Management consulting companies that provide knowledge service products are typical representatives of knowledge-intensive enterprises. In this ever-changing dynamic environment, if management consulting companies want to occupy a place in the highly competitive market, they must fully promote knowledge transformation at all stages of their consulting and give full play to the role of knowledge in projects and customers. The following are the main points of the management consulting process conversion mechanism that I have compiled for you. Welcome to read and browse.
1 research
The basic research on knowledge management and knowledge transformation within enterprises has been very mature. Ikujiro Nonaka, Hedlund, Sulansky, N Dixon and others put forward the knowledge transformation model from different emphases, which became the theoretical basis of academic knowledge transformation research. In recent years, management consulting has become more and more important to enterprises. External brain? Knowledge management plays an increasingly prominent role in management consulting projects. Knowledge management in management consulting has attracted the attention of many scholars, and this kind of research has been carried out one after another. Knowledge transformation is a very important aspect. Knowledge transformation and knowledge transfer are often used interchangeably. The author believes that in management consulting projects, knowledge is transmitted through the transformation of understanding, addition, deletion and supplement, and knowledge transformation can better reflect the process of knowledge transmission than knowledge transfer. At present, the research on knowledge transformation of management consulting is mainly divided into three categories: one is to build a knowledge transformation model of management consulting; Secondly, analyze the influencing factors of management consulting knowledge transformation; Third, summarize the knowledge transformation mechanism of management consulting.
The research characteristics of constructing the knowledge transformation model of management consulting are: based on the theory of knowledge management (SECI models in Ikujiro Nonaka are mostly), combined with the characteristics of management consulting industry (such as process and consulting knowledge characteristics, etc.). ), analyze the knowledge transformation of management consulting. Based on the theory of knowledge management process, Stranbach analyzes the contact characteristics between knowledge-intensive enterprises and their customers, and divides the process of knowledge transformation into three stages: acquisition of explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge, re-integration of knowledge and diffusion of knowledge to customer enterprises. Werr and Stjemberg, based on the internal knowledge market theory, constructed a knowledge sharing mechanism model of management consulting companies to describe the knowledge transformation of management consulting companies. On the basis of analyzing the business process of management consulting, Zheng Xueli put forward a conceptual model of knowledge management. Starting from the management consulting practice of benchmarking management consulting, Fu Su constructed a knowledge transformation model, and discussed its characteristics such as potential difference, two-way and continuity.
Summarizing the existing research on the influencing factors of knowledge transformation in management consulting, we can divide the influencing factors into four categories: knowledge characteristics, consultant team characteristics, customer characteristics and transformation situation. The degree of representation, permeability and observability of knowledge is different, and the difficulty of knowledge transformation is also different; The incentive mechanism, communication ability, social status of consultant team and the incentive mechanism, communication ability, absorption ability and retention ability of customer team will affect the effect of knowledge transformation; The relationship between the two parties, the characteristics of socialization and the characteristics of goals and tasks will also have a positive or negative impact on knowledge transformation. Fu Su pointed out that the influencing factors of knowledge transformation in management consulting include knowledge attribute, customer attribute and knowledge worker attribute. Tang summarized the influencing factors of knowledge transformation from four aspects: knowledge, knowledge sources, recipients and transformation scenarios.
Nan Kwan pointed out that the key to knowledge transformation lies in people, not technology, so it is very important to build a mechanism to promote and motivate knowledge transformation between people in management consulting. Ding Donghong and Zhu Fei used SECI model to analyze the connotation of management consulting company, and put forward the promotion mechanism to improve tacit knowledge management of consulting company, including culture, technology and system. Zheng Xueli believes that the foundation of knowledge management mode needs to have stable technical infrastructure, create a good enterprise environment, build an organizational structure suitable for knowledge management and establish an effective knowledge incentive system. Generally speaking, there are relatively few researches on the knowledge transformation of management consulting at present, mostly focusing on the knowledge transformation within consulting companies and the macro-knowledge transformation between consulting companies and client enterprises, while there are few in-depth and micro-studies on the knowledge transformation of management consulting project teams, which do not really combine the processes and characteristics of management consulting projects. This is mainly restricted by the particularity of management consulting industry and other objective factors. Scholars who study this field rarely have in-depth management consulting practice, and it is difficult to fully and profoundly understand the characteristics and practical operation of management consulting. The author has 12 years of practical experience in management consulting industry, and can combine knowledge management theory and management consulting practice to analyze the knowledge transformation mechanism in the process of management consulting. Management consulting is an independent and professional consulting service, which helps client enterprises and managers to identify and seize new opportunities, strengthen learning and implement changes by solving the management and operation problems of client enterprises. Management consulting exists in the form of projects, providing solutions for corporate customers and transferring integrated knowledge to corporate customers and their employees. In addition, management consulting projects have the characteristics of stages, and the leading modes of knowledge transformation in different stages are different. From the perspective of management consulting process and individual transformation, this paper analyzes the content and main characteristics of knowledge transformation mechanism of management consulting projects on the basis of existing research. Shoulder? It is a progress in the world, which has both theoretical value and practical guidance.
2 the theoretical basis of knowledge transformation of management consulting projects
Ikujiro Nonaka, Hedlund, Sulansky, N Dixon and others put forward the knowledge transformation model from different emphases. Ikujiro Nonaka's SECI knowledge transformation model describes four transformation modes between explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge in organizations: recessive, dominant, combination and sublimation. On the basis of SECI model, Hedlund added two elements, namely, transforming the subject type and absorbing and spreading. Szulanski's four stages describe the process of knowledge transformation; Nancy. Dixon divides knowledge transformation into continuous transformation, near transformation, far transformation, strategic transformation and expert transformation from three dimensions: knowledge receiver, task nature and transformation type.
Generally speaking, these four knowledge transformation models have their own characteristics and emphases. The author thinks that diversity and dynamics are important characteristics of knowledge transformation, and the study of knowledge transformation mode of management consulting can not be separated from exploring diverse transformation forms and dynamic transformation processes. SECI model comprehensively and appropriately describes the different types of knowledge transformation in the organization. This model is also the most respected, widely quoted and convincing core theory in the field of knowledge transformation, and the four-stage model conveys the dynamic process of knowledge transformation. Therefore, when constructing the knowledge transformation model of management consulting, this paper mainly refers to SECI model and four-stage model.
1)SECI model. The most widely used knowledge classification is to divide knowledge into tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge. Based on this, Ikujiro Nonaka believes that in a dynamic and rapidly changing environment, the ability of an enterprise to gain a competitive advantage depends on its ability to constantly examine various factors in the internal and external environment of the organization. Organizational knowledge can be created through the interaction between tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge according to four modes of interaction, namely, osmosis (socialization), externalization (externalization) and summary combination (combination). SECI model expresses the process of knowledge transformation through four modes: subtle transformation from tacit knowledge to tacit knowledge, explicit transformation from tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge, aggregation and combination from explicit knowledge to explicit knowledge, and internal sublimation from explicit knowledge to implicit knowledge. Ba? This concept represents the environment for promoting knowledge transformation and innovation, including starting BA, dialogue BA, system BA and practice BA. The continuous iteration and spiral rise between the four modes and the four bars has realized the transformation of knowledge. See figure 1.
2) Four-stage model. Szulanski's four-stage model mainly describes the demand generation and realization of knowledge transformation, which is divided into willingness stage, matching stage, implementation stage and integration stage, and analyzes the problems to be solved in each stage respectively. Willingness stage is the process of forming transformation motivation and deciding transformation. The main problem is how to accurately identify and correctly evaluate the required external knowledge. The matching stage is the process of determining the first use of transformed knowledge, and the main problem is how to realize effective interaction and communication between the two parties; The implementation stage is the process from the initial use of transformed knowledge to satisfactory performance. The main question is whether the knowledge transformation has achieved the expected effect. The integration stage is the process of transforming knowledge into enterprise conventional knowledge after achieving the effect of knowledge transformation. The main problem is a series of problems derived from transforming new knowledge into conventional knowledge. See figure 2.
3 Process-based management consulting knowledge transformation model construction
When constructing the knowledge transformation model of management consulting, the following aspects are mainly considered.
1) The knowledge emphasis and transformation characteristics in different stages of management consulting are different. Management consulting usually operates in the form of a project team, which is composed of management consulting experts. Based on the investigation and analysis of the operating conditions of customers' enterprises, help customers identify and analyze problems objectively and independently, and finally put forward solutions to the problems. What the management consulting company should do is to help customers put forward good ideas and turn them into feasible plans and schemes until the help counseling is implemented in the operation of the enterprise. Management consulting is usually divided into? Signing a contract with a client enterprise, project start-up, current situation analysis, scheme design, client review and implementation? The five main stages of current situation analysis and scheme design are the main body and main battlefield of knowledge transformation. From the characteristics of knowledge transformation, there are similarities and differences between the two stages of knowledge transformation: current situation analysis and scheme design. Generally speaking, the site of the client enterprise is the front desk of management consulting, but in the background of management consulting, that is, consulting work in the eyes of consultants is a more complicated process of knowledge processing and transformation.
2) The front-office business of management consulting operates in the form of a project team, and the knowledge transformation within the project team is the main body of knowledge transformation of insight consulting. The general management consulting process, from consulting negotiation to implementation guidance, is a process of close cooperation and close coordination under the premise of establishing cooperative relationship between customers and consulting experts. Finally, the consulting scheme proposed to customers should be complete, effective and implementable, that is, the consulting scheme often mentioned should be able to land and achieve customer satisfaction. A good management consulting project must meet two conditions: first, the consulting work must be composed of consulting experts with rich knowledge of enterprise management and experienced industry experts in the industry. They know where to start consulting work, what are the key links to analyze and solve management problems, what problems the analysis results show and how to improve them. Second, the consulted enterprise must provide a large number of real production and operation data as the basis for the analysis and judgment of the management consultant to help the consultant understand the actual situation of the enterprise. Therefore, the front desk of management consulting is not only the externalization of the consultant's personal knowledge, but also an important link for management consultants to introduce customer knowledge into the consultant's personal knowledge, thus further serving as an important input for management consulting companies to upgrade their knowledge base.
3) The service subject of consulting business is the client enterprise, and the knowledge transformation between the project team and the client affects the effectiveness of the project. Start building the project team during the signing and start-up phase. If the project team is only composed of consultants, and the customer members do not participate much, it will not be conducive to the transfer and transformation of the customer's enterprise knowledge to the project team, and the project process is as important as the final delivery. Therefore, at the beginning of the project, a joint project team composed of consultants and key customers will be formed. The customers will not only be the recipients of the consultation results, but also participate deeply in the whole consultation process. The joint project team works at the customer site, which enlarges the scope of knowledge transformation, is more conducive to the project team's work delivery close to the customer's actual business, is more practical, and ensures the implementation of future consulting suggestions. At the same time, in the whole consulting project process, especially through the project, doing a good job of knowledge transformation can help the client enterprises cultivate a team of skilled talents and lay the foundation for future implementation.
4) The background of management consulting is knowledge base and expert team. For management consultants, the interpretation of customer corporate culture and tacit knowledge of customer management are the first step to the success of the project.
The importance of consulting business. The project composition of management consulting is composed of diversified teams with different backgrounds and abilities, including experts, project managers, consultants and analysts. Project managers and consultants work at the customer's site and keep in touch with the customer's interface, relationship, demand, information collection and solution interpretation; Although analysts work on the customer's site, they rarely interact directly with customers. Their main job is to inquire information from the internal knowledge base and external institutions of the consulting company, and to preliminarily process and analyze the information and data. Project experts mainly play the auxiliary role of consultants in the background. In addition, there is a lot of knowledge analysis and insight work of human-computer interaction in the background, which is also the main work of each member of all project teams in the background. Moreover, for consulting companies, at this time, not only a customer consulting project has been completed, but more importantly, knowledge and customer cases have been collected into the knowledge base, forming a virtuous circle of knowledge management.
Based on the above analysis and SECI model of Ikujiro Nonaka, a knowledge transformation model of management consulting based on project implementation process is constructed (see Figure 3). Under the framework of management consulting project process, this model analyzes the main modes of knowledge transformation of customers, consulting front-end business (project team) and back-end business (knowledge base and experts) at different stages, and the knowledge transformation within the project team is the main body of management consulting knowledge transformation. In the current situation analysis stage, the project team obtains the tacit knowledge of the client enterprise (decentralization) and the knowledge base of the consulting company (decentralization), while within the project team, the explicit knowledge of the client individual is transformed into the explicit knowledge of the consultant (combination), followed by the explicit knowledge of the client/consultant (externalization), and the knowledge capacity of the project team is relatively small at this stage. In the scheme design stage, the knowledge of the project team gradually increases through continuous spiral transformation, and the knowledge flows from the project team to the client enterprise and the consulting company, which are called the explicit knowledge (combination) of the client enterprise and the explicit knowledge (integration) of the consulting enterprise respectively. In the project team, it is prominent that the consultant's personal explicit knowledge is transformed into the client's personal explicit knowledge (combination) and the consultant's personal tacit knowledge is transformed into the client's personal tacit knowledge (socialization), and the client/consultant's explicit knowledge is transformed into the client/consultant. See figure 3.
4. Analysis of the main contents and characteristics of the process-based management consulting knowledge transformation model
1) Project team's transformation of personal tacit knowledge of client enterprises and managers.
Because the project team works at the customer site, the culture of the customer enterprise has obvious influence on the project team. How to quickly form a knowledge of customer culture can help the project team to set up smoothly and work more efficiently, thus reducing unnecessary contradictions and conflicts in the project process. At the same time, through interviews and exchanges with managers, the hidden knowledge such as managers' understanding of the industry, the development of customers' enterprises and personal expectations of the project is excavated and widely understood and formed in the project team, so that the project team can find the right direction.
2) Knowledge transformation within the project team in the status quo analysis stage. The general understanding of management consulting is that the knowledge potential difference of consulting is higher than that of customers, which is of course one reason why customers ask consulting companies. However, at this stage, from a more microscopic point of view, there are many aspects such as understanding the industry, understanding the current situation of customers' operations, and interpreting the internal relations and politics of customers' organizations. The knowledge gap of customers is much higher than that of consulting companies. Although, on the whole, the knowledge potential difference between the consultant and the client leads to a great deal of knowledge being transferred from the consultant to the client, at this stage, if the consultant thinks that he knows everything, or is misled by the client, he is eager to promote his views and ignores the understanding of the client's business, which leads to the failure of the project everywhere.
At present, the main feature of joint project team knowledge transfer is the externalization of tacit knowledge, and the main target is individual consultants, not customers. Because in the actual management consulting process, in the newly established project team, consultants still have a process of relearning the current situation of customers, historical causes and even industry characteristics, and the potential difference in these knowledge points is that customers are higher than consultants. The transformation at this stage is from clients to consultants, and consultants should also activate their tacit knowledge.
3) The spiral of knowledge transformation within the project. With the whole process of the project, the project team has experienced the whole life cycle from composition to dissolution after the project delivery. The knowledge transformation in the project is mainly from the initial externalization to the final internalization, which is a gradual change of characteristics in the whole project process. The most important watershed is the completion of current situation analysis and the beginning of scheme design. At the same time, according to years of consulting experience, the obvious changes of these two kinds of knowledge transformation are also important indicators to observe the working status of a joint project team. Specifically, in the consulting scheme design stage, the main features of the knowledge transformation of the project team are still in the status quo analysis stage, which means that the maturity of the team running-in can not meet the requirements of the next stage of scheme design, and the project leader needs to give intervention, attention and guidance to help the project team form * * * knowledge as soon as possible.
4) Knowledge transformation within the project team in the scheme design stage. The formation stage of project scheme is also the process of rapid formation of project team knowledge. The whole project is actively preparing to complete the final consultation report. At this stage, the remarkable knowledge transformation feature of management consulting project team is combination, and finally the scattered knowledge scattered among individuals is combined into a consulting scheme. At the same time, at this stage, the knowledge transfer between individuals in the project team presents the characteristics of internalization, and consultants and client members form more tacit knowledge such as experience and industry cognition at the same time. Therefore, this stage is an important process for the formation of project team knowledge and customer tacit knowledge. In addition to the explicit delivery of consulting report, tacit knowledge transfer is also an important delivery of the project. From the perspective of management consulting, it's not just for people? Fish? , but also teach people? Fishing? .
5) The consultation results are transformed into customer knowledge. The knowledge of the project team is integrated into the consulting report. After the consulting scheme is basically formed, the joint project team will combine the knowledge of the project team into the final consulting scheme and deliver it to the customer through training, communication, demonstration and review meeting with the customer. This is called the process of consulting to show the views of consulting solutions to customers and get their approval, and it is a typical cross-organizational knowledge transformation. The transformation of consulting results into explicit knowledge of customer enterprises is a process of knowledge integration, not just a combination process from explicit knowledge to explicit knowledge. The specific analysis is that the explicit knowledge of the consulting report is not the whole of the consulting results, and the consulting results also include more tacit knowledge such as methods and ideas learned by customers in the joint project team, which are well integrated and delivered to customers. Then the project knowledge transformation is mainly carried out in the knowledge management system of the client enterprise, which is an indispensable prerequisite for further guiding the follow-up implementation and continuous optimization in the future.
6) The knowledge generated by the project is transferred to the knowledge of the management consulting company. Business front desk is easy to be observed, so people pay more attention to the effectiveness of front desk. However, the core competence of a real consulting company is in the background. Good cooperation and knowledge transfer between the front desk and the back desk will help the front desk project team form knowledge quickly and play the role of the front desk more effectively. Building consulting back-office business capability is not achieved overnight. How to summarize the consulting report of a single project and internalize the knowledge of other projects into the knowledge base of the consulting company is very necessary for the consulting company to build its competitiveness for a long time.
7) Transfer of knowledge base and experts during the project. At the beginning of signing contracts and projects with customers, knowledge base and experts are frequently called. In fact, in the whole consultation process, the knowledge base and experts are also the supporting forces of the front desk project team. Whether the front-office project team can effectively use the company's back-office support is a very important ability. The important knowledge of the front desk project team is obtained from the knowledge base of consulting companies and expert groups. This transformation is transformed from individual consultants to project organization knowledge through communication and summary, which is a kind of internalization. How to gradually form the knowledge of the project team, especially the explicit knowledge of the consultants, has a far-reaching impact on the quality of the whole consulting report in the initial stage of the project.
8) Knowledge transformation within the customer enterprise. A great deal of knowledge transformation in the process of consulting projects mainly comes from the members of the customer's project team, and a great deal of communication and training on the project also plays a role in promoting knowledge transfer. During the formal delivery of the project and the customer review of the consulting report, although the report finally delivered by the consulting has been accepted, recognized and transformed by the customer through publicity, it has logically entered the knowledge management process within the customer's enterprise, but it is strongly related to the project effect, and the transformation effect has a significant impact on the landing effect of the consulting results. In addition, management consulting is expensive, and how to make the results of management consulting effective for a long time, the knowledge transformation ability in customer enterprises plays a key role here.
The main characteristics of the knowledge transformation model of management consulting process constructed in this paper are as follows: ① It is more instructive to practice to closely combine the management consulting process, distinguish the key points and characteristics of transformation in different stages, and look at knowledge transformation from a more microscopic perspective. (2) For a joint project team established for a project, analyze the knowledge transformation between customers and consultants at different stages, and the influence of the key points and characteristics of these transformations on the team formation and work effect. ③ Increase on the basis of SECI? Spread? And then what? Integration? Taking the joint project team as the core, this paper discusses the knowledge base/expert group of consulting companies in the whole consulting process, introduces the knowledge of client enterprises into the knowledge transformation model of management consulting, expands the perspective of knowledge transformation of management consulting, and is very beneficial for client enterprises and management consulting companies to acquire knowledge from a consulting project and incorporate it into their respective knowledge management systems.
5 concluding remarks
Analyzing the knowledge transformation among client enterprises, project teams and consulting companies under the framework of management consulting projects not only enriches the existing research content, but also has great practical value for project teams, clients and consulting companies.
The knowledge transfer of the project team itself conforms to SECI model macroscopically, but the driving force of knowledge transfer is different in different stages of the project. This model focuses on externalizing the knowledge of consultants in the analysis stage of project status and internalizing the knowledge of customers and consultants in the design stage of project scheme, which makes the knowledge management and transfer of project team more targeted and promotes the efficiency and effectiveness of the project. The efficiency and effectiveness of the project is the practical delivery to customers. At the same time, the application of this model makes customers more aware that knowledge transformation is not just training, but learning by doing in the process of the project and internalizing tacit knowledge. Therefore, investing in potential project members to cooperate with consultants can not only make the consultation delivery scheme more practical with their own practice, but also really cultivate people through the project. From the consulting company's point of view, although the projects delivered to customers are carried out one by one, it is very valuable to handle the knowledge transformation in the projects and summarize the results of the projects in time. At the same time, as the core competitiveness, knowledge base and expert group grow in a virtuous circle in the process of knowledge transformation, which has far-reaching significance for the long-term development of consulting companies.
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