Insider or Outsider? The Challenges of In-house Consultants in Organizational Change

Literature Review from the year 2021 in the subject Leadership and Human Resource Management - Miscellaneous, grade: 1,3, Maastricht University, language: English, abstract: This literature review investigates the role of in-house consultants as change agents and their challenges in the change process. From this, it derives implications for in-house consultants on how they can effectively manage change in organizations. More and more organizations are using in-house consultants to manage the growing number of internal change initiatives and their increasing complexity. In-house consulting provides several benefits for organizations including enhanced cost efficiency and the development of firm-specific expertise and organizational change capacity. However, due to their organizational membership, in-house consultants face challenges in managing change. They develop an ambiguous identity as both insiders and outsiders, creating organizational boundaries, conflicts, and confusion. Furthermore, their internally generated knowledge lacks experience and external validation. In addition, the client-consultant relationship poses challenges for in-house consultants in terms of objectivity, credibility, and independence.

To address these challenges, in-house consultants should engage in identity work, reinforcing either their insider or outsider identity by altering work structures or elements. Moreover, they need to strengthen their credibility and gain support from top management. To this end, in-house consultants can form a coalition that supports their change activities within the company and in front of top management. Another approach to obtain management support is to effectively engage in organizational politics. Leadership support helps in-house consultants to improve employee attitudes toward the change and obtain the resources needed to initiate and implement change. Finally, they need to demonstrate their independence from management or HR to reduce employee skepticism toward change. Consequently, they can convince employees to embrace change and adopt new behaviors and practices. By maintaining operational autonomy and working with external clients, in-house consultants can improve their perception as objective and independent advisors while building their experience and expertise. Overall, organizations should recognize the challenges and obstacles facing their in-house consultants. By supporting them in overcoming these challenges, they empower in-house consultants to successfully manage and implement change. Thus, they can achieve sustainable competitive advantage.