ORGANIZATIONAL SYSTEM
ORGANIZATIONAL SYSTEM
- MODULE 3Organizational Intervention Targets
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1) What is an intervention? What key things can impede effective
results between consultant and client? What drives effective
interventions, according to Argyris? What does Argyris mean by
"marginality"?
An intervention is a method which consists to focus on a problem in a company and
accentuate it in order to make the people conscious of it and solve it. The intervention is made
by an interventionist and it’s generally in order to transform a weakness of a company by an
opportunity, and make a change.
The Effective interventions are driven by:
 It should have a good relation between the client and the interventionist, understanding
and awareness, in order to make both parts in trust.
 To make the client aware of his responsibility and not put the fault on the system or
other, in order to involve the client in the change mood. The client should be at the
front in order to feel useful and involved.
 A team work and a comprehension of the competencies of each other
 The willingness to reach the same goal and the same objectives.
We can include also other criteria for being an effective consultant according to Chris
Argyris:
 an effective consultant must be confident
 he must be authentic
 he must have a humanistic approach
 and finally he should adopt a non judgmental approach
Sometimes, the consultant and the client can confront some dilemmas which can affect the
effective result of the intervention. According to Chris Argyris, when the consultant and the
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client have different core values and culture (behaviors) and when the consultant tries to
impose his own paradigm on the system and its point of view, it involve some troubles during
the intervention. It is call a “marginality” dilemma. The client can lose its trust in the
consultant and, as we saw in the previous module, trust is fundamental to establish a reliable
relationship which is necessary in the process in order to obtain positive results.
2) What must a successful interventionist actually do, according to
Argyris, to maximize his/her productivity and success?
First of all, the interventionist is aware of the discrepancy of idea and opinion between
him and the client. Thus, he has to take this as an opportunity and a challenge instead of
taking this as a barrier and a break.
Then, the interventionist should install a trust atmosphere and try to understand at the
very beginning the hope and the expectation of the client in order to share his. The sharing
concept is important to make a method more useful and more successful.
The interventionist has to be prepared and aware of the complexity of his mission and
that the client shouldn’t be the same as the idea he has, and the adaptability skills and the
anticipation of the different issues is an advantage for the interventionist
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3) Is a good change agent an interventionist open to learning?
“Masterful”? “Flawless? ” Weisbord? All of the above? None of the
above? Explain your answer.
Of course that a good change agent is an interventionist open to learning, because we
can always learn from the other and it’s a way to improve constantly. Indeed, the
interventionist doesn’t have the right answers and the right solution which is going to save
any client. The interventionist has principally two types of skills: the sociability and the
psychology. Because he should provide a good human relation and a good understand of the
human being. And a good interventionist who has these two types of skills may obviously be
aware and willing to learn more and more about the human being and about the different
aspect of a mission as regarding the reactions, the behaviors, the discussions and so on. And
learning means improve the competences and change the way of think and the way of behave.
In my opinion, the interventionist is a Masterful and flawless person. The reason why
he is a Masterful person is because he is the one who is going to help and the client is
conscious that he will be useful even though the client may never say that to the
interventionist. The interventionist is masterful because of the role he is playing and because
of the position he will have during the processes, he will lead the client to a goal and to the
objectives define together. But, the fact is that the interventionist is also a flawless person
because he has to let the client solve the problem and succeed in reaching the objectives by
his own. So it’s difficult but there is balance between this two and the interventionist has to
perform is mission but giving space to the client. The interventionist will be a good change
agent if he is masterful and flawless.
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4) According to Ed Lawler, what are the key elements of a good
business strategy? How does it incorporate change? Do you
agree with him? Are there any things you would change, add, do
away with?
According to Ed Lawler, the key elements o a good business strategy are the direction,
a good plan, set up goals and objectives in order to make the company successful. The fact is
that the company always changes and is always subject to improvement or development and
thus they have to manage those changes in order to adapt the company business and strategy
for these changes. That is why it incorporates the change because of the fact that the
company’s business strategy has plan and goals in order to reach the objectives and as the
company and the environment constantly change, the company has also to adapt and manage
those change
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