A Methodology for Process-Oriented Organizational Diagnosis

Abstract

The intent of this paper is to present a specific methodology for organizational diagnosis, which in order to be successful, requires that an interventionist as a third-party facilitator attend to many very specific (though sometimes subtle) process aspects. The traditional techniques used for organizational diagnosis-questionnaires, interviews, and participant observationare criticized as being content-influential. The process-oriented methodology presented involves the interventionist with the client in designing groups that represent four different constituencies of a particular organization unit. The initial diagnosis and the initial intervention is achieved by conducting a problem diagnosis workshop. Pragmatic aspects concerning an effective diagnostic intervention have been learned through extensive research experience, some of which the authors report.