Elena GREBENYUK
National Research University “Higher School of Economics”, Moscow, Russia
Abstract
. The article provides an overview of the four approaches to organizational consulting based on
the principles of social constructionism. The idea of socially constructed, intersubjective reality shifts
the focus on attention from the personal assessment and training to communication practices, contexts
of interaction. Appreciative inquiry proposes to build the process of organizational development on the
“positive core” — strengths and experiences of success. On this basis is possible to formulate the image
of preferred future, create the way of its implementation. “Solution-focused corporate coaching” also
relies on the knowledge and skills that brings good result. It proposes principles for asking questions
and goal formulation, which help to construct the solutions. Dialogical Self Theory considers a person
as a “society of mind” — multiple voices and positions in the process of interaction. In the framework
of this concept was proposed “Team confrontation method”, revealing the dominant and the deviant
positions in the team, and implementing changes on the basis of these alternative points of view. The
narrative approach offers the non-expert position of the consultant, which is respectful to the local
knowledge and the unique experience of people in organizations. It gives guidance on how to consider
the political aspects of work, to take into account the cultural context, and to use the principles of
narrative structuring of experience for the benefit of people and organizations. Some of the peculiarities
of these approaches: communication is considered as a process of reality co-construction; recognition
and appreciation of the values and strengths of people and organizations; attention to language,
metaphors and communicative principles; sensitivity to the political aspects of the interaction; a focus
on relationships, collaboration; the value of diversity, polyphony, dialogue; reliance on local knowledge
and skills.
Keywords
: social construction; appreciative inquiry; solution-focused corporate coaching; dialogical
self; narrative practice.
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ORGANIZATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY
Address: 20, Myasnitskaya, Moscow 101000, Russia
E-mail: Elena.grebenyuk@gmail.com
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