Common Behavior Changes in Successful Organization Development Efforts

Abstract

Finding that the field of organization development (OD) suffers from a lack of a unifying theory ofplanned organizational change and the difficulty of integrating research based on diverse methods and models, the authors propose a model in which on-the-job behaviors of organization members act as important mediating variables of organizational change. The article discusses a study seeking to identify and specify common behavior changes characteristic of successful change efforts. The authors surveyed 42 of the top scholars and practitioners in the field, using telephone interviews and open-ended questions. The participants nearly unanimously reported behavior changes common to their interventions and showed at least moderate agreement as to what those changes were. Furthermore, the participants' theoretical orientations and professional affiliations did not cause them to differ as to the behaviors they reported.