Fer van den Boomen's dissertation sheds new light on the role of organisational consultants and offers a practically validated repertoire of actions to promote learning within organisations. The research highlights that the work of consultants is not just about solving problems, but mainly about creating a learning environment in which clients can achieve sustainable change. He will defend his thesis on 13 September.
Many organisations, including the government, use consultants to help solve complex issues. This is commercially attractive for consultancies. But there's a risk for clients to become increasingly dependent on those advisers. After all, those advisers are getting smarter and smarter, while the ability within organisations to tackle their own issues is getting smaller rather than bigger. This is what Van den Boomen argues in his thesis.
According to his research, many advisers do intend to help their clients realise sustainable change. Unfortunately, they often lack an actionable repertoire to do so effectively. Fer van den Boomen conducted research into the work of advisers. With his research, he hopes that advisers can teach their clients to better cope with future challenges so that they do not remain dependent on external help.
Practical application
In his thesis, Van den Boomen offers a concrete and practical action repertoire that advisers can use to better support their clients. It is especially useful for complex issues that require innovation and therefore also second-order learning. That action repertoire consists of four roles advisers assume in conversations with their clients and ten principles to encourage second-order learning.
Forty possibilities for action
By combining the four roles and ten principles, advisers have forty possibilities for action. The four roles advisers can take to encourage learning are:
- Providing knowledge: The advisor shares valuable information and insights with the client.
- Arranging conversations: The advisor provides the conditions and frameworks for having productive conversations with the client.
- Staging learning experiences: The advisor creates an environment in which the client can acquire new knowledge and skills.
- Challenging ways of seeing: The advisor encourages the client to reconsider existing ways of thinking and acting.
In his thesis, Van den Boomen also describes 10 principles specifically aimed at encouraging second-order learning. "Of four principles, I was most surprised that these are not already happening more," Van den Boomen says. According to him, consultants can approach the client much more as a customer who has something to learn. They can also invite the client to help design the learning environment, pay attention to how the client can further internalise the new course of action, and discuss what the client learns from the course for handling future issues.
Future research opportunities
Although the study focused on Dutch advisers, the findings are expected to contribute to a broader 'theory of practice' of advisory work. Follow-up research may reveal how this heuristic is applied in practice, not only by consultants, but also by other helping professionals.
More information
Fer van den Boomen made a valuable contribution to the scarce empirical literature on organisational consulting with this thesis. He conducted his research in the research group Industrial Engineering and Business Information Systems (IEBIS; Faculty BMS) under supervisor Prof Dr Celeste Wilderom and co-supervisors Dr Jacco van Uden and Dr Schelte Beltman (De Haagse Hogeschool). On 13 September, he will defend his PhD thesis entitled "Niet bij vis alleen: Houvast voor adviseurs om leren te stimuleren" (Not just fish: How management consultants can stimulate learning processes). In addition to his research as a PhD student, Fer van den Boomen works as a consultant, coach and trainer.
