Choosing the Depth of Organizational Intervention

Abstract

There is a need for conceptual models which differentiate intervention strategies from one another in a way which permits rational matching of strategies to differing organizational change problems. A central concept in such a model could be the depth of individual emotional involvement in the change process. By depth we mean how deep, value-laden, emotionally charged, and central to the individual's sense of self are the issues and processes about which a consultant attempts directly to obtain information and which he seeks to influence. In order of increasing depth are the change strategies: operations analysis, management by objectives, the Managerial Grid, the T Group, and task group therapy.

As depth of intervention increases, so also do a number of concomitants of depth: dependence on the special competence of the change agent, centrality of the individual as the target of the change attempt, costs of intervention, and the risk of unintended consequences for individuals. These concomitants suggest a criterion for the depth of intervention: to intervene at a level no deeper than that required to produce enduring solutions to the problems at hand. However, a countervailing trend tends to push the level of intervention deeper as organizational systems shift from greater external control to more autonomy and internal control for members. As the individual becomes more important, the level at which the processes which effectively determine his behavior operate becomes deeper, and the individual has increasing influence over the success or failure of the intervention. A case is presented for a radical shift of consultant orientation in the direction of accepting a client's felt needs and presented problems as being real and of working on them at a level where the client can serve as a competent and willing collaborator. This leads to the second criterion: to intervene at a level no deeper than that at which the energy and resources of the client can be committed to problem solving and to change.