Models of consulting vs organizational politics

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If you have had an opportunity to observe organizational politics and a number of different settings in your work experience, I’d be interested in knowing your thoughts:

Which of the three change models (expert, doctor-patient; process consultation)do you think best reflects the reality of organizational politics based on your work experiences?

In the Army, the espoused value is to set aside politics for the needs of the organization in the nation, but the reality is that day-to-day operations are extremely political. It pains us when this fact is pointed out to us because of our espoused values of honor and professionalism. Our disdain for politics actually makes it much more difficult for us to engage in things like nation building and stability operations. Somehow it offends our sense of military professionalism to engage on a human level with civilians.

I try to remember that my mother was a civilian too, and that seems to help.

for this reason I think the positivist model acknowledges the sociology of organizations better than the other two, but I think it too easily offers an ideal world of cooperative human nature which can surprise the naïve consultant.

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