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Presents a critical analysis of the “planned change” and “learning organization” approaches to organizational change, and their underlying classical and quantum paradigms. Drawing on a review of the corresponding paradigms in modern physics, concludes that both approaches are incomplete, as they fail to identify a common unifying basis for the organization. Identifies as a unifying basis the “subjective” aspect of the organization, which is accessible in the consciousness of its individual members; then locates a comprehensive framework for organizational change in the worldview of the ancient Vedic tradition of knowledge. The corresponding strategy for organizational development is based on the utilization of systematic, effective techniques for the development consciousness which have been introduced by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Empirical research has shown these techniques to develop the mental, physiological and social capacities of the individual. It is predicted that this consciousness‐based strategy, applied in the organizational context, will simultaneously strengthen the alignment between the organization’s goals, the development of the individual and the needs of the environment.

Epistemology of organizations denotes how we can gain knowledge of organizations. A critical, postmodernistic analysis suggests that the only knowledge we can gain from our traditional concepts of organization is emptiness. A proposed solution is to increase the understanding of individual and group consciousness. Individual consciousness is categorized in materialistic, dualistic and transcendent views, and group consciousness in interactive – defined in terms of its content and dependence on spatial and symbolic interaction – and collective, dependent on a subliminal transcendent consciousness. The last category is further divided into logically deduced and experiential sub‐categories. It is argued that the present understanding of organizations is based on interactive consciousness and needs to move beyond that level in order to progress. An alternative transcendent epistemology of organizations is introduced, based on transcendent experience, and a model of organization based on the transcendent epistemology is suggested. This model features a transcendent transition – transcition – as a basis for organizational change, and two cases are analyzed. It is concluded that a new paradigm based on a new science of consciousness is needed in order to do justice to the vast potential of human consciousness.