Consultants as agents of organizational learning: the importance of marginality

Ariane Berthoin Antal and Camilla Krebsbach-Gnath

No FS II 98-109, Discussion Papers, Research Unit: Organisation and Technology from WZB Berlin Social Science Center

Abstract: This article explores the wide range of roles that consultants can play to either enable or hinder organizational learning processes. A core concept in this analysis is the achievement of an appropriate marginality of the consultants’ role, in order to allow the organizational members to maintain the centrality for themselves that is needed to assure that learning is retained in the organization. The article argues that a number of forces can conspire to propel the consultants to central roles, and thereby impede rather than promote organizational learning. The clarification and negotiation of roles between the consultants and the members of the organization are therefore treated as a key process in determining the impact of consultants’ interventions on organizational learning.

Date: 1998
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