Agenda/Outline:

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ODC: The Effects of Cultural Content, Strength, and Hierarchical Subcultures on Change Implementation
Author: Ray Zammuto; U. of Queensland;

Many studies that cite organizational culture as a barrier to change focus on cultural content—a culture's shared values, beliefs and assumptions. This paper argues that two other aspects of culture that focus on the consistency of a culture's content—cultural strength (the extent to which cultural values are widely shared) and the presence of hierarchical subcultures (significant differences in managers' and non-managers' cultural beliefs)—also can affect implementation outcomes. Within the context of the competing values framework (CVF), I hypothesize that cultural content supporting a change initiative will be positively related to implementation, that strong cultures will positively or negatively affect implementation depending on whether cultural content supports the change, and that the presence of hierarchical subcultures will negatively affect implementation. A reanalysis of Shortell et al.'s (1995) large-scale study of quality implementation in 67 hospitals shows that cultural content emphasizing the CVF's human relations and open systems quadrants is positively related to implementation, and that strong negative cultures (e.g., emphasizing the internal process and rational goal quadrants) are negatively related to implementation. Most striking, however, is the finding that the presence of hierarchical subcultures is negatively related to implementation regardless of cultural content. Moreover, the presence of hierarchical subcultures explains as much variance in implementation as cultural content does. These results suggest that a more nuanced view of the role of organizational culture in facilitating or hindering change initiatives is warranted.

Search Terms: organizational culture, organizational change, total quality management

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ODC: Preserving the Peace through Organization Development: 30 Years of Successful Organizational Change
Author: Wayne Boss; U. of Colorado, Boulder;
Author: Benjamin B. Dunford; Purdue U.;
Author: Alan D. Boss; U. of Maryland, College Park;
Author: Mark L. McConkie; U. of Colorado, Colorado Springs;

This paper examines the impact over a 30-year period of a four-year organization development project in the Metro County Sheriff's Department. Interventions included confrontation team-building sessions, management training, process consultation, survey feedback, third-party consultation, technological interventions, methods of increasing accountability, and changes in the organization structure, and the policy formulation procedures. Results include improved organization climate and leader effectiveness, decreased employee turnover, jail breaks, and citizen complaints; increased resources, and improved organizational effectiveness, as measured by criminal justice leaders in the community. This research becomes the longest longitudinal study of the effects of OD interventions in the behavioral science literature.

Search Terms: longitudinal change, public sector, OD interventions

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ODC: Linking Change Drivers and the Organizational Change Process: A Review and Synthesis
Author: Karen S. Whelan-Berry; Providence College;
Author: Karen Ann Somerville; Hamline U.;

This theory-building paper advances prior research related to change drivers and the organizational change process. Our proposed model links change drivers to the most frequently identified steps in the organizational change process. We discuss our contributions in terms of organizational change research, which include identifying and clarifying the change drivers in prior research, providing a model that links the drivers to specific steps in the organizational change process, and clarifying the nature of leaders' actions as a change driver. We also discuss future research directions and provide links to and for organizational change practice.

Search Terms: change drivers, organizational change process, theory-building

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ODC: Distance Matters: Influences on Perceived Top Management Communication and Commitment to Change
Author: Jae Hyeung Kang; George Washington U.;
Author: N. Sharon Hill; George Washington U.;
Author: Myeong-Gu Seo; U. of Maryland;

We examine influences on employees' perceptions of top management communication during organizational change and the impact of these perceptions on employees' commitment to change. We find that employees' hierarchical distance from top management negatively influences their commitment to change. In addition, perceived top management communication partially mediates the negative relationship between hierarchical distance and commitment to change. We further find that workgroup managers' transformational leadership positively influences employees' perceived top management communication. Our study findings have important implications for understanding how employee perceptions and responses during radical change vary at different levels of an organization.

Search Terms: top management communication, transformational leadership, commitment to change