ABSTRACT

An increasing number of specialists over recent years have come to see themselves as consultants providing specialist help to client organizations. This is clearest with specialists who are external to the organizations to which they provide their services and who use the word ‘consultant’ to describe their role. However, this term is also being used more frequently by internal specialists to describe at least some of their activities. These specialists, in what traditionally would have been seen as service departments, now market themselves internally as consultants to their ‘client’ colleagues. The human resources function is one where this role change has been very evident. The espoused purpose of such a change is to try to bring the kinds of benefits and standards of customer service associated with external consultancy inside the organization. These benefits and standards are associated with providing specialist advice that more obviously contributes to the bottom line, is better focused and represents more timely responses to colleagues in addressing operational problems.