När goda råd är dyra: En fallstudie av användandet av konsulttjänster i den ideella sektorn

Sammanfattning: A case study was done of Sthlm Policy Group, a consulting agency that mainly targets NGOs and government agencies in the peace and security sector. The goal of the case study was to explore the tendency of NGOs in Sweden to hire commercial consulting companies. The main interest was to see what the key reasons are for NGOs to hire private consulting agencies, but also to explore what problems that might be associated with such relationships. Interviews were carried out with representatives of the consulting agency, with its clients as well as with other NGOs that were identified as potential clients. The interviewed NGOs and government agencies were found to approve of the use of commercial consultants. The key reasons were determined to be that private consulting agencies are efficient and competent; they are flexible and predictable and furthermore, hiring other NGOs might prove problematic since they might have different agendas whereas commercial consulting agencies do not. Finally we could also conclude that private consulting agencies and NGOs borrow certain features from each other, which brings them closer to each other and facilitates cooperation. The main problems that we identified were perceptions that someone else would disapprove of the hiring of commercial consulting agencies, whether it be grass roots, NGO representatives, the media or society. This was determined to be due to two reasons. Firstly, there may be one-dimensional assumptions about others, perhaps based on prejudice. Secondly, the borrowing of features between different organizations leads to institutional confusion. This disqualifies traditional ideas of how people in different organizations behave.