The Functions of Methods and Tools in the Work of Management Consultants

Highly structured methods and tools for bringing about organizational change are popular in both the management literature and in the practice of management consultants. In order to understand the nature and popularity of these methods and tools, a study of the availability and use of methods in Business Process Reengineering (BPR) projects is carried out in 5 large consulting companies. Based on this study, six functions of methods are identified. Methods are found to play important roles both within the consulting organization and in the interaction with the client in the specific change project. Common to the identified functions is the methodsO ability to store and transfer knowledge, which contributes to a common interface to the change process between clients and consultants. The study also shows, that consulting companies with very different professional backgrounds have very similar approaches to methods in BPR projects. The similarities between these companiesO method are identified in the article.