The Ecosystem of Internal Consultants as a Structure: A Contradictory Approach to Leverage the Imbalance between Internal and External Consultants

Abstract

Consultancy has become a characteristic phenomenon to many organizations in Ghana whether small or large. Organizational policies and programmes attempt to re-align consultancy issues to determine when a planned change is necessary to embark upon, and the key resources that will be employed in due course. The ecosystem of the internal consultants is though complex, it is relatively supportive in terms of planned change. This paper proposes a model that paradoxically leverages the imbalance between the internal and external consultants for same change initiative. The model was empirically experimented in College of Technology Education, Kumasi in which planned changes are pronounced. Questionnaires were used to obtain information about staffs’ confidence and acceptance when working with either internal consultant or external consultant given some critical project. It was established that the consulting process regarding level of professionalism and realization of change outcomes were also optimal using internal consultants for the same planned change agenda.

Keywords: ecosystem, planned change, internal consultant, Internal-External Ecosystem Model