Consultants as Agents of Organizational Learning:The Importance of Marginality

Abstract

Abstract Considering the growing emphasis that organizational scholars place on embeddedness and open systems, it is striking that theory-building about organizational learning has focused almost exclusively on the role of internal agents of the organization. This narrow scope is all the more surprising at a time when ever more consultants are being hired to help companies solve a variety of problems and improve or stabilize their market position through such initiatives as reengineering, total quality, cultural change, and lean management. The trend toward globalization has only intensified the need for organizations to review their strategies, structures, and processes. All such initiatives require organizations to engage in significant learning processes, which range from increasing the efficiency of current procedures to introducing radically new structures and ways of thinking about the organization and its markets. In order to contribute to closing the gap in theory building, we explore the many roles that consultants play in either promoting or hindering organizational learning and discuss how consultants and clients alike shape the conditions for both kinds of impact.