Research in Organizational Change and Development (Volume 18)

Citation

Latemore, G.M. (2013), "Research in Organizational Change and Development (Volume 18)", Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 34 No. 2, pp. 198-200. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437731311321959

There are 18 contributors to this Volume 18 in the “Organizational change and development” series, most of whom are from the USA, and include such luminaries as Edward Lawler III from UCLA, Los Angeles, and Peter Senge from MIT Sloan School of Management, Cambridge, MA.

The series editors begin with the assertion that the field of OD can contribute to the solutions which organizations today are seeking. Commenting on the “thoughtfulness” of the papers in this volume, they hope that building more change‐ready organizations, leading change with an eye towards the dynamics of trust, focusing on sustainability, and using more effective and efficient approaches will help this endeavour (p. xii).

The audience for this book is scholars of strategy and organizational behaviour as well as scholarly practitioners. This collection endeavours to provide a special platform for scholars and practitioners to share new research‐based insights.

There are nine chapters to this volume:

1. (1)

   Built to change organizations and responsible progress: twin pillars of sustainable success.

2. (2)

   Breaking out of strategy vectors: reintroducing culture.

3. (3)

   Transcending paradox: movement as a means for sustaining high performance.

4. (4)

   Relational space and learning experiments: the heart of sustainability collaborations.

5. (5)

   Seeking common ground in the diversity and diffusion of action research and collaborative research action modalities: toward a general empirical method.

6. (6)

   Art or artist? An analysis of eight large‐group methods for driving large‐scale change.

7. (7)

   That's not how I see it: how trust in the organization, leadership, process, and outcome influence individual responses to organizational change.

8. (8)

   The impact of trust on the organizational merger process.

9. (9)

   The mature workforce and the changing nature of work.

Accordingly, the content of this volume mainly addresses change, trust, and sustainability. In their preface, the editors rightly point out that all the contributions were written during one of the most severe global economic crises in the past century, and that the authors highlight the importance of trust and the urgency of change (p. ix).

The best chapter in this volume was the first, which surveyed and critiqued the complex and confusing literature on organizational effectiveness. Like Kim Cameron's (2010) own excellent collection, this chapter also highlights the demise of the traditional models of organizational effectiveness in favour of “agility models” (p. 6) and a “responsible progress framework” (p. 20). Echoing the current need to design organizations with a “triple bottom line”, these authors outline the dimensions of responsible progress as technological innovation, economic development, cultural diversity, and sustainability.

Not forgetting the chapters on change, there is a helpful reminder of the importance of culture within strategy, and the usefulness of the “cultural web” in chapter 2 (p. 63). Examining “old Ferrari” vs “new Ferrari”, the authors point out that up to the 1980s, the paradigm for success was on engines and technology. Now, the paradigm which defines their identity is a winning team, keen about commercial innovation. The strategy might be new, but core capabilities and a new mind‐set are needed to forge a culture to drive such a strategy (p. 58).

A helpful insight by Wolf (2009) in chapter 3 was his identifying three critical movements in sustaining high performance: agile/consistency, informative inquiry, and collective individualism, which together address the culture, leadership, and people, all of which are needed for long‐term organizational performance.

Among the excellent chapters on trust, I mostly appreciated chapter 4 on relational space and learning experiments. This contribution highlighted the power of a “sustainability consortium” which transcended traditional collaborative approaches, where “calculative trust” often hindered real collaboration (p. 113). Instead, these authors argue well for giving time and energy to get the relational space correct. Not unlike the principles in www.theworldcafe.com, the authors outline the importance of mutual learning, peer connectedness, helping each other, being committed to the process, and bringing one's whole self to be present to mutual activities (p. 134).

This approach to urging a new way of being in organizations, is also found in chapter 7 on trust and organizational merging. Here, while recognizing the importance of a mission‐driven purpose to begin change, the authors state that there must be inclusive engagement in whole‐group events for organizational renewal to have any chance of succeeding in the long term (p. 293).

From a practitioner's viewpoint, one of the most useful contributions in this volume was chapter 6 on the change agent, cleverly entitled “Art or artist?” Here, the authors wonder what role the consultant plays and should play in large‐scale change as “artist” – seeker or agent (p. 217). The actual “art” of change facilitation includes combining: the right issues, an intentional process, the right infrastructure, the right information, and the right individuals. Interestingly, the authors examined some eight large group methods of intervention to extrapolate the “art” (skills) and the “artist” (person). These eight large‐group methods were appreciative inquiry, whole‐scale change, conference model, future search, decision accelerator, AmericaSpeaks, participative design, and strategic change accelerator (see p. 192).

A surprising contribution to this volume, but indeed a worthy one, was the last chapter on the mature workforce. Recognizing the dual changes in demographic shifts and the proliferation of web technologies, these authors then outline seven broad work trends. These are new marketplaces, new work systems, new enterprise models, new work configurations, new intermediaries, new worker formations, and a reshaped role of management (p. 324). The implications of these trends for a modern economy include reframing the enterprise's function, and reformulating the very nature of work and the composition of the workforce (p. 332). It is an exciting and broad‐reaching agenda.

I would like to offer a few (albeit minor) criticisms of this otherwise worthy collection of serious research.

First, the titles of some of these chapters are far too long: a title should scope the content briefly, not attempt to summarize it.

Second, the title of the first chapter actually does not actually describe its content at all. This chapter is actually an excellent contribution to the growing literature on organizational effectiveness. I wished the authors had highlighted their subject, not merely implied it in their title.

Third, I was disappointed that there were no contributions on appreciative inquiry, team development, or the future of OD, which are all important and growing areas of both theoretical and practitioner interest.

Nonetheless, this volume is recommended as a useful collection of current research into a diverse range of topics under the OD umbrella.