the problem, that they are not able to disclose influences of power, instrumentalization and projection. A confrontation of practical experiences with educational perceptions promises further impulses.     

Supervising Professional Work under New Public Management: Evidence from an ‘Invisible Trade’

This paper assesses the extent to which the new public management (NPM) project has succeeded in replacing the custodial mode of professional work supervision with a more bureaucratic approach. The paper conceptualizes the key components of each mode within two ideal types of professional work supervision. It then draws on findings from a study of local‐authority social service departments to consider current arrangements against these ideal type configurations. The findings demonstrate that elements of the bureaucratic mode have emerged unevenly. So far, they have not displaced the emphasis that the supervisors of professional work place on protecting autonomy and limiting management control systems. This suggests that custodial approaches to the supervision of professional work may be more resilient than has been assumed within previous analyses of NPM.     

„Bin ich hier Polizist oder Komplize?“

Case oriented supervision in community based work teams (SGB II-ARGE) for social security and labour-market integration Case oriented supervision can be seen as an interesting field of work full of new perspectives for supervisors. However, it is essential that there is the readiness and ability to link with a complex and dynamic administrative system. Well thought out working concepts and customer-oriented behaviour support the implementation within the organization. The members of staff highly welcome the new instrument and value its efficiency. Special attention in this context should be paid to feedback loops with the management so that case oriented supervision can be sensibly connected with organizational development and personal training. This can best be achieved by organizing a round table with all consultants and leading personnel.     

Macht in der Organisationsberatung

Power in organization counseling. A qualitative study in a hospital in East Germany Power is a main topic of this analysis of a consulting process in an East German hospital: How power is appearing within organizational consulting? What is the power the client has, and the consultants have? And what is the interrelation between power and the resistance to change? In recourse to the theory of micropolitics, power is understood as the combination of rules and distribution of resources within an organization. The consulting process itself is interpreted as the consultant’s introduction to the ongoing game the organization is playing. The qualitative case study of the consulting process in an East German hospital clearly shows, how ineffective interventions remain, if the consultants fail to recognize and take into consideration the valid combination of rules and distribution of resources. In the presented case this combination is based on the peculiar history of East Germany. It was only after the project had failed that the consultants realized that they had been practiced upon.     

Do Compensation Consultants Drive Up CEO Pay? Evidence from UK Public Firms

Do compensation consultants drive up CEO pay for the benefit of managers, or do they design pay packages to benefit firm owners? Using a large sample of UK firms from the FTSE All‐Share Index over the 2003–2011 period, we show a positive correlation between the presence of compensation consultants and CEO pay. Importantly, isolating this effect is somewhat dependent on the endogenous selection of consultants and the statistical modelling strategy deployed. We find evidence that compensation consultants improve CEO compensation design when their expertise is of greater importance (e.g. during the post‐financial crisis period, or for firms that have particularly weak compensation policies). In addition, our findings show that compensation consultants increase CEO pay–performance sensitivity. The balance of evidence supports optimal contracting theory more than managerial power theory, but the authors caution the limits to this verification. We are careful to note that the more compelling evidence for the positive effect of pay consultants on CEOs is based on advanced methods (such as propensity score matching and difference‐in‐differences), and that more standard approaches (such as OLS and fixed effects) are unlikely to reveal the same level of causality of consultants on CEO pay.     

Value-based management consulting in a third world country located within the United States

The Navajo Nation (the Navajo Reservation in the western United States) appears to be a third world country within the boundaries of one of the most prosperous and technically advanced countries in the world. This paper discusses the cultural and economic factors that have been ignored by business consultants to the Native Americans, especially the Navajo. The economic plight of the Navajo can be partially blamed on the application of generic management techniques for the past 40 years by consultants treating the Navajo as members of their own dominate culture. This paper also discusses the ethical implications of ignoring cultural differences under the guise of supplying professional services to minority cultures.     

Praxisbegleitung – ein Konzept für die Führungskräfteentwicklung

Colleagues’ monitoring – a concept for executive development. The article presents the concept of Colleagues’ monitoring that combines the following formats: coaching, organisational and professional development. The program which is structured in a compact and modular way, has been for years successfully applied by the management consultancy relations. Methodically the following three elements are essential: to work on concrete personal management topics, the structured consultation with colleagues and to become acquainted with the concepts of organisational development, management and consultancy. The program is an on-going learning-process in a fixed group for six meetings during one year on a regular basis.     

Ausbildungssupervision im Fokus der Expertiseforschung

While supervision is well established in the formation of consultants and psychotherapists, it is seldom offered in trainer formation. Recent research on the behavior and cognition of experts in complex dynamic domains suggests that trainers widely use implicit knowledge structures for their professional activities. These structures, however, are not necessarily accessible to conscious reflection. Supervision respectively coaching supports changes of such implicit knowledge structures and also supports the development of professional expertise. It is recommended to implement such support and counseling as an obligatory requirement in the formation of trainers.     

Problem defining and the consulting/intervention process

Although many different approaches are currently being used to create planned change in organizations, Kilmann and Mitroff feel that too little attention has been paid to determining the effectiveness of these different methods in solving the organizations' problems. Based on intervention theory and the consulting process, the authors offer a method of evaluating an organization's approach to change to determine if it is well-suited to the types of problems being experienced. The process of change is diagrammed as a five-step cycle: 1) sensing problems; 2) defining problems; 3) deriving solutions; 4) implementing solutions; and 5) evaluating outcomes. Most consultants enter the process at step 3 which increases the probability that they will try to solve the wrong problem (termed Type III error). A second source of trouble is that consultants are usually trained in one or two disciplines and, therefore, see problems primarily in those perspectives. Kilmann and Mitroff suggest the use of teams of consultants so the problems can be conceptualized from a number of different viewpoints.     

Die Supervision auf dem Weg zur Profession? Professionalisierung im Spannungsfeld zwischen Expansionsbestrebung und Selbstbescheidung

In contrast to the general trend of deprofessionalization, supervision has established some criteria for professions during the last twenty years: wide ranges of quality standards, standardized educational programs, professional ethics etc. This development toward this trend needs explanation. It is argued, that the approach of the development of profession could be successful, because supervision became a successful “parasite” of its “host” social work. The introduction of supervision in social work, however, was responsible for the introduction of coaching as a new profession in the area of organizational consulting. The question is which effects the expansion of supervision towards team and organizational development will have on the establishing of its further professionalization. There appears to be some tendencies toward the idea that supervision will become a part of the development of professionalization as the “perfect nanny of organizations”.     

Wie ich mit Supervision und Coaching in den letzten 20 Jahren gefahren bin. Berufsbiographische Geschichten des Gebens und Nehmens

In this article, it is described on the basis of an example how a prozess of individual professionalization has taken place in the last 20 years. Innovative results are presented for the professional conceptualization of supervision and coaching. Eventually, philosophical knowledge of orientation for consulting are provided.     

Diagnostic bias in organizational consultation

This article is intended to improve consultation practice by explaining the significance of models, heuristics, and diagnostic aids in organizational diagnosis. The role of diagnostic models in determining the consultant's frame of reference is explained. Evidence that organizational consultants consciously use diagnostic models is provided by citing two independent studies that revealed about 70% of the consultants reported that a diagnostic model was used. The availability, representativeness, and anchoring heuristics used by diagnosticians are summarized and examples of their use are cited. Readers are warned that bias occurs from misapplying the heuristics. However, guidance on correctly applying the heuristics is provided. The development and improvement of diagnostic expertise is explained from the perspective of learning through education as well as feedback received from clients, colleagues (as shadow consultants and as consulting team members), and self. Thus, written from the perspective of a consultant, the article provides a practical presentation on diagnostic bias, supported by theory and empirical research. It should appeal not only to a consulting constituency (i.e. practicing consultants, consultant trainers, and novice consultants), but also to the large number of potential clients (i.e. organizational decision-makers). Future research directions are discussed in terms of (1) the research that has identified relationships between consultant characteristics (e.g. Jungian constructs) and diagnostic information, and (2) the potential of expert systems in organizational diagnosis.     

Strategy consultants—Do they add value?

To improve their strategy decision-making, managers have sought the assistance of strategy consultants. Strategy consultants differ in the degree to which they focus on content or process, the degree to which they are transactive or participative in their consulting approach and their level of specific expertise. Research on the benefits of strategy consulting is limited and inconclusive. While individual firms show concern about monitoring effectiveness, their approach is rarely comprehensive and often ignores measurement of company benefits. Recommendations for both clients and the profession are set out to improve the benefits of strategy consulting assignments.     

A Framework for Practising Knowledge Management

The management of an intangible asset such as knowledge is beset with complex and theoretical concepts. This paper sets out a matrix that describes four approaches to Knowledge Management based on whether it is in an organisational or an individual context, and whether knowledge management is imposed or empowered by managerial approaches. It explores the validity of the framework through an analysis of ongoing management projects at seven organisations.     

Aufrecht gehen! – Vom Ausstieg reifer Existenzgründer aus ihrer Führungsrolle

A decision to go independent means creating your own business at the age of 50 or beyond. This is not only a courageous step; it is also a risky one too. This decision is always accompanied by a complex process of “letting go” of a role that during the long period of a professional life provided predictability, status, recognition and financial security. To counter the tendency to idealise business start-ups later in life, we attempt in this paper to retrace the process of detachment in the context of the individual’s career biography. We do this by drawing on personal reflections accompanied by a theoretical framework and conceptual clarification. Suggestions and recommendations for coaching, supervision and consulting complement the more procedural aspects of necessary resources and support offerings.