Chapter 3: Systemic Concepts of Intervention

Over the last two decades a new approach to consulting has been established that is referred to as “systemic consulting” (see, for example, Königswieser & Hillebrand, 2005). This approach to consulting seems to exist almost exclusively within the German-speaking consulting markets (Armbrüster & Kieser, 2001, p. 690; Clark, Fincham, Mohe & Sturdy, 2007). The majority of these consultants belong to the so-called “Vienna school” in Austria. Among them are consultancy firms such as Königswieser & Network, OSB international, Beratergruppe Neuwaldegg, and Connecta. Systemic consulting is a clearly differentiated approach that has long occupied a rather insignificant niche in the consulting market. In an empirical study of the German-speaking consulting markets, Walger and Scheller (1998) found a market share of 0.6% for “systemic consultancies.” Ten years later, however, another empirical study in Germany revealed that 12.1% of the polled consultancies describe themselves as “systemic consultancies” (Mohe & Birkner, 2008). According to Königswieser and Hillebrand (2005, p. 9), systemic consulting has emerged: