The terms crisis and change are applied to experiences that deeply affect both the organization and the individuals that comprise it. The economic, political, and social events of the context hit the organization and produce profound changes in the orientation, purposes, intentions, and motivations of the people.
The crisis supposes the rupture of a regularity, which prevents anticipating future events, which is crucial for survival. Faced with a crisis situation, two attitudes can be assumed:
a) Passive attitude: the crisis is suffered without trying to reverse or modify the phenomenon. It may be due to a paralysis caused by panic, or it may correspond to a conservative attitude of resistance to admit the revision of outdated frames of reference.
b) Active attitude: assume the analysis and reflection of phenomena. Start an observation process that allows us to elaborate the anxieties that are reactivated in crisis situations.
Delimitation of some fundamental concepts:
The crisis is the consequence of an unexpected modification, causing a state of imbalance and uncertainty. The crisis is triggered by a succession of changes that compromises the field of the organization's interactions.
To produce a crisis, factors external to the organization (economic, political context, etc.) and internal factors converge. The external impact mobilizes certain internal dimensions of the organizational system, producing the emergence of conflicts that previously remained latent.
For Marris there are three types of changes:
1) Incremental or substitution changes: they do not imply a deep revision of the system and are referred to new ways of facing the established needs or intentions.
2) Changes that imply growth: gradual incorporation of experiences within the framework of the purposes of the system, providing greater wealth and complexity.
3) Changes involving current or future losses, representing a discontinuity crisis. They are deeply disturbing to the individual and organizational system.
External changes influence the organization, but its limits, by pointing out a space of its own, means that the organization can remain the same.
If the contextual changes are very abrupt and intense, they can blur the limits of the same organization, which affects the identity and membership of its members. Your protected space is threatened.
They should focus on the management of limits in relation to the context for the benefit of the organization itself.
In a crisis situation, it is necessary to be skillful in evaluating the context, noting the characteristics that affect the organization and managing the knowledge acquired to avoid making mistakes. In these cases the organization is likely to need outside help.
A consultant, oblivious to the reality of that organization, will be able to establish the necessary guidelines to adjust the dysfunctions that appear in these contexts.
The Organizational Analysis, taken as a process of change to face and face those problems that hinder the normal development of the organization, is the main objective to fulfill, always in agreement with the client-company.
Through a systemic approach, the problems that appear can be observed from various angles, in a sort of tracking of the different variables to be investigated. Understand not only interpersonal aspects, but also organizational, productive, axiological aspects, belief systems, interconnected patterns, and the mission and vision of the organization.
In a crisis context, bonds of trust between the members of the organization, good leadership and professional ethics must be fundamentally maintained.
