BAM: Developing a Management Consultancy SIG
The Professional Development Workshops run by the Management Consultancy track have been among the most popular at recent Conferences. A small committee has now been set up to see if there is now sufficient interest among members of BAM to merit establishing the track as a full Special Interest Group. We have drafted a manifesto for the SIG as shown below.
If you are therefore supportive of this, could you please confirm this in an email to the BAM Office at [email protected]
Given sufficient support we would help to be able to apply for SIG status by the end of the summer.
Calvert Markham – MC track Chair
Manifesto for a Management Consultancy SIG
Supporting the translation of academic research into practical application
Some years ago there was a management consultancy Special Interest Group within BAM, but this lapsed. We believe that the time is now right to reinstitute it, not only because management consultancy is a sizeable business sector and area of practice meriting attention, but also because management consultancy provides a means of translating research into practical application – of increasing importance with the growing weight attached to assessing impact and the advent of such measures as the Knowledge Exchange Framework.
The purpose of the Management Consultancy Track is therefore to bring together academics with a shared interest in management consulting, including those involved in teaching consulting, academics providing consulting services, and particularly those who want to increase the impact of their research through the process of delivering innovation through consulting.
Management consultants play a significant role in accelerating the performance of their clients; they have a role in helping organisations identify the changes needed to respond effectively to their circumstances and to support them in implementing them. Academics can contribute to the development of consulting performance not only through providing education to prospective and practising consultants but also by using consulting as a means of mediating their own research into application, with consequential benefits of impact.
A management consultancy SIG will help academics get greater traction for the application of their research within the practitioner community, as well as enabling them to share their own experience in teaching and delivering consultancy.
We now wish to enlist the support of interested BAM members to revive management consultancy SIG so that it can benefit from the support of BAM that is provided to all SIGs.