ISSUES IN CLIENT-CONSULTANT

RELATIONSHIP

Reporter:
ROWENA CARPIO
 Issues in Client-Consultant Relationship

1. Entry and Contracting

2. Defining the Client System
3. The Trust Issue
4. The Nature of the Consultant’s Expertise
5. Diagnosis and Appropriate Interventions
6. The Consultant as a Model
7. The Dependency Issue and Terminating the
Relationship
8. Ethical Standards in Organization Development
 Entry and Contracting

Explores the nature of the

Organization’s problems

Develops a clear definition of the

Mutual expectations in the
Client-consultant relationship

Must have confidence in the

Consultant’s ability to guide the
Change process

Support the change effort

 Entry and Contracting

Y
Conditions
Met?
Proceed with OD

N
Do not proceed
Any further
 The trust issue

A trusting relationship helps the consultant deal with the challenges

brought by those who are uncomfortable or in disagreement with the
change effort, and the consultant’s style and values are key factors in
establishing trust and making relationships successful.

The goal of both consultant and client should be to develop a positive climate
for trust. Researchers (Alder, Rosenfeld & Towne, 1980) have identified the
processes in which one person can devalue another, thus creative a negative
climate for trust. One way a person devalues another is by making a
disconfirming response. Thus, OD consultants should avoid disconfirming
response.
This type of response involves failing to acknowledge the message from the
receiver or sending a signal suggesting that the other is not worthy of a reply or
simply does not exist.
 The trust issue

Trust
- The willingness of a party to be vulnerable to the
actions of another party based on the expectation that
the other will perform a particular action important to
the trustor, irrespective of the ability to monitor or
control that other party
 Values

Attitudes TRUST

Moods & Emotions

Trust - is a psychological construct, the experience of

which is the outcome of the interaction of people’s
values, attitudes, and moods and emotions. (Mayer, Davis, &
Schoorman, 1995)
Values

• These are general standards or

Examples:
principles that are considered
intrinsically desirable ends. (Olson & Loyalty
Zanna, 1993; Rokeach, 1973) Helpfulness
Fairness
• A person’s value system, thus guides Predictability
behavior and the interpretation of
Reliability
experience by furnishing criteria that a
person can use to evaluate and make Honesty
sense of events and actions in the Responsibility
surrounding world. Integrity
Competence
• That value system determines which
Consistency
types of behaviors, events situations, or
people are desirable or undesirable. Openness
 Examples :

An individual whose value system

Emphasizes LOYALTY &HONESTY
Will strive to achieve loyalty
& honesty his/her relationships
With others.

People who are trustworthy tend to view

Others as trustworthy

What people view as desirable or ideal - that is, their internalized

values - conditions the experience of trust and is upheld as a
standard to strive for in the future. (Butler, 1991)
Attitudes

• The knowledge structures containing

the specific thoughts and feelings people
have about other people, groups, or
organizations, and

• The means through which they define

and structure their interactions with
others.

(Anderson & Armstrong, 1989;

Kruglanski, 1989; Olson & Zanna, 1993)
 Most interactions in an organization entail
uncertainty. When there is uncertainty,
There must be some element of trust. Even
When the other party provides guarantees,
Uncertainty about the outcome remains
The attitudes that people REASON
Form toward each other
Are likely to contain People’s attitudes toward others contain
Beliefs about their trustworthiness, based
Information concerning the On past experience, knowledge, and
Other party’s Interactions (Rempel, Holmes, &
trustworthiness. Zanna, 1985)

Example :
A supervisor may promise
promotion to a subordinate,
but it may be uncertain due to
Organizational initiatives
Beyond the supervisor’s
control.
 The trust issue
Disconfirming Responses
• Impervious response - one in which the sender verbally and nonverbally
behaves as if the receiver is not present. (Example: When a person
volunteers an opinion, and the group fails to acknowledge by either
continuing as before or changing the topic of discussion.)

• Interrupting response - one in which a sender stops the receiver from

making a point by changing the subject or evaluating the receiver;s message
before it is competed. (Example: Higher status persons often interrupt lower
status persons, men often interrupt women)

• Irrelevant response - one that does not address the question at hand.
(Example: A manager may present production figures for the previous
quarter and the group discusses the organization’s marketing plan for the
next quarter without acknowledging the information the manager has
provided)
 The trust issue
Disconfirming Responses

•Tangential response - acknowledges the receiver’s message but the

sender also uses the response to change the subject or deflect attention
from the message’s central issue. (Example: “I often have difficulty
obtaining product information from the marketing department”. Reply, “Why
are you asking the marketing department?” - When the issue is lack of
product information.)

• Impersonal Response - one in which the sender assumes an attitude or

role that prevents the sender and receiver from interacting on a personal
level. (Example: When a senior executive replies to criticism by saying, “As
a member of the executive staff, I disagree.”)

• Ambiguous response - carries more than one meaning and thus becomes
difficult to interpret clearly. (Example: “Who will decide how my job will be
redesigned?” Response: “That will be taken under consideration and you
will be notified at the appropriate time.”)
 The trust issue
Disconfirming Responses

•Incongruous response - gives mixed or conflicting messages to the

receiver. (Example: A manager may say, “Tell me more about your ideas on
job design.” while at the same time not looking at the employee, but
rummaging through her papers.)
 The nature of the consultant’s expertise

Many organizations have discovered that hiring a consultant to lead an organization

development effort is far more complex than hiring a lawyer for legal consultation or an
economist for financial forecasting.

Unlike other types of consultants, people who

will serve as organizational change agents need
to have a broad range of competencies, that,
unfortunately, do not come automatically with
prestigious academic or business credentials,

When the wrong consultant is hired, organization development programs often fail to get
started or stall midway through the process. To guide an OD intervention all the way to
successful completion requires a special set of knowledge, skills, and abilities
The nature of the consultant’s expertise

McBer and Company has

developed a competency model
that lists some critical skills for a
successful OD consultant. By
modifying the list to include
competencies essential to success
in a specific organization and
dropping unnecessary
competencies, a company can
develop its own OD consultant
competency model
 The nature of the consultant’s expertise
McBer and Company Competency Model for OD Consultants
(Source: Cripe, 1993)
Interpersonal skills competencies Initiation skills competencies
•ability to express empathy • ability to influence and market skills and to identify
• positive expectations of people and persuade prospective internal customers to use
• genuineness services
• ability to make presentations in a concise, interesting,
Diagnostic skills competencies and informative manner
• knowledge of the principles of • ability to engage in problem solving and planning,
individual and organizational and to make recommendations and help customers with
development variables and systems problem solving, goal setting, and planning to improve
• ability to collect meaningful data organizational performance
from individuals and organizational •Ability to manage groups and group dynamics
systems through such means as
interviews, surveys, and observations Organization skills competencies
• ability to draw conclusions from • ability to design adult-learning curricula and
complex data and make accurate organizational development exercises
diagnoses • ability to administer such resources as personnel,
materials, schedules and training sites
The nature of the consultant’s expertise
The Ideal Consultant
(Source: Bader & Stitch, 1993)

The ideal external consultant has the following qualities :

• Listens, but does not sell
• Fits into the organization and embraces its mission and culture
• Teaches the internal professional staff and helps them achieve
independence
• Provides good customer service
• Protects confidentiality
• Challenges assumptions
• Is a recognized expert
• Provides perspective and objectivity
• Celebrates with the internal staff
 The consultant as a model
Four Sets of Characteristics
(Porras & Robertson, 1993)

3.
1.

2.
Interpersonal Theory-based Educational 4.
Communication Problem-solving Skills, including Self-awareness
skills, including Capabilities - - ability to create Including
- Listening Including Learning - Ability to
- Empathy - knowledge of Experiences Recognize
- Ability to Theory & - Ability to model One’s own
support, methods Appropriate Feelings
Nurture and Of change behavior - Ability to
Influence - Ability to Have a clear
others Link this Understanding
Knowledge with Of one’s own
Organizational Needs and
realities motivations
 Ethical issues in
Organizational development
Ethics Issues or practices that should influence the
decision-making process in terms of “doing the right
thing”. It reflects the morals - what is considered
“right” or wrong” - of a society. (Smither, 1996)

Ethical Problems for which there are no clear or agreed

dilemmas on moral solutions

Code of ethics A set of professional practice guidelines that

are meant to ensure moral behavior.
 Ethical issues in
Organizational development
Ethical Guidelines for OD Professionals
As an OD professional, I commit myself to supporting and acting in accordance with the following ethical guidelines:
Responsibility to self
Act with integrity; be authentic and true to myself.
Strive continually for self-knowledge and personal growth
Recognize my personal needs and desires and, when they conflict with other responsibilities, seek all-win resolutions of
those conflicts
Assert my own economic and financial interests in ways that are fair and equitable to me as well as to my clients and their
stakeholders.
Responsibility for professional development and competence
Accept responsibility for the consequences of my acts and make reasonable efforts to ensure that my services are properly
used; terminate my services if they are not properly used and do what I can to see that any abuses are corrected.
Strive to achieve and maintain a professional level of competence for both myself and my profession by developing the full
range of my own competence and by establishing collegial and cooperative relations with other OD professionals.
Recognize my own personal needs and desires and deal with them responsibly in the performance of my professional roles
Practice within the limits of my competence, culture, and experience in providing services and using techniques.
Practice in cultures different from my own only with consultation from people native to knowledgeable about those specific
cultures.

Responsibility to clients and significant to others

Serve the long-term well-being, interests, and development of the client system and all its stakeholders, even when the work
being done has a short-term focus.
Conduct any professional activity, program or relationship in ways that are honest, responsible, and appropriately open.
Establish mutual agreement on a contract covering services and remuneration.
Deal with conflicts constructively and avoid conflicts of interest as much as possible.
Define and protect the confidentiality of my client-professional relationships.
Make public statements of all kinds accurately, including promotion and advertising, and give service as advertised.
 Ethical issues in
Organizational development
Responsibility to the profession
Contribute to continuing professional development for myself, other practitioners, and the profession.
Promote the sharing of OD knowledge and skill
Work with other OD professionals in ways that exemplify what our profession says we stand for.
Work actively for ethical practice by individuals and organizations engaged in OD activities and, in case of questionable
practice, use appropriate channels for dealing with it.
Act in ways that bring credit to the OD profession and with due regard for colleagues in other professions.
Social responsibility
Act with sensitivity to the fact that my recommendations and actions may alter the lives and well-being of people within my
client systems and the larger systems of which they are subsystems.
Act with awareness of the cultural filters which affect my view of the world, respect cultures different from by own, and be
sensitive to cross-cultural and multicultural differences and their implications.
Promote justice and serve the well-being of all life on Earth.
Recognize that accepting this Statement as a guide for my behavior involves holding myself to a standard that may be more
exacting than the laws of any countries in which I practice, the guidelines of any professional associations to which I
belong, or the expectations of any of my clients.
(Source: The Organization Development Institute, 1994)
 Ethical issues in
Organizational development

Value Issues
Do the values - principles & ideals
believed to be of greatest importance
bf the change agent, match those of
The organization & its members? Concern with maximizing personal
financial gain, i.e., making money,
Should the consultant attempt to
change the values of the organization
& its members, or should she decline
to serve as consultant?

If key members of the organization

have values that differ from the
others, should the consultant take
sides?
How?
 Ethical issues in
Organizational development

Value Issues - How to deal

Consultant must be aware of her personal values

Consultant must be aware of her own motives for

consulting in general & for suggesting particular
strategies and solutions
 Ethical issues in
Organizational development
Ethical problems concerning contractual
Contractual Issues - issues that are not spelled out in the contract

Who is the consultant’s primary client - the

Manager who brought her to the organization,
Or the organization as a whole?

Is the consultant free to leave the organization

when she feels that an insolvable conflict exists?

How are conflicts in values and

approaches to the problem
to be solved?

How responsible is the consultant for any

unforeseen and damaging side effects
of the OD effort?
 REFERENCES
Alder, R.B., Rosenfeld, L.B., & Towne, L. (1980). Interplay: The process of
interpersonal communicatin. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.

Bader, G. & Stich, T. (1993). Building the consulting relationship. Training &
Development, 55-60

Bandura, A. & Walters, R.H. (1963). Social learning and personality

. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.

Cripe, E.J. (1993). Why Volvo kissed Renault goodbye. Business Week,
54-55

French, Wendell L., Bell, Cecil H. and Zawacki, Robert A. (2000).

Organization Development and Transformation, Managing
Effective Change. Singapore: McGraw-Hill Book Co.
 REFERENCES

Mayer, R.C., Davis, J.H., & Schoorman, F.D. 1995. An integrative model of
organizational trust. Academy of Management Review, 20: 709-734.

Porras J.L. & robertson, P.J. (1993). Organizational development:

Theory, practice, and research. Handbook of industrial and
organizational psychology, Vol. 4. Palo Alto: Consulting
Psychologists Press.

Smither, R. D., Houston, J.M. and McIntire, S.A. 1996. Organization

Development Strategies for Changing Environments. New
York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc.