The Cultural Behavior: What Makes A Good Consultant?

WHAT MAKES A GOOD CONSULTANT?
What Makes A Good Consultant?
Kubr (2002) emphasize that prior to defining what is consulting we first must consider two approaches. One approach would be is to look at a broad functional view of consulting. Another approach is to view consulting as a special expert service and accentuates certain features that a service must have. According to Robert Metzger and Larry Greine (2002):
Management consulting is an advisory service contracted for and provided to organizations by specially trained and qualified persons who assist, in an objective and independent manner, the client organization to identify management problems, analyze such problems, recommend solutions to these problems, and help, when requested, in the implementation of solutions (p.3).
In alike and simpler terms, the International Council of Management Consulting Institutes (ICMCI) (2002) defined consulting as:
Management consulting is the provision of independent advice and assistance about the process of management to clients with management responsibilities.” (p. 3).
According to Office (2002), consultants have five broad roles. These purposes are: Achieving organizational purposes and objectives, solving management and business problems, identifying and seizing new opportunities, enhancing learning and implementing changes (p.10).
A consultant, either in physical or quantitative contribution, must enhance the worth of the client’s organization in order to achieve the client’s principal purposes (Office, I. L., & Kubr, M., 2002, p.10).
According to the article entitled “Engagement and Culture: Engaging Talent in Turbulent Times” (2009):
Engagement is the emotional and intellectual commitment of an individual or group to build and sustain strong business performance”
They also defined culture as:
The behaviors and belief characteristics of an organization as exhibited by the stated and unstated rules and expectations, prevailing values, norms, behaviors and systems that define an organization. Culture is created and maintained by leadership actions, operating systems, and process that influence employee and organizational behaviors.” According to a research, a culture that lives on high performance usually attracts and engages high-potential talent thus energizing the company’s core values.
For the purpose of research and academics, business researchers and sociologists have been in collaboration with each other to understand and quantify key cultural averages for years. The first sociologist to contribute is Geert Hofstede. He concluded that there are six key dimensions where culture diverge in the business scene. These dimensions are the following: power distance, indulgence, pragmatism, individualism, masculinity and uncertainty avoidance. On a more recent study, Oded Shenkar, argued for the need to avoid from the idea of cultural distance and forward to cultural friction. Cultural friction encompasses on the interaction, situation or specific circumstances, and of factors from different culture. It is still true that today, cultural differences still affects the workplace and is a challenging issue (Garbis).
According to Greet (2014), data collectio...