Change agents for peace: Optimal skills of long-term, onsite, cross-cultural organizational transformation consultants

Long-term, onsite, cross-cultural defense consultant teams of retired U.S. military members are currently engaged in organization development (OD) transformation of local militaries from Soviet style organizations into Western style structures throughout Europe and Central Asia. The aim is to prepare the militaries for potential membership in NATO. The OD consulting and cross-cultural management literatures do not provide a meaningful guide to the development of cross-cultural consultants. This qualitative, exploratory study, based on interviews with 15 individuals selected from a pool of 89 consultants (notably all male), explored the experiences, perceptions, and insights of cross-cultural defense consultants to determine the set of skills they consider optimal for such work. Findings indicate that these defense consultants need geopolitical understanding, strategic planning, and analytical capability, as well as technical subject matter expertise, managerial ability, and intercultural interpersonal skills. Additionally, consultants need awareness of their own cultural biases and of the ethical and behavioral issues associated with exercising power and influence over others. Results emphasize the need for deep cultural knowledge of local history and cultural nuances, and the need to expand the scope of training afforded to OD professionals engaging in cross-cultural interventions. Opportunities for global consulting are expanding, particularly for cross-cultural OD consultants. Building on the existing, limited understanding of the field of cross-cultural consulting, study findings serve to better inform the processes of selection, preparation, and training of cross-cultural consultants. The detailed development of such a training program remains an opportunity for additional future developmental work.