Skip to main content
Disciplines
Automotive Business IT + Informatics Construction + Real Estate Electrical Engineering + Electronics Energy + Sustainability Insurance + Risk Finance + Banking Management + Leadership Marketing + Sales Mechanical Engineering + Materials
Events
DE
EN
Books
Journals
Topic Page
Marketing
Start single access now
Access for companies
EXTENDED SEARCH
Log in
Top
Published in:
Introduction Read chapter Read first chapter

2021 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

8. A Complexity Perspective

Consultants Experiences Related to (Their Own) Change Dynamics

Author : Antonie van Nistelrooij

Published in: Embracing Organisational Development and Change

Publisher: Springer International Publishing

Log in

Activate our intelligent search to find suitable subject content or patents.

search-config
loading …

Abstract

Complexity science is studying the nature of dynamics in interacting people and suggests that order emerges without any central or governing control or intention when the whole is operating in ‘edge of chaos’ conditions. This way of thinking invites us to stay in the movement of communicating, learning and organising, to think from within our living participation in the evolution of forms of identity. In this chapter, we explore the complexity perspective regarding the practice of consultancy and intervening. In doing so, we will introduce and explore the following:
  • The historical background of this field, how it relates to change and changing, the contemporary debate in the consultancy literature and its main components as a scientific field of research.
  • How to look at change from a first-person perspective by introducing a narrative, with which we try to make a personal experience meaningful in such a way that the reader can stand in a consultant’s shoes and relate to their own experiences.
  • How research practices such as autoethnographic research and community inquiry can be used as an approach to research to describe and systematically analyse personal interactive experience in order to understand cultural experience in relation to other perspectives regarding this experience.
  • Looking into the first encounters between a consultant and a client, by taking a closer look at the particular challenges and dynamics that are part of the conversations regarding a contracting and the preliminary scoping of the system between a consultant and a client.
  • The concept of a ‘pseudo exploration’, which can cause things to be really complex, giving rise to insurmountable obstructions.

Dont have a licence yet? Then find out more about our products and how to get one now:

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft+Technik" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

  • über 102.000 Bücher
  • über 537 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

  • Automobil + Motoren
  • Bauwesen + Immobilien
  • Business IT + Informatik
  • Elektrotechnik + Elektronik
  • Energie + Nachhaltigkeit
  • Finance + Banking
  • Management + Führung
  • Marketing + Vertrieb
  • Maschinenbau + Werkstoffe
  • Versicherung + Risiko

Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now

Springer Professional "Wirtschaft"

Online-Abonnement

Mit Springer Professional "Wirtschaft" erhalten Sie Zugriff auf:

  • über 67.000 Bücher
  • über 340 Zeitschriften

aus folgenden Fachgebieten:

  • Bauwesen + Immobilien
  • Business IT + Informatik
  • Finance + Banking
  • Management + Führung
  • Marketing + Vertrieb
  • Versicherung + Risiko




Jetzt Wissensvorsprung sichern!

inform now
previous chapter Change Dynamics
Footnotes
1
What really complicated things in the case of the narrative was the absence of a consensus on who was responsible for what (and why). In other words, there was no shared ‘current reality’—not regarding the solution and, more importantly, not even regarding the problem at hand in the ‘here and now’.
 
2
[sic] Organising a dialogue with the whole system is not a solution in itself; it is an instrument or in other words, a mean to an end.
 
3
O Hanlon and Wilk cited Bateson who was apparently fond of quipping that one cannot not have an epistemology, and this would apply both to interventionists and to clients. Both the client’s and the interventionist’s respective epistemological presuppositions cannot not influence how they decide what the situation ‘is’ cannot not influence (From: O’Hanlon and Wilk 1987, pp. 7–8). Which seems closely related to Watzlawick c.s.’ Communication Axiom that, ‘One cannot not communicate.’ Because every behaviour is a kind of communication, people who are aware of each other are constantly communicating. Any perceivable behaviour, including the absence of action, has the potential to be interpreted by other people as having some meaning (From: Watzlawick et al. 1967).
 
4
In ‘Steps to the ecology of mind’, Bateson writes, ‘The more we align and are in service to the greater systemic whole, then the more graceful and harmonious are we in our own living and movement. Internal harmony is only possible when there is harmony in the collective circuits of mind and in the wider ecology. It is only when we live gracefully in service of the greater system of which we are part that we receive the grace of beneficence bestowed from the greater system on its parts’ (Bateson 1972b).
 
Literature
Albarracín, D., & Wyer, R. S. (2000). The cognitive impact of past behavior: Influences on beliefs, attitudes, and future behavioral decisions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79(1), 5–22.CrossRef
Alvesson, M. (2003). Beyond neopositivists, romantics, and localists: A reflexive approach to interviews in organizational research. Academy of Management Review, 28(1), 13–33.CrossRef
Alvesson, M., & Johansson, A. W. (2002). Professionalism and politics in management consultancy work. In R. Fincham & T. Clark (Eds.), Critical consulting: New perspectives on the management advice industry. Oxford: Blackwell.
Alvesson, D., Karreman, A., Sturdy, K., & Handley, K. (2009). Unpacking the client(s): Constructions, positions and client—Consultant dynamics. Scandinavian, Journal of Management, 25(3), 253–263.CrossRef
Appelbaum, S. H., Habashy, S., Malo, J., & Shafiq, H. (2012). Back to the future: Revisiting Kotter’s 1996 change model. Journal of Management Development, 31(8), 764–782.CrossRef
Argyris, C. (1991). Teaching smart people how to learn. Harvard Business Review, 69(3), 99–109.
Arnaud, G. (1998). The obscure object of demand in consultancy–—A psychoanalytic perspective. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 13(7), 469–484. p. 470.CrossRef
Audrey, R. (1970). The social contract; a personal enquiry into the evolutionary sources of order and disorder (p. 3). New York: Atheneum.
Baitsch, C., & Heideloff, F. (1997). Collective construction changes organizational reality: An illustration of the relative influence of both consultants and organizations. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 10(3), 217–234. p. 218.CrossRef
Bate, S. P. (1997). Whatever happened to organizational anthropology? A review of the field of organizational ethnography and anthropological studies. Human Relations, 50(9), 1147–1175. p. 1163.CrossRef
Bateson, M. C. (1972a). Our own metaphor: A personal account of a conference on the effects of conscious purpose on human adaptation (p. 285). Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.
Bateson, G. (1972b). Steps to an ecology of mind (p. 101). New York, NY: Ballantine Books.
Bentler, P. M., & Speckart, G. (1981). Attitudes “cause” behaviors: A structural equation analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 40, 226–238.CrossRef
Billing, S. (2007). Facilitative consulting in organisational complexity: Detached involvement in political change processes. PhD thesis, University of Hertfordshire, Hertfordshire, Hatfield.
Block, P. (2011). Flawless consulting: A guide to getting your expertise used. New York: Wiley.
Bloomfield, B., & Vurdubakis, T. (1994). Re-presenting technology: IT consultancy reports as textual reality constructions. Sociology, 28(2), 455–477. p. 455.CrossRef
Boulanger, G. R. (1969). Prologue: What is cybernetics? In J. Rose (Ed.), Survey of cybernetics: A tribute to Dr. Norbert Wiener (pp. 3–9). London: Life Books. p. 5.
Bouwmeester, O., & van Werven, R. (2011). Consultants as legitimizers: Exploring their rhetoric. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 24(4), 427–441. p. 428.CrossRef
Brown, S. L., & Eisenhardt, K. M. (1998). Competing on the edge: Strategy as structured chaos (p. 60). Boston: Harvard Business School Press.
Bruner, J. (1986). Actual minds, possible worlds. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRef
Buchanan, D., & Badham, R. (1999). Politics and organizational change: The lived experience. Human Relations, 52(5), 609–629.CrossRef
Buchler, J. (1955). Introduction. In J. Buchler (Ed.), Philosophical writings of Peirce (pp. ix–xvi). New York: Dover Publication. p. x.
Chalutz Ben-Gal, H., & Tzafrir, S. S. (2011). Consultant-client relationship: One of the secrets to effective organizational change? Journal of Organizational Change Management, 24(5), 662–679.CrossRef
Chang, H. (2008). Autoethnography as method (p. 68). Walnut Creek, CA: Left Coast Press.
Clark, T. (1995). Managing consultants: Consultants as the management of impressions. Buckingham: Open University Press.
Connelly, F. M., & Clandinin, D. J. (1990). Stories of experience and narrative inquiry. Educational Researcher, 19(5), 2–14.CrossRef
Czarniawska, B., & Mazza, C. (2003). Consulting as a liminal space. Human Relations, 56(3), 267–290.CrossRef
Czarniawska-Joerges, B. (1991). Culture is the medium of life. In P. Frost, L. Moore, M. Louis, C. Lundberg, & J. Martin (Eds.), Reframing organizational culture (pp. 285–297). New Bury Park, CA: Sage. p. 286.
Deetz, S. (1996). Describing differences in approaches to organization science: Rethinking Burrell and Morgan and their legacy. Organization Science, 7(2), 191–207. p. 198.CrossRef
Dent, E. B. (2003). The complexity science organizational development practitioner. Organisation Development Journal, 21(2), 82–85. p. 83.
Denzin, N. K. (2001). Interpretive interactionism (pp. 99–103). London: Sage.
Elias, N. (1987). Engagement und Distanzierung [Commitment and distance]. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp.
Ellis, C., & Bochner, A. (2000). Autoethnography, personal narrative, reflexivity. In N. Denzin & Y. Lincoln (Eds.), Handbook of qualitative research (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Ellis, C., Adams, T. E., & Bochner, A. P. (2011). Autoethnography: An overview. Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 12(1), 1–14. p. 4.
Eriksen, M. (2008). Leading adaptive organizational change: Self-reflexivity and self-transformation. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 21(5), 622–640. p. 633.CrossRef
Fincham, R. (1999). The consultant—Client relationship: Critical perspectives on the management of organizational change. Journal of Management Studies, 36(3), 335–351.CrossRef
Fitzgerald, L. A. (1999). Why there’s nothing wrong with systems thinking a little chaos won’t fix? A critique of modern systems theory and the practice of organizational change it informs. Systemic Practice and Action Research, 12(3), 219–235. p. 231.CrossRef
Ford, J. (1999). Organizational change as shifting conversations. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 12, 480–500. p. 483.CrossRef
French, W. L., & Bell, C. H. (1999). Organizational development; behavioral science interventions for organization improvement (p. 2). Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.
Gleick, J. (1988). Chaos: The making of a new science. London: Heinemann.
Goodstein, L. D., & Burke, W. W. (1991). Creating successful organization change. Organizational Dynamics, 19(4), 4–17. p. 14.CrossRef
Goodwin, B. (1994). How the leopard changed its spots. London: Pheonix Giant.
Hardy, C., & Clegg, S. (1997). Relativity without relativism: Reflexivity in post-paradigm organization studies. British Journal of Management, 8, S5–S17. Special issue, p. 9.CrossRef
Haskell, T. (1984). Professionalism versus capitalism: R. H. Tawney, Emile Durkheim and C.S. Pierce on the disinterestedness of professional communities. In T. Haskell (Ed.), The authority of experts: Studies in history and theory (pp. 180–225). Bloomington: Indiana University Press. p. 204.
Heusinkveld, S., & Visscher, K. (2012). Practice what you preach: How consultants frame management concepts as enacted practice. Scandinavian Journal of Management, 28, 285–297.CrossRef
Heylighen, F., & Joslyn, C. (2001). Cybernetics and second-order cybernetics. In R. A. Meyers (Ed.), Encyclopedia of physical science & technology (3rd ed., pp. 1–24). New York: Academic Press. p. 3.
Hislop, D. (2002). The client role in consultancy relations during the appropriation of technological innovations. Research Policy, 31, 657–671.CrossRef
Homan, T. H. (2016). Locating complex responsive process research in the approaches of theorising about organizations. International Journal of Business and Globalisation, 17(4), 491–513.CrossRef
Inghilleri, P. (1999). From subjective experience to cultural change (p. 26). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRef
Kauffman, S. A. (1993). The origins of order: Self-organization and selection in evolution. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Keeney, B. P. (1983). Aesthetics of change. New York, NY: The Guilford Press.
Kotter, J. P. (1995, March–April). Leading change: Why transformation efforts fail. Harvard Business Review, pp. 59–67, p. 64.
Kubr, M. (2002). Management consulting: A guide to the profession. Geneva: International Labour Office.
Laing, R. D. (1969). The divided self: An existential study in sanity and madness (p. 120). London: Tavistock Publishers.
Lalonde, C., & Gilbert, M. H. (2016). Dramaturgical awareness of consultants through the rhetoric and rituals of cooperation. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 29(4), 630–656.CrossRef
Letiche, H. (2008). Making healthcare care managing via simple guiding principles (p. xvi). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
MacIntosh, R., & MacLean, D. (2001). Conditioned emergence: Researching change and changing research. International Journal of Operations & Production Management., 21(10), 1343–1357.CrossRef
MacIntosh, R., & MacLean, D. (2003). Complex adaptive social systems: Towards a theory for practice. In E. Mitleton-Kelly (Ed.), Complex systems and evolutionary perspectives on organizations: The application of complexity theory to organizations (pp. 149–165). Amsterdam: Elsevier Science.
McKenna, C. (2006). The world’s newest profession. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Mead, G. H. (1934). Mind, self and society (Vol. 111, p. 134). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Meadows, D. H. (2008). Thinking in systems. White River Junction, VT: Chelsea Green Publishing.
Midgley, G., Munlo, I., & Brown, M. (1998). The theory and practice of boundary critique: Developing housing services for older people. Journal of the Operational Research Society, 49(5), 467–478. p. 470.CrossRef
O’Hanlon, B. (1999). Do one thing different: And other uncommonly sensible solutions to life’s persistent problems (p. 12). New York: Harper Collins.
O’Hanlon, B., & Wilk, J. (1987). Shifting contexts: The generation of effective psychotherapy (pp. x–xi). New York, NY: The Guildford Press.
Ouellette, J. A., & Wood, W. (1998). Habit and intention in everyday life: The multiple processes by which past behavior predicts future behavior. Psychological Bulletin, 124, 54–74.CrossRef
Peirce, C. S. (1958). The fixation of belief. In P. P. Wiener (Ed.), Charles sanders Peirce: Selected writings. New York: Dover Publications.
Pellegrini, S. (2002). Managing the interplay and tensions of consulting interventions: The consultant client relationship as mediation and reconciliation. Journal of Management Development, 21(5), 343–365.CrossRef
Polster, E. (1995). A population of selves: A therapeutic exploration of personal diversity (p. 108). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Prigogine, I. (1996). The end of certainty; time, chaos and the new laws of nature. New York: The Free Press.
Prigogine, I., & Stengers, I. (1984). Order out of chaos: Man’s new dialogue with nature. New York: Bantam Books.
Robine, J.-M. (2011). On the occasion of an other (p. 42). New York, NY: The Gestalt Journal Press.
Schein, E. H. (1988). Organizational psychology (3rd ed.p. 239). London: Prentice-Hall.
Schein, E. (1997). The concept of “client” from a process consultation perspective: A guide for change agents. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 10(3), 202–216. p. 202.CrossRef
Schein, E. H. (2009). Reactions, reflections, rejoinders, and a challenge. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 45(1), 141–158.CrossRef
Schön, D. A. (1983). The reflective practitioner: How professionals think in action. New York: Basic Books.
Seigfried, C. H. (1996). Pragmatism and feminism: Reweaving the social fabric (p. 92). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Seixas, P. (1993). The community of inquiry as a basis for knowledge and learning: The case of history. American Educational Research Journal, 30(2), 305–324.CrossRef
Shaw, P. (1997). Intervening in the shadow systems of organizations: Consulting from a complexity perspective. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 10(3), 235–250.
Shields, P. M. (2003). The community of inquiry; classical pragmatism and public administration. Administration & Society, 35(5), 510–538.CrossRef
Simmel, G. (1992). Der gast, der bleibt – Dimensionen von Georg Simmels Analyse des Fremdseins [The guest who stays—The dimensions of Georg Simmel’s analysis of being foreign]. In A. Loycke (Ed.), Exkursüber den Fremdeny [On the strager] (pp. 9–16). New York, NY: Campus.
Stacey, R. (1995). Strategic management and organizational dynamics (p. 481). London: Pitman Publishing.
Stacey, R. (1996). Complexity and creativity in organizations. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler.
Stacey, R. (2001). Complex responsive processes in organizations: Learning and knowledge creation. London: Routledge.
Stacey, R. D. (2003a). Strategic management and organisational dynamics: The challenge of complexity. Harlow: Financial Times/Prentice-Hall.
Stacey, R. (2003b). Learning as an activity of interdependent people. The Learning Organization, 10(6), 325–331.CrossRef
Stacey, R. (2007). The challenge of human interdependence: Consequences for thinking about the day to day practice of management in organizations. European Business Review, 119(4), 292–302. p. 298.CrossRef
Stacey, R., & Griffin, D. (Eds.). (2005). A complexity perspective on researching organizations. London: Routledge.
Stacey, R. D., Griffin, D., & Shaw, P. (2000). Complexity and management: Fad or radical challenge to systems thinking? London: Routledge.
Stacey, R. D., Griffin, D., & Shaw, P. (2002). Complexity and management: Fad or radical challenge to systems thinking? London: Routledge.
Stewart, A., & Aldrich, H. (2015). Collaboration between management and anthropology researchers: Obstacles and opportunities. The Academy of Management Perspectives, 29(2), 173–192.CrossRef
Sturdy, A. J. (1997). The dialectics of consultancy. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 8(5), 511–535.CrossRef
Sturdy, A., Werr, A., & Buono, A. F. (2009a). The client in management consultancy research: Mapping the territory. Scandinavian Journal of Management, 25(3), 247–252.CrossRef
Sturdy, A., Clark, T., Fincham, R., & Handley, K. (2009b). Management consultancy: Boundaries and knowledge in action. Oxford: Oxford University Press.CrossRef
Styhre, A. (2002). Non-linear change in organizations: Organization change management informed by complexity theory. Leadership and Organization Development Journal, 23(6), 343–351.CrossRef
Thomas, W. I., & Thomas, D. S. (1928). The child in America: Behavior problems and programs (pp. 571–572). New York: Knopf. p. 572.
Tompkins, P. K. (1982). Communication as action: An introduction to rhetoric and communication (p. 67). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Turdy, A. (1997). The consultancy process–—An insecure business? Journal of Management Studies. Vol., 34(3), 389–413.
Van Nistelrooij, A. T. M., & Homan, T. (2019). “You call it a structure taboo!” Relating consultant experiences to changing dynamics in healthcare. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 32(2), 182–193.CrossRef
Van Nistelrooij, A. T. M., & Sminia, H. (2010). Organization development: What’s happening? Journal of Change Management, 10(4), 409–422.
Van Nistelrooij, A. T. M., Van der Fluit, E., & De Wilde, R. (2013). The paradox of programmed dialogue in large group interventions: A social constructionist perspective. Challenging Organizations and Society, 2(2), 405–420.
Van Ooijen, M., Homan, T. H., Goedhart, A., Van Nistelrooij, A. T. M., Van der Steen, B., Kuhlmann, M., et al. (2017). Imperfect consultant (in Dutch). Utrecht: Kessels & Smit Publishers.
Van Ooijen, M., van Nistelrooij, A. T. M., & Veenswijk, M. (2018). Opposing views on the urgency for healthcare changes in the Netherlands: A temporal narrative struggle. Journal of Service Science and Management, 11(4), 343–359. p. 343.CrossRef
Vanderstraeten, R. A. F. (2001). Observing systems: A cybernetic perspective on system/environment relations. Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, 31(3), 297–311. p. 298.CrossRef
Wall, S. (2006). An autoethnography on learning about autoethnography. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 5(2), 146–160. p. 155.CrossRef
Watzlawick, P., Beavin, J. H., & Jackson, D. D. (1967). Pragmatics of human communication; a study of interactional patterns, pathologies, and paradoxes (pp. 48–49). New York: Norton & Company.
Watzlawick, P., Weakland, J. H., & Fisch, R. (1974). Change: Principles of problem formation and problem resolution. New York: Norton.
Weick, K. E. (1995). Sensemaking in organizations (p. 30). London: Sage.
Wheeler, G. (1998). A gestalt developmental model. British Gestalt Journal, 7(2), 115–125. p. 123.
Wiener, N. (1961). Cybernetics: Or control and communication in the animal and the machine. New York: Wiley.
Ybema, S., Yanow, D., Wels, H., & Kampsteeg, F. (Eds.). (2009). Organizational ethnography. London: Sage.
Metadata
Title
A Complexity Perspective
Author
Antonie van Nistelrooij
Copyright Year
2021
Publisher
Springer International Publishing
Book
Embracing Organisational Development and Change

Print ISBN: 978-3-030-51255-2

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-030-51256-9

Copyright Year: 2021

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51256-9_8