MANAGEMENT CONSULTANT INTERVENTION STYLES AND THE SMALL ORGANISATION

Sixty management consultants (30 with technical/scientific (T) background, and thirty with non‐technical (NT) background) operating in small companies (≤50 employees) were administered the Management Consultant Style Inventory (MCSI), based on the Blake and Mouton Consulcube. This was to test whether consultants operating in small organisations tend to use similar or whether they have preferred styles of intervention. The results show that there were no statistically significant differences between the two groups. Statistically significant differences (based on age and gender) were found within the groups (for the T group, F4,29s at p <0.001, and the NT group F2,29 = 3.85s at p < 0.025). When taking into account subgroups with n = 7 or more, the most preferred intervention style was the Catalytic (T, male, 41−y, n = 15, mean score = 28 out of 40s.d. = 4.8), and the least preferred was the Prescriptive (NT, male, 41–50 years, n = 10, mean score = 21s.d. = 3.8). © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and European Research Press Ltd.