Question

What is an internal consultant? How does an internal consultant differ from an external one?

Kenton, Moody & Taylor "present a new model" for internal consultancy. How does their new model from a traditional approach?

Answer 1

Internal consultant is any individual or group which serves internal clients in an advisory capacity, include bringing a specialized management consulting expertise to improve the performance of the organization. They operate in an advisory capacity for an organization. An internal consultant typically works in the human resources department or quality control department of an organization.

Internal consultants keep busy with projects involving their own organization, while external consultants regularly draw from a broader business perspective gained from their vast experience with various clients, markets and sectors, and bring new ideas and best practices along to clients. External consultant is an outside entity hired to achieve a specific goal. Internal consultants are free, accessible, and available, whereas external consultants are on the clock, which means timed, expensive, rare and rationed.

According to new model for internal consultancy, consultancy is considered as a collaborative attempt in which responsibility and authority rest equally with the consultant and the client, while according to traditional approach consultancy is control attempt in which responsibility and authority rest with the consultant.

New model for internal consultancy describes that, consultants can be internal or external consultants and can be a single expert with supporting staff, a group of experts or a firm that provides consulting services, while traditional approach only believes that there is external consultants and they are a group of experts.