A study of management consultancy as a strategy for transferring western management technology to Kenyan organizations

Abstract

This study covers two subject areas,the scope and contribution of management consultancy and the application of western management technology to Kenyan organizations. It was conducted on the assumption ,'that management consultancy is an important tool in the improvement of management resources. It was also based on the observation in the literature that consultants are one form of transfer of modern management technology to developing areas and that this process is constrained by economic and socio-cultural factors. The study was conducted at three levels: a) personal interviews conducted in eight (local and foreign owned)management consultancy firms operating in Nairobi, b) mailed questionnaires on management consultancy services sent to a sample of seven -hundred and fifty organizations, and c) case-studies conducted in three prominent consultancy client organizations. The study showed that the management consultancy industry in Kenya was in its infant stage and had a low level of utilization. Its-major areas of activity were accounting and financial management, managerial economics , and management training. The major users of these services were government institutions, international agencies, and at a smaller scale business organizations. Management consultancy was observed to be an active form of transfer of western management technology to Kenyan organizations. The study found that the factors facilitating.the transfer of management technology were (a) education, (b) the political system based on democracy and the capitalistic type of economy,and (c) multinationals and foreign aid and loans, and those impeding the transfer were (a) the communal social system, (b) the business community in Kenya different from that existing in the western countries.