Active Qualitative Evaluation

Abstract

This article discusses active qualitative evaluation and modern sociotechnical design as parts of an approach for the evaluation of organizational change. ‘Intervention in interactions’ is the most important similarity between these parts when considering the evaluation of organizational change. The two parts are discussed in terms of their theoretical core elements, practical consequences for research and dilemmas. Because, in practice, intervening in a changing organization is always accompanied by some important paradoxes, the different parts of the approach are presented as supplementary in practical evaluation of organizational change. The leitmotif on the basis of the case of the Royal Netherlands Military Academy here is that a paradoxical situation such as intervening in a changing organization needs a paradoxical intervention strategy.