Management consulting

business decisions in terms of financial and social benefits to the various stakeholders who will be affected (see Chapter 23).

6.3Professional associations and codes of conduct

Professional associations

In a number of countries management consultants have established voluntary professional associations to represent their common interests (for names and addresses see Appendix 2). These associations have played a leading role in promoting professional standards of consulting and in gaining the confidence of management circles and a good reputation in society.

By and large, associations of management consultants contribute to the strengthening of the industry by:

●developing a common body of knowledge;

●defining minimum qualification criteria for new entrants to the field (education, type and length of experience, references, examinations);

●certifying (accrediting) management consultants;

●developing and promoting a code of professional conduct and practice for their members;

●investigating complaints of violations of the code of conduct and taking disciplinary action;

●examining various aspects of management consulting, organizing an exchange of experience and making recommendations to members on improvements in consulting methods, management of firms, training of consultants and other questions important to the development of the profession;

●organizing training events for consultants;

●providing information on services available from members and helping to identify suitable consultants at the request of potential clients;

●defending their members’ common interests in dealing with governments, organizations representing clients and other stakeholders interested in the development of consulting and the use of consulting services.

Membership of a professional association is voluntary, but is governed by several conditions defining the member’s profile and commitment to a collectively endorsed moral obligation. Not all consultants are members. There have been cases of large consulting firms that do not subscribe to all conditions of membership, or whose management has taken an elitist approach, feeling that a well-established and strong professional firm can define its own standards and does not need guidance or supervision by a professional association. There are individual consultants, too, who are not members because they do not meet some admission criterion, or do not feel that membership offers them any benefits.

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Professionalism and ethics in consulting

In some countries, there are two types of consultants’ organization: associations of firms, and institutes or associations of individual consultants. This reflects different perceptions of what consulting firms need as distinct from individuals employed in these firms or working as sole practitioners. Associations of firms tend to focus on the development of firms and on questions that affect the whole consulting industry, while the institutes are mainly interested in the qualifications and development of individual consultants. This dichotomy is quite common in the English-speaking world, although several attempts have been made to convert the “friendly cohabitation” of these voluntary bodies into more active collaboration and even integration.

Where the two types of membership organization exist, dual and overlapping membership is quite common: a consulting firm may be a member of an association, while some or all of the consultants it employs are individual members of an institute.

On average, about 50 per cent of consultants, practising individually or employed by consulting firms, are members of voluntary professional associations of management and business consultants. This figure includes both individual members and consultants who work for firms that are members of a consulting association. It is a low figure bearing in mind the rapidly changing shape of consulting and the need to strengthen professionalism. Some consultants affirm that they would join a professional association that provided useful services and helped members to find new business opportunities. This, however, may be a vicious circle: without a stronger membership and financial base and without the active involvement of the leading professionals, no voluntary association can fully represent the profession and provide a useful service.

The international scene

At the international level, management consulting lacks a world federation that would organize collaboration among national associations and harmonize national and regional efforts to develop the profession. The leading organizations covering the three principal markets for consulting services (but not the whole world) are AMCF (United States), FEACO (Europe) and ZEN-NOH- REN (Japan).

AMCF (Association of Management Consulting Firms) is the oldest association of firms, established in 1926. Its profile is increasingly international since AMCF’s leading members are large multinational consultancies based in the United States; non-American firms can also become members.

FEACO (European Federation of Management Consulting Associations) is a regional federation of national associations of management consulting firms (one per country). Most large firms based in the United States have branch offices or affiliated companies in several European countries and participate in FEACO’s work through the national associations. FEACO also works directly with large multinational consultancies through a special committee.

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ZEN-NOH-REN is a national association with a wide membership base, including other professional organizations in management and productivity in addition to consulting organizations.

Thus the profiles of these three associations are different. Yet they have started to cooperate on matters of common interest, e.g. by jointly organizing major management consultants’ conferences and comparing regional experiences.

Collaboration among national management consulting institutes (with individual membership) has been organized by the ICMCI (International Council of Management Consulting Institutes), established in 1987. The Council has chosen to focus on professional development and quality by promoting consultant certification by individual member institutes (members must be committed to the idea of certification) and its international recognition by the profession and the users’ community.

Codes of conduct

Professional associations of management consultants attach great importance to codes of professional conduct (ethics, deontology, professional practice), which they use as basic instruments to establish the profession and protect its integrity, and to inform clients about behavioural rules that should be observed by the consultants. They regard the codes as statements that signify voluntary assumption by members of the obligation of self-discipline which can reach above and beyond the requirements of the law. The full texts of codes of conduct are available from the Web pages of most consulting associations (see the addresses in Appendix 2).

It is, of course, not the code of conduct itself, but its consistent and intelligent application by all members of the association which enhances the professional value and integrity of consulting services. Many codes have a clause that commits consultants to do nothing likely to lower the status of management consulting as a profession. This leaves much to the discretion of the consultants themselves.

This is quite reasonable. A code cannot be excessively detailed and specific, since it needs to be applicable to all members and all situations in which they intervene. Furthermore, a code cannot anticipate new problems and future situations in which consultants may have to weigh what is professional and what is not. As pointed out by Gordon Lippitt, “the process of continually evaluating one’s code of ethics and the application of those ethics must continue throughout one’s professional life, with the use of trusted colleagues as testers and clarifiers. The acquisition of ethical competence reduces anxiety and increases effectiveness in the situational decision making that is a constant in the consulting process.”1

Assisting professional development

Consultants’ associations can help their members to raise the standards of professional service in many ways. These can include training courses for new consultants, refresher training and workshops for experienced practitioners, conferences aimed at broad exchange of information and experience, research

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