Professional dilemmas of the psychologist in an organizational emergency

The limitations of the common models of organizational development (OD) when applied to organizations undergoing an extreme emergency are discussed in light of the authors' experiences as frontline psychologists in the 1973 Israeli-Arab war. The authors observe that the working assumptions underlying common OD cannot be met in an emergency, and therefore propose another approach, emergency organizational development (EOD). It differs from OD in orientation (e.g., direct problem solving rather than facilitation of changeability), work methods, and the conception of the psychologist's role. In addition to laying the foundations toward the development of an EOD conception, the authors describe and discuss some of the personal problems and professional dilemmas facing the psychologist who is expected to provide psychological services to an organization in an extreme emergency. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).