Actualizing Dreams of a Consulting Career
February 12, 2025
What are PIPs (Performance Improvement Plans/Programs)? This article deals with a rather sad aspect of contemporary organizational policies, yet this is an important aspect that affects all employees and the HR function in addition to the line managers. We often hear the term involuntary separation, which means the resignation of employees after being asked to […]
Participative management is an effective decision making tool. It is often the managers who implement it the wrong way. Participative management calls for a change and this change can not come overnight. You require patience and consistency before employees realize the usefulness of the management style. There are other problems that often arise with the […]
All of us have heard the story of 3 brick-layers who were working side by side when a passer-by asked them what they were doing. The first said – “I am laying bricks” The second said – “I am feeding my family” The third said – “I am building a cathedral” This simple story conveys […]
What is Employee Ghosting? In recent months, a new term has entered the parlance of HR (Human Resources) professionals worldwide and that is Employee Ghosting. This term refers to the practice of prospective applicants and potential employees not “showing up” after being recruited, or not attending the final stages of the interview process after being […]
Introduction: Knowledge Management at 3M This article is about the Knowledge Management system in 3M Corporation. 3M is an internationally known organization that places a premium on creativity, innovation, and being “ahead of the curve” as far as its competitors are concerned. Towards this end, 3M employs a wide variety of knowledge management systems that […]
Consultants are expected to maintain professional and ethical standards when dealing with their clients. This can take the form of maintaining arm’s length relationships, not intervening in the internal affairs and politics of the client’s organizations, keeping confidential information away from interested parties looking for insider knowledge, and reporting any violations in the conduct (financial, operational, and behavioral) by the client’s organization to the regulators. This is the code of conduct that is usually prescribed for consulting firms whenever they take on work from client organizations.
However, this is rarely followed in practice as evidenced by the large numbers of corporate scandals that have emerged in the last decade or so where the consultant was found to be aiding and even abetting the malfeasance conducted by the client. For instance, the Enron scandal manifested itself because the consulting firm was in cahoots with the client in cooking the books. Indeed, in this case, it was found that the consulting firm’s partners went beyond collaboration and were indeed one of the culprits.
Similarly, the Satyam scandal in India was also found to be a case where the consultants (or some of them) knew about the goings-on in the company and were in breach of the code of conduct and even legal aspects since they did not report the matter to the regulators. However, the saving grace in this case was that when the malfeasance became too big and too hot to handle, it was the new consulting firm that had been roped in for another purpose that blew the whistle on the scam.
These examples indicate that the consultants have to walk a thin line between fulfilling professional obligations and reporting unethical behavior. Since the client is the one who pays them, it is often the case that the consultants are reluctant to report malfeasance to the regulators.
Further, considering the extremely competitive nature of the market wherein there are several consulting firms competing for the same client, money talks and hence, consultants are often found to go along with the client. There are no easy answers when one considers all the aspects and it would be indeed a brave and conscientious consultant who would be the whistleblower.
Having said that, there are some solutions that have emerged in recent years about the course of action to be taken by the consulting firms. For instance, after the Enron scandal, the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) and other regulators ensured that new rules separating consulting and investment banking so that the same consulting firm which was also advising the client in financial matters would now be two different firms. While this was intended to reduce the conflict of interest since it was thought that when consultants and investment bankers represent two firms they would automatically be in a position to wink at malfeasance, it is debatable as to how far this law succeeded given the Global Economic Crisis of 2008 wherein several case of malfeasance came to light.
Of course, as some experts have mentioned, the real issue here is of conflict of interest. How far would a consultant go in reporting unethical behavior to the regulators which is expected from him or her when such case involve the very clients who are giving them business.
Further, the fact that many consultants often are embroiled in the internal politics of the client wherein they take sides in corporate and boardroom battles. This indicates the tricky nature of the problem of consultant client relations wherein the temptation to use confidential and insider information to one’s advantage is motivated by greed and power.
Finally, above everything the maintenance of normative consultant client relations depends on the institutional structures, the incentives for good behavior as well as the incentives for moral hazard, the role of the regulators and how strictly they enforce the law, and the individuals themselves considering that they are the ones who are either benefiting or losing out when the scandal breaks. It is also about human nature since it is hard to resist the temptations of money and power and at the same time be true to the professional obligations and the observance of the code of conduct.
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