Many of the OD interventions, techniques, and methods incorporate some form
of dialogue or other and, therefore, can be interpreted as fitting the social constructionist
approach to organizational change. In terms of Berger and Luckmann
(1966), dialogue involves sharing subjective realities. When there is a problem
that can be associated with the level of symmetry between an organizational
member’s subjective realities and the institutionalized objective reality, the dialogue
should be aimed at lessening the existing asymmetry by socializing the organization’s
members more in the required objective reality. Likewise, when a
problem can be associated with the scope of institutionalization, the dialogue
should be aimed at changing that. When there is a problem with the symbolic
universe as a whole, then the dialogue should deal with that. Basically, the proposition here is to vary OD efforts in accordance with the problem that has
been diagnosed.