Transorganization Development for Network Building

Abstract

Transorganization development (TOD) is a four-stage model for improving collaboration in networks based on early research into successful collaborations together with input from an organization development (OD) practitioner base. However, this intervention has received surprisingly minimal empirical attention regarding its effectiveness, nor indeed any further conceptual development. This article provides some insights into the effectiveness of this intervention by analyzing the effects of the second stage of the model, the convention stage, which is a form of search conference. The intervention was found to facilitate problem solving and enabled a consensus to be reached to establish a new network planning structure. However, through integrating social network analysis with planned organizational change, itwas found that the most important outcomes of the intervention were its predominantly political effects.