The consultant as insider and change agent: The problem of boundaries in social systems
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THE CONSULTANT AS INSIDER AND CHANGE AGENT: The Problem of Boundaries in Social Systems Hans S. Falck
ABSTRACT: A consultant who is an "insider" taust be sensitive to ethical and psychological issues in h u m a n systems that are of lesser import to "outside" consultants. Organizational boundaries are considered as being created by the norms required for membership in the system rather than from outside.
This article develops a conceptual a p p r o a c h to the p r o b l e m o f b o u n d ary in social system theory. It seems best to begin with a first section that relates a c o m m o n difficulty, that is, the i n t r o d u c t i o n o f an outsider into an o n g o i n g system in which he or she is expected to work as a full-time ùinside" consultant a n d c h a n g e agent. A variety o f practical considerations occur in such an e f f o r t - - i n themselves worth some study. Yet, the theoretical issues associated with such efforts go well b e y o n d that. T h e y touch at one o f the basic aspects in social systems theory. This is the very concept o f system f r o m the s t a n d p o i n t o f systems delineation a n d definition, that is, "where it begins a n d w h e r e it ends a n d what one finds in between." Part I is d e v o t e d to i n t r o d u c t i o n o f the consultant in a preexisting system; Part II discusses a n d elaborates on the b r o a d e r c o n c e p t u a l issues called boundary.
PART I Consultants are outsiders. With this categorical s t a t e m e n t in m i n d , this article describes a n d discusses the functions o f the o p p o s i t e - - t h e inside consultant w h o is an
Hans Falcl~, Ph.D., is Regenstein Professor of Social Sciences at the Menninger Foundation, Topeka, Kansas. 55
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Administration in Mental Health
employee of the organization in which he or she works and whosejob it is to bring about change.
The inside consultant is atypical because he or she offers a service characteristically given by outsiders. T h e inside consultant, when viewed against the background of consulration in general, is a somewhat anomalous entity. He or she is atypical mostly because consultation in the h u m a n services is characteristically offered by outsiders--those not part of the administrative or clinical line staff. Social agencies bring in psychiatrists; hospitals import researchers; businesses employ m a n a g e m e n t specialists as consultants; government contracts for social scientist or other scientist consultant services. Always in such cases, the consultant belongs to some other organization (including his or her own), and works on a time-limited basis and u n d e r contract. Not so the inside consultant. One may make several quick observations to describe whom I have in mind: consultants are employees of the organization in which they consult; they do not have the "protections" of the outsider who comes in as expert and leaves; they must essentially support the norms of the organization in which they are consultants and also colleagues; they are faced with the issu
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