Managerial Consulting Skills: A Practical Guide by Charles J. Margerison

Author:Charles J. Margerison [Margerison, Charles J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781138733541
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2019-11-04T00:00:00+00:00

ETHICS OF ACCEPTING OR REJECTING ASSIGNMENTS

What we say and do is what we are. Our values are reflected in our behaviour. Accepting or rejecting assignments is an important decision. Under what conditions should you say ‘no’ and thereby reject an assignment? Clearly, when the task lies outside your own field of competence or conflicts with other priorities. However, there are other situations which require careful consideration. In this section there are examples of some consulting and advisory tasks which I have rejected.

I like being invited to work on projects, but there are occasions when I have to say ‘no’. All consultant advisers will be confronted with situations where they have to question whether they should contribute to a particular project. It is important that one has some values to guide one’s decisions in advance.

I have outlined four occasions on which I can remember having said ‘no’ when asked to be involved in a project. On each occasion the reason for saying ‘no’ was different. In summarizing each of these particular incidents you may wish to consider how you would have acted in similar circumstances.

NO INVOLVEMENT

The first consultancy project which I refused came after I had written an article in a national newspaper about wage systems and industrial relations. I received a telephone call from the managing director of a medium-sized organization, who asked me to meet with him to discuss particular problems he had within his organization. He said that he had liked my article, as it related exactly to a problem in his own organization. He wanted my advice on how to resolve differences between different wage rates which were causing industrial relations problems.

The meeting did not start well. I told him that it would be important for me to talk with those people who were concerned about the issues, in order to gain a full understanding of the problem. He said that he did not want anyone talking to his staff and he asked me directly what methods and techniques I had that could help with the problem. I replied that, until I understood the problem, it was impossible for me to make any suggestions.

We had a rather circular conversation for about half an hour. He was pressing me for specific solutions and I was seeking to further understand the problem. As I perceived it, I was seeking to be problem-centred and he was seeking to be solution-centred. As far as he was concerned, he knew what the problem was and he now wanted my technical expertise, in order to solve it in the way that you would call an electrician when you wanted the lights fixed, or a plumber when you wanted the taps to stop dripping.

I eventually told him that I could not work in the way he was suggesting. I therefore concluded the meeting and said that I felt he should look for someone else who would be more in line with his approach to the job. I was not prepared to offer solutions until I had a wider understanding of the problem, which meant involving others in the discussion.

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