Organizational Rehabilitation through Rehabilitating People: Transcending the Original Structure of a Project

This paper presents a description of and reflections about an action research process in a local authority. The focus of the project is on the introduction of a new approach to the rehabilitation of staff. The new approach requires collaboration between departments, which is a great stumbling block in the bureaucratic structure and culture of the organization. The project describes and discusses how, through a gradual joint focusing on the rehabilitation of individuals, the departments concerned became aware of the fact that they were also engaged in a process of rehabilitating the organization. Various aspects of the importance of the relationship between the researcher and the organization are brought to the fore.