Strategic Aspects of the Management of Specialist Activity

In an earlier paper in this Journal the present writer outlined some of the interpersonal factors likely to affect staff specialists' credibility with their clients. These included the specialist's diagnostic ability, his skill in forming multiplex relationships with his clients, the ease with which he coped with the stresses in his role and his facility as a diagnostician and actor in the political arena surrounding any changes he may be recommending. This paper seeks to develop aspects of the political context of the specialist's (or internal consultant's) work by focusing on some of the strategic factors which affect the long term viability of specialist units. A framework is provided which described some of the evolutionary phases specialist groups might go through and practical implications are drawn from this phase model about strategic aspects of the management of specialist activity.