Intervención Organizacional: Un Análisis Cualitativo con el Método Magese

Abstract

Organizational intervention, from the traditional viewpoint, overlooks the subjective and political dimensions, which establishes the need for critical approaches that integrate the complexity of organizations. Considering this, two questions arise: How can the manifestation of organizational dysfunctions be provoked from the perspective of the subjects? What tool should be used to construct the diagnosis prior to intervention? The objective of this research is to propose a way of constructing organizational diagnoses prior to intervention from a constructionist perspective, using the organizational dysfunctions of the MAGESE method as discursive and analytical devices that favor the collective construction of meanings regarding organizational reality. Methodologically, the study is based on an intervention in two organizations in Mexico (a public school and a small enterprise) through a multiple case study. Data collection comprised 17 semi-structured interviews—which captured the experience of the subjects without restricting contextual specificities—non-participant observation, and documentary analysis. The findings show the importance of rethinking intervention from a critical approach that prioritizes dialogue among actors for the joint construction of reality, as well as the need for tools that serve both to establish the initial diagnosis and to carry out the subsequent comparison and evidence the changes. Likewise, the results show the analytical potential of the method for identifying critical and structural dysfunctions in both organizations. It is concluded that qualitative methodology is a valuable resource for in-depth organizational diagnoses, since it allows access to the subjective and political dimensions of organizational life and generates inputs to guide intervention processes, underscoring the relevance of the sustainability of changes. Finally, it is acknowledged as a limitation that the proposal does not possess a universal character but rather is constituted as a methodological strategy aimed at initiating intervention processes in organizations.