ABSTRACT
Organizational diagnosis serves both the frameworks that are necessary for the practice of social science: knowledge-into-use and the dynamics of action. In the framework of knowledge-into-use, a diagnostic study produces a picture or information that may then be used. In the framework of dynamics of action and change, a diagnostic study provides a "transitional system", entered into jointly by the practitioner and client systems, enabling them to explore each other to develop confidence, to enter into each other's frames of reference, and to test out working together. During the 1970s a view of organizations became prevalent that perceives the "skin" around the organization as being rather thin, and the organization itself as a temporary container for members of other institutions with which they are more strongly identified than with the organization itself. In the case of the organization of hospital wards, as in the example the model was the key to making sense of overwhelmingly rich data.
