Exploring Knowledge Creation Pathways in Advanced Management Consulting

The book ("Emerging Trends and Issues in Management Consulting: Consulting as a Janus-Faced Reality") is indexed in BOOK CITATION INDEX (in Web of Science-Thomson Reuters). ABSTRACT The literature offers a wide selection of studies into firm knowledge management and management consulting. Management consulting firms are often discussed as being the archetypes of knowledge-intensive firms, or as the firms whose core product is knowledge itself. Consulting firms are generally aware of the value of knowledge for their own organizations and for their clients. However, the subject of knowledge creation potential that can be activated through the concrete implementation of management consulting interventions still remains a largely unexplored research area. This chapter adopts a knowledge perspective for interpreting management consulting and proposes a general conceptual framework for investigating and interpreting that potential. The chapter proposes two perspectives for interpreting management consulting: the defining perspective (conceptual delimitation) and the synchronic perspective (consulting models), emphasizing that the latter when compared to the diachronic interpretation (consulting process), better enables identification of the explanatory variables of the cognitive dynamics characterizing the consulting relationship. The interpretative framework developed in the last section is an original application of the theories that interpret knowledge creation processes as knowledge conversion processes to the specific context of management consulting relationships. The proposed framework aims at examining the cognitive pathways through which the potential of entrepreneurial knowledge creation of management consulting interventions (and of the consultant-client relational dynamics triggered therein) can be expressed. It highlights the fact that in advanced (i.e., “meta”) consultancy contexts this potential lies in the possibility that it can generate not only explicit knowledge but also (even, mainly) new tacit entrepreneurial knowledge, such as new interpretative skills (vision of the firm’s structure and of the competitive environment) and new experience-based diagnostic capabilities. The value of this knowledge for both the client and consultant goes far beyond the solution of the specific problem for which the consultant was engaged. The design of the conceptual framework proposed in this chapter is mainly grounded on the reasoning and consulting experience of the author, though it is corroborated by revealing (albeit short) anecdotal evidence. It appears that a better understanding of the knowledge creation paths that can be activated by implementing management consulting projects conducted following the metaconsulting approach will allow both clients and consulting firms to more consciously define knowledge creation goals for their consulting projects, and hence to more effectively design and manage the ensuing consultant-client relationship.