3.2The client and the consultant systems

When, how, and between which individuals will the consultant–client relationship be established? The client, in the widest sense of the term, is the organization that employs the services of a consulting firm. There we have an institutional relationship. A professional service firm works for a manufacturing enterprise, an Internet business, or similar. But the term client can also be used in a narrower sense to mean individuals or groups in the client organization who initiate the recruitment of the consultant, discuss the job with him or her, collaborate in the course of the assignment, receive reports and recommend to higher management whether or not to accept them, and so on. Often a number of managers, supervisors, and other staff members will be directly involved in the assignment at its various stages, or will be affected by the conclusions reached.

The situation is similar on the consultant’s side. The consultant, in the wider sense of the term, is a service firm, i.e. a legal entity. But the firm employs individuals in various capacities – in management, administration, assignment marketing and planning, supervision, or assignment implementation – who are involved in various ways in negotiating, selling, preparing, managing and executing the assignment. These individuals enter into various relationships with client organizations, their internal units and individual employees.