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HEIDI MOLLER — KATRIN OELLERICH — DENISE HINN — SILJA KOTTE Consulting has to fulfil many functions though its main purpose is to provide a compensatory effort. Lammers* describes the compensatory function of consulting as follows: + Where chaos exists, consulting is to restore order + Where there is a lack of care, consulting is to be sympathetic ¢« Where overwork exists, consulting is to bring relief + Where there is confusion, consulting is to provide solutions When we approach the task profile of consulting, there is a great deal of responsibility resting on the consultants’ shoulders. The fact that the professional standards and methodological safeguarding of much of what we in consulting deal with still leaves much to be desired certainly does not make our task lighter. The call for consulting research (a cry for salvation?) is growing louder, from professional associations as well as from consultants themselves. But what kind of research are they calling for exactly? THE NARCISSISM OF THE SMALL DIFFERENCE When we look back upon the development during the last few years, the main topic of publications coming from the consulting field was the delimitation of single formats. It seemed important as well as necessary to describe: “This form of consulting is supervision and not coaching, coaching is exactly this, and this is distinguished from mediation in the following aspects, etc.” Much energy has been expended in differentiating consulting formats. Now this tendency seems to have come to an end. The scientific community is now refocusing on similarities between consulting formats and this is leading to more holistic consulting research. From a customer’s point of view, the experts’ lack of agreement regarding delimitations was entirely superfluous. The name of the product the customers are buying was and is quite irrelevant to them so long as the consulting approach solves their most urgent problems. The motivation for establishing future research within the consulting divisions of organisations continues to fade away when one considers that consulting will be bought either way. Nissen® estimates the sums within the area of organisational coaching at a turnover of around 12.3 billion Euro. It does not seem to be of importance to the organisation whether or not the consulting approach in question is scientifically based. One reason for this, as described most vividly by 4 W. Lammers, Beratung zwischen Geld und Geist, Supervision, 4 (2008) 32-35. 5 V. Nissen, Consulting Research, Wiesbaden, DUV, 2007. + A4 +
