Rack BG — Organizational Development and Change

TAOP Resources Library -- Aisle B (Theories)

Resources: Main Page | Research Methods (A) | Major Theories (B) | Issues and Contemporary Topics (C) | Professional Education (D)

Rack BG (Org. Development & Change) — Work-Focused Change | People-Focused Change | Process and Context-Focused Change

Jump to: Importance | Theories | Research Areas | TAOP Episodes | References

What is Organizational Development and Change and Why is it Important?

Organizational development and change (ODC) theories focus on the process of how organizations evolve and transform over time. It’s more concerned with the human and behavioral aspects of change – how to help people and organizations transition from one state to another. This field examines questions like: How do organizations successfully implement major changes? What interventions help shift organizational culture? How can resistance to change be managed effectively? This contrasts with organization design (see Rack BD) that focuses on the structural and architectural aspects of organizations – essentially how organizations should be built and configured. It examines questions like: How should work be divided and coordinated? What reporting relationships make sense? How should decision rights be allocated? So while organization design theories might explain how to choose the best architecture of the organization, ODC theories would examine the best way to construct the organization based on that design.

Thus, like organization design, ODC lends itself to application in practice. In fact, Kurt Lewin, a principal ODCscholar, wrote that “Nothing is more practical than a good theory,” exemplifying the important bridge between theory and practice (also see Rack DT). But of course, implementing change in organizations is hard, and the failure rate of transformational changes has frequently been quoted as being about “70%” (Burke, 2011). Thus, change management principles become very important as leaders and managers recognize that change is often necessary given the environmental changes around them, yet they can rarely afford to implement change incorrectly or inefficiently lest they offend customers or stakeholders.

Some Leading Development and Change Theories & Concepts

ODC is a very broad field, so the following is one attempt at encapsulating some of the major themes among different areas of research seeking to best understand both the nature of human systems change that is ubiquitous in the environment and the varying efforts to drive change in organizations. Schwandt (2013) described three major themes upon which ODC has followed — theories regarding deliberate or planned changes in the work being done, regarding the people doing the work and the effects of change on them, and regarding the meso- and macro-perspectives of the processes, technologies, and systems employed to manage the work. We present these themes below to present a narrative of the development of ODC ideas over time.

We are also integrating management consultancy here because of the considerable practical overlap between the two. While ODC focuses on the changes that managers may wish to make, consultants (both internal and external) help managers plan and implement change, ostensibly more effectively and efficiently.

Work. Classic management theories (see Rack BA) began here, with efforts to use incentives to change worker efficiency under scientific management principles where the needs for change and implementing changes presumed linear cause-and-effect such that order was imposed upon the workers, who were thus “changed” in their behaviors. What emerged from this are the dominant models of change management based on top-down direction and control, most notably captured in Kurt Lewin’s (1947) three-phased model of change (see Episode 55) and John Kotter’s (1996) extension of it in the popular book Leading Change that presents an eight-step process of implementing change in any organization. Meanwhile, the below themes represent particular critiques of this stream. Other scholars have presented different frameworks for driving change such as Chin & Benne’s (1989) three strategies of power-coercion (which aligns with Taylorism and Kotter), normative-reeducative approaches that seek change through consultation or retraining, and rational-empirical approaches that use data and statistics to assess and respond to the organization’s shortcomings – the latter of which characterizes a number of management tools such as Total Quality Management (we discussed this in Episode 121).

People. Beginning with the Human Relations School (see Rack BH), whole streams of literature have elevated the understanding of the people-oriented aspects of change, partially as a critique of scientific management. The Hawthorne Studies (Episodes 9 and 119) showed how managers’ willingness to involve workers among efforts to improve performance can have a positive impact even when the efforts themselves do not succeed. From this, amidst concerns about worker resistance and how to deal with it (e.g., Piderit, 2000), theorizing moved to more integrative or participative approaches to change, organizational learning, and complex adaptive systems (e.g., Leavitt & March, 1988). There is also transition theory which studies the psychological responses of organizational members to change, essentially taking Lewin’s three-phases (unfreezing, moving, refreezing) and overlapping them to represent the individual’s needs for letting go of old ways, adopting the new, and overcoming the uncomfortable period in between (Bridges, 2009).

Process and Context. Another critique against the change management techniques that followed scientific management were that they were over-emphasizing pure process and that the context and character of the problem managers wished to solve were indispensable parts of change efforts. This was captured in Pettigrew’s triangle (1983) that made context, content, and process over time as the proper way to understand and manage holistic change (see Episode 27). This perspective also lends itself to theories and frameworks for organizational diagnosis, beginning with Weisbord’s (1976) six-box model of diagnosis that helps consultants identify the trouble spots in organizations (see Episode 72).

Contemporary Research Areas

ODC research is highly active and there are many practical applications and concerns, with some of these also referenced in the contemporary topics in Aisle C. This is by no means intended to be comprehensive, but offers a glimpse into some of the work being done in this area.

External and Internal Consultancy. As indicated above, management consultancy is a closely coupled but separate field of study (for example, it constitutes a separate division in the Academy of Management). Consultancy has a long history, beginning with firms established by Arthur Little (ADL in 1886, still operating) and James McKinsey (McKinsey & Company in 1926, still operating) and many of the foundational scholars in this program doubled as management consultants in the studies they performed. Today, many contemporary issues such as digital transformation, sustainability, and dealing with the aftermaths of COVID-19 have caused organizations to look for outside expertise, and consulting firms are finding themselves needing to develop new skills and competencies in kind so to better analyze client organizations and offer their best advice (Shaw, 2019; Kamning, 2021; Kordab et al., 2020).

Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Likewise, entrepreneurship has a long history, dating back to the work of Joseph Schumpeter who brought the term into modern use, describing two patterns of innovation: Mark I characterized by “creative destruction” whereby new ideas wholly supplant the old, and Mark II in which innovations are contained within established firms (Fontana et al., 2012). Across the decades that followed, however, the barriers to entry as an entrepreneur were high because it required resources and the assumption of professional risk (several of our episodes such as on Burns & Stalker, Episode 98, and Tushman, Episode 73 expound on how innovators tend to be isolated and reviled within firms). Today, the proliferation of digital technology has made this no longer the case and budding entrepreneurs and innovators are competing intensely to bring new ideas to market without the physical constraints of the past, and AI is lowering these barriers even further. But the questions of why some initiatives or entrepreneurs succeed and under what circumstances is an ongoing research topic.

Emotions and Well-Being. Following along the people thread above, the role of emotions and psychology in organizational change is receiving increased attention. Researchers are examining how change affects employees’ emotional wellbeing and how organizations can better support people through transitions. This includes studying phenomena like change fatigue, resilience, and psychological safety during organizational transformations. This research is particularly important as organizations face more frequent and complex changes. For example, Brown (2016, 2018) has been studying the effects of change fatigue on hospital staff nurses given the competitive nature of medical care and the continuous need to control costs.

Leadership development for change. In many contexts, leaders are expected to improve the organizations they are leading and not merely sustain the status quo (see Racks BL and CL). Thus, leadership training and education often includes formal and informal programs to enhance the skills and competencies of leaders to drive change in their organizations. But what capabilities leaders need to guide organizations through complex transformations is an ongoing debate. This includes studying how leaders can develop the emotional intelligence, systems thinking, and adaptive capabilities needed for contemporary change management. There’s particular interest in how leaders can foster continuous change rather than just managing discrete change initiatives.

Network and ecosystem change. These areas of research take a macro-level view of change. Rather than focusing only on change within single organizations, researchers are examining how entire networks or ecosystems of organizations transform. This includes studying how platform organizations evolve, how industry ecosystems adapt to disruption, and how organizations can collaborate for systemic change. One example is Brodeur et al. (2023) that studied how small and medium-sized enterprises in the manufacturing sector managed organizational changes necessary for adapting to contemporary advanced technologies.

Related TAOP Episodes, Events, and Notes

121: Rhetoric vs. Reality — Mark Zbaracki

This month we explore a renowned multiple-case study commonly assigned as foundational readings in organization studies programs. Mark Zbaracki’s “The rhetoric and reality of Total Quality Management” chronicled the development and introduction of Total Quality Management (TQM) into the corporate environment, only to find that in many cases its implementation did not align with the promises made by leaders about process improvements nor did firms fully exercise all the practices and activities that TQM required. The question that Zbaracki posed was more than to what extent did this rhetoric-reality unfold, but why?

114: Sociotechnical Systems — Trist & Bamforth (revisited)

With over 110 episodes in our catalogue, we decided it was time to take a step back and revisit one of our earlier episodes that continues to come up time and again. Episode 34, covering Trist & Bamforth’s study on the longwall method of coal-getting, was referenced in sixteen (16) episodes since its release. That is more than any other episode! This re-release includes a new supplement further the conversation to contemporary issues and a sidecast on the use of this study as a cautionary tale for professional education.

104: Social Structure & Organizations — Stinchcombe

In a famous chapter in James G. March’s 1965 book, Handbook of Organizations, Arthur L. Stinchcombe laid out a case for expanding the study of organizations outward to include social structure bringing attention to innovation as well as imprinting and inertia. He posited that societies had significant effects on how organizations emerge and operate and that organizations, in turn, impact relations among groups in society. He presented his arguments in three parts. First, that social structures had an imprinting effect on the formation of new organizations, such that these initial forms often persisted despite efforts to change them. Thus, to the second point, each type of organization reflected the history of its creation both in terms of the organization and social structures that dominated at the time. Finally, organizations also reflect the social divisions in society, such as between higher and lower classes.

98: Managing Innovation — Burns & Stalker

Why do firms seemingly have difficulties converting new ideas into goods or services? The answer is in the classic book The Management of Innovation from Tom Burns and G. M. Stalker that explored the difficulties that firms, industries, and even nations had in innovating due to the disruptions that it brings to power structures and social fabric in organizations. They also explored key misunderstandings about innovation (such as that the false narrative that bureaucratic structures inherently cannot innovate) and the source of of conflicts across different departments and work groups trying to innovate.

73: Organizing Innovation — Michael Tushman

Discusses an important work from Michael Tushman about how innovation benefits from individuals who communicate across boundaries. With special guest Hila Lifshitz-Assaf who has collaborated with Tushman and did her own dissertation on boundary spanning in the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

72: Organizational Diagnosis — Marvin Weisbord

Business literature is now loaded with models and frameworks designed to help organizations identify, analyze, and fix their problems. But it wasn’t always this way, and in fact a half century ago there were few general-purpose models available that were well-suited for the task. Enter Marvin Weisbord who in the 1970s developed and promoted a simple framework and associated suite of tools designed for anyone to investigate what was going wrong. In this episode, we discuss one of his articles — “Organizational Diagnosis: Six Places to Look for Trouble With or Without a Theory,” published in 1976 in the journal Group and Organization Management — that introduced his Six-Box Model of organizational diagnosis.

55: Group Dynamics and Foundations of Organizational Change – Kurt Lewin

We discuss Kurt Lewin’s article, “Frontiers in Group Dynamics,” that makes a strong case for treating the social sciences on the same level with the natural sciences–previously, social science was considered neither rigorous nor valid. Using metaphors from physics, Lewin explains social phenomena in tangible, physical terms and explains how individuals within a social space interact in ways that could be measured similarly to physical or chemical phenomenon.

42: Carnegie Mellon Series #5 – Organizational Learning

We discuss Barbara Levitt and James G. March’s article “Organizational Learning,” published in the 1988 edition of the Annual Review of Sociology. Although the authors hailed from Stanford University in California, we have included this episode in our Carnegie-Mellon Series because of James March’s involvement and perspectives on organization that clearly influenced the article. This work was a literature review across various streams in organizational learning up through the 1980s. Topics include learning from experience, organizational memory, ecologies of learning, and organizational intelligence. Of particular interest is how organizational learning was defined as not an outcome but a process of translating the cumulative experiences of individuals and codifying them as routines within the organization. From this, the authors applied the brain metaphor – such as memory and intelligence – to explain the phenomenon.

41: Images of Organization – Gareth Morgan

We tackle Gareth Morgan’s classic book Images of Organization, originally published in 1986. This lengthy and detailed volume synthesizes an incredible range of organization theories and concepts over the previous century and presents them under the umbrella of eight distinct metaphors. Each metaphor represents a different way of understanding the existence and dynamics of organizations, their members, and their interactions with the environment.

39: Carnegie Mellon Series #4 – Organizational Choice

The podcasters discuss a fascinating article, “A Garbage Can Model of Organizational Choice,” published in Administrative Science Quarterly back in 1972 by Michael Cohen, James March, and Johan Olsen. This is another episode from the Carnegie-Mellon University tradition, alongside Episode 4 on Organizational Routines and Episode 19 on Organizational Learning. This installment addresses organizational decision making and choice and, like the others in this series, it changed the way people think about organizations and organizational behavior.

34: Sociotechnical Systems – Trist and Bamforth

We discuss important article by Eric Trist and Ken Bamforth, “Some Social and Psychological Consequences of the Longwall Method of Coal-Getting,” published in the journal Human Relations in 1951. Eric Trist was a British social scientist best known for his contributions to the field of organization development and one of the founders of the Tavistock Institute. Ken Bamforth was a miner and industrial fellow of the Tavistock Institute. The article’s subtitle is an examination of the psychological situation and defences of a work group in relation to the social structure and technological content of the work system, and explores how a technological change in the coal-mining industry tore apart the social structure of the workers who were supposed to have benefitted from the change. The technological change in question was the mechanization of the process of mining and extracting coal along a very long face, as opposed to the previous ‘hand-got’ methods where small teams would dig out coal from smaller faces.

Reflections on the “Process and Practice Perspectives” Workshop at the University of Queensland Business School

This reflection by Ella Hafermalz follows a 2017 workshop conducted at the UQ Business School on process and practice perspectives. Practice theories in particular emphasise everyday life – what activities are practitioners involved in, and how is meaning exercised through these routines and collectivities? Process philosophy offers a related perspective, with a greater emphasis on how temporality frames and arises from our experiences of everyday life. Are they two different perspectives or really two sides of the same coin?

22: Human-Machine Reconfigurations – Lucy Suchman

We discuss Lucy Suchman’s book “Human-Machine Reconfigurations: Plans and Situated Action” that studied the interaction of humans with a state-of-art photocopier designed to be more user friendly and more helpful in solving user problems. Yet videos showed that people found it complicated and difficult. Suchman shows that these interaction problems are greatly due to the underpinning assumptions about users’ behavior, more specifically, due to the idea that humans’ actions are based on the following of plans, which she refutes.

18: Gig Economy, Labor Relations and Algorithmic Management

We discuss an article by Sarah O’Connor exploring the impact of gig economy and algorithmic management on the employees – what their experience is like, how their work is structured, and whether being a gig economy employee is everything it panned out to be. Gig economy, as well as its benefits and limitations, has been subject to much debate in social policy and labour relations.

6: Bureaucracy – Max Weber

We discuss two chapters of Max Weber’s 1922 book Economy and Society. Weber was most interested in bureaucracy. He believed that bureaucratic coordination of activities is a hallmark of the modern and civilized society. This was not least because bureaucracies are organized according to rational principles, and rationality is an ongoing intellectual effort that is subject to education and discipline. In a bureaucratic organization offices are ranked in a hierarchical order and their operations are characterized by impersonal rules.

4: Carnegie Mellon Series #1 – Organizational Routines

In our first episode on the Carnegie-Mellon School, we examine selected passages from March & Simon’s book Organizations and Cyert & March’s book A Behavioral Theory of the Firm to address the rise of scholarly thought on matters of organizational routines

Aisle B – Major Theoretical Perspectives and Schools

Curated list of resources regarding major theories and schools of thought in organization studies. Groups a wide range of theoretical perspectives in line with common categorizations; other perspectives are welcome.

Rack BA — Classic Organization and Management Theory

Curated list of resources regarding the major “classical” theories that initiated the field of organization studies, beginning with Taylorism and scientific management and continuing with the theories Fayol, Weber, and others.

Rack BB1 – Organizational Behavior (Micro-Individual)

Curated list of resources regarding the major theories of organization behavior such as emotions, sensemaking, socialization and organizational climate, and many others.

Rack BB2 — Organizational Behavior (Meso-Groups and Teams)

Curated list of resources regarding theories on groups, teams, and other small collections of individuals within an organizational context, from the worker level to top management teams.

Rack BB3 — Organizational Behavior (Macro-Org/System)

Curated list of resources on open systems theory and its many descendents such as general systems theory, cybernetics, and organizational ecology

Rack BC — Contingency Theory

Curated list of resources regarding the major theories regarding the organizational context and how particular situations influence organizational structures, behaviors, and so on. Includes classic contingency theories and pragmatism.

Rack BD — Organizational Design

Curated list of resources on theories related to organizational structures and design, including control structures, power, and job design

Rack BG — Organizational Development and Change

Curated list of resources regarding various theories regarding the external environment in organizations, such as labor relations, resource dependence theory, and others.

Rack BH – Human Dimension – Culture, Climate, Identity

Curated list of resources regarding sustainability and corporate social responsibility such as sustainable business practices, responses to climate change, sociomateriality, and ethical considerations

Rack BI — Institution Theory

Curated list of resources on theories related to strategic management, including competitive forces models, resource-based perspectives, and organizational strategies and strategic change

Rack BL — Leadership Theories

Curated list of resources on theories related to leadership in organizations including classic trait theory, behavioral theories of leadership, and transactional / transformational leadership

Rack BM – Modern Management Theories

Curated list of resources regarding the major schools of thought and the theoretical perspectives they established. Includes the Carnegie-Mellon School, Aston School, and others.

Rack BQ — Postmodern and Critical Theories

Curated list of resources on postmodernist views of organizations and organizing and contrasting them with the modernist view. Includes critical management studies and complexity theory

References

Bridges, W. (2009). Managing transitions: Making the most of change, 3rd ed. Da Capo Press.

Brodeur, J., Deschamps, I., & Pellerin, R. (2023). Organizational changes approaches to facilitate the management of Industry 4.0 transformation in manufacturing SMEs. Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, 34(7), 1098-1119. https://doi.org/10.1108/jmtm-10-2022-0359

Brown, R. (2016). Determining the relationship among change fatigue, resilience, and job satisfaction of hospital staff nurses. South Dakota State University: Electronic Theses and Dissertations. https://openprairie.sdstate.edu/etd/964

Brown, R., Wey, H., & Foland, K. (2018). The relationship among change fatigue, resilience, and job satisfaction of hospital staff nurses. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 50(3), 306-313.

Burke, W. W. (2011). A perspective on the field of organization development and change: The Zeigarnik effect. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 47(2), 143-167.

Chin, R., & Benne, K. D. (1989). General strategies for effecting changes in human systems. In W. G. Bennis, K. D. Benne & R. Chin (Eds.), The planning of change (4th ed., pp. 22-45). Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich College Publishers.

Fontana, R., Nuvolari, A., Shimizu, H., & Vezzulli, A. (2012). Schumpeterian patterns of innovation and the sources of breakthrough inventions: evidence from a data-set of R&D awards. Journal of Evolutionary Economics, 22, 785-810.

Kamning, D. (2021). Exploring the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on approaches to innovation in the consulting industry: a grounded theory pilot study. Innovation & Management Review, 20(4), 314-330. https://doi.org/10.1108/inmr-05-2021-0076

Kordab, M., Raudeliūnienė, J., & Meidutė‐Kavaliauskienė, I. (2020). Mediating role of knowledge management in the relationship between organizational learning and sustainable organizational performance. Sustainability, 12(23), 10061. https://doi.org/10.3390/su122310061

Kotter, J. (1996). Leading change. Harvard Business Review Press.

Levitt, B. & March, J. G. (1988). Organizational learning. Annual review of sociology, 14(1), 319-338.

Lewin, K. (1947). Frontiers in group dynamics: Concept, method and reality in social science; social equilibria and social change. Human relations, 1(1), 5-41.

Pettigrew, A. M. (1987), Content and action in the transformation of the firm. Journal of management studies, 24(6), 649-670.

Piderit, S. K. (2000). Rethinking resistance and recognizing ambivalence: A multidimensional view of attitudes toward an organizational change. Academy of Management Review, 25(4), 783-794.

Schwandt, D. (2013). HOL 8703: Human systems change [Course Syllabus]. The George Washington University.

Shaw, D. (2019). Partners and plagiarisers: dualities in consultants’ influence on organisational change projects. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 32(1), 51-66. https://doi.org/10.1108/jocm-01-2018-0011

Weisbord, M. R. (1976). Organizational diagnosis: Six places to look for trouble with or without a theory. Group & Organization Studies, 1(4), 430-447.

Jump to: Importance | Theories | Research Areas | TAOP Episodes | References

Rack BG (Org. Development & Change) — Work-Focused Change | People-Focused Change | Process and Context-Focused Change

Resources: Main Page | Research Methods (A) | Major Theories (B) | Issues and Contemporary Topics (C) | Professional Education (D)

Rack BG — Organizational Development and Change

TAOP Resources Library -- Aisle B (Theories)

Jump to: Importance | Theories | Research Areas | TAOP Episodes | References

What is Organizational Development and Change and Why is it Important?

Some Leading Development and Change Theories & Concepts

Contemporary Research Areas

Related TAOP Episodes, Events, and Notes

Available Resource Pages

References

Jump to: Importance | Theories | Research Areas | TAOP Episodes | References