BPS 6360.

501– Management and Organizational

Consulting
Fall 2010

Padmakumar Nair, Ph.D., Dr.Eng., MBA

&
Jeff Hicks, Ph.D., MIM
Day and Time: Friday; 4.00 to 6.45 PM (Client project: 4 to 5.30 PM and Class Lecture: 5.30 to 6.45 PM)
Place: SOM 2.717
Instructor: Padmakumar Nair, SOM 2.422 (The Leadership Center)
Guest Professors: Usman Ghani and Jerry Hoag
Telephone: 972-883-6264
Email: padmakumar.nair@utdallas.edu

Office hours: 6.45 to 7.45 PM on Friday or by appointment

Books:
1. True Professionalism by David H. Maister, Free Press (2000)
2. Helping: How to Offer, Give, and Receive Help by Ed Schein, Berrett-Koehler Publishers
(February 1, 2009)
Cases and Readings: Readings can be downloaded from the library website (go to eJournals:
http://www.utdallas.edu/library/resources/journals.htm )

COURSE OVERVIEW
This course will provide required theoretical background in the content and process areas
of Management Consulting to help you become a scholarly practitioner in the area of
Organizational and Strategy consulting. 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.

About 80% of the 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 or consent of the instructor

1
COURSE OBJECTIVES
The course has multiple objectives that include the following:
1. To develop a context centered mindset for helping clients.
2. To understand 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 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

Within the first three weeks of the class 10 to 15 teams with 5 members 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 (group)-1 Real Life Consulting with ACCOR / Ericsson / Tyler Technologies /
Central Dallas Ministries / Lennox International / Burns Controls / THR resorts / United
Supermarkets / HygeiaTel, Inc. and many more
The purpose of this assignment is to develop Consultative Problem Solving skills (both process
and content skills), which are essential part of general management.

Assignment (individual) 2: Individual Reflection Paper (about 1500 words) Due on

May 2nd.
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
2
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 (if necessary) to get your effective grade. The relative weights are as follows:
1. Class Participation (Cases, Discussion etc.) 15%
2. Major consulting assignment 50%
3. Midterm Exam 20%
3. Reflection Paper 15%
Total 100%

Week/Day Course Content

Week 1 COURSE OVERVIEW / EXPECTATIONS / OBJECTIVES
January 14th 2011 Introduction to consulting practice:
Life cycle of consulting project
Week 2 Problem Framing ---Problem Identification and Definition (JPC reading)
January 21th 2011
Week 3
January 28th 2011 Becoming a professional
Client-consultant relationships

Assignment of consulting projects

Week 4 Problem Structuring and Presenting---Situation-Complication-Question-
February 4th 2011 Hypotheses
Week 5 Team Presentation of Consulting Projects I
February 11th 2011
Week 6 History of Management and Organizational Consulting
February 18th 2011 Origin
Development
Approaches
Approaches to consulting practice I: Main stream
Week 7
February 25th 2011
Week 8 Approaches to consulting practice II: Alternative Views (Murata case)
March 4th 2011
Week 9 Midterm Exam
March 11th 2011
Week 10 Spring Break
March 18th 2011
Week 11 Consulting-in-Practice Workshop I
March 25th 2011
Week 12 Team Presentation of Consulting Projects II
April 1st 2011
Week 13 Consulting-in-Practice Workshop II
April 8th 2011
Week 14 Consulting-in-Practice Workshop III

3
April 15th 2011
Week 15 Team Presentation of Consulting Projects (Final)
April 22nd 2011
Week 16
April 29th 2011 FINAL DAY OF CLASS