There is a classical guideline for revealing the mystery in stories of passion and intrigue: Cherchez la femme. There is also and investigative side to solving conflicts between people and organizational units. Using a parody of the saying above, when facing conflicts or other undesired phenomena in organizations Elliott Jaques used to say Cherchez l’organisation. This is to say: in the presence of conflict, look first at organizational systems and only then at personal matters.

This is a major finding of Requisite Organization theory, and a mainstay for action. In actual practice, it means that if one wishes to solve a human behavior problem in organizations, one should first analyze systems in actual operation and modify them in the sense required by the nature of things. This kind of actions goes to the root of conflicts between units and persons in organizations.

The ORGANIZATIONAL DIAGNOSIS page gives and example of conflict resolution between individuals based on a RO approach.

Go to page ORGANIZATIONAL DIAGNOSIS