The Corporate Citizenship conversation

It's a 'job security' tactic, rather than 'being excellent at what you do' tactic.

Just like Corporate Governance has been the big wave, Corporate Citizenship is becoming more and more important for organizations to maintain their competitive advantage. This concept is especially troublesome for smaller consulting firms (I have mostly seen it from a Federal Government Consulting point of view), where employees primarily act as the "pair of hands" consultants. It's a catch-22 situation where companies want their employees to be close to the clients (these projects can last years), but then comes a point where the employee's relationship to the corporate is just to collect the paycheck. Their daily interaction, direction, etc is all coming from the client or as some call them their "Client-Boss" or simply their 'Boss".

This lack of the company-employee bond is very common and primarily stems from:

• Body shop mentality – the company provides the resources, bills, gets paid, pays the employee, and keeps the profit.
• 100% collocation – the consulting business often requires consultants to be on-site with the client, but when its years before the employee visits corporate because they have no business there, it's obvious to lose the connection.
• Who's in-charge? – employees suffering from this identity crisis will tell you that their employment is solely a function of funding for the project and how much their client likes them. Just a hard fact of the consulting business.

Here is the issue – no one benefits from the lack of Corporate Citizenship. Granted it provides short-term benefit to those indulging in it, in the long run it leads to a tarnished integrity (its everything in the consulting business) and is the ultimate career-staller (it's a 'job security' tactic, rather than 'being excellent at what you do' tactic).

There is a fix – Take Responsibility

• Employers need to be responsible to put in place mechanisms that engage employees on a continuous basis. There are several ways this can be done.
• Employees need to act as good ambassadors for the corporate.
• Clients need to demand excellence from both the employer and the employee. It's the employers responsibility to train/develop its employees that in-turn become result-oriented consultants.

If you have any questions or comments about this post, feel free to leave them here. I will get back within 24 hours.

Comments

[Reza]

People should read this.