ABSTRACT
As consultants it is important for us to have an idea about the different contexts affecting the beliefs and behaviour of an organization at any given time. This chapter describes how the way an organization's beliefs about itself and its view of change are affected by contexts like public and private sector, being a family business, and being aware of the need to pay attention to external events like 1992. These contexts are not exhaustive, but they represent thinking we have done about our own consultation work. Through our experience consulting to both private and public sector organizations, we have developed a number of hypotheses about the way private and public sector contexts affect the beliefs or culture of organizations. We have organized workshops to look specifically at the problems facing internal consultants, and the participants have found that a systemic approach enables them to understand the meaning which their role has within their organization.
