A Business Health Service: Can Businesses Rely on Professional Specialist Advice and Assistance?
Structural-functional theorists maintain that organisations and businesses function in a similar integrated manner to living organisms. This book is the third in a series evaluating the realism and applicability of this theory. The first book was published in 2012 under the title of Physiology of Organisations, and was followed by A Clinical Guide to Organisational Health in 2015.
This third book questions whether businesses can benefit from a professional healthcare service, analogous to a generic medical healthcare service, covering different types of needs, namely during the start-up phase; addressing functional and management concerns; disaster damage concerns; competitive fitness and regulatory compliance.
Each of these parts of a business healthcare service explores whether there is an actual requirement for the service and whether these services are already available. The book, furthermore, evaluates the level of experience and professionalism that businesses can expect from advisors, consultants and specialists as compared to patient expectations from clinical members of a medical healthcare service. It concludes that it may be time to address concerns before a business healthcare service can be recognised as fully available and professional.
Dr C.M. Dean has over 25 years’ experience in senior consultancy and management positions in strategy, IT and management in both government and large organisations, including KPMG, IBM and Aviva. As a tutor, she has worked with the Open University and the Leicester University School of Business, UK. She is currently a director of a private research and consultancy company.
‘Management consultants are like quack doctors, when businesses need scientists. In this book, the third in a trilogy, Cecilia Dean insists that business advice can be based on science. Basing her ideas on the analogy between the human body and the organization, Dean puts forward a convincing argument for the national regulation of management consultancy – a business health service. After all, if we would avoid an unregulated and unqualified doctor, why would we trust our company to someone who is merely selling snake oil? This is a radical book, and its thought provoking ideas deserve wide discussion.’
Professor Martin Parker, School of Management, University of Bristol
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