Introduction
Personnel selection is one area that requires management consultation in organizations. Why organizations go for management consultation can be attributed to lack of adequate methods and procedures to collect and generate information about clients and the markets. Most of the organizations going for consultation do not have the human resource that is found in the leading firms that provide consultation. Most of the consulting firm have e strong ethos and are committed to producing excellent results in terms of producing the most qualified and competent personnel for their client organizations. Focusing on the procedures that are used for selection in the major consultation firms a number of things come out. Bergström, O. and Knights, D. (2004).
Main
First of all these firms seem to be having the best personnel who are gifted analytically so as to provide the best selections for their clients.
The good image and reputation of these consultation firms is maintained by these so called extraordinary personnel and they are symbols of analytical gifts bestowed on the firms. It therefore becomes difficult to separate between analytical and symbolic rationality in this sense. From a validity point of view the truthfulness and falseness of selection procedures conducted by the leading consultancy firms can be evaluated.
The consultation firms signalize high innovativeness rather than business experience in their selections. Graduates form the firm’s posse’s intellectual superiority and therefore they provide industry with an elite kind of signal.
To the business environment the selection process is a way of advocating for a notion of intellectual elite Franck and Pudack (2000).
In terms of economics the selection procedures also have their effect.
Going by the insight that the quality of consulting services is not easy to determine, they argue that management consultancies have the obligation to give a signal of the quality of their services by means which substitutive, among which is a exceedingly selective hiring method. They therefore have to work towards generating a very long list of applicants the higher of which result in a considerable number of rejections. This will signal a high level of selectivity therefore quality in their consultancy. The long applicants also have another effect on the most qualified applicants since it is a challenge to them. This brings out how meritocratic the selection processes are to the business environment. It is vital to point out that it is not only the long lists in the selection processes that are signals of quality but also the procedure themselves. Management consulting uses the long lists and high rejections as a tool, the case studies are important because they signify analytical skills in the personnel.
Deviating a bit fro the consultations job one can point out that the firms are a symbol of the Harvard Business School. This is a representation of special business training and competence. This is also evident in the content that has been found in the case studies themselves. Wet Feet Press (1996).
Rationality can also be brought out from the way business questions are handled. The personnel convert the business questions into scientific calculations and also make them apolitical. Therefore the symbolism to be found in the section procedures is to be determined by both their rationality and the objectivity they present.
Based on moral, pragmatic and cognitive aspects the legitimacy of the section firms can be investigated. The firms tend to meet all the criteria in the sense that pragmatically they are associated with pragmatic problem solving and nearness to the real business solutions. This is evident in the case studies associated with the leading consultation firms. Morally they do their calculations while maintaining social virtues and they are politically neutral besides being objective.In terms of cognitive aspects these firms meet the requirements of their clients in the business environment. The sujectification effect presents itself in the leading consultation firms in a very interesting way. Majority of the firms tend to share the same methods and procedures in the selections. Human resource principles have cropped up in the corporate world and they are on track as being questionable. It is interesting to note that some of these principles are adopted by the leading consultancy firms. The case studies done are therefore crucial in bringing out a hint on the commonness of the top-tier consultation firms. Biswas, S. and Twitchell, D. (1999).
Conclusion
In conclusion, the existence of intellectual elitism in the business environment can be attributed to these leading consultancy firms as they continue with their selection procedures and as their clients continue to hire their services. The clients have rational expectations form these firms. The firms continue to work hard towards satisfying the demands of the clients regardless of whether the validity question is answered or not. What the consultation firms need to give a second thought, is hiring psychologists to help them in improving their validity. This can be achieved through adjustments to make selections more realistic in image. But the main challenge here is that the business environment can view this to be a deviation form the rational norms despite the higher validity expectations.
Works cited
Armbrüster, T. and Kipping, M. (2002). ‘Types of knowledge and the client-consultant interaction’.In Sahlin-Andersson, K. and Engwall, L. (Eds), The Expansion of Management Knowledge: Carriers, Flows and Sources. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 96–110.
Bergström, O. and Knights, D. (2004). ‘Organizational Discourse and Subjectivity–Subjectification During Processes of Recruitment’. Paper presented at the 6th International Conference on Organizational Discourses, Amsterdam.
Biswas, S. and Twitchell, D. (1999). Management Consulting: A Complete Guide to the Industry. New York: John Wiley.
Wet Feet Press (1996). Ace Your Case! The Essential Management Consulting Case Workbook, Volume 2.1. San Francisco, CA: Wet Feet Press.