Combining Process Consultation and Structural Interventions

Abstract

This article explores the compatibility of a process consulting stance with structural interventions intended to promote significant organizational redesign. Much of the existing literature on process consultation implies that this capacity‐building approach is best suited to relational or process concerns. However, Edgar Schein and other recent commentators have observed that structural issues are not precluded from its purview. Through a case study involving a process consulting stance in relation to a shifting range of structural concerns, this paper argues that the latter offers a feasible way of pursuing structural change. We also show that models focusing on structure allowed us to generate questions for our inquiry process. However, the paper also suggests that it is important to underpin the intervention with a sound grasp of the purpose and affordances of specific structural theories and to be watchful for the significant reserves of resistance that can be aroused when structural issues are tackled. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.