BPS 6360.

501– Management and Organizational Consulting

Fall 2006

Day and Time: Thursdays; 7.00 to 09.45 PM

Place: SOM 2.112
Instructor: Padmakumar Nair, SOM 4.208
Guest Professor: Dr. Pankaj Asundi
Telephone: 972-883-6264
Email: padmakumar.nair@utdallas.edu

Office hours: 3.00 to 7.00 PM on Thursdays or by appointment

Text books:
1. True Professionalism by David H. Maister, Free Press (2000)
2. Organization 21C: Someday All Organizations Will Lead This Way, Subir Chowdhuri,
Financial Times Prentice Hall; 1st edition (2002), ISBN: 0130603147
Cases and Readings: Readings can be downloaded from the library website (go to eJournals:
http://www.utdallas.edu/library/collections/journals.htm )

COURSE OVERVIEW
This course will provide solid theoretical background in the content and process areas of
Management Consulting to help you become a scholarly practitioner. In addition, this course will
help you develop skills to apply well-developed theories in the areas of Strategy, Organizational
Behavior and Learning & Knowledge Creation to real world situations. Special attention will be
given to bridge the theory versus practice gap in the practice of management consulting.

It will also deal with the necessary skills required for effective client-consultant interactions
by drawing proven concepts from other disciplines as diverse as counseling psychology and
medical sociology, to mention a few.

More than 60% of the class time will be devoted to in-class activities, role-plays or
company visits. There will also be several in-depth discussions around interesting readings. I will
try to find experienced consultants to talk with students and answer questions related to practical
aspects of management consulting. There will be two assigned books for this course. Other
readings could be obtained from our Library eJournals database.

Prerequisite: OB 6301 and BPS 6310 or consent of the instructor

 Connect Engage Serve

Entrepreneurship Exploration Identification

&
Initiation

Construction Joint problem Co-construction of

definition knowledge

COURSE OBJECTIVES
The course has multiple objectives that include the following:
1. To develop a context centered mindset for helping clients.
2. To understanding the importance of balancing between the “expert-centered” and “context-
centered” approaches.
3. To develop skills in using your ability to co-create knowledge to come-up with practical and
innovative solutions, together with your clients, to actual problems those are being experienced by
today’s organizations.
4. To understand the challenges of knowledge transfer / co-creation in client-consultant interactions.

Achieving the Objectives

You will be required to complete several activities in order to achieve the identified objectives:

1. Contribute to in-class discussions of cases and readings by exhibiting (a) an

understanding and articulate analysis of the information presented and (b) skills in the
prerequisite course areas required for registration.
2. There will be readings, mini-cases and role-plays to practice the concepts and ideas
discussed in the class.
3. Attendance is required at all class sessions to fully make use of and participate in all class
discussions. That being said, I recognize that, at times, professional and personal
emergencies may arise which may prevent one from attending class.

Overview of the Assignments

In the first day of the class four (4) groups with 3 to 4 members in each will be formed for the group
assignments. Please “self-select” into your groups.

Please do not rely too much on the Internet for your research. Spend some time in the library—
there are greater opportunities for insightful reflection and reading!
Assignment 1: Readings (GROUP) (CLASS PRESENTATIONS)

Readings / book chapters are mainly from the prescribed books. Every group will present
three times in the course of the semester. Discussion of the readings should include key ideas,
why these ideas are important and other aspects of the readings you disagree with. The idea is
that you generate a good class discussion.

Assignment 2a: Real Life Consulting with ACCOR

The purpose of this assignment is to develop Consulting skills (both process and content skills),
which are essential part of general management.

Project 1: Diversity
9 Assist with creation of diversity balanced scorecard utilizing key HR and Diversity metrics
9 Research and assist with the development of Accor's Diversity calendar
utilizing Diversity themes and all dimensions of diversity
9 Create internal and external communications plan for Accor's annual
philanthropic program
9 Working with PR/Marketing to create customer awareness of Accor's social responsibility
9 Also working with Diversity Committees and Brand Operations.

Project 2: Human Resources

9 Assist with the development and enhancement of the current Internship program for Accor
9 Assist with the development of a new hire orientation program
9 Support job posting and systems updates for recruiting

Project 3: Implementation and monitoring of the ACCOR Academie’s new

Marketing/Communication Plan.

Project 4: Implementation and monitoring of the Balanced Scorecard concept within the
Academie, as part of ACCOR’s Quality Plan

Assignment 2b: Consulting final presentation

At the end of the semester all the FOUR groups will make a presentation based on key
recommendations to ACCOR.

Assignment 3: Individual Reflection Paper

You should write about the project. The following questions should be discussed in your reflection
paper:
1. What did I learn?
i. Consulting process
ii. Content
2. How did the project go?
3. Would I approach this differently if I am given one more opportunity to do a similar
project?
4. Overall feeling about the success of the project
GRADING

The grades in the activities in which you will be participating will be combined to determine your
final course grade. Please note that items 1 and 2 below will be multiplied with a peer evaluation
multiplier* to get your effective grade. The relative weights are as follows:

1. Class Participation (includes readings and cases) 25%

2. Consulting assignment and Final presentation 50%
3. Individual Reflection on The Consulting Project 25%

Total 100%

Week/Day Course Content

Week 1 COURSE OVERVIEW / EXPECTATIONS / OBJECTIVES
August 17
2006 Jeff Hicks (University of Twente, the Netherlands) will talk about “Learning,
Knowledge Management and Consulting”
Week 2 Introduction to consulting Projects: ACCOR Managers will talk to the class and decide the
August 24 In-company MC project.
2006
Murata case
Week 3 Organizational Development
August 31 Guest Speaker: Mr. Jim Newstead
2006
True Professionalism – Chapters 1 & 2 (Group 1)
Week 4 Challenges facing the current model of MC
September 07 Consulting from a Change and Project Management Perspective
2006
True Professionalism – Chapters 3 & 4 (Group 2)
Week 5 Exploration of consulting opportunities
September 14 Guest Speaker: Mr. Jerry Hoag
2006
True Professionalism – Chapters 5 & 6 (Group 3)
Week 6 Strategy / Technology Marketing Consulting
September 21 Guest Professor: Dr. Pankaj Asundi
2006
True Professionalism – Chapters 7 & 8 (Group 4)
Week 7 Joint Problem definition in Strategy / HR / HRD and Change Management
September 28 Consulting
2006
True Professionalism – Chapters 9 & 10 (Group 1)
Week 8 Strategy / Technology Marketing Consulting
October 05 Guest Professor: Dr. Pankaj Asundi
2006
True Professionalism – Chapters 11 & 12 (Group 2)
Week 9 Strategy / HR / OB / OD Consulting
October 12
2006 True Professionalism – Chapters 13 & 14 (Group 3)
Week 10 Strategy / Technology Marketing Consulting
October 19 Guest Professor: Dr. Pankaj Asundi
2006
True Professionalism – Chapters 15 & 16 (Group 4)
Week 11 Strategy / HR / OB / OD Consulting
October 26
2006 Organization 21C – Chapters Chapter 10 (Group 1)

Organization 21C – Chapters Chapter 15 (Group 2)

Week 12 Strategy / HR / OB / OD Consulting
November 02
2006 Organization 21C – Chapters Chapter 17 (Group 3)

Organization 21C – Chapters Chapter 18 (Group 4)

Week 13 Strategy / HR / OB / OD Consulting
November 09
2006 Revisiting Murata case
Week 14 Last day of class
November 16
2006 Final Project Presentation

* Peer Evaluations (to be completed at the end of the final class meeting)

All group members are expected to do their fair share of work on the assignments. Fortunately, in about 85 to 90 percent of the
groups this is not the case. Unfortunately, that leaves (historically) approximately 10-15 percent of the groups in which inequities
occur. Since I do not know which groups have such a problem, I will use peer evaluations for all groups. For such a system to work,
everyone must be honest and fair. First, if a group member(s) is making only a nominal contribution and/or is overly difficult to work
with, the other group member(s) may expel them/her/him from the group and this individual must complete the assignment
individually within two weeks after the due date. Second, all groups members should assign a certain points to themselves and to
other group members based on the following three dimensions:

1. Contribution (this includes data collection and time spend on constructive discussions)
2. Command over the subject matter
3. Team work

A final grade-multiplier will calculated based on the total points every individual gets from self and other group members.

EXAMPLE: You should start with a total point of 100 x (number of members in the group). If your group has 8 members, start with
800 points. Distribute 800 points to your group based on the above three dimensions. If a person gets 100 each from every other
member including herself, then her grade-multiplier will be 1 (800/800 = 1). If another person gets a total of 780, then his grade-
multiplier will be 0.975 (780/800 = 0.975). If your total point is 900, then your grade-multiplier will be 1.125 (900/800 = 1.125).