Consulting knowledge and organisation's absorptive capacity: A communication chain perspective

This study investigates the communication chain of consulting knowledge constituted by consultants and internal lecturers. We analyse the differences between consultants and internal lecturers in their capability of knowledge training and discuss its influence on organisations' absorption of consulting knowledge. Based on a Mann--Whitney U test of data from 47 quality management consultants and 235 internal lecturers in Taiwan, we found that internal lecturers significantly exhibited weaker capability than consultants, especially in knowledge structure, knowledge transformation, trainee orientation and training ethics. The capability gap was disadvantageous for organisations to absorb consulting knowledge and suggestions for improving this problem were provided finally.