Consultancy in Firms

            Consultancy business has been in existence for years, and it can be referred to as a business owned by an individual or a group of experts who provide professional feedback to an organization or an entrepreneur at a fee. Besides, they are mainly hired to generally offer objective advice that facilitates the realization of goals through proper utilization of resources. This is usually done by making use of skills and experiences or working to improve the organizational structure of the organization (Nordmeyer, 2017). This paper will discuss the roles of a consultant in an organization and describe the distinction that exists between internal and external consultants.

Consultant Roles

            A significant consultant role is to help a firm with specific areas of inclusiveness. Some of the roles that he/she can assume are; educator, resource, or a facilitator, but the leader always remains within the organization (Nordmeyer, 2017). Besides, there are four categories of roles that can be assumed by a consultant. The first one is the overall guidance; where the consultant works together with the inclusiveness committee to plan and execute the initiative, and in this case, he/she can act as a facilitator for the meeting or the process. This will be like an advisory role.

            Also, a consultant can take part in information collection. He/she, in this case, will be required to design and be involved in the data collection, especially for qualitative data in interviews and focus groups. This will be a better choice because they are neutral mostly and thus, and the responses from both the internal and external respondents will be more honest (Linton, 2016). Additionally, a consultant can also take part in the analysis of the firm and identifying areas that need improvement. They usually study the structure of the organization, assess the effectiveness of business processes, and conduct interviews of managers and workers at all levels. In addition to that, they will also evaluate the level of skills throughout the firm.

Furthermore, a consultant can also assume the role of a trainer. For example, employees may require specific specialized skills to perform day-to-day duties (Nordmeyer, 2017). In this case, the role of the consultant will involve assessing employee training needs, then designing and conduction the actual training classes that will enable the workers to acquire the skills they need. Besides, some other functions of a consultant will include management, marketing of products and services, studying computer systems, and make recommendations and provision of auditing, tax, and accounting (Linton, 2016). With this, it is the responsibility of the consultant to maintain a professional code of practice and ethics.

The Distinction between an External and Internal Consultant

Both the external and internal consultants work in an advisory capacity for a firm. However, the external consultant is an entity that is not within the firm, hired to meet a particular goal. On the other hand, the internal consultant works in the quality control department, or the human resource of a business (Reddy, 2019). Thus, they are involved in the daily operation of the organization to improve it by identifying and solving problems as they arise.

Conclusion

Conclusively, consultancy is a unique kind of business that helps in the improvement of firms/organizations through their services. Some of their roles include can developing a strategy guide, giving support to the management, analysis of programs, and implementing projects to promote the improvement of the company. Moreover, there is no such distinction between an external and internal consultant, just that the later comes from outside the organization, and the other is within the business.

References

Linton, I. (2016, November 9). Roles of Organizational Consultants. Retrieved from https://work.chron.com/roles-organizational-consultants-17795.html.

Nordmeyer MBA, B. (2017, November 21). Roles of a Consultant. Retrieved from https://work.chron.com/roles-consultant-8395.html.

Reddy, C. (2019, October 4). Internal vs External Consultants: Advantages & Disadvantages. Retrieved from https://content.wisestep.com/internal-vs-external-consultants-advantages-disadvantages/.