Master Thesis. Organization Studies 2010/2011

Transcription

1 Master Thesis Organization Studies 2010/2011 Client-consultant engagement success and how it is influenced by a consultant s competencies Details student Name: Robbert van Woudenberg ANR: Details supervisors Name supervisor 1: Name supervisor 2: Drs. A. Stoppelenburg Dr. R.P.J.H. Rutten Master circle Circle 12: Organization development in general and the role of consultancy in particular

2 Abstract Purpose The primary intent of this study is to examine the effect of a consultant s competencies on the success of the client-consultant engagement from the client s point of view. This is done by conducting research in the population, which is the consultant s clientele in the Netherlands. Design/methodology/approach A deductive research design was used for this study. Data were collected by distributing partially self-developed questionnaires amongst the clients of consultants. These clients were approached via , telephone and using LinkedIn. It was tested whether the competencies of a consultant influenced the success of the client-consultant engagement. Descriptive statistics are presented, followed by reliability analyses and hierarchical regression analyses in order to test the formed hypotheses. Findings The results of the analyses reveal that five independent variables effect clientconsultant engagement success positively. Empirical evidence was found for a positive, significant relationship between these independent variables and the dependent variable. Limitations and recommendations The most important implications are discussed, such as the cross-sectional research design which makes it rather difficult to prove causality. Furthermore, recommendations for further research are addressed. Originality/value This research contributes to the academic field by providing insights in the effects of consultant related competencies. It gives explanations why some competencies do have an effect on client-consultant engagement success and others do not. Keywords Consultancy, effectiveness, success, satisfaction, process, expert, engagement 1

3 Preface This thesis is written as a final product for the Master program of Organization Studies at Tilburg University. The subject of this thesis is the client-consultant engagement. Academic literature has provided me with new and useful insights which led to the completion of this thesis. Although writing this thesis was an individual activity, it would not have been possible without the help of several people. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the persons who have supported me while conducting this research. People who provided me with sound feedback, useful insights and challenging questions. First, I would like to thank the supervisor of the thesis circle, Drs. Annemieke Stoppelenburg, for her help and guidance during this process, for her effort in finding respondents for this study and for providing me with useful literature. Furthermore I would like to thank my family and friends for their support, Marc van Herpen for opening up his network to me, Ferry Heeneman for opening up his network to me, the respondents for filling out my questionnaire and last, but not least, my fellow students in the master circle. Robbert van Woudenberg August

4 Table of content 1. Introduction Problem statement Research goal and question Relevance Structure of the research Theoretical background Dependent variable: client-consultant engagement success Independent variable: consultant s competencies Basic Competencies Approach specific competencies Intervention specific competencies Control variables Conceptual model Methodological framework Research design Data collection Data analysis Sample strategy Research quality indicators Construct validity Internal validity External validity Results Preliminary analyses Secondary analysis Consultant s competencies

5 Hypotheses Conclusion Discussion and reflection Discussion Reflection Limitations and recommendations for future research Limitations Future research References Appendix A: Operationalization Appendix B: Definitions basic competencies Appendix C: Definitions approach-specific competencies Appendix D: Definitions intervention-specific competencies Appendix E: Questionnaire Appendix F: Descriptive Statistics Appendix G: Reliability analysis dependent variable Appendix H: Coefficients table hierarchical multiple regression analysis Appendix I: Coefficients table second hierarchical multiple regression analysis

6 1. Introduction In the past the reliance on the use of management consulting services has increased (Jang & Lee, 1998). The management consulting industry emerged and structured itself in the twentieth century, growing very rapidly in the process (McKenna, Djelic & Ainamo, 2000). Since 1990 the overall revenues in management consulting have grown with 10 to 30 percent per year (Appelbaum and Seed, 2005). Management consulting has become a dynamic and rapidly changing sector of professional services. In order to be, and stay, relevant and of added value to their clients, management consultants need to possess certain skills, abilities and capabilities, otherwise known as competencies. It is important that they use these competencies to anticipate on future changes that may affect their clients (Kubr, 2002) and that they are able to cope with sudden, unforeseen changes. These competencies are an important asset of the management consultant. It is no secret that management consultants are expected to be in advising, improving processes and achieving success in the client-consultant engagement. It is not only important for the management consultant to possess a certain set of competencies. It is also important for the organization that employs the consultant. When an organization has a lot of very consultants it can gain competitive advantage (Lado and Wilson, 1994). Consultants are hired mostly through HR-departments. These departments select the consultant using competency models and competency assessments. It is therefore important that the HR-departments know what competencies are important and influence success and performance so that they can select the right consultant. Large consultancy firms like McKinsey work with assessment systems which include competency models. These competency models are addressed in the training and development of the consultant. Although recent research (De Caluwé & Reitsma, 2006) indicated that it is possible to define a set of competencies that a management consultant is ought to possess, there is not much literature known that focuses on the effect of the competencies that consultants are perceived to have on the success of the client-consultant engagement. In other words: the relationship between the possessed competencies of a management consultant and the success of the client-consultant engagement, as perceived by the client, is not much studied before. Even despite the size and significance of the management consultancy industry, many authors have noted that there does not seem to be a correspondingly amount of empirical data on the practice of management consulting (Appelbaum and Seed, 2005). 5

7 Though research has been conducted on the role of factors such as knowledge, personality characteristics and client characteristics on the success of an engagement (Jang & Lee, 1998), this study will focus solely on the relationship between the consultant s competencies and the client-consultant engagement success. It would be interesting to know and understand the relationship between these variables, as it would simplify the decision for a specific consultant for both the client as the consultancy firm. If it is known which competencies contribute most to a successful clientconsultant engagement, both clients and consultants could benefit from that. Based on the above, it is possible to create a research problem, a research question and a theoretical framework. Subsequently, the methodological part of this study will be presented. 1.1 Problem statement In a dynamic and rapidly changing sector consultants are expected to perform well. Although clients are critical towards consultants, there is a lot of willingness to praise the contributions of management consultants (Czerniawska, 2003). Benefits of consultants are the focus on outcome, speed of delivery and the fact that they do not carry any in-house baggage. Another salient characteristic of management consultants is that they bring up-to-date skills, otherwise known as competencies (Czerniawska, 2003). The competencies a consultant has, influence the outcome of the consulting project. Consultants must have the technical and behavioral skills that are specific to consulting (Kubr, 2002). It is argued by several authors (Czerniawska, 2003; Hoekstra & van Sluijs, 2007) that it is important to choose your consultant carefully and, therefore, to know what kind of consultancy-job there is within the firm so that you can select your consultant on the competencies he or she has. De Caluwé & Reitsma (2006) specified a list of competencies needed by the consultant. In this list they made a distinction between several types of competencies; basic competencies, approach specific competencies and intervention specific competencies. What these scholars did not study is the relationship between these competencies and the success of a client-consultant engagement. In fact, this relation is not studied much at all. Although scholars agree that competencies are needed by the consultant in numerous occasions (Jang and Lee, 1998; Appelbaum and Steed, 2005; Rothwell and Sullivan, 2005; De Caluwé and Reitsma, 2006) the effect of competencies on the result of success of the client- 6

8 consultant engagement does not seem to interest a lot of scholars. It is, however, an interesting area and this study will focus on that specific relation. 1.2 Research goal and question The main purpose of this study is to gain insight in the effect of the competencies of a consultant, as perceived by the client, on the success of the engagement. Based on the aforementioned research problem and research goal, the following research question is used: To what extent do the consultant s competencies contribute to a successful client-consultant engagement? This research question is formulated with a few underlying notions in mind. First, the X-variable, the consultant s competencies, will be the consultant s competencies as perceived by the client of the consultant. Second, the success of the client-consultant engagement will be measured by using the client s satisfaction, as defined by Van Aken (1996). 1.3 Relevance This study gains insight in the effect of the consultant s competencies on the success of the engagement. The outcomes of this study are expected to be interesting for both consultancy firms as for client organizations. Consultancy firms can use the results to train their (future) consultants and to let them develop the most important competencies or train their current consultants to develop their weaker competencies, while client organizations are being enabled to better select a consultant who fits the situation. Furthermore, since there is little literature focusing on the relationship between a consultant s competencies and the success of the client-consultant engagement, this research will contribute to a better understanding of this relationship and it will contribute to this understanding with empirical data. Although it might seem obvious that a consultant will successfully end an assignment, it is not entirely the case. The success of the engagement is influenced by many other factors. Because of the limited time frame only the factor competencies will be taken into account. This study will try to give insight in which competencies are important and influence the relationship more. HR-departments can use this information to alter their selection procedures and to create competency profiles which match their expectations of new employees. 7

9 1.4 Structure of the research The general theme of this research has been explained in the preliminary chapter, as have the research problem, research goal, research question and the relevance. The following chapter will outline the theoretical framework used in this thesis. The literature that is used is presented and the relevant theories and concepts are determined. The dependent variable, the independent variable, control variables and the hypotheses are clarified and the conceptual model is presented. The chapter that follows is the methodological chapter. In this chapter the research design is outlined and the used method regarding data collection and the analysis of the variables is enlightened. Hereafter the findings of this study are presented. This is followed by the conclusion and discussion, which will shed light on the limitations of this study, as well as the recommendations for future research. Figure 1 illustrates the structure of this study. Introduction Theoretical Framework Methodology Results Conclusion Discussion Figure 1 Structure of the research 2. Theoretical background In this chapter the theoretical base for this study is described. Theoretical notions that are found in the literature will be used to form a theoretical framework. This framework will be used to form propositions which will later be empirically tested. By doing this, also the theoretical framework will be empirically tested. This chapter consists of the following sections: First, the dependent variable, clientconsultant engagement success, will be addressed. Several definitions of success will be given and finally a clear and concise characterization of client-consultant engagement success is provided in order to define the dependent variable. 8

10 Subsequently, the independent variable, a consultant s competencies, will be discussed. Propositions which represent the theoretical mechanism between the dependent and independent variables will be formed. After that, the control variables will be presented, which are used to control for different effects that may be found when the gathered data is analyzed. Finally, a conceptual model is presented which gives a graphical presentation of this study. 2.1 Dependent variable: client-consultant engagement success In this research client-consultant engagement success is the dependent variable. In order to measure the success of the client-consultant engagement, a clear definition needs to be used which clarifies what success is, why success is a good measure and how exactly it should be measured. Kubr (2002) underlines the importance of creating and maintaining a successful clientconsultant engagement. He states that success can only be achieved by making all involved actors aware of human, cultural and other factors that will affect their relationship. These factors can influence the success of the relationship between a consultant and the client. But what exactly is success? How can it be defined and how can it be measured? De Wit (1988) asks this question too. He states that first it must be clear if success can be measured at all. This is confirmed by the aim of the PMI conference (Project Management Institute) of 1986 in Montreal, which was to focus on how important good measurement of progress, cost and quality is to the success of a project (De Wit, 1988). The success of a client-consultant engagement is a construct which can be interpreted in many ways. Many scholars developed different criteria and definitions for the concept of client-consultant engagement success (Srinivasan, 1985; De Wit, 1988; Gable, 1996; Van Aken, 1996; Philips, 2000; McLachlin, 2000; De Caluwé and Stoppelenburg, 2004; Warren, 2004) and when scanning the literature, it becomes clear that all the discrepancies in notions and measures provide it difficult to measure the success of the client-consultant engagement. The fact that there are so many different notions and definitions of client-consultant success implies that the debate on this matter is still going on and that the scientific field is still not in consensus about how to measure the success. Wright and Kitay (2002) state that not all of what consultants do can be easily measured, because (a) it is intangible (b) there are too many changes happening at once to isolate the effects of any one change, or (c) the change involves a long time frame and the effects are not immediately apparent (p. 275). 9

11 Wright and Kitay (2002) argue that when assessing success, hard measures are not always appropriate. This is in line with the arguments of Armenakis and Burdg (1988) who argue that hard criteria, such as productivity and profitability are often not applicable to consultancy programs. They state that sometimes soft measures need to be used like satisfaction, self-reported measures of leadership and group processes. This is what many researchers argue. Literature shows that many researchers (Gable, 1996; Van Aken (1996; McLachlin, 2000; Philips, 2000; Kumar & Simon, 2001) use soft criteria in their papers. The downside of soft measures, like satisfaction, is that they require the perception of people, which can bias the results. This is in line with Clark s (1995) reasoning. He states that managing client impressions is a critical aspect in the client-consultant engagement and that it is important to create a favorable perception of the consulting success. This implies that consultants can manipulate the perception of clients and, therefore, the results as perceived by the clients. However, the client pays the consultant to deliver good work and for that reason the client is the one to judge the consultant and the engagement success. However, it is still not clear what criteria exactly should be used to measure success. McLachlin (2000) states that a consulting engagement may be considered successful if the client is satisfied that the consultant has met expectations and if the consultant is satisfied that his or her reputation has been enhanced. He identified three engagement objectives: (1) improving client performance (2) improving client capabilities and (3) changing organizational culture. In addition, also Van Aken (1996) uses a soft measure to measure project success. In his study he states that there is not a conclusive and irrefutable operationalization of project success. He studied 1111 articles in order to create a definition of project success and a criterion to measure it. In the operationalization he established from this research, he concluded that project success is defined in terms of satisfaction of involved actors, since satisfaction is not an absolute construct. This notion is accompanied by a small limitation. Van Aken (1996) states that only projects with a result can be included. Ergo, projects without a result cannot. Projects without a result are projects that did not reach the implementation phase (Van Aken, 1996). This study only focuses on projects that have been finished and therefore do have a result. In this case, a result is seen as either positive or negative. Both positive and negative results can be explained by the satisfaction of the client (Van Aken, 1996). In sum, the limitation is not affecting this study. 10

12 Consequently, Van Aken (1996) defined project success as follows: Project success is the extent to which the project result satisfies the involved actors (p. 90). In his study, Van Aken (1996) uses project success instead of client-consultant engagement. Although it might look like these are two completely different constructs, they are quite alike. The first construct is adopted from the project management field and the second construct is adopted from the consultancy field. However, these two fields do not differ that much. Van Aken (1996) states that his research in the project management field will deliver useful insights for internal and external advisors. In addition he argues that the need for practical tips is large in the advisory practice. Van Aken mentions the link with advisory assignments often in his dissertation. He claims for instance that a certain type of project result can be an advice regarding an organizational structure or reorganization. Another example of a project is given by Van Aken when he mentions the actors in several types of projects. One of these projects is the reorganization of a hospital. A reorganization is also an example of a consultancy assignment. The examples above illustrate the thin line between project management and consultancy. Because of the fact that projects can also be advisory assignments, or consultancy assignments, the theory and notions of Van Aken can be used in this study. In this study, however, instead of using project the construct client-consultant engagement will be used. This construct is used to clarify the consultancy assignment and is similar to project. The aforementioned definition about project success entails some clarification regarding the involved actors. According to Van Aken (1996) the involved actors in a project consist of nine different actors (the principal, project manager, project team, project executers, users, line management, direct stakeholders, indirect stakeholders and social groups) which can be divided into three groups categorized on level of importance. Instead of using all the involved actors this study only measures satisfaction of the client (as the client pays the consultant to deliver good work and for that reason the client is the one to judge the consultant and the engagement success), which makes it necessary to slightly alter Van Aken s (1996) definition: Client-consultant engagement success is the extent to which the project result satisfies the involved client(s). 11

13 The slight modification of Van Aken s (1996) definition has no significant implications because of the fact that project success and client-consultant engagement success can be considered the same (as mentioned above). Furthermore, as already mentioned there are a variety of clients. The client that is used in this study, however, is the user. The user is the client which is most important when assessing success (Van Aken, 1996), as they are the ones who are dependent on the result of the client-consultant engagement. 2.2 Independent variable: consultant s competencies In this research the independent variable is a consultant s competencies. In general, the construct of competencies is a very wide and often defined concept. Several authors (Van Muijen, 2003; De Caluwé and Vermaak, 2006) argue that among the concept of competencies other constructs are used to explain the same notion. Van Muijen (2003) states that competencies are known as the characteristics of an individual that lead to high performance in a certain job. According to Wordreference.com having competencies, or being, means having the necessary ability or knowledge to do something successfully. Van Muijen (2003) notes that competencies are seen as common knowledge, personality characteristics, skills and capabilities. Other scholars argue that competencies are employees abilities to perform the skills required for a specific job and that they are used for a variety of purposes like selection, performance management and succession planning (Spencer and Spencer, 1993). Hoekstra and van Sluijs (2003) define competencies as something someone is good at. This definition is also in accordance with the aforementioned definitions. All these definitions are quite similar, which is not shocking since the word competency stems from the Latin word competens which means capable. The aforementioned definitions all define competencies as something that someone is capable of, or capabilities that one has. As Spencer and Spencer (1993) noted, competencies are often used for selection procedures, performance management and succession planning. Lawler and McDermott (2003) state that the use of competency assessments is fairly widespread in selection and performance management. The reason for this is that competency assessments predict success (Goldstein, Yusko & Nicolopoulos, 2001). This is acknowledged by Levenson et al. (2006) who state that competencies have a positive effect on performance and thus success. Also Breman and Bruinsma (2006) conclude that competencies have a positive influence on performance. They state that the relationship between competencies and performance has not been a very popular topic and that very little empirical evidence exists regarding this relationship. However, the relationship between competencies and performance or success as 12

14 such may not have been studied much, competencies and management of competencies has. Van Assen (2000) states that competencies are part of inimitable and valuable organizational and individual resources, providing competitive advantage. Competency management includes the management of strategic, organizational and individual competencies. According to Van Assen (2000) and Hoekstra and Van Sluijs (2007) organizational competencies are based on individual competencies. As organizational competencies can lead to competitive advantage (when inimitable and valuable) the individual competencies are an integral ingredient for gaining this competitive advantage. With the right competency assessment, competency management and the right consultants, consultants can be even more valuable for their organization. In order to conduct competency assessment it must be clear which competencies will be assessed. The variety of definitions of the concept of competencies is encompassed with an even larger variety of different competencies. Organizations and associations develop competency profiles and models in order to train and guide their professionals. In the consultancy field, several organizations and professional associations have created guidelines and models that provide knowledge and insight in the professional standards for consultants. On an international level, the International Council of Management Consulting Institutes (ICMCI) developed a competency model consisting of three dimensions. One of the main points of interest in this model is the notion that the consultant is always learning and developing his or her own skills and capabilities, and always expanding his or her experience. The three dimensions of this model are: Business Acumen (knowledge about the market), Technical Competences (functional specialization and consulting skills) and Values and Behavior (social, ethical and analytical skills) (De Caluwé and Reitsma, 2006). Another international effort to create a conclusive framework for competencies was made by ICM UK. The ICM UK developed a Competence Framework in together with large consultancy firms, independent practitioners, universities and other interested parties. This framework is a commercial product and is sold to consultancy firms. It is also being used for accreditation in the United Kingdom. What immediately is noticed when comparing the two models above is that they are almost similar. The ICM UK framework also has three dimensions: Market, Advice specific competencies and professional behavior. A third professional organization that tries to compose a framework or guideline for consultants and competencies is the Dutch Orde voor Organisatie Adviseurs (OOA). This organization is responsible for the Body of Knowledge and Skills (BoKS). The BoKS describes what competencies a consultant should possess by use of an advice trajectory. The 13

15 purpose of this guideline is to create insight in the characteristics and aspects of the consultancy process. These characteristics are translated into the necessary competencies (OOA, 2010). Like the ICMCI competency model, BoKS states that it is hard to create a model or framework which is suitable for the industry for a longer period, because the professional knowledge of organizational professionals is changing rapidly in several fields (OOA, 2010). The BoKS uses a list of competencies composed by De Caluwé and Reitsma (2006) in order to let consultants test themselves. The organization claims that the results of this test can be used to fine-tune the learning process of the consultant. The BoKS is an important tool for consultancy firms and consultants to distinguish the competencies that are needed and to examine their consultants. The self-test of De Caluwé and Reitsma (2006) that is included in the BoKS is based on the work of Hoekstra and van Sluijs (2003), Yukl (1993) and Volz and De Very (2000) and is divided into three sets of competencies: Basic competencies, approach specific competencies and intervention specific competencies. Like the ICM UK framework and the ICMCI model, the results of the research of De Caluwé and Reitsma (2006) claim that a consultant must possess at least a set of basic competencies. These competencies are required in order to function properly as a consultant. The other two models (ICMCI and ICM UK) also state that a consultant must possess a set of basic skills. This study uses the three sets of competencies from De Caluwé and Reitsma (2006) to measure the consultant s competencies. The reason why this study is chosen is that their set is based on an extensive amount of both national and international academic literature and because it is adopted by the Dutch OOA. The fact that it is accepted by the OOA and that it is adopted and supported by other authors (Buono and Jamieson, 2010; Hollaender, 2008) makes it reliable enough to use. Furthermore, models of large bureaus like McKinsey were used to investigate which competencies they require in a consultant. The fact that it is based on several other studies and the fact that it is used by the OOA implies that it is reliable enough to use the study as a source of inspiration and as a starting point for this research. Like De Caluwé and Reitsma (2006) this study will use the following definition created by Hoekstra and van Sluijs (2003) for the construct of competencies: A competency is something someone is good at. This definition leads to a small discussion about the measurement of competencies. As the definition above implies, a competency is a characteristic of a person. The question that 14

16 arises is: how do you measure that? The self-test that is included in the BoKS tries to measure the competencies of a consultant by letting themselves do the test. For that to be a success, the consultant must have a lot of self-knowledge. This study will measure the competencies of consultants by asking the clients. Instead of asking the opinion of the consultant, the client (who worked extensively with the consultant) will fill in the questions as the client is also the person who judges the success of the client-consultant engagement. As competencies are recognizable characteristics of people, they can be perceived very well (Hoekstra and Van Sluijs, 2007). This makes it possible to ask the client what he or she thinks of the consultant and of the results of the client-consultant engagement. The study of Jang and Lee (1998) is one of the few studies that researched the effect of a consultant s competencies on the success of the client-consultant engagement. They claim that there are three factors that influence the success of a consultancy project. One of those factors is the competence of the consultant. The study argues that it is important for a consultant to possess specific skills and knowledge, because the client more or less expects him to. Jang and Lee (1998) state that in order for the consultant s expertise to be instrumental in solving the client s problem, he or she needs to mobilize various skills or competencies. (p 68). Unfortunately, they only studied competencies as a whole and did not, like i.e. De Caluwe and Reitsma (2006) or the BoKS (2010), split up the concept of competencies in several other operationalizations. This study will split up the concept of competencies like De Caluwe and Reitsma (2006) do, and will try to prove the different influences of the different components. As mentioned above, the results of De Caluwé and Reitsma (2006) state that there are three different types of competencies. These types of competencies will not contain any competencies that are required by specialists in certain fields, like ICT, but only competencies that are necessary to successfully start and finalize the client-consultant engagement. A schedule is presented and the independent variables will be elaborated on below. 15

17 Figure 2 Classification of the competencies Basic Competencies The aforementioned models and framework about competencies show that in general there is a consensus about the types of competencies consultants must have. These are called the basic competencies. The ICMCI and ICM UK both state that there is a need for a set of basic competencies. De Caluwe and Reitsma (2006) agree in this matter and have created a set of basic competencies which are (according to their research) needed to perform every basic consultancy job. They state that these competencies should be mastered by every consultant, without any distinction by age or experience (De Caluwe and Reitsma, 2006; Reitsma and De Caluwé, 2009). The basic competencies of the different models and frameworks are quite the same. The ICMCI model characterizes the basic competencies with consultative skills like project management, partnering and networking and client focus. This is reasonably similar to the ICM UK model, where the consulting competences are client focus, building and sustaining relationships and applying expertise and knowledge. These basic competencies are not exhaustive, but give a clear overview of how these models define the basic competencies. 16

18 The BoKS also gives an overview of basic competencies: organizing, managing and reflecting on professional behavior. All these models and frameworks are largely similar to each other. The framework of De Caluwe and Reitsma (2006) contains the following basic competencies: Flexibility, analytical skills, conceptual thinking, learning orientation, creativity, balanced judgment, awareness of external environment, generating vision, listening, sensitivity, communication, presentation, persuasion, integrity, reliability, loyalty and creating a favorable atmosphere. These competencies will be included in a multiple regression analysis. There is little literature that explicitly studies the effect of competencies on engagement success. Jang and Lee (1998) researched this variable as one of the many factors that influence engagement success. The literature on competencies states that the basic competencies are the most important competencies (De Caluwe and Reitsma, 2006), as these are the competencies that every consultant should have. Without these competencies consultants are not able to properly bring a consultancy project to an end. Kloosterboer (2010) argues that basic knowledge and competencies are required by consultants and organizational advisors. He states that the basics serve as a general foundation for the professional practice. Consultants can specialize as they get older and thus gain more experience. Experts will possess the basics more than beginners. As the literature shows, basic competencies are important to every consultant because these competencies form the foundation for the consultant s performance. As every consultant is expected to possess the basic competencies (De Caluwe and Reitsma, 2006; 2009; Kloosterboer, 2010) these competencies are expected to contribute to client-consultant engagement success. The following hypotheses can be formulated from this reasoning: H1: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Flexibility by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H2: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Analytical skills by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H3: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Conceptual thinking by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. 17

19 H4: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Learning orientation by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H5: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Creativity by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H6: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Balanced judgment by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H7: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Awareness of external environment by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H8: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Generating vision by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H9: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Listening by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H10: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Sensitivity by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H11: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Communication by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H12: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Presentation by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H13: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Persuasion by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. 18

20 H14: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Integrity by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H15: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Reliability by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H16: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Loyalty by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H17: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Creating a favorable atmosphere by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. Every competency presented above has its own definition. These definitions are adopted from the authors that have been used by De Caluwé and Reitsma (2006). The definitions for the basic competencies can be found in appendix B Approach specific competencies The results of the study of De Caluwé and Reitsma (2006) showed that consultants should not only possess basic competencies, but also approach specific competencies. Every consultancy job requires a different approach as every client-consultant engagement and every situation is unique (Kubr, 2002). In addition to the basic competencies, consultants need approach specific competencies as distinguished by De Caluwé and Reitsma (2006) in order to execute and use a specific approach (BoKS, 2010). De Caluwé and Reitsma (2006) state that there are two types of approach in a clientconsultant engagement. These two types are the expert approach and the process approach (Cash and Minter, 1979; Schein, 1997; De Caluwé and Reitsma, 2006). The notion of these two types dates back decades. Through the years several scholars (Cash and Minter, 1979; Schein, 1987, 1997; Kubr, 2002; De Caluwé and Reitsma, 2006) used this operationalization of consulting approaches. Other operationalizations like Theory E and Theory O (Beer and Nohria, 2000), Episodic/Continuous change (Weick and Quinn, 1999) and Design/Develop (Boonstra (2000) can be used too, but like De Caluwé and Reitsma (2006) this research will try to keep the operationalization simple and clear. The expert and process approach suits this line of reasoning well. An advantage compared to the other theories and notions on 19

21 approaches is that the respondents are not expected to possess any knowledge on the aforementioned authors. The distinction between the two approaches, or roles, a consultant can use is very clear. The expert approach is characterized by little collaboration between the consultant and the client. The consultant tries to suggest the client what to change (Kubr, 2002). In this role, the consultant tries to help the client by providing technical expertise and doing things for and on behalf of the client. Activities that are included in this approach are (i.e.) information supply, diagnose the organization, undertake feasibility studies, train staff in new techniques and recommend organizational and other change (Kubr, 2002). Also the management that has hired the consultant will collaborate with the consultant, but this may be limited to providing information on request, discussing the progress made, accepting or declining proposals, and asking for further advice on implementation (Kubr, 2002; p. 57). The consultant who uses the process role or approach will collaborate more with its client. The process consultant can be seen as a true change agent and attempts to help the organization to solve its own problems. The consultant does this by making the organization aware of processes, their likely consequences and of intervention techniques for stimulating change. According to Kubr (2002) in various descriptions of process consulting the organization behavior (OD) approach comes across loud and clear (p. 58). This underlines the statement of Schein (1987), who describes process consulting as a set of activities on the part of the consultant that help the client to perceive, understand, and act upon the process events that occur in the client s environment. The competencies that belong to the approach specific competencies are : Expert competencies: Entrepreneurship, market oriented, boldness, independence, result orientation, quality orientation, leadership, consultation and risk awareness. Process competencies: Restraint, organizing ability, making coalitions, energy, awareness of organizational context, coaching, personal appeal and decisiveness. According to De Caluwé and Reitsma (2006) the consultant always makes a choice how to approach a certain client-consultant engagement. Nevertheless, they state that a lot of engagements can be approached with either type, or even a mix of the two. The approach specific competencies are additional to the ever-required basic competencies (De Caluwé and Reitsma, 2006, 2009). Not all consultants will possess the approach specific competencies as well as the basic competencies. They might even possess the expert competencies better than they do the process competencies and vice versa. But the client is asked to judge the competencies of the consultant and a client will most-probably recognize and/or perceive the 20

22 approach of the consultant better than his standard capabilities. Therefore, it can be argued that the approach-specific competencies contribute more to the client-consultant engagement than the other types of competencies do. This leads to the following hypotheses: H18: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Entrepreneurship by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H19: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Market Oriented by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H20: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Independence by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H21: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Quality orientation by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H22: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Leadership by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H23: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Consultation by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H24: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Risk awareness by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H25: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Restraint by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H26: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Making coalitions by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. 21

23 H27: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Energy by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H28: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Personal appeal by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H29: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Decisiveness by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. Every competency presented above has its own definition. These definitions are adopted from the authors that have been used by De Caluwé and Reitsma (2006). The definitions for the approach-specific competencies can be found in appendix C Intervention specific competencies The third, and last, set of competencies created by De Caluwé and Reitsma (2006) includes competencies regarding interventions in client-consultant engagements. These interventions are characterized by goals; every intervention is initiated with a specific goal and aim (De Caluwé and Reitsma, 2006). The definition that is used in this study to define interventions is derived from an earlier study of De Caluwé and Vermaak (1999): one or a series of planned change activities aimed at the increasing the functioning of the organization. Interventions are usually aimed at the individual, a group or the entire organization. This is confirmed by Kubr (2002) who states that a lot of intervention techniques have their roots in social sciences. These interventions are aimed at changing attitudes, values and individual and group behavior. Kubr (2002) refers to these interventions as soft techniques, whereas hard techniques can be seen as interventions aimed at restructuring business and organizations. These techniques can also be referred to as OD (Organization development) interventions (Kubr, 2002). A lot of authors (Kubr, 2002; Cummings and Worley, 2005; Schein, 1999; Boonstra, 2004 and Keuning and Eppink, 2004) have operationalized interventions and when these interventions are compared it is clear that these interventions are overlapping. De Caluwé and Reitsma (2006) have created their own set of interventions based on the authors mentioned above. The four types of interventions can be found in figure 2. The results of their research 22

24 pointed out that several competencies are needed in order to successfully perform an intervention. These competencies differ from the basic competencies and the approach specific competencies. The intervention specific competencies are: Awareness of organizational context, planning, organizing ability, result orientated, boldness, attention to details, problem solving, and inspiring. For these competencies it must be taken into account that the nature of the work being performed is important (Rothwell and Sullivan, 2005). Intervention specific competencies define who one needs to be, what one needs to know and what one must be capable of doing (Rothwell and Sullivan, 2005). Rothwell and Sullivan (2005) studied intervention specific competencies and concluded that, in order to be successful, the consultant must be able to apply the soft and hard interventions. According to their reasoning, intervention specific competencies are associated with individual characteristics and lead to successful performance and results. This leads to the following hypotheses: H30: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Awareness of organizational context by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H31: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Planning by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H32: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Organizing ability by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H33: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Result oriented by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H34: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Boldness by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H35: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Attention to details by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. 23

25 H36: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Problem solving by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H37: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Coaching by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H38: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Inspiring by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. Every competency presented above has its own definition. These definitions are adopted from the authors that have been used by De Caluwé and Reitsma (2006). The definitions for the intervention-specific competencies can be found in appendix D. As mentioned earlier, the model of De Caluwé and Reitsma (2006) contains three different types or sets of competencies. These sets are based on extensive research and comprise the competencies a consultant is ought to possess. However, one minor notification should be taken into account. There are competencies in this model that are duplicates. Needless to say, these competencies will not be used in the analysis twice. 2.3 Control variables The relationship that will be researched in this study is between the competencies of the consultant and the success of the client-consultant engagement. It has to be taken into account that other variables can influence this specific relationship and have an effect on client-consultant engagement success. Hence, a number of control variables will be included in this study. These control variables will be studied by asking the client. Even though there are control variables that measure personal characteristics of the consultant, the client is asked to judge these characteristics and answer the question accordingly. Consultant personal characteristics The personal characteristics of a consultant that will be taken into account are age, gender and work experience. The criteria for gender will be split up in man and woman. The criteria for work experience will be measured in years. The more experienced a consultant is, the higher the chance a client-consultant engagement will be successful. Also, the competencies of the consultant are also likely to be perceived better when a consultant is 24

26 experienced. As the consultant does not participate in this study, the client is asked to judge the work experience of the consultant he or she hired. The control variable age will be measured using the following criteria: Table 1: Age criteria Category Criteria Category Criteria Category Criteria > Duration of the engagement It could be argued that the duration of the project could influence the extent to which the client is able to perceive or judge the consultant. Kubr (2002) for instance, argues that the chance that the client gets used to the consultant gets bigger when the duration of the clientconsultant engagement is longer. On the other hand, the duration of the engagement could also influence the extent to which the consultant is capable of displaying his competencies. Therefore, the duration of the engagement will be taken into account. Earlier collaboration Another control variable that will be taken into account is whether both parties (client and consultant) have worked together before. This is a factor which also might influence the perception of the client. If a consultant returns to a familiar client, entry and processes will be simplified (Kubr, 2002). It is logical to assume that a client is more likely to choose for the same consultant if the previous result was positive. Therefore a client is more likely to perceive the consultant as and the engagement is more likely to be successful. 2.4 Conceptual model Based on this theoretical background, the research question and the hypotheses can be visualized in the following conceptual model: 25

27 Flexibility Coaching Inspiring Problem solving Analytical skills Conceptual thinking Learning Consultant characteristics - Age - Gender - Work experience orientation Creativity Balanced judgment Awareness of Duration of the engagement external environment + Earlier collaboration Generating vision + Listening Sensitivity Communication Control variables Control variables Presentation + Persuasion + Integrity + Reliability + Loyalty + Client-consultant Creating a favorable + engagement (as perceived by the client) atmosphere Entrepreneurship Market oriented Independence Leadership Consultation Risk awareness + Restraint + Making coalitions Energy Personal appeal Decisiveness Planning Awareness of organizational context Organizing Result Boldness Attention ability oriented 26

28 3. Methodological framework The methodological framework will describe the approach used in order to provide an answer to the posed research question. Because the foundation of this study is based on the works of De Caluwé & Reitsma, (2006) Kubr, (2002) and Van Aken (1996) this study is deductive. In order to research the variables and the relations between them, a quantitative approach is used. 3.1 Research design This research has a cross-sectional research design because it is conducted at one single moment in time. Based on a theoretical framework derived from earlier literature, the variables are studied and the relation between these variables is researched. This type of design makes it possible to study the selected variables in several environments. The variables are studied in organizations which have dealt with consultancy jobs in the past five years. This means that the client-consultant engagement has ended and is no longer active. In this research the unit of analysis is the consultant assignment and the unit of observation is the client who worked with the consultant. Data is gathered from a large variety of consultancy assignments. This study only gathers data from the client. In this study the client is defined as the person who was closely involved in the client-consultant engagement and who can form a clear opinion about the engagement and the result. 3.2 Data collection The data collection consists out of one method: quantitative data collection. The following section will describe how exactly the data will be collected and what dimensions and indicators will be used. The questionnaire is constructed using the theoretical framework and will measure the relation between the variables. Items consist out of existing scales and scales that were sefldeveloped. The questionnaire consists of a 5-point Likert scale for the items of the dependent variable. The reason why a 5-point Likert scale is used is because it is more reliable than a 7- point Likert scale (Likert, 1932). For the items of the independent variable also a 5-point Likert scale is used. The questionnaire was handed out to clients who participated in a clientconsultant engagement. 27

29 The independent variable is defined using the works of De Caluwé and Reitsma (2006). Due to the use of this definition, also the composed set of competencies is used. This set of competencies consists of three types of competencies which consist of several core competencies. This set is converted into a questionnaire in which respondents can judge their consultant on the different competencies. As this research uses an altered definition of Van Aken (1996) to define the dependent variable, it also adopts the scale Van Aken (1996) constructed. This study will use this scale to measure the client-consultant engagement success. Van Aken performed a factor analysis on this scale and therefore it is unnecessary to repeat this step. To ensure that this scale is reliable, the Cronbach s Alpha was checked. The α of confirms the reliability of the scale, as it can be judged as good with the aim of the test being research at group level. A benefit of the scales of Van Aken (1996) is the number of items. Due to the fact that it only contains six items it is not very time consuming. The final version of the survey has been checked by three independent people: the thesis circle supervisor, a statistics professor and a consultant. The survey has been adjusted according to their feedback. Subsequently, the survey was sent to the clients. A digital version of the survey was constructed in order to simplify the process for the client and to increase the likeliness to respond. Respondents had the possibility to fill out the survey anonymous, so that any change on social desirable answers was eliminated. Also, the clients were asked to fill out the questionnaire about only one project, preferably their last project. In addition, for every client-consultant engagement a maximum of two respondents was required. The purpose of this was to obtain a high number of client-consultant engagements. The variable Competencies of the consultant can be divided into three operationalizations: Basic competencies, intervention specific competencies and approach specific competencies. In order to clarify how these three sets further consist out of several other competencies, a scheme is presented in figure 2. An indicator of the basic competencies is Conceptual thinking. This indicator can be described as: Provide deeper or broader insight in situations by making connections with other types of information. The question that will be posed in the questionnaire to measure this indicator is: How would you rate the consultant on the following competency: Conceptual thinking? A 5-point Likert scale with the following answer categories: Not at all, not, neutral,, very will be used in order to measure the indicator. 28

30 3.3 Data analysis The data that is collected by the use of questionnaires is analyzed with the statistical program SPSS This is done in order to gain insight in the relationship between the independent and dependent variables and the effect of the moderating variable on that specific relationship. The data is checked for missing values, errors and outliers. All scales that were used in the questionnaire were existing scales. The dependent variable was adopted from Van Aken (1996) and the independent variables were adopted from De Caluwe and Reitsma (2006). The scales that were adopted from De Caluwé and Reitsma (2006) are analyzed using multiple regression analysis. A hierarchical multiple regression analysis is used to test the relationship between the independent variables and the dependent variable. All the independent variables were entered into the equation simultaneously. After that, each independent variable was evaluated in terms of its predictive power, over and above that offered by all the other independent variables. The control variables were included to check whether there are different influences from these factors. All relations and regressions were checked for significance. 3.4 Sample strategy This research has collected data from organizations that have recently worked with external consultants. In this study recently is seen as the past five years. These clientconsultant engagements can be either successful or unsuccessful. Respondents were found in three ways: through my personal network, through the networks of others and by randomly selecting organizations and approaching them. Respondents who were found through my own network were people who work in a large variety of organizations which used the services of a consultant in the past five years. Among these organizations were big multinationals in the telecom industry and oil industry. Also several smaller organizations were asked to cooperate. Besides that a small number of consultants in my network was approached with the question to participate in the quest for respondents. This resulted in the references of these consultants and access to their networks, was consisted out of respondents from, i.e., the twelve provinces of The Netherlands. Respondents who were found through the networks of other persons were also employees of several different organizations. This also contributed to a lower selection bias, 29

31 as this included organizations from different sectors. Next to that, it is fairly unclear to what extent the consultancy projects or engagements are comparable. Both strategies included the search for respondents via LinkedIn. My own network was asked to participate and a number of these persons forwarded my request through their own network. In addition I placed the request in ten different LinkedIn groups with a total number of members. Also the supervisor of this circle forwarded the request to persons in her network. Another strategy that was used was to select organizations and approach them. Organizations were randomly selected in order to reduce selection bias. These organizations were approached by and telephone. The total N that was achieved is 67. Due to outliers and missing values, the total usable N is 59. Stevens (1996, p. 72) states that for social science research, about 15 subjects per predictor are needed for a reliable equation. As this study has 43 predictors (independent variables and control variables), a minimum amount of 645 respondents (43 x 15 = 645) is needed for a reliable equation. Unfortunately, due to the limited timeframe of this study, this number of respondents was not feasible and this can be seen as a limitation of the study. 3.5 Research quality indicators In this section of the study the research quality indicators will be clarified. These research quality indicators are: Construct validity, internal validity and external validity Construct validity There is little empirical data on the relation between a consultant s competencies and the success of the client-consultant engagement. The studies that do include the competencies of a consultant do not test it empirically (Jang and Lee, 1998). The theoretical framework of this study is based on literature that is accepted in the consultancy field (BoKS, 2010). The independent variable is based on research conducted by De Caluwé and Reitsma (2006). Although a list of competencies can be endless, the set of competencies created by De Caluwé and Reitsma (2006) is extensive enough for application on consultancy jobs (Hoekstra and Van Sluijs, 2007). Together with the used definition for competencies, the construct validity is tolerably covered for the independent variable. The dependent variable uses an altered definition of Van Aken (1996) for measuring the client-consultant engagement success. This minor adjustment was necessary to make the 30

32 definition suitable for this research. The scales for measuring satisfaction have been untouched, though, and have been proved reliable. In addition a lot of scholars use satisfaction as a measure for success, so it is safe to state that satisfaction is widely accepted. The construct validity for the dependent variable is therefore considered sufficient Internal validity Bryman (2008) states that internal validity in a cross sectional research design is generally low. As stated before, there is little literature or empirical evidence that shows that there is a causal relationship between the independent variable and the dependent variable. Researching this is already hard enough and the limited time frame does not make achieving high internal validity any much easier. In addition to that, the cross-sectional research design only allows for measurements at one moment in time. This makes it harder to prove causality. In order to keep the internal validity as high as possible, control variables have been used to be able to test for the specific effect of a consultant s competencies only. Based on the available literature it is safe to state there is a causal relationship between a consultant s competencies and the success of the client-consultant engagement (McLachlin, 2000; Van Aken, 1996) External validity As the sample strategy already revealed, the aim of this study is to generalize its findings to the population. The population in this study is the clients of consultant s. As the number of respondents in this research is 59 the results can be generalized to the population. 31

33 4 Results 4.1 Preliminary analyses This study obtained 67 respondents of which 8 were found to have not completed the questionnaire, or only filled out a few questions. These respondents, or missing values, were deleted from the data set, for they had no usable contribution to this study. The data set was also checked for outliers; respondents who have filled out the questionnaire with unusual answers. No unusual or remarkable answers have been discovered and therefore no outliers were removed. The total number of respondents that have participated in this study is 67. However, as already mentioned above, only 59 respondents proved suitable to take into account when performing the analyses. The total sample is therefore 59. The questionnaire contained questions that asked for the client s opinion about the consultant. Also it contained questions about characteristics of the consultant. It did not contain any questions about the client. The sample showed that 66,1% of the consultants was male and 33,9% was female. When looking at the age of the hired consultants, it is immediately clear that 57,6% of the consultants was between 36 and 50 years old. 18,7% was younger than 36 years and 23,7% was older than 50 years. The respondents indicated that 35,6% of their consultants had between 21 and 30 years of experience in consulting. Only 3,4% of the consultants had more experience (between 31 and 40 years). The statistics show that 27,1% of the clients indicated that they have worked with their consultant before. The majority, 72,9%, indicated otherwise, meaning that they have created new contacts and hired a consultant which was unknown to them. The duration of the client-consultant engagement was distributed irregular, but, according to the clients, most engagements had a duration of 5 to 7 months (42,3%). 32

34 4.2 Secondary analysis In order to accept or reject the formulated hypotheses, the gathered data has to be analyzed. Each hypothesis will be tested using a hierarchical multiple regression analysis. Prior to the analyses of the independent variables, the dependent variable is checked for internal consistency. Van Aken (1996) stated in his dissertation that his scale proved reliable with an α of However, this does not mean that the scale is also internally consistent in this study. Therefore the reliability is checked and confirmed with an α of In order to be able to do the main analysis, preliminary analyses have to be performed. The data set was inspected for missing values, errors, outliers, multicollinearity. This is necessary to perform statistical techniques to address the research question Consultant s competencies The independent variables do not seem to correlate too high with each other. All correlations are lower than.7 (Pallant, 2008). However, when looking at the table Coefficients, two values need to be taken into account: Tolerance and VIF. A tolerance value smaller than 0.10 indicates that the multiple correlation with other variables high, suggesting the possibility of multicollinearity (Pallant, 2008). The coefficients table in appendix H clearly shows a number of variables with lower tolerance values than.10. In addition, also the VIF value of these variables is larger than 10, supporting the tolerance value. These values have consequences for the analysis. As the values are not at least matching the recommended values, these variables are removed from the equation. Multicollinearity is not desirable in a multiple regression analysis. The variables that have been removed are: Conceptual thinking, Awareness of external environment, Generating vision, Listening, Communication, Presentation, Persuation, Integrity, Reliability, Creating a favourable atmosphere, Awareness of organizational context, Boldness, Problem solving, Coaching, Entrepreneurship, Market oriented, Independence, Quality orientation, Leadership, Consultation, Restraint, Personal appeal. Next to that, another variable needs to be removed from the analysis. The control variable Duration of the engagement does not significantly contribute to the dependent variable. For this reason this variable is removed. The other control variables do contribute significantly to both the independent and dependent variables. As mentioned in paragraph 4.1 no outliers have to be removed from the dataset. 33

35 Now that the analysis has been checked for these assumptions, the actual analysis can be performed. The statistical evidence can be found in Appendix I. The hierarchical regression analysis that was performed, was used to assess the ability of the independent variables (Flexibility, Analytical skills, Learning orientation, Creativity, Balanced judgment, Sensitivity, Loyalty, Planning, Organizing ability, Result oriented, Attention to detail, Inspiring, Risk awareness, Making coalitions, Energy and Decisiveness) to predict levels of client-consultant engagement success (Satisfaction), after controlling for the influence of age, gender, experience and earlier cooperation of the consultant. As mentioned before, preliminary analyses were conducted to ensure no violation of the assumptions of normality, linearity, multicollinearity and homoscedasticity. The hierarchical regression analysis consists out of two steps. In the first step the control variables are entered. The SPSS output shows that the control variables explain 23,8% of the variance in client-consultant engagement success. The first step is significant: F (4, 54) = 4.226, p < In the second step of the hierarchical regression analysis, the independent variables are entered. After entry of these variables, the total variance that is explained by the model as a whole is 74%, F (20, 38) = 5.408, p < The independent variables explained an additional 60,3% of the variance in client-consultant engagement success, after controlling for earlier cooperation, age, gender and consultant experience. Table 2: Model summary and significance Step R R 2 Adjusted R 2 F Sig Although the model as a whole is significant, not all variables contribute significantly to the dependent variable. This is important information, as it helps confirming or rejecting the formulated hypotheses. It is thus important to know which of the independent variables contribute to the prediction of client-consultant engagement success. The only independent variables that contribute significantly to the dependent variables are: Analytical skills (beta =.274, p <.05), Creativity (beta =.197, p <.1), Planning (beta =.226, p <.05), Organizing ability (beta =.257, p <.1) and Attention to detail (beta =.361, p <.05). In addition the control variable Earlier cooperation is significant too, recording beta =.423, p <.05. This is illustrated in table 3. 34

36 Table 3: Beta and significance Variable Beta Sig. Analytical skills Creativity Planning Organizing ability Attention to detail Earlier cooperation (control variable) The independent variables Flexibility (beta =.199, p >.05), Learning orientation (beta =.066, p >.05), Balanced judgment (beta = -.064, p >.05), Sensitivity (beta =.05, p >.05), Loyalty (beta = -.073, p >.05), Result oriented (beta = -.169, p >.05), Inspiring (beta =.036, p >.05), Risk awareness (beta = -.004, p >,05), Making coalition (beta = -.022, p >.05), Energy (beta = -.168, p >.05) and Decisiveness (beta = -.029, p >.05) do not have a significant contribution to the client-consultant engagement success. Also, the control variables Age (beta = -.021, p >.05), Gender (beta =.049, p >.05) and Experience of the consultant (beta =.074, p >.05) do not contribute significantly. These results will further be discussed in the discussion paragraph of this study. The results presented above indicate that five out of 16 independent variables contribute to the success of the client-consultant engagement. An interesting note is that Attention to detail contributes most to the dependent variable. Although only one control variable is significant, the control variables in sum do explain 23,8% of the variance in the dependent variable Hypotheses The hierarchical multiple regression has been performed and the formulated hypotheses can be either confirmed or rejected. Before the data was checked for multicollinearity the amount of variables was quite extensive. Due to 22 cases of multicollinearity, the final analysis contained 16 independent variables. The other 22 variables were not suitable for analysis and the contribution could therefore not be tested. Since these 35

37 hypotheses could not be tested, they are neither confirmed or rejected. The hypotheses that could not be tested, are presented below in table 4. Table 4: Untested hypotheses H3: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Conceptual thinking by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H7: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Awareness of external environment by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H8: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Generating vision by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H9: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Listening by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H11: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Communication by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H12: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Presentation by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H13: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Persuasion by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H14: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Integrity by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H15: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Reliability by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H17: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Creating a favorable atmosphere by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H18: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Entrepreneurship by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. 36

38 H19: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Market Oriented by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H20: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Independence by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H22: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Leadership by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H23: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Consultation by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H28: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Restraint by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H32: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Personal appeal by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H30: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Awareness of organizational context by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H34: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Boldness by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H36: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Problem solving by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. The results indicated that the independent variables Flexibility, Learning orientation, Balanced judgment, Sensitivity, Loyalty, Result oriented, Inspiring, Risk awareness, Making coalition, Energy and Decisiveness did not have any significant contribution to clientconsultant engagement success. The results show that also there are independent variables that do have a significant contribution to client-consultant engagement success. These variables include: Analytical skills, Creativiy, Planning, Organizing Ability and Attention to detail. A clear overview of the rejected and confirmed hypotheses can be found in the table below. 37

39 Table 5: Confirmed and rejected hypotheses. Hypothesis H1: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Flexibility by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H2: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Analytical skills by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H4: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Learning orientation by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H5: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Creativity by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H6: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Balanced judgment by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H10: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Sensitivity by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H16: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Loyalty by its client, it will have a positive effect on the clientconsultant engagement success. H24: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Risk awareness by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H26: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Making coalitions by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H27: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Energy by its client, it will have a positive effect on the clientconsultant engagement success. H29: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Decisiveness by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H31: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Planning by its client, it will have a positive effect on the clientconsultant engagement success. H32: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Organizing ability by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H33: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Result oriented by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H35: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Attention to details by its client, it will have a positive effect on the client-consultant engagement success. H38: If a consultant is perceived to be at the competency Inspiring by its client, it will have a positive effect on the clientconsultant engagement success. Confirmed/rejected Rejected Confirmed Rejected Confirmed Rejected Rejected Rejected Rejected Rejected Rejected Rejected Confirmed Confirmed Rejected Confirmed Rejected 38

40 5 Conclusion This study focuses on the relationship between a consultant s competencies and the success of the client-consultant engagement. The goal of this study is to research which competencies contribute more to client-consultant engagement success than others. This relationship has been studied using several variables. Consulting competencies were used as independent variables. These variables are based on literature from De Caluwé and Reitsma (2006), Kubr (2002). The three independent variables have been derived from the study of De Caluwé and Reitsma (2006) who concluded that a consultant can possess three types of competencies. The independent variable has been extracted from the study of Van Aken (1996). His measure for satisfaction has been used to measure the client s satisfaction about the clientconsultant engagement. The use of these variables and the theoretical framework has led to answering the following research question: To what extent do the consultant s competencies contribute to a successful client-consultant engagement? Before a conclusive answer can be provided, hypotheses needed to be formulated, tested and either confirmed or rejected. An underlying theory was provided by the theoretical framework, based on the works of De Caluwé and Reitsma (2006), Kubr (2002), Hoekstra and Van Sluijs (2003) and others. The data was obtained using a, partially, self-developed questionnaire. The questionnaire was set out among a population and resulted in a usable dataset of 59 respondents. Hierarchical regression is used to research the relation between the independent variables and the dependent variable. Although there still is an ongoing debate in the scientific field on how to measure the engagement success, this study uses the scale of Vnan Aken (1996). Before the research question will be answered, the control variables will be mentioned. The only control variable that has a significant effect is Earlier cooperation. This study focuses on which of the competencies has the most significant contribution, but that does not mean that the effect of the control variables can be unstressed. As stated, only Earlier cooperation contributes significantly to the equation. This means that it matters whether the consultant is hired before. In other words, if the consultant and the client worked together in the past, it will positively influence the chance that the engagement will be successful. This is 39

41 in line with the arguments of Kubr (2002) who states that trust and confidence between a consultant and a client are very important conditions which are necessary to achieve success. This explains why this control variable contributes significantly; if there was trust and confidence in a previous engagement, it is likely that these two aspects will be present again, which will, again, lead to a successful engagement. Thus, support for this significant value is found in the theory of Kubr (2002). In this study a lot of hypotheses are formulated in order to check which competencies contribute most to client-consultant engagement success. When a preliminary analysis was performed on the data, the results indicated that there was a lot multicollinearity, meaning that there are variables that are highly correlated with other variables. This can have a negative impact on the results and therefore these variables have been removed. Because these variables have been removed, the encompassing hypotheses could not be tested. Consequently, there is a confirmation nor a rejection on these hypotheses. This is unfortunate, because these competencies are part of a larger set of consultant competencies. These competencies are expected to contribute to the success of the client-consultant engagement and they do, but the multicollinearity causes instabilities in the statistical calculations. Subsequently, these competencies influence the reliability of the results of this study negatively, and therefore they are removed from this study. The regarding competencies are mentioned earlier in this study and can be found in table 4, presenting the untested hypotheses. After the variables that caused multicollinearity were removed from the set, the multiple regression analyses resulted in five significant contributions and 11 insignificant contributions. The insignificant contributions proved to have mixed results in terms of negative or positive contributions. Although not all competencies are expected to contribute equally to the engagement success, it is remarkable to see that the more a consultant possesses i.e. the competency Making coalition (beta = -.022, p >.05), the lower the chance of engagement success is. Other results have positive contributions, but also insignificant. The hypotheses that are confirmed are outnumbered compared to the total number of hypotheses. The results were: Analytical skills (beta =.274, p <.05), Creativity (beta =.197, p <.1), Planning (beta =.226, p <.05), Organizing ability (beta =.257, p <.1) and Attention to detail (beta =.361, p <.05). In addition the control variable Earlier cooperation is significant too, recording beta =.423, p <.05. The results indicate that when a consultant possesses these competencies, it will increase the chance that the engagement is successful. The competencies that contributed significantly are reasonably in line with the findings and statements of De Caluwé and Reitsma (2006). In their study they argue that a consultant should possess a basic 40

42 set of competencies. Two of the confirmed hypotheses included competencies adopted from the set of basic competencies, implying that these basic competencies are indeed important. However, the other significant results included competencies that belong to approach-specific competencies and to intervention-specific competencies. Also two important sets of competencies, but according to De Caluwé and Reitsma (2006) just two additional sets of competencies. A contradiction which will be further discussed in the following chapter. Nevertheless, the results indicate that there are five important competencies which a consultant should possess, because these five competencies contribute positively to the equation. Besides that, when hiring a consultant the client would do best to select a consultant with whom the client has cooperated in the past. This seems to increase the chance of a successful engagement. This study shows that there are certain competencies that influence the engagement success more and better than other competencies. This might be something for HRpractitioners who conduct competency assessments in organizations or HR-managers who use competencies in selection procedures to take into account, as a consultant with the five significant competencies is more likely to successfully accomplish an engagement than a consultant who does not possess these competencies. Of course there are many other factors that influence the successful completion of a client-consultant engagement such as whether the consultant is an external or an internal consultant, or if the client and consultant have worked together before, so it is idealistic to state that these competencies undoubtedly lead to success, but when looking at competencies only, these five seem most important. Based on these conclusions, the research question can be answered as follows. Clientconsultant engagement success is influenced by the competencies of a consultant. Based on the results of this study and the confirmed hypotheses, it can be stated that client-consultant engagement is explained by five competencies. 41

43 6 Discussion and reflection This chapter will discuss the findings of the research. Furthermore, there will be reflected on the research process. 6.1 Discussion De Caluwé and Vermaak (2006) stated that there is a lot of confusion in the scientific field regarding the construct competencies. They argue that a lot of different definitions and designations are used when one refers to competencies. This implies that there is not really consensus about the definition. The same goes for which competencies are important. In the past scholars have stated that the competencies of a consultant are important for the success of the client-consultant engagement (Jang and Lee, 1998; O Driscoll and Eubanks, 2003; Appelbaum and Steed, 2005). However, no author supports these statements with empirical data or a classification of what competencies the consultant should possess. De Caluwé and Reitsma (2006) made an effort in determining a set of competencies a consultant should have. Their research resulted in an extensive set of competencies, divided into three different types of competencies: Basic competencies, Approach specific competencies and Intervention specific competencies. These three types all consist out of several competencies and each competency is in its own way useful for a consultant. This study tried to determine which of those competencies are important for the consultant and which competencies contributed the most to engagement success. With the acquired results, it contributes to the scientific field with empirical data regarding the relationship between a consultant s competencies and the success of the client-consultant engagement. This study is a causal analysis and in the light of this type of study a multiple regression analysis was performed. The multiple regression analysis that was performed on the gathered data revealed several results. First, the results showed multiple signs of multicollinearity. High correlations between several variables existed. These variables had to be excluded from the analysis for they would compromise the reliability of the results. A reason for the high multicollinearity could be that the competencies are overlapping and therefore correlate high with each other. When looking at the competencies individually, it becomes clear why certain competencies could overlap. For instance, the comeptencies Integrity and Loyalty are included in the same competency domain according to Hoekstra and Van Sluijs (2007). Even with the clear definitions provided by Hoekstra and Van Sluijs (2007) one could see why these competencies might overlap when a consultant displays the 42

44 different aspects of these competencies. In addition, another reason why these competencies exhibit multicollinearity is because the client is unable to perceive the differences between these competencies. This might seem identical to the first possible explanation, but there is a slight discrepancy between whether competencies overlap or if the client has troubles with identifying the competencies. Other variables that might overlap are Listening and Communication, and Presenting and Persuasion. Also these competencies show high multicollinearity and the competencies Presenting and Persuasion both are included in the competency domain Influencing. After these variables were excluded from the data, the multiple regression analysis could be conducted again. The results indicated that only one control variable contributed significantly and five independent variables contributed significantly. The effect of the control variable Earlier cooperation is in line with the theory of Kubr (2002) who states that there is a higher chance on success when the established relation between a client and a consultant has already been established in the past. Also with a pure logical line of reasoning this effect is explainable. A client is most-likely not to choose a consultant again if the previous engagement was unsuccessful. This implies that an engagement which has occurred before is more likely to succeed than a fresh and new engagement. The five independent variables which have a significant contribution to the dependent variable, all contribute positively. Only five out of sixteen variables which are significant might seem little, but the competencies that proved to be significant are quite important competencies. As already mentioned before, there is hardly any empirical data on which competencies are important. Scholars have studied the relation between competencies and other variables, but not specific competencies. Breman and Bruinsma (2006) for instance studied whether competencies lead to performance. Levenson et al. (2006) studied the relation between managerial competencies, human capital and performance. Although these relations have been studied, Goldstein et al. (2001) state that there is limited empirical evidence that competencies are positively related to performance. This study delivers empirical evidence that competencies are positively related to client-consultant engagement success. The results show five competencies which are positively related to engagement success. When looking at the competencies individually, it is rather logical why these competencies have a significant contribution. The definitions of the significant competencies explain why it is logical that these competencies are important to the engagement success. This is clarified in the table below. 43

45 Table 6: Competencies and their definitions Competency Definitions Analytical Systematically examine and allocate problems and questions. Parse relevant skills information, backgrounds and structures. Connect data and see relationships between cause and effect. Creativity Come with original solutions for problems that are connected to the function. Create new ways of working. Planning Effectively determine targets and priorities and necessary actions, time and resources in order to achieve the objectives. Organizing Identify and acquire the required staff and resources for a plan, deploy it ability Attention to details so that desired results are effectively achieved. Demonstrate attention to detail, deal with detailed information prolonged and effectively. These competencies are basically the minimum skills and capabilities a consultant must possess. The definitions of these five competencies display the core tasks of a consultant. Kubr (2002) mentions the five phases of consulting in his book. These five phases are illustrated in the picture below. Figure 3 44

46 These five competencies and their definitions are fairly similar to the descriptions that match the phases. Analytical skills and its definition match the first phase, Entry, as the analytical skills are used to diagnose the problem. This competency also matches the second phase, Diagnosis, as the problem is analyzed and facts and figures are analyzed. In the third phase, Action planning, Creativity is used to come up with original solutions for the problem. Also Planning is used. In the Implementation phase Organizing ability is used in order to effectively achieve desired results. Competency Attention to detail is used in every phase, as the consultant must be focused and sharp at all times. As is mentioned above, Kubr s model explains the importance of the competencies that proved significant in the analysis. However, this does not mean that these are the only competencies a consultant needs. Hoekstra and van Sluijs (2007) created a very extensive set of competencies and they stated that there is no such thing as a complete or definite set. They state that there is always room for improvement or moderation of competency sets and that there are always situations in which other competencies would suit better. In general the outcomes of this study are in line with what other authors have mentioned: competencies are related to performance. Or in other words: competencies lead to a successful engagement. When taking the study of De Caluwé and Reitsma (2006) into account, the results of this study are not totally in line with what they state. De Caluwé and Reitsma (2006) argue that a consultant needs basic competencies (consisting out of seventeen competencies), approach specific competencies (consisting out of seventeen competencies) and intervention-specific competencies (consisting out of eleven competencies). This is a very large set of competencies, and although the approach-specific and intervention-specific competencies are complementary to the basic competencies, De Caluwé and Reitsma, (2006) state that these competencies are needed by a consultant. This study says differently. According to the analysis and results of this study, several competencies are overlapping (or at least hard to distinguish by the client), and only five competencies contribute significantly. These five competencies seem to match other theory (Kubr, 2002) and even with a logical line of reasoning it seem like five competencies that a consultant should possess. Reasons for these discrepancies could lie in the limitations of this study, which will be discussed in the next chapter. 45

47 6.2 Reflection This research has provided some useful insights. The quest for useful literature has proven to be difficult. A clear and concise operationalization of competencies required by the management consultant is not easy to find. A lot of studies discuss the construct of competencies, but most of these researches use the construct as some sort of container concept, or an umbrella concept, if you will. These studies do not operationalize competencies or even try to motivate their statements with hard, empirical data. Examples of studies like the described studies before, are Jang and Lee (1998), who argue that consultant s competencies is just one factor influencing the success of the client-consultant engagement, and Appelbaum and Steed (2005), who basically give a summary of critical success factors, but do not go into detail regarding the competencies. De Caluwé and Reitsma (2006) did quite an extensive study on what competencies a consultant should possess. This study is (by my knowledge) one of, if not, the first to examine specific competencies. Their study broaches new scientific subjects of which little is known. This study used the research of De Caluwé and Reitsma (2006) as a starting point, because it is merely based on a solid theoretical foundation. In contrary to other scholars, De Caluwé and Reitsma (2006) have succeeded in classifying which competencies are needed by a consultant. Their classification was based on a widespread research. This study used their classification and by using the clients of the consultant, a study was conducted on the relationship between the competencies of De Caluwé and Reitsma (2006) and the clientconsultant engagement success. When looking at the results of this study, I can say that these are pretty much in line with the theory. The relevance of this study lies in the information it provides for both consultants and clients. For consultants this study is useful because it clearly indicates which competencies are perceived by the client. This makes it possible for consultants and consultancy firms to adjust trainings, workshops, development courses and selection for specific consultants. For clients, this study makes it possible to select their consultants. Maybe on basis of earlier cooperation or on basis of what type of approach they desire. When looking back at the research process, I must say that I would have done some things different if I could do it again. Despite the relatively short time frame, a qualitative element in this study would have strengthened the research. Interviews could have been held which could have supported the results. Mixed methods would have strengthened the reliability. This would have also created the possibility to gain deeper insight in the nature of the client-consultant engagement. Questions like what is the purpose of the engagement or 46

48 what are the expected results could have been asked. This would provide a better understanding of the client-consultant engagement. Also, the search for suitable respondents could have started earlier. This would have increased the change for a higher N and a better generalizable result. With the amount of independent variables taken in to account, it is clear that the N is just too little to fully generalize the findings of this study. The literature that has been used has been selected carefully. Only scientific papers and books have been used in order to ensure the reliability and quality. Because of this, the quality of the literature is sufficient, as is the quality of the used criteria and measures in the questionnaire. The questionnaire is partially composed using scientific literature and partially using an existing scale (Van Aken, 1996) out of scientific literature. This study has managed to operationalize a consultant s competencies and researched its effect on client-consultant engagement success. It has contributed to the scientific field with empirical data regarding this relationship. It offers new insights, confirmed theories and a starting point for further research. 47

49 7 Limitations and recommendations for future research The following chapter provides insight into the limitations this study had to deal with. Consequently, the recommendations for future research will be addressed. 7.1 Limitations Like any other study, this study has its limitations. This research has studied the relation between a consultant s competencies and the client-consultant engagement success solely from the client side. The fact that only the client side has been asked to participate in this study, means that the consultant side has not been taken into account. This is done despite the fact that McLachlin (2000) states that the client-consultant engagement can only be successful if the expectations of both the consultant and the client are met. The choice to exclude the consultant was a deliberate choice. Concessions had to be made, looking at the limited time frame. In my personal opinion, this limitation is just a minor one. Since the client side has participated, the most important group to assess the engagement success has been included. After all, the client is the one who pays the consultant and who has to work with the result as provided by the consultant. Or not. Therefore, the satisfaction of the client is of greater value than the inclusion of the consultant. The client brings us to the next limitation. Although there is a clear definition of who the client exactly is (the person who was closely involved in the client-consultant engagement and who can form a clear opinion about the engagement and the result) it cannot be ensured that every client who fills out the questionnaire really complies to that definition. This due to the fact that the questionnaire was also spread through internet. This made it difficult to ensure the inclusion of merely suitable clients. However, it is expected that the respondents who filled out the questionnaire were at least capable of forming a clear opinion on the consultant and the competencies. Besides that, because the questionnaire is put out on the internet, it cannot be ensured that all the consultancy projects and engagements are equal. Differences in terms of type of engagement. This study does not distinguish projects that are focused on reorganizations or implementations. Nor does this study distinguish consultancy projects focused on specific organizational departments, like IT or HR. For that reason, it is very hard to control for the type of consultancy assignment. Another limitation is the sample size of this study. The total N was 59. For a quantitative study, this is quite low. Stevens (1996) argues that a study must have the amount of respondents equal to three times its independent variables. Other, more recent, studies state 48

50 that this is too low and that it should be higher. Ideally, 100 respondents or more should cover generalizability completely. Due to the fact that the N is only 59, generalizability is unfortunately quite low. This study has tried to predict client-consultant engagement success through a consultant s competencies. Of course, other determinants play a role when predicting engagement success. This study was limited to the competencies only, because of the extensive character it would get when including numerous other variables that are likely to predict engagement success. Aspects like collaboration, consultant personality and trust are highly likely to influence the client-consultant engagement success too, but due to the time limit these variables could not be taken into account. De Caluwé and Reitsma (2006) have composed a set of competencies that is used in this research. This set consisted of three types of competencies and their underlying competencies. While it is an extensive set, based on an extensive amount of scientific literature, it is not proven that this is an exhausting set of competencies. The competencies required by consultants could be an ever larger set than used in study. Another possibility is that the consultant requires other types than basic competencies, approach specific competencies and intervention specific competencies. This study does not investigate this possibility, but it does give clear insights in how, and to what extent, the different competencies influence client-consultant engagement success. The questionnaire that is used in this study also has its limitations. The length of this survey could have been a hurdle for the respondents. It is quite long, as it contains almost 60 items. A long questionnaire decreases the change of it being filled out completely. Respondents are demotivated when they see that it is a long survey. Another limitation of the questionnaire is that it has no mirrored questions. The tendency to fill out all the same answers in order to finish the survey as soon as possible is, therefore, not eliminated. However, the raw data has been checked for outliers and missing values. In addition it has been corrected for strange values. Multicollinearity was another limitation of this study. Due to this phenomenon a lot of variables had to be removed from the study, which lead to a reduced set of variables and to eventually five significant variables. These five variables were obtained by using a.1 significance level, which is not as reliable as the usual.05 significance level, but it did cause two variables to be considered significant. Two quite important competencies (Organizing ability and Creativiy) could be labeled as significant. Two competencies which are important, when looking at the phases of consulting model of Kubr (2002). 49

51 7.2 Future research This study has provided some interesting insights that could be addressed in future research. First, due to the length of the time frame this study has not been a process research in which the types of relations and underlying motivations were investigated. With enough time, it could be interesting to further investigate the clients underlying motivations to choose a particular consultant, or a consultant with whom a client-consultant engagement has existed before. Furthermore, this study has not taken the context or the type of client-consultant engagement into account. Future research could include this for better insights in the engagement and the nature of the project. As stated before, it is very likely that other factors influence the success of a clientconsultant engagement. In future research these factors could be taken into account so that a more widespread and complete understanding can be created about the critical success factors of the client-consultant engagement. Factors like collaboration, trust, personality, but also used instruments and the role of the client could be taken into account in order to form an inclusive view on the client-consultant engagement. McLachlin (2000) argues that the client-consultant engagement can only be successful if the expectations of both the consultant and the client are met. This study only took the client side into account. If future research also takes the consultant side into account, interesting results for the academic field and the practical field could be found. An extensive study, which takes into account specific competencies and other factors for success, is of great added value to the academic community and the practical field because such a study has not been conducted yet. A future study could also use another scale or determinant for client-consultant engagement success. This study used satisfaction (Van Aken, 1996) but an ongoing debate in the literature still has not provided a conclusive determinant for engagement success. Although satisfaction is a useful measure, other measures might prove more suitable in other settings where hard measures are desired. After all, satisfaction is a subjective, soft measure. Another recommendation for future research could be that a more in-depth look is taken into the unsatisfied clients. This study does not do that and it would be interesting to investigate what the reasons were for unsatisfying results. This study has tried to provide insights in the relation between client-consultant engagement success and the competencies of a consultant. However, there are lots of other factors that influence the engagement. Also, the concept of competencies has a long way to go before it is operationalized in a satisfying way. It would be credent to believe that this study 50

52 provides conclusive answers for the entire academic and practical field. For this reason, this study can be used as a source of inspiration for future research. 51

53 5 References Aken, T. van (1996) De weg naar projectsucces: eerder via werkstijl dan via instrumenten, Uitgeverij De Tijdstroom B.V., 1st edition, Utrecht. Appelbaum, S.H. & Steed, A.J. (2005) The critical success factors in the client-consulting relationship, The journal of management development, vol. 24-1/.2, pg. 68. Armenakis, A.A. & Burdg, H.B. (1988) Consultation research: Contributions to practice and directions for improvement, Journal of management, vol. 14-2, pg Beer, M., & Nohria, N., (2000) Breaking the code of change. Harvard business school press Boonstra, Jaap J., Lopen over water, over dynamiek van organiseren, vernieuwen en leren. Vossiuspers, AUP, Amsterdam, Breman, P., Bruinsma, J., (2006). Leidt ie tot prestatie? Tijdschrift voor HRM 2 Bryman, A. (2008). Social Research Methods (3th ed.). Oxford: Oxford university press. Buono, A.F., Jamieson, D.W. (2010) Consultation for organizational change. Information Age Publishing Inc. USA Caluwé, L. de & Reitsma, E., (2006) Competenties van organisatieadviseurs. Mediawerf Caluwé, L., de & Vermaak, H., (2006) Leren veranderen, een handboek voor de veranderkundige. Tweede geheel herziene versie. Kluwer, Deventer. Caluwé, Léon de en Hans Vermaak, Leren veranderen, een handboek voor de veranderkundige. Samson, Alphen aan den Rijn Cash, W. B. and Minter, R. L. (1979). `Consulting approaches - two basic styles'.training and Development Journal, September, 26-8 Clark T. (1995). Managing Consultants: Consultancy as the Management of Impressions.Open University Press: Buckingham Covin, T.J. and Fisher, T.V. (1991) Consultant and Client Must Work Together, Journal of Management Consulting 6(4), pp

54 Czerniawska, F. (2003) Maximizing the value of consultants: key lessons from clients, Arkimeda publications, London. De Caluwé, L., & Stoppelenburg, A. (2004). Developing Criteria for Effectiveness of Consultant s Work De Wit A. Measuring project success. Project management Institute Seminar/Symposium Montreal Canada, Sep. 1987, 13 DeVellis, R.F. (2003) Scale Development: Theory and applications (2 nd edn). Thousand Oaks, California: Sage. Gable, G.G. (1996). A multidimensional model of client success when engaging external consultants, Management Science, vol. 42-8, pg Goldstein, H. W., Yusko, K. P., & Nicolopoulos, V Exploring black-white subgroup differences of managerial competencies. Personnel Psychology, 54: Hoekstra, H.A. & van Sluijs, E. (2007) Management van ies; het realiseren van HRM,. Koninklijke Van Gorcum, Assen Hoekstra, H.A. en E. van der Sluijs, Managing competencies, implementing human resoure management. GITP, Van Gorcum, Assen, Hollaender, I., (2008) Consultancy-based Learning: Interaction and Larning in a Small Business Context. Journal of Asia Entrepreneurship and sustainability. Vol IV, Issue 4, December Hout, E.J.Th. van, G. Smid, en Y.D. Burger Interim-management samenspel in verandering. Succes- en faalfactoren bij interim-management. Den Haag : Lemma, 2004 International Council of Management Consulting Institutes (ICMCI) over: Professional Standards, Competency Model en Competence Framework UK. Vancouver, Jang, Y. & Lee, J. (1998) Factors influencing the success of management consulting projects, Elsevier Science Ltd., vol. 16-2, pg Kloosterboer, P. (2009) Meesteradviseurs gaan door de zandloper. Management en Consulting nr.2, blz

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56 Orde van Organisatiekundigen en adviseurs, Body of Knowledge and Skills (BoKS), versie 3.0, Pallant, J. (2007). SPSS survival manual. Berkshire: Open University Press Phillips, J. (2000). The consultant's scorecard. New York, McGraw Hill. Ramondt, J. De manager en zijn tweelingbroer. Assen : Van Gorcum, 2004 Reitsma, E., De Caluwé, L, (2009) Qualifications of management consultants (in a fast-paced world) Research-based paper for the MCD, Acadamy of Management conference 2009 in Vienna. Rothwell, W.J., & Sullivan, R. (2005) Practicing Organization Development: A Guide for Consultants. 2 nd Edition. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Schein, E.H. (1997) The concept of client from a process consultation perspective: A guide for change agents, Journal of organizational Change Management, vol. 10-3, pg Schein, E.H. (1999) Process consultation revisited: building the helping relationship, Addison-Wesley, New York. Spencer, L. M., Jr., & Spencer, S. M. (1993). Competence at work: Models for superior performance. New York: John Wiley. Srinivasan, A., (1985) Alternative Measures of System Effectiveness: Associations and Implications. MIS Quarterly, 9 Van Assen, M.F., (2002). Agile-based competence management, the relation between agile manufacturing and time-based competence management. International Journal of Agile Management Systems Volz, A. en M. de Vrey, Competentiemanagement sjabloon. Twynstra Gudde, 2000 Warren, J.R. (2004) Predicting and Enhancing Client Success, in A.F. Bouno (ed.) Creative Consulting: Innovative Perspectives on Management Consulting (Greenwich: Information Age Publishing), pp Weick, Karl E. en Robert E. Quinn, Organizational Change and Development. In: Annu. Rev. Psychol :

57 Wright, C and Kitay, J (2002): But does it work? Perceptions of the impact of management consulting. Strategic. Change 11: Yukl, G., C.M. Fable en J.Y. Youn, Patterns of influence behaviour for managers. In: Group and Organization Management, 18, 5-28,

58 Appendix A: Operationalization Variable Concept Indicator Measurement Consultant competencies Basic competencies Flexibility Analytical skills Conceptual thinking Learning orientation Creativity Balanced judgment Awareness of external environment Generating vision Listening Sensitivity Communication Presentation Persuasion Integrity Reliability Loyalty Creating a favourable atmosphere Approach competencies specific Entrepreneurship Market oriented Independence Result orientation Quality orientation Leadership Consultation Risk awareness Restraint Organizing ability Making coalitions Energy Awareness of organizational context Coaching Personal appeal Decisiveness Boldness 1) Not at all 2) Not very 3) Neutral 4) A little 5) Very 1) Not at all 2) Not very 3) Neutral 4) A little 5) Very 57

59 Intervention competencies specific Awareness of organizational context Organizing ability Result orientation Boldness Attention to details Problem solving Coaching Inspiring Planning 1) Not at all 2) Not very 3) Neutral 4) A little 5) Very Client-consultant engagement success Control variables Satisfaction of the client (α = ) Characteristics of the consultant I am very pleased with the result of the consulting engagement I am very satisfied with the time on which the result was produced I am very pleased with the way how financial resources were used during the consulting engagement The quality of the consulting engagement is very high The delivered result of the consultant engagement functions very well The result of the consulting engagement was worth the 1) Strongly disagree 2) Disagree 3) Neither agree nor disagree 4) Agree 5) Strongly agree investment completely Gender 1) Male 2) Female Consultant s age in years 1) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) Consultant s years of work experience 1) ) ) )

60 Engagement characteristics Duration of the cooperation in months Have you hired this consultant in the past? 1) 0-2 2) 3-4 3) 5-6 4) 7-8 5) ) ) ) ) More than 18 1) Yes 2) No 59

61 Appendix B: Definitions basic competencies Flexibility When problems or opportunities arise, if necessary, change own behavior style in order to achieve a stated goal. Analytical Systematically examine and allocate problems and questions. Parse relevant skills information, backgrounds and structures. Connect data and see Conceptual thinking Learning orientation Creativity Balanced judgment Awareness of external environment Generating vision relationships between cause and effect. Broader and deeper insight into problems or situations by placing them in a more comprehensive framework or through connections with other information. Pay attention to new information, absorb this information and apply effectively. Come with original solutions for problems that are connected to the function. Create new ways of working. Possible courses of action, and information about them, make a choice using relevant criteria. On basis of that, come to realistic assessments and decisions. Show to be informed about social and political developments or other environmental factors, effectively utilize this knowledge for their own job or organization. Indicate in which direction the organization and its environment move; formulate the goals for the long-term policy. Listening Pick up key messages from verbal communication, give attention and space to (discussion)partners, respond to reactions and ask questions. Sensitivity Show to accept feelings, attitudes and motivations of others. Understand one s own reaction and influence towards others and handle that. Communication Communicate Ideas and information in clear and correct language, so that Presentation Persuasion Integrity Reliability Loyalty Creating a favourable atmosphere the essence is understood by others. Present oneself in attitude and behaviour in such a way the first impression on others is positive. Convert this impression in respect or sympathy. Put forward ideas, views and plans to others so convincingly that, even after initial doubts, the others agree. Maintaining social and ethical standards in the work, even when the temptation or pressure to slack is large. Create confidence in professionalism and integrity. Fulfilment of agreements and accept the consequences. By shortfall accept the implications and remove the negative consequences for others as good as possible. Comply with the policies and interests of the organization and the group to which it belongs. In dilemmas where those interests cross other interests, support the own components or at least do them no harm. Compliment, flatter, be friendly or helpful to a person and / or group to get them in a good mood before a request or proposal is made 60

62 Appendix C: Definitions approach-specific competencies Entrepreneurship Identify and convert opportunities into strategies and improvement or renewal activities that contribute to better corporate performance. Market oriented Is noticeably well informed about developments in the market and technology information and applies it effectively into action with benefits to the organization, organizational unit or function. Boldness Accept risks in order to eventually gain a recognizable benefit. Independence Undertake actions that are based more on own belief rather than a desire for others a favor. Loyal to the client without professional independence in any way. Result Actions and decisions towards the actual realization of expected orientation results. Think ahead. Quality High demands on the quality of own and others' work, constantly strive orientation for improvements. Leadership Give guidance in an inspiring way. Display exemplary behaviour and create conditions that motivate people toachieve results. Consultation Get a person and / or group whose support and assistance is required to participate in devising a strategy, activity or change or modify a proposal to take into account the interests and suggestions of aperson and / or group. Risk awareness Recognising and assessing risks, problems and obstacles. Assessing the impact on individuals and activities in the organization and its environment and then act. Restraint Preventing escalation and control of emotions. Organizing Identify and acquire the required staff and resources for a plan, deploy it ability so that desired results are effectively achieved. Making Finding or using support and help of others to convince a person and / or group. coalitions Energy Highly active for a long period when a job demands that. Hard work, endurance. Awareness of Show understanding of how an organization functions, in actions consider the organizational implications for the organization and / or the client organization. context Coaching Supporting others in carrying out the work. Motivate others and stimulate reflection on and improve their own behavior and act as interlocutor. Personal appeal Decisiveness Making an appeal to the loyalty and sympathy of a person and / or group. Taking decisions by speaking opinions or performing actions, even when things are uncertain or involve risks. Make choices and come to a decision 61

63 Appendix D: Definitions intervention-specific competencies Awareness of organizational context Planning Organizing ability Result orientation Boldness Attention to details Problem solving Coaching Inspiring Show understanding of how an organization functions, in actions consider the implications for the organization and / or the client organization. Effectively determine targets and priorities and necessary actions, time and resources in order to achieve the objectives. Identify and acquire the required staff and resources for a plan, deploy it so that desired results are effectively achieved. Actions and decisions towards the actual realization of expected results. Think ahead. Accept risks in order to eventually gain a recognizable benefit. Demonstrate attention to detail, deal with detailed information prolonged and effectively. Identifying (potential) problems / issues and solve this independently or in collaboration with others. Supporting others in carrying out the work. Motivate others and stimulate reflection on and improve their own behavior and act as interlocutor. Raising enthusiasm for a request or proposal in response to the values, ideals and aspirations of aperson / group or by indicating that a person / group has the skills to properly execute a task or a goal to realize. 62

64 Appendix E: Questionnaire Begeleidende brief Geachte heer/mevrouw, Mijn naam is Robbert van Woudenberg en in het kader van mijn masterthesis aan de Universiteit van Tilburg doe ik onderzoek naar het succes van adviesprojecten en de ies van de consultant. Onlangs heb ik met u contact opgenomen voor deelname in dit onderzoek. Zoals ik u al heb verteld, richt mijn onderzoek zich op het volgende vraagstuk: In hoeverre beïnvloeden de ies van een consultant het succes van de opdracht? Hoewel er wetenschappelijke studies zijn naar zowel ies en factoren voor succes, is er weinig bekend over de relatie tussen deze twee. Door middel van uw medewerking levert u een bijdrage aan het onderzoeken van deze relatie. De gegevens die in het kader van dit onderzoek gevraagd worden, zullen enkel en alleen voor dit onderzoek worden gebruikt. De gegevens zullen niet verstrekt worden aan derden en de individuele antwoorden zullen niet kenbaar gemaakt worden binnen uw organisatie. Het invullen van de vragenlijst neemt ongeveer 10 minuten in beslag. Hartelijk dan voor uw medewerking. Met vriendelijke groet, Robbert van Woudenberg Universiteit van Tilburg 63

65 Introductie op de vragenlijst Inleiding In deze vragenlijst vraag ik naar uw individuele ervaringen met een recent afgesloten adviesproject. Indien u betrokken bent geweest bij meerdere projecten die recentelijk werden afgesloten, verzoek ik u om in dat geval te kiezen voor één project tijdens het beantwoorden van de vragenlijst. Wanneer er meerdere externe adviespartijen hebben meegewerkt aan het project, verzoek ik u om één adviespartij in gedachten te nemen. In de vragenlijst zal het adviesproject aangeduid worden als Adviesproject X. Inhoud van de vragenlijst In deze vragenlijst treft u vragen aan over: I. Algemene vragen II. Basisies III. Interventie specifieke ies IV. Aanpak specifieke ies V. Projectsucces Invulinstructie De antwoorden in deze vragenlijst zijn voor het grootste deel voorgestructureerd. Bij iedere vraag is het mogelijk om slechts een antwoord in te vullen. U maakt uw antwoord kenbaar door het corresponderende rondje in te vullen. Indien u een fout maakt bij het invullen, kunt u dit herstellen door een kruis door het foute antwoord te zetten en het juiste rondje in te vullen. De vragen in de vragenlijst die open zijn, kunt u beantwoorden door gebruik te maken van de hiervoor bestemde ruimte. U kunt hierin in uw eigen woorden antwoord geven. Indien u geen antwoord kunt geven op een vraag, dan kunt u de vraag overslaan. Vragen en opmerkingen Wanneer u vragen heeft over dit onderzoek, het invullen van de vragenlijst of het retourneren hiervan, dan kunt u contact opnemen met mij op of via [email protected]. Anonimiteit De gegevens die in het kader van dit onderzoek gevraagd worden, zullen enkel en alleen voor dit onderzoek worden gebruikt. De gegevens zullen niet verstrekt worden aan derden en de individuele antwoorden zullen niet kenbaar gemaakt worden binnen uw organisatie. Hartelijk dank voor uw medewerking! 64

66 I. Algemene vragen De volgende vragen worden gebruikt om de data die verkregen wordt tijdens het onderzoek te kunnen indelen/categoriseren. Zoals eerder aangegeven zullen individuele antwoorden niet kenbaar gemaakt worden aan uw organisatie. Uw individuele antwoorden worden omgezet in anonieme data die niet te herleiden is naar u als individu. Deze vragen hebben betrekking tot uw mening of perceptie over de consultant waar u mee samengewerkt heeft. 1. Wat was de leeftijd van de consultant waar u mee heeft samengewerkt? O O O O O O O O O O Wat was het geslacht van de consultant waar u mee heeft samengewerkt? O O Man Vrouw 3. Hoeveel jaar werkervaring had de consultant op het moment van samenwerken? O 0-10 O O O Wat was de duur van de samenwerking in maanden? O 0-2 O O 3-4 O O 5-6 O O 6-7 O O 8-9 O Meer dan Heeft u eerder samengewerkt met de consultant? O O Ja Nee 65

67 6. Hoe zou u de manier omschrijven waarmee de consultant het project aangepakt heeft? De aanpak wordt gezien als de generieke benadering van een probleemsituatie. Onder de expertmatige aanpak wordt verstaan dat de consultant met een kleine groep deskundigen tot een oordeel of voorstel komt voor het probleem. De procesmatige aanpak behelst een aanpak met veel inbreng van de medewerkers van een afdeling of organisatie in het algemeen. O O O Expertmatig Procesmatig Een mix van beide II. Competenties De volgende vragen gaan over de mate waarin u de consultant waar u mee samengewerkt heeft, vindt. In onderstaande vragenblokken staan Dikgedrukt de ies en daaronder de uitleg of betekenis van de betreffende ie. Per ie kunt u aangeven in welke mate u de consultant als, al dan niet, ervaren heeft. Helemaal niet Weinig Neutraal Redelijk Zeer 7) Flexibiliteit o o o o o Wanneer zich problemen of kansen voordoen zonodig de eigen gedragsstijl veranderen om een gesteld doel te bereiken. 8) Analytisch o o o o o Systematisch onderzoeken en alloceren van problemen en vragen. Ontleden van relevante informatie, achtergronden en structuren. Verbanden leggen tussen gegevens en overzien van relaties tussen oorzaak en gevolg. 9) Conceptueel denken o o o o o Breder of dieper inzicht verschaffen in problemen of situaties door deze in een meer omvattend kader te plaatsen of door verbanden te leggen met andere informatie. 10) Lerende o o o o o oriëntatie Aandacht tonen voor nieuwe informatie, deze in zich opnemen en effectief toepassen. 11) Creativiteit o o o o o Met oorspronkelijke oplossingen komen voor problemen die met de functie verband houden. Nieuwe werkwijzen bedenken. Helemaal niet Weinig Neutraal Redelijk Zeer 12) Ordeelsvorming o o o o o Mogelijke handelwijzen, en de informatie daarover, tegen elkaar afwegen in het licht van relevante criteria; op basis daarvan tot realistische beoordelingen en keuzes komen. 13)Omgevingsbewustzijn o o o o o Laten blijken goed geïnformeerd te zijn over maatschappelijke en politieke ontwikkelingen of andere omgevingsfactoren; deze kennis effectief benutten voor de eigen functie of organisatie. 14) Visie ontwikkelen o o o o o In hoofdlijnen de richting aangeven waarin de organisatie en haar omgeving zich bewegen; de doelstellingen voor het lange termijn beleid formuleren. 66

68 Helemaal niet Weinig Neutraal Redelijk Zeer 15) Luisteren o o o o o Belangrijke boodschappen oppikken uit mondelinge communicatie; aandacht en ruimte geven aan gesprekspartners, op reacties ingaan en waar nodig kunnen doorvragen. 16) Sensitiviteit o o o o o In het contact laten merken de gevoelens, houding en motivatie van anderen te onderkennen en daarvoor open te staan. De eigen invloed op anderen begrijpen en er rekening mee houden. Helemaal niet Weinig Neutraal Redelijk Zeer 17) Communiceren o o o o o Ideeën en informatie in heldere en correcte taal communiceren, zodanig dat de essentie bij anderen overkomt en wordt begrepen. 18) Optreden o o o o o Zichzelf in houding en gedrag zó presenteren dat de eerste indruk bij anderen positief is; deze indruk in bestendig respect of sympathie kunnen omzetten. 19)Overtuigingskracht o o o o o Ideeën, standpunten en plannen zó overtuigend bij anderen naar voren brengen dat zij, ook na aanvankelijke twijfels, daarmee instemmen. Helemaal niet Weinig Neutraal Redelijk Zeer 20) Integriteit o o o o o Handhaven van sociale en ethische normen in het werk, ook als de verleiding of druk om het minder nauw te nemen groot is. Vertrouwen wekken in eigen professionaliteit en integriteit. 21)Betrouwbaarheid o o o o o Nakomen van gemaakte afspraken en de consequenties ervan aanvaarden. Bij in gebreke blijven de gevolgen voor eigen rekening nemen en nadelige gevolgen voor anderen zo goed mogelijk wegnemen. 22) Loyaliteit o o o o o Zich voegen naar het beleid en de belangen van de organisatie en de groep waarvan men onderdeel uitmaakt. In dilemma s waar die belangen tegenover andere komen te staan de positie van het eigen onderdeel steunen of althans geen schade toebrengen. 23) Gunstige sfeer o o o o o creëren Het complimenteren, vleien, vriendelijk of behulpzaam zijn om een persoon en/of groep in een goede stemming te krijgen voordat een verzoek of voorstel wordt gedaan 67

69 III. Competenties De volgende vragen gaan over de mate waarin u de consultant waar u mee samengewerkt heeft, vindt. In onderstaande vragenblokken staan Dikgedrukt de ies en daaronder de uitleg of betekenis van de betreffende ie. Per ie kunt u aangeven in welke mate u de consultant als, al dan niet, ervaren heeft. Helemaal niet Weinig Neutraal Redelijk Zeer 24)Organisatiebewustzijn o o o o o Laten zien te begrijpen hoe een organisatie functioneert; bij acties rekening houden met de gevolgen voor de eigen organisatie en/of de organisatie van de klant. Helemaal niet Weinig Neutraal Redelijk Zeer 25) Plannen o o o o o Op effectieve wijze doelen en prioriteiten bepalen en benodigde acties, tijd en middelen plannen om de gestelde doelen te kunnen bereiken. 26) Organiseren o o o o o De voor een plan benodigde mensen en middelen identificeren en verwerven; deze zodanig inzetten dat beoogde resultaten effectief worden bereikt. 27)Resultaatgerichtheid o o o o o Handelingen en besluiten richten op het daadwerkelijk realiseren van beoogde resultaten. Denkt vooruit. Helemaal niet Weinig Neutraal Redelijk Zeer 28) Durf o o o o o Risico s aangaan om uiteindelijk een bepaald herkenbaar voordeel te behalen. 29) Plannen o o o o o Op effectieve wijze doelen en prioriteiten bepalen en benodigde acties, tijd en middelen plannen om de gestelde doelen te kunnen bereiken. 30)Resultaatgerichtheid o o o o o Handelingen en besluiten richten op het daadwerkelijk realiseren van beoogde resultaten. Denkt vooruit. 31) Omgang met details o o o o o Tonen aandacht te hebben voor details; langdurig effectief kunnen omgaan met detailinformatie. 32) Problemen oplossen o o o o o Signaleren van (potentiële) problemen/knelpunten en deze zelfstandig of in samenwerking met anderen verhelpen. Helemaal niet Weinig Neutraal Redelijk Zeer 33) Coachen o o o o o Ondersteunen van anderen in de uitoefening van het werk. Anderen motiveren en aanzetten tot nadenken over en verbeteren van eigen gedrag en hierbij optreden als gesprekspartner. 34 Inspireren o o o o o Het wekken van enthousiasme voor een verzoek of voorstel door in te spelen op de waarden, idealen en aspiraties van een persoon/groep of door aan te geven dat een persoon/groep over de kwaliteiten beschikt om een taak goed uit te voeren of een doel te realiseren. 68

70 IV. Competenties De volgende vragen gaan over de mate waarin u de consultant waar u mee samengewerkt heeft, vindt. In onderstaande vragenblokken staan Dikgedrukt de ies en daaronder de uitleg of betekenis van de betreffende ie. Per ie kunt u aangeven in welke mate u de consultant als, al dan niet, ervaren heeft. Helemaal niet Weinig Neutraal Redelijk Zeer 35)Ondernemerschap o o o o o Kansen signaleren en deze omzetten in strategie en verbeterings- of vernieuwingsacties die bijdragen aan betere ondernemingsprestaties. 36) Marktgericht o o o o o Is merkbaar goed geïnformeerd over ontwikkelingen in de markt en technologie en past deze informatie effectief toe in acties met voordelen voor de organisatie, het organisatieonderdeel of de functie 37) Durf o o o o o Risico s aangaan om uiteindelijk een bepaald herkenbaar voordeel te behalen. 38)Onafhankelijkheid o o o o o Acties ondernemen die meer gebaseerd zijn op eigen overtuigingen dan op een verlangen om anderen een plezier te doen. Loyaal zijn aan de opdrachtgever zonder professionele onafhankelijkheid prijs te geven. 39)Resultaatgerichtheid o o o o o Handelingen en besluiten richten op het daadwerkelijk realiseren van beoogde resultaten. Denkt vooruit. 40)Kwaliteitsgerichtheid o o o o o Hoge eisen stellen aan de kwaliteit van eigen en andermans werk; voortdurend verbeteringen nastreven. 41) Leiderschap o o o o o Op inspirerende wijze richting geven. Tonen van voorbeeldgedrag. Randvoorwaarden scheppen en mensen motiveren zodat resultaten bereikt worden. 42) Consulteren o o o o o De richting waarin de organisatie zal gaan en de doelen die worden nagestreefd op een aansprekende wijze overbrengen en er draagvlak voor creëren. 43) Risicobewust o o o o o Herkennen en inschatten van risico s, knelpunten en hindernissen. Inschatten van de invloed hiervan op personen en activiteiten in de organisatie en de omgeving en hierna handelen. Helemaal niet Weinig Neutraal Redelijk Zeer 44) (Zelf)beheersing o o o o o Het voorkomen van escalaties en controle hebben over emoties. 45) Organiseren o o o o o De voor een plan benodigde mensen en middelen identificeren en verwerven; deze zodanig inzetten dat beoogde resultaten effectief worden bereikt. 46)Coalitie sluiten o o o o o Het zoeken of gebruiken van steun en hulp van anderen om een persoon en/of groep te overtuigen. 47) Energie o o o o o Gedurende een lange periode in hoge mate actief zijn wanneer een functie dat vraagt. Hard werken, uithoudingsvermogen hebben. 48)Organisatiebewustzijn o o o o o Laten zien te begrijpen hoe een organisatie functioneert; bij acties rekening houden met de gevolgen voor de eigen organisatie en/of de organisatie van de klant. 49) Coachen o o o o o 69

71 Ondersteunen van anderen in de uitoefening van het werk. Anderen motiveren en aanzetten tot nadenken over en verbeteren van eigen gedrag en hierbij optreden als gesprekspartner. 50) Persoonlijk beroep o o o o o doen Het doen van een beroep op de loyaliteit of sympathie van een persoon en/of groep. 51) Besluitvaardigheid o o o o o Beslissingen nemen, door acties te gelasten of meningen uit te spreken, ook wanneer zaken onzeker zijn of risico s inhouden. Keuzen maken en knopen doorhakken. 52. Wat voor cijfer (op schaal van 1 tot 10) zou u uw consultant geven op basis van de gehele samenwerking? 70

72 V. Projectsucces De volgende vragen hebben betrekking op het succes van het project. 53) Kunt u een korte omschrijving geven van de resultaten en/of (eind)producten die adviesproject X volgens u heeft opgeleverd? In hoeverre bent u het eens met onderstaande uitspraken: 54) Ik ben zeer tevreden met het resultaat. 55) Ik ben zeer tevreden met het tijdstip waarop het project werd opgeleverd. 56) Ik ben zeer tevreden met de wijze waarop binnen het project met de financiële middelen werd omgegaan. 57) De kwaliteit van het projectresultaat is zeer hoog. 58) Het door project X opgeleverde resultaat functioneert zeer goed. 59) Het projectresultaat is de investering volledig waard geweest. Helemaal oneens Oneens Eens/oneens Eens Helemaal eens o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o 71

73 Appendix F: Descriptive Statistics Descriptive Statistics N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation Cons_Age ,08 1,684 Cons_Gender ,34,477 Cons_Exp ,15,867 Cons_Dur ,73 1,981 Cons_Earlier_Coop ,73,448 Cons_Approach ,08,816 Valid N (listwise) 59 Cons_Age Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent Valid ,8 6,8 6, ,9 11,9 18, ,0 22,0 40, ,3 15,3 55, ,3 20,3 76, ,9 16,9 93, ,8 6,8 100,0 Total ,0 100,0 Cons_Gender Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent Valid Male 39 66,1 66,1 66,1 Female 20 33,9 33,9 100,0 Total ,0 100,0 72

74 Cons_Exp Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent Valid ,1 27,1 27, ,9 33,9 61, ,6 35,6 96, ,4 3,4 100,0 Total ,0 100,0 Cons_Dur Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent Valid ,7 1,7 1, ,9 11,9 13, ,9 16,9 30, ,4 25,4 55, ,8 6,8 62, ,5 8,5 71, ,3 20,3 91, ,5 8,5 100,0 Total ,0 100,0 Cons_Earlier_Coop Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent Valid Yes 16 27,1 27,1 27,1 No 43 72,9 72,9 100,0 Total ,0 100,0 Cons_Approach 73

75 Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent Valid Expert Approach 17 28,8 28,8 28,8 Process Approach 20 33,9 33,9 62,7 Mix of both 22 37,3 37,3 100,0 Total ,0 100,0 74

76 Appendix G: Reliability analysis dependent variable Case Processing Summary N % Cases Valid ,0 Excluded a 0,0 Total ,0 a. Listwise deletion based on all variables in the procedure. Reliability Statistics Cronbach's Alpha Cronbach's Alpha Based on Standardized Items N of Items,890,887 6 Item Statistics Mean Std. Deviation N A_Tevr_result 3,97, A_Tevr_tijdstip 4,12, A_Tevr_fin 4,03, A_Tevr_kwaliteit 3,80, A_Tevr_functioneren 3,98, A_Tevr_investering 4,05,936 59

77 Inter-Item Correlation Matrix A_Tevr_result A_Tevr_tijdstip A_Tevr_fin A_Tevr_kwaliteit A_Tevr_function eren A_Tevr_investeri ng A_Tevr_result 1,000,430,494,788,680,816 A_Tevr_tijdstip,430 1,000,344,454,371,501 A_Tevr_fin,494,344 1,000,478,457,597 A_Tevr_kwaliteit,788,454,478 1,000,647,761 A_Tevr_functioneren,680,371,457,647 1,000,695 A_Tevr_investering,816,501,597,761,695 1,000 Summary Item Statistics Mean Minimum Maximum Range Maximum / Minimum Variance N of Items Inter-Item Correlations,567,344,816,472 2,374,023 6 Item-Total Statistics Scale Mean if Scale Variance if Corrected Item- Squared Multiple Cronbach's Alpha Item Deleted Item Deleted Total Correlation Correlation if Item Deleted A_Tevr_result 19,98 12,431,817,741,852 A_Tevr_tijdstip 19,83 14,764,497,266,901 A_Tevr_fin 19,92 14,355,571,363,890 A_Tevr_kwaliteit 20,15 12,821,792,676,857 A_Tevr_functioneren 19,97 12,861,709,534,871 A_Tevr_investering 19,90 12,127,864,763,844 Scale Statistics Mean Variance Std. Deviation N of Items 23,95 18,635 4,

78 Appendix H: Coefficients table hierarchical multiple regression analysis Coefficients a Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized Coefficients 95,0% Confidence Interval for B Correlations Collinearity Statistics Lower Upper Toleranc Model B Std. Error Beta t Sig. Bound Bound Zero-order Partial Part e VIF 1 (Constant) 14,616 3,154 4,635,000 8,291 20,942 Cons_Age,072,515,028,140,889 -,961 1,106,228,019,017,354 2,823 Cons_Gender 1,825 1,173,202 1,556,126 -,528 4,179,234,209,186,851 1,176 Cons_Exp 1,720,928,345 1,854,069 -,141 3,580,375,247,222,412 2,425 Cons_Dur -,120,289 -,055 -,415,680 -,700,460,057 -,057 -,050,812 1,231 Cons_Earlier_Coop 1,918 1,220,199 1,572,122 -,530 4,365,305,211,188,892 1,121 2 (Constant) 4,824 10,154,475,642-16,820 26,467 Cons_Age -,972,968 -,379-1,004,331-3,034 1,091,228 -,251 -,072,037 27,380 Cons_Gender -,194 1,993 -,021 -,097,924-4,442 4,055,234 -,025 -,007,107 9,329 Cons_Exp 2,349 1,508,472 1,558,140 -,864 5,563,375,373,112,057 17,614 Cons_Dur,147,399,067,368,718 -,704,998,057,095,027,155 6,441 Cons_Earlier_Coop,677 2,410,070,281,783-4,460 5,813,305,072,020,083 12,028 B_Flexibiliteit -,625,805 -,141 -,776,450-2,342 1,091,481 -,197 -,056,158 6,317 B_Analytisch 1,157 1,469,170,788,443-1,974 4,289,366,199,057,112 8,900 B_Conceptueel -,106 1,461 -,019 -,073,943-3,221 3,009,406 -,019 -,005,074 13,489

79 B_Ler_Orient,654 1,022,125,640,532-1,524 2,832,561,163,046,136 7,368 B_Creativiteit,651,850,136,766,456-1,161 2,464,430,194,055,166 6,019 B_Oordeelsvorming,777,939,182,828,421-1,224 2,779,388,209,060,108 9,238 B_Omgevingsbewust -1,445 1,457 -,288 -,992,337-4,550 1,660,452 -,248 -,072,062 16,178 B_Visie_Ontw 1,407 1,400,250 1,005,331-1,577 4,391,276,251,073,084 11,838 B_Luisteren -,238 1,275 -,044 -,187,854-2,957 2,480,391 -,048 -,013,093 10,804 B_Sensitiviteit 1,008,777,253 1,297,214 -,648 2,664,479,318,094,137 7,296 B_Communiceren 1,346 1,433,231,939,363-1,710 4,401,329,236,068,086 11,654 B_Optreden 1,130 1,394,238,810,431-1,842 4,102,607,205,058,060 16,552 B_Overtuigingskracht -1,795 1,303 -,328-1,378,188-4,572,981,365 -,335 -,099,092 10,852 B_Integriteit 1,086 1,650,223,658,520-2,431 4,603,428,168,048,045 22,116 B_Betrouwbaarheid 1,505 1,257,292 1,197,250-1,175 4,185,517,295,086,088 11,397 B_Loyaliteit -,312 1,151 -,054 -,271,790-2,765 2,141,270 -,070 -,020,129 7,759 B_Gunstige_Sfere -2,140 1,639 -,360-1,306,211-5,634 1,353,331 -,319 -,094,069 14,592 I_Organisatiebewust 3,922 1,618,620 2,424,028,473 7,371,509,530,175,080 12,551 I_Plannen,103,856,020,121,905-1,720 1,927,331,031,009,194 5,144 I_Organiseren 2,280 1,003,381 2,274,038,143 4,418,257,506,164,186 5,385 I_Resultaatgericht -,085 1,404 -,014 -,061,953-3,078 2,908,208 -,016 -,004,101 9,868 I_Durf -1,286 1,394 -,245 -,923,371-4,258 1,685,102 -,232 -,067,074 13,542 I_Omgang_met_details -,012,850 -,002 -,015,989-1,823 1,799,434 -,004 -,001,202 4,956 I_Problemen_oplossen -,567 1,359 -,104 -,417,682-3,465 2,330,295 -,107 -,030,084 11,862 I_Coachen -2,225,984 -,527-2,261,039-4,322 -,127,390 -,504 -,163,096 10,413 78

80 I_Inspireren 1,000,775,218 1,290,216 -,652 2,653,255,316,093,183 5,468 AE_Ondernemerschap 1,165 1,124,275 1,037,316-1,230 3,561,495,259,075,074 13,485 AE_Markgericht 1,444 1,459,285,990,338-1,665 4,553,152,248,071,063 15,921 AE_Onafhankelijk -,101 1,200 -,024 -,084,934-2,659 2,457,209 -,022 -,006,064 15,581 AE_Kwaliteitsgericht -,850 1,433 -,173 -,593,562-3,905 2,205,223 -,151 -,043,061 16,363 AE_Leiderschap,551 1,097,141,502,623-1,788 2,890,494,129,036,066 15,123 AE_Consulteren -,903 1,314 -,189 -,687,502-3,704 1,897,580 -,175 -,050,069 14,586 AE_Risicobewust -1,504 1,090 -,308-1,380,188-3,828,819,078 -,336 -,100,105 9,537 AP_Zelfbeheersing -3,098 1,651 -,456-1,876,080-6,618,422 -,103 -,436 -,135,088 11,328 AP_Coalitie_Sluiten -,447,610 -,116 -,732,475-1,747,854,228 -,186 -,053,208 4,818 AP_Energie -,702,928 -,139 -,756,462-2,681 1,277 -,108 -,192 -,055,153 6,519 AP_Persoonlijk_beroep,600 1,162,140,517,613-1,876 3,077,144,132,037,071 14,135 AP_Besluitvaardigheid 1,117 1,028,218 1,087,294-1,073 3,308,147,270,078,130 7,688 a. Dependent Variable: Satisfaction 79

81 Appendix I: Coefficients table second hierarchical multiple regression analysis Model Summary c Model R R Square Adjusted R Square Std. Error of the Estimate 1,488 a,238,182 3, ,860 b,740,603 2,71937 a. Predictors: (Constant), Cons_Earlier_Coop, Cons_Age, Cons_Gender, Cons_Exp b. Predictors: (Constant), Cons_Earlier_Coop, Cons_Age, Cons_Gender, Cons_Exp, B_Creativiteit, I_Plannen, I_Inspireren, B_Loyaliteit, I_Omgang_met_details, AP_Coalitie_Sluiten, I_Resultaatgericht, B_Sensitiviteit, AE_Risicobewust, AP_Besluitvaardigheid, B_Flexibiliteit, AP_Energie, B_Analytisch, B_Ler_Orient, I_Organiseren, B_Oordeelsvorming c. Dependent Variable: Satisfaction

82 ANOVA c Model Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig. 1 Regression 257, ,419 4,226,005 a Residual 823, ,244 Total 1080, Regression 799, ,992 5,408,000 b Residual 281, ,395 Total 1080, a. Predictors: (Constant), Cons_Earlier_Coop, Cons_Age, Cons_Gender, Cons_Exp b. Predictors: (Constant), Cons_Earlier_Coop, Cons_Age, Cons_Gender, Cons_Exp, B_Creativiteit, I_Plannen, I_Inspireren, B_Loyaliteit, I_Omgang_met_details, AP_Coalitie_Sluiten, I_Resultaatgericht, B_Sensitiviteit, AE_Risicobewust, AP_Besluitvaardigheid, B_Flexibiliteit, AP_Energie, B_Analytisch, B_Ler_Orient, I_Organiseren, B_Oordeelsvorming c. Dependent Variable: Satisfaction 81

83 Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized Coefficients Coefficients a 95,0% Confidence Interval for B Correlations Collinearity Statistics Lower Model B Std. Error Beta t Sig. Bound Upper Bound Zero-order Partial Part Tolerance VIF 1 (Constant) 14,548 3,125 4,655,000 8,282 20,813 Cons_Age -,007,475 -,003 -,015,988 -,959,944,228 -,002 -,002,411 2,433 Cons_Gender 1,765 1,155,195 1,528,132 -,551 4,081,234,204,181,864 1,157 Cons_Exp 1,771,912,356 1,941,057 -,058 3,600,375,255,231,420 2,382 Cons_Earlier_Coop 1,892 1,209,197 1,565,124 -,532 4,316,305,208,186,894 1,118 2 (Constant) -7,969 5,029-1,585,121-18,149 2,210 Cons_Age -,055,439 -,021 -,125,901 -,944,834,228 -,020 -,010,233 4,291 Cons_Gender,440 1,042,049,422,675-1,670 2,550,234,068,035,515 1,942 Cons_Exp,366,819,074,447,657-1,293 2,025,375,072,037,252 3,961 Cons_Earlier_Coop 4,068 1,136,423 3,582,001 1,769 6,367,305,502,296,492 2,034 B_Flexibiliteit,885,576,199 1,537,132 -,280 2,050,481,242,127,407 2,457 B_Analytisch 1,868,865,274 2,160,037,118 3,619,366,331,179,426 2,348 B_Ler_Orient,344,658,066,523,604 -,988 1,677,561,085,043,430 2,327 B_Creativiteit,945,550,197 1,717,094 -,169 2,059,430,268,142,521 1,919 B_Oordeelsvorming -,272,582 -,064 -,467,643-1,451,907,388 -,076 -,039,370 2,705 B_Sensitiviteit,198,475,050,416,680 -,765 1,160,479,067,034,481 2,079 B_Loyaliteit -,419,650 -,073 -,644,523-1,736,898,270 -,104 -,053,530 1,886 82

84 I_Plannen 1,183,562,226 2,104,042,045 2,321,331,323,174,591 1,691 I_Organiseren 1,540,792,257 1,946,059 -,062 3,143,257,301,161,392 2,554 I_Resultaatgericht -1,045,761 -,169-1,373,178-2,585,496,208 -,217 -,114,453 2,206 I_Omgang_met_det ails 1,908,553,361 3,449,001,788 3,028,434,488,285,625 1,599 I_Inspireren,165,473,036,348,730 -,793 1,123,255,056,029,644 1,552 AE_Risicobewust -,021,536 -,004 -,040,968-1,106 1,063,078 -,007 -,003,570 1,754 AP_Coalitie_Sluiten -,084,381 -,022 -,220,827 -,854,687,228 -,036 -,018,700 1,428 AP_Energie -,849,605 -,168-1,404,168-2,073,375 -,108 -,222 -,116,475 2,104 AP_Besluitvaardigh eid -,149,555 -,029 -,268,790-1,273,975,147 -,043 -,022,585 1,708 a. Dependent Variable: Satisfaction 83