Organizational Psychology

To consulting organizations without diagnostics is impossible and unacceptable. This is, perhaps, recognized by all consultants, regardless of the school and the direction of consulting that they represent. Diagnostics begins with the first acquaintance with the client and his organizationand continues until completion of work with him. No matter how much information about client receives consultant, it will always be incomplete. But client-centered approach also assumes a separate mandatory stage of counseling — organizational diagnostics. In some cases, this stage is sold as a separate service, that is, an independent consulting product. Such diagnostics necessarily includes feedback — a joint discussion with the client about the written report and expert assessment of the consultant’s actual state of the client organization. According to the method of counseling, our approach to diagnosing the organization differs from the generally accepted ones, that we pay great attention to the reconstruction of the organization’s history and, in particular, to individual differences in the vision of the organization among its managers and owners, and also to their individual histories. Methodological distinction of the approach is connected not so much with the methods used, as with the dialogic position of the consultant in each interview. This position defines the minimal formalization of diagnostics, free discussion with each manager of a given set of topics.