Putting Organizational Effectiveness Into Practice: The Preeminent Consultation Task

Successful consultation relies on the consultant's ability to conceptualize the operations of the total organization. An overview of the theoretical and practical applications of the construct “organizational effectiveness” (OE) is presented in relation to consultation. Barriers limiting earlier conceptualizations and applications of the construct are identified and discussed. A model of OE that melds open systems, organizational, and consultation theories is presented as a tool for guiding maximally beneficial consultation interventions. The implications of this model for consultation practice, advancing theory and research, and professional ethics are discussed.     

Fundamental Issues in Defining Consultation

Understanding and articulating one's definition of consultation is essential for successful consultation to occur. Early definitions presented the consultant primarily as a one-an-one content expert. Today there are many definitions ranging from the original one-on-one content expert to system-wide operations. Several different definitions are reviewed and presented for consideration, The main issues that surround the operational definitions of consultation are also included. The final conclusion is that consultants define consultation depending on their work setting, educational backgrounds, goals, and conceptual models.     

A Review of Gerald Caplan's Theory and Practice of Mental Health Consultation

Gerald Caplan's Theory and Practice of Mental Health Consultation (1970), considered to be a classic seminal work in the field of consultation, is reviewed. First, the author presents Caplan's general definition of consultation along with what may be considered the general principles or procedures of consultation. Then the author presents Caplan's procedures and principles as relevant to each type of consultation. Next, each of Caplan's four models of consultation is described. Last, these four models are compared in terms of the professional role of the consultee, the primary goal of consultation, and the target of consultation intervention.     

The Proof of Utility and Equity in Mill's Utilitarianism

Bolzano incorporated Kant's distinction between intuitions and concepts into the doctrine of propositions by distinguishing between conceptual (Begriffssätze an sich) and intuitive propositions (Anschauungssätze an sich). An intuitive proposition contains at least one objective intuition, that is, a simple idea that represents exactly one object; a conceptual proposition contains no objective intuition. After Bolzano, philosophers dispensed with the distinction between conceptual and intuitive propositions. So why did Bolzano attach philosophical importance to it? I will argue that, ultimately, the value of the distinction lies in the fact that conceptual and intuitive truths have different objective grounds: if a conceptual truth is grounded at all, its ground is a conceptual truth. The difference in grounds between conceptual and intuitive truths motivates Bolzano's criticism of Kant's view that intuition plays the fundamental role in mathematics, a conceptual science by Bolzano's lights.     

Questionnaire d’efficacité de la consultation : élaboration et validation préliminaire d’une échelle de mesure de l’efficacité de la consultation en gestion

Despite sustained interest of both researchers and practitioners in favor of a reliable measure of management consulting effectiveness, the existing assessment instruments remain scarce, poorly validated and often inadequate. This study proposes a new instrument for assessing management consulting effectiveness from the consultant's point of view: The Consulting Effectiveness Questionnaire (Questionnaire d’efficacité de la consultation). The preliminary empirical validation of the questionnaire was conducted using two samples of 116 and 207 consultants. Exploratory and Confirmatory factor analyses suggests a second-order two-factor solution, namely the Quality of the process and Value-added results. The results offer preliminary support for the psychometric properties (validity and reliability) of this promising tool for both research and practice purposes.     

Achievement motivation theory and occupational choice

Two studies are reported which aimed to answer several questions relating to Atkinson's model of achievement motivation. Firstly, how successfully the theory can predict the occupational choices of two different populations and what changes, if any, need to be made to the model to make it more suited to such predictions. Several conceptual errors were found in the theory which make it unsuitable in its present form for predicting occupational choices and suggestions are made as to the possible correction of these. Secondly, a comparison is made between Atkinson's model and the expectancy-valence models currently utilized to describe and predict occupational decision-making. In particular Atkinson's incentive component is contrasted with the valence measure described by expectancy-valence models, and the possible influences of the motive factors (motive to succeed and motive to avoid failure) are considered since these are typically omitted by other models of career choice. Finally, the existence of sex differences in career choice, as well as in the various components of the model are studied and discussed. The changing conceptualization of ‘fear of success’ is also included in this consideration.     

Generic Models of Counseling Supervision: Counseling/Instruction Dichotomy and Consultation Metamodel

Major conceptual models for counseling supervision are described and compared: supervision as a counseling analog, as an instruction or teaching analog, and as a role that includes counseling and teaching aspects. Although each of these approaches avails supervisors of familiar roles, none adequately provides the scope and utility required of a model for such a complex function. Thus, a higher order metamodal, supervision as consultation, is presented, and this consultation metamodel is related to the psychoeducational model for counseling psychology.     

Predictors of early numeracy: Is there a place for mistakes when learning about number?

It is one thing to be able to count and share items proficiently, but it is another thing to know how counting and sharing establish and identify quantity. The aim of the study was to identify which measures of numerical knowledge predict children's success on simple number problems, where counting and set equivalence are at issue. Seventy‐two 5‐year‐olds were given a battery of nine tasks on each of three sessions (at 3‐monthly intervals). Tasks measured procedural proficiency, conceptual understanding (using an error‐detection paradigm) and the ability to compare sets using number knowledge. Procedural skills remained fairly stable over the 6‐month period, and preceded children's ability to detect another's violations to those procedures. Regression analysis revealed that children who are sensitive to procedural errors in another's counting and sharing are more likely to recognize the significance of cardinal numbers for set comparisons. We suggest that although children's conceptual understanding of well‐rehearsed routines is often limited, conceptual insight might be achieved by setting tasks that require reflection rather than practice.     

How effective is school consultation?: A review of recent research

This paper reviews the results of 29 studies on the effectiveness of school consultation published between 1972 and 1977. Twenty-two of the studies reviewed (76%) reported at least one or more positive effects resulting from consultation interventions. Behavioral consultation was found to be particularly effective. Several methodological limitations of the studies which reduce the generality of their findings are discussed. These include lack of appropriate experimental control procedures, failure to control for individual consultant and consultee characteristics, infrequent use of multiple dependent measures assessing both attitudinal and behavioral changes, and the absence of follow-up data. Despite the problems entailed in measuring consultation outcomes, the practice does appear to be effective. Further research investigating the influence of specific consultation models and processes is recommended.     

Hegel's Essentialism. Natural Kinds and the Metaphysics of Explanation in Hegel's Theory of ‘the Concept’

Several recent interpretations see Hegel's theory of the Concept as a form of conceptual realism, according to which finite reality is articulated by objectively existing concepts. More precisely, this theory has been interpreted as a version of natural kind essentialism, and it has been proposed that its function is to account for the possibility of genuine explanations. This suggests a promising way to reconstruct the argument that Hegel's theory of objective concepts is based on—an argument that shows that the possibility of explanation rests on metaphysical preconditions and that natural kind essentialism gives the only adequate account of those preconditions. But in order for such a reconstruction to be successful, one needs to spell out the metaphysical features in virtue of which Hegelian natural kinds can account for the possibility of explanation. The article takes up this challenge. It offers the first detailed analysis of the modal fine‐structure of Hegel's natural kind essentialism and shows how Hegel's position, thus understood, provides the details needed to complete the explanation‐based argument.     

What Incongruent Counterparts Show

Abstract: In a recent paper, Robert Hanna argues that Kant's incongruent counterparts example can be mobilized to show that some mental representations, which represent complex states of affairs as complex, do so entirely non‐conceptually. I will argue that Hanna is right to see that Kant uses incongruent counterparts to show that there must be a non‐conceptual component to cognition, but goes too far in concluding that there must be entirely non‐conceptual representations that represent objects as existing in space and time. Kant is deeply committed to the thesis that no representation of a complex state of affairs as complex can be entirely non‐conceptual. For Kant, all representations of complex states of affairs as complex (including those of incongruent counterparts) are conceptually structured. I present an interpretation of the Transcendental Aesthetic according to which Kant not only aims at Leibnizian and Newtonian accounts of space and time, but also Hume's. Hume's account fails to make representations of complex states of affairs sufficiently determinate. Kant offers an account later in the Critique that is meant to correct this failing by requiring that all representations of complex states of affairs as complex be conceptually (inferentially) structured.     

The Creativity Matrix: Spotlights and Blind Spots in Our Understanding of the Phenomenon

In this paper, we organize past and present theories and models of creativity by using a new conceptual framework—the creativity matrix—with the aim of highlighting the dimensions of creativity we know a lot about and those we tend to either ignore or find difficult to study. This matrix is formed by bringing together a developmental model of creativity (the 4 C's) and a structural one (the 5 A's). We start by briefly describing these two conceptual frameworks, and then, we proceed to exploring the matrix itself by describing how the 5 A's are dynamically organized at each “level” of the 4 C's. Importantly, our overview of the matrix is informed by existing models and concepts that address one of more of the C's and the A's. This gives us a unique opportunity to take stock of what has been studied so far and, toward the end, consider new avenues for the development of theory and research agendas within creativity studies.     

An “issue-focused” model for mental health consultation with groups of teachers

This paper presents and evaluates a model for group mental health consultation with teachers in which sessions are organized around mental health issues rather than cases. The rationale and advantages of the model are explicated and compared with other models of group consultation and group work with teachers. The model incorporates a heavy emphasis on educational preventive measures and is designed to simultaneously satisfy a wide range of consultee needs and to reduce anxiety and defensiveness. Consultant's preparations for the group sessions are highlighted so as to maximize their contribution to the participants' level of involvement, knowledge, skills, confidence, and objectivity. The different roles of the consultant during the session and the variety of techniques employed are described as they relate to group processes and consultation needs. Specific guidelines for the organization of consultation groups and training of group consultants are offered. Evaluation data based on feedback from participants in ten groups are included.     

The vagaries of sex bias: Conditions regulating the undervaluation,equivaluation, and overvaluation of female job applicants

The present study sought to identify the conditions under which women are undervalued, equally valued, and overvalued relative to men when seeking nontraditional jobs. An experiment was conducted in which 241 college students reviewed the work sample of a male or female applicant for a job that was either extremely male or moderately male in sextype. In addition, the applicant was depicted as either unequivocally high in performance ability or no information about his/her performance ability was provided. As expected, results indicated that unless information of high-performance ability was provided, women's competence and likely career success were undervalued relative to men's. Also as predicted, when given high-ability information, women seeking the moderately sextyped job or the extremely sextyped job were equally valued or overvalued, respectively. Gender-related work effectiveness characterizations closely paralleled these evaluations, lending support to the idea that sex stereotypes and the cognitive distortion they promote mediate not only gender consistent but also gender contrast biases in the evaluation of women. Implications of these results, both conceptual and practical, are discussed.     

An Empirical Investigation of Key Account Salesperson Effectiveness

This study develops and empirically tests a model representing the determinants of key account salesperson (KAS) effectiveness. The model supported suggests that the determinants of KAS effectiveness are strategic ability and intrapreneurial ability operating though the intermediate processes of communication quality and customer trust. Strategic ability is the KAS's ability to analyze customer organizational and business problems and focus on their long-term interests. Intrapreneurial ability is the KAS's ability to locate personnel or other resources within the seller firm and deploy them to assist the customer account.     

Integrating consultation and program evaluation in school psychology

Consultation approaches to providing psychological services are widely used by school psychologists. Recently, the need for school psychologists to be proficient in educational program evaluation has been recognized. The present paper discusses how school psychologists can use their existing consultation skills as an approach to program evaluation. The integration of consultation skills with evaluation results in an approach to program evaluation that is particularly useful where program goals and objectives are broad and nonspecific (as in many educational innovations). Also, the consultation approach to evaluation is easier for school psychologists to blend with their other roles in schools than the assessment-oriented evaluator role of some evaluation models. The consultation approach to evaluation is illustrated using a federally sponsored training program for school teachers and administrators.     

Distinguishing Structural and Functional Models of Human Development: A Response to "What Transits in an Identity Status Transition?"

In response to Jane Kroger's "What Transits in an Identity Status Transition?" (this issue), this article questions the usefulness of the concept of soft structural stages as a tool for understanding James Marcia's ego identity status model. The authors begin by distinguishing a variety of developmental models along a continuum, ranging from cognitively based structural stages to culturally based social age periods, with functional stage models holding the overlapping middle ground. Applying this conceptual continuum to Kroger's theoretical essay, three inconsistencies are noted, each of which suggests that Marcia has constructed primarily a functional model. The authors affirm Kroger's conclusion that Marcia's model is developmental, although of a different type than Kroger proposed.     

The evolution of mandler's conceptual primitives (image-schemas) as neural mechanisms for space-time simulation structures

The purpose of this article is to describe parallels between Mandler's theory of conceptual development in infancy, and my theory of the maximum-power principle evolution of the neuro-algorithmic organization of the brain and cultural-level mental models. A maximum power principle prey-predator scenario depicts the dynamic selective origins of neuro-algorithms underlying Mandler's various image-schemas (conceptual primitives). It is proposed that (a) image-schemas are inherited space-time simulation structures that originate in cerebellar state estimating functions which spread to the mapping systems of the cerebrum; (b) image-schemas do not come about as the result of perceptual analytic abstractive processes as Mandler has proposed, but undergo refinement in ontogeny through experience-expectant development involving perceptual analysis; (c) Mandler's image-schemas are “state-primitives” fed forward from the cerebellum to provide tracking routines for perceptual analysis, and rapid simulations constituting representation, prediction, and control; and (d) vicarious trial and error (VTE) can be interpreted as pragmatic vector simulation using image-schematic simulation structures. A scenario connecting image-schemas with Pleistocene era auditory-vocal system evolution which supports Mandler's developmental connection between image-schemas and language is proposed. It is concluded that Mandler's theory of conceptual development is essentially correct. However, it is suggested that the further articulation of Mandler's theory would benefit from parallel statement of the evolution of underlying brain mechanisms.