6. Heraclitus and the Nature of Management Consultancy Interventions

Management consultancy interventions typically are based on rational, step-by-step procedures to change an organisation from one kind of static object into another. This reflects a tradition of western thought that began with Parmenides, Leucippus and Democritus, who believed that the universe was composed of stable substances. By contrast, Heraclitus had argued that the universe, at least in part, consisted of continually changing processes, just as a river consisted of continually changing flows of water. Management scholars increasingly look to Heraclitus to inform their thinking about organisations. Application of his ideas to organisation theory does not exclude the possibility of continuity or stability, but it suggests that organisations are complex, dynamic and to some extent unpredictable. If the Heraclitean metaphor of an organisation as flux is accepted, management consultancy interventions based on rational, scientific, linear methods cannot be relied upon to produce predictable results. Effective management consultancy interventions must rather be characterised by flexibility and provision for well-judged improvisation. This in turn indicates that the knowledge required to intervene effectively in an organisation is not the lawful, scientific knowledge associated with the Aristotelian intellectual virtue of sophia, but rather the practical, experience-based good judgement associated with the intellectual virtue of phronesis.