Topics

The organizational development process cycle

Not an empirical model

Organizational development is a cycle, not a project. The classic sequence runs entry, contracting, diagnosis, feedback, planning, intervention, evaluation, and either institutionalization or exit. The cycle repeats, because each intervention changes the system and therefore invalidates part of the original diagnosis.

Entry and contracting

Weak Weak as research, strong as practitioner consensus

Entry is the first contact with the client system. Contracting is the explicit agreement about what the work is, who is involved, what access you have, and how it ends. Peter Block's Flawless Consulting is the standard treatment.

Action research

Moderate

Action research is the research logic underneath organizational development. Kurt Lewin proposed it in the 1940s: knowledge about a social system is produced by trying to change it, with the members of the system as co-researchers rather than as subjects.

Evidence-based practice in organizational development

Not a model Not a model — a method for weighing evidence

Evidence-based management, as formulated by Denise Rousseau, Rob Briner, and Eric Barends, means making decisions by conscientiously combining four sources of evidence, none of which is sufficient alone.

Discredited instruments

Very weak Very weak to refuted

A catalog of popular organizational tools that the evidence does not support, collected in one place so that they can be recognized and declined.

Ethics of organizational development

Normative Normative, not empirical

OD is unusual among management disciplines in having an explicit value base. The founding tradition holds that organizations should be humane as well as effective, that people affected by a decision should have a voice in it, and that the practitioner's obligation runs to the whole system, not only to the person paying.

Systems thinking

Mixed

Systems thinking is the discipline of explaining behavior by structure rather than by blame. A system's recurring behavior is produced by its stocks, flows, feedback loops, and delays — not primarily by the character of the people in it.

Sociotechnical systems

Moderate Moderate to good

Sociotechnical systems (STS) theory came out of the Tavistock Institute in the 1950s, from Eric Trist and Ken Bamforth's study of British coal mines. A new mechanized "longwall" method raised technical efficiency but destroyed the small self-managing teams the old method depended on, and productivity fell.

Conway's law

Good

Melvin Conway, 1967: "Organizations which design systems are constrained to produce designs which are copies of the communication structures of these organizations."

Interventions catalog

Not an empirical model Not an empirical model — a taxonomy

An OD intervention is a planned activity intended to improve organizational effectiveness. Cummings and Worley's four-family taxonomy is the standard organizing scheme.

McKinsey 7S Framework

Weak

The McKinsey 7S Framework is a strategic management and organizational design tool created in the late 1970s by McKinsey & Company consultants Tom Peters and Robert Waterman (with contributions from Richard Pascale and Anthony Athos). First published in Peters and Waterman's bestselling book In Search of Excellence, the model posits that an organization is not just a structure of reporting lines, but a connected web of seven interdependent factors that must be fully aligned for optimal performance and successful strategy execution. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7]

McKinsey 7S Framework Questionnaire

Burke-Litwin Causal Model

Mixed

The Burke-Litwin Causal Model of Organizational Performance and Change is a system-based diagnostic framework created by W. Warner Burke and George H. Litwin in 1992. Unlike static checklists, it maps explicit cause-and-effect relationships among twelve specific organizational dimensions to explain how external forces cascade through an enterprise to influence individual motivation and final performance. [1, 2, 3]

Burke-Litwin Causal Model - questionnaire

Weisbord six-box model

Weak

Marvin Weisbord's 1976 six-box model is the fastest useful organizational diagnostic. Six boxes, one question each, plus an environment ring around them.

Weisbord Six-Box Model Questionnaire

Nadler-Tushman congruence model

Moderate

David Nadler and Michael Tushman's congruence model (1980) treats the organization as an open system that transforms inputs into outputs, and locates performance in the fit between four internal components rather than in the quality of any one of them.

Nadler-Tushman Congruence Model Questionnaire

Galbraith star model

Moderate

Jay Galbraith's star model is the standard framework for organization design. Five design policy areas, arranged as a star, all of which leadership controls and all of which must point the same way.

Galbraith Star Model Questionnaire

Leavitt diamond model

Weak

Harold Leavitt's 1965 diamond is the ancestor of most later diagnostic models, and still the most compact. Four interacting variables:

Leavitt Diamond Model Questionnaire

Maturity Models

Weak

A maturity model is a business tool used to assess people/culture, processes/structures, and objects/technology.

Maturity Models Questionnaire

Force field analysis

Weak Weak as a measurement tool, moderate as a principle

Kurt Lewin's force field analysis models any current state as a quasi- stationary equilibrium: a balance between driving forces pushing toward change and restraining forces holding the status quo. Nothing is static; the apparent stability is a stalemate.

Force Field Analysis Questionnaire

SWOT analysis

Very weak

SWOT sorts factors into Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. It is the most widely used and most widely abused strategy tool.

SWOT Analysis Questionnaire

PESTLE analysis

Not an empirical model Not an empirical model — a checklist

PESTLE scans the external macro-environment across six categories. It supplies the "external environment" input that burke-litwin-causal-model treats as the ultimate trigger for change, and that mckinsey-7s-framework omits entirely.

PESTLE Analysis Questionnaire

Cynefin framework

Weak Weak empirically, high conceptual utility

Dave Snowden's Cynefin (Welsh, roughly "habitat"; pronounced kuh-NEV-in) is a sense-making framework, not a categorization framework. It helps a group decide what kind of situation they are in, and therefore what kind of response is appropriate.

Cynefin Framework Questionnaire

Viable system model

Weak

Stafford Beer's viable system model (VSM) comes from management cybernetics. It specifies the five functions any organization must perform to remain viable — that is, to survive as an independent entity in a changing environment — and it is recursive: every viable unit contains viable units and is contained in one.

Viable System Model Questionnaire

Organizational network analysis

Good Good as a method

Organizational network analysis (ONA) maps the informal structure: who actually goes to whom for information, advice, decisions, and trust. It reveals the organization as it works, rather than as it is drawn.

Organizational Network Analysis Questionnaire

Team topologies

Weak Weak as a whole, good in its components

Matthew Skelton and Manuel Pais's Team Topologies (2019) offers a concrete organizational design vocabulary for knowledge work, built on conways-law and cognitive load.

Team Topologies Questionnaire

Lewin change model

Weak

Kurt Lewin's three-stage model — unfreeze, change, refreeze — is the foundation of the change management field. Almost every later model is an elaboration of it.

Kotter 8-step change model

Weak

John Kotter's eight steps, from Leading Change (1996), derived from studying change efforts that failed. Each step corresponds to a common failure.

ADKAR change management model

Weak

Jeff Hiatt's ADKAR model (Prosci) is an individual-level change model. Its premise: organizational change only happens when individuals change, so manage the change one person at a time, in sequence.

Beckhard-Harris change equation

Weak Weak, and deliberately non-quantitative

Richard Beckhard and Reuben Harris formalized an idea from David Gleicher as a change readiness equation:

Bridges transition model

Weak

William Bridges distinguishes change from transition:

Satir change model

Weak Weak as a model, well documented as a phenomenon

Virginia Satir's model came from family therapy and was adapted for organizations, notably by Gerald Weinberg. It describes how a system moves from one stable state to another, and it is the best available account of the performance dip.

Kübler-Ross change curve

Very weak

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross described five stages of grief in On Death and Dying (1969), based on terminally ill patients: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. Consultants later adapted this into the "change curve", plotting morale or performance over time during organizational change.

Rogers diffusion of innovations

Strong

Everett Rogers' Diffusion of Innovations (1962) explains how new ideas and practices spread through a social system over time. It is among the better-evidenced models in this collection, drawn from hundreds of empirical diffusion studies.

Switch framework

Mixed

Chip Heath and Dan Heath's Switch (2010) organizes behavior change research into a metaphor from Jonathan Haidt: a Rider (rational mind) on an Elephant (emotional mind), traveling a Path (the situation).

McKinsey influence model

Weak Weak as a model, moderate in components

The influence model states four conditions that must all be present for a person to change behavior at work. It is used to audit change programs for completeness, and it is unusual in insisting that all four are necessary.

Theory of change

Not a model Not a model — an evaluation method

A theory of change is an explicit, testable causal chain from what you do to the outcome you want, with the assumptions named. It originated in program evaluation and international development, and it is the most rigorous way to state what an OD program is actually claiming.

Plan-Do-Study-Act and the Model for Improvement

Mixed

PDSA is the improvement cycle from Walter Shewhart and W. Edwards Deming. Deming insisted on Study rather than the older "Check", because the point is to learn from the comparison of prediction to result, not merely to inspect.

Improvement kata and coaching kata

Weak

Mike Rother's Toyota Kata (2009) describes the routine behind Toyota's continuous improvement — not the visible tools (kanban, andon, 5S) but the practiced thinking pattern that produces them.

Schein model of organizational culture

Moderate

Edgar Schein defined organizational culture as:

Competing values framework

Moderate Moderate as a vocabulary, mixed as an instrument

Robert Quinn and Kim Cameron's competing values framework (CVF) maps culture on two axes and produces four culture types. Its associated instrument, the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI), is among the most widely used culture measures.

Westrum organizational culture typology

Good

Ron Westrum's typology classifies organizational culture by how information flows, particularly information that someone would rather not hear. Developed from studying safety-critical organizations — aviation, medicine, nuclear — it has since been validated in software delivery research.

Westrum Organizational Culture Typology Questionnaire

Hofstede cultural dimensions

Contested

Geert Hofstede's dimensions describe national cultural differences, derived originally from IBM employee surveys across 40+ countries in the 1960s–70s.

Just culture

Moderate

Just culture is an approach to accountability after failure, developed in aviation and adopted across health care and increasingly in software operations. It rejects both extremes: the blame culture that punishes error, and the blame-free culture that ignores genuine recklessness.

Psychological safety

Strong

Amy Edmondson's definition: a shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking. In a psychologically safe team, people believe they can speak up with questions, concerns, mistakes, and half-formed ideas without being humiliated, punished, or written off.

Psychological Safety Questionnaire

Google Project Aristotle

Moderate

Project Aristotle was Google's internal study of what makes teams effective. It examined 180 teams over two years with quantitative and qualitative methods, and is notable for what it failed to find as much as for what it found.

Tuckman stages of group development

Weak

Bruce Tuckman's 1965 model: forming, storming, norming, performing, with adjourning added in 1977. It is the most widely taught team model in existence and one of the least empirically supported.

Lencioni five dysfunctions of a team

Weak

Patrick Lencioni's The Five Dysfunctions of a Team (2002) presents a pyramid of five stacked dysfunctions, each enabling the one above it. It is widely used with leadership teams because it is memorable and it names the avoidance patterns executives recognize in themselves.

Drexler-Sibbet team performance model

Weak

Allan Drexler and David Sibbet's model describes seven stages of team development, each framed as a question the team must answer. Stages 1–4 are about creating the team; stages 5–7 are about sustaining performance.

Crew resource management

Good Good in aviation, moderate to good in health care

Crew resource management (CRM) is a team training approach developed by aviation after a series of accidents in which technically airworthy aircraft crashed because of communication and authority failures on the flight deck. It has been widely adapted into health care, and it is directly applicable to any high-consequence knowledge work.

Thomas-Kilmann conflict modes

Weak Weak instrument, useful taxonomy

Kenneth Thomas and Ralph Kilmann's model describes five conflict-handling modes, positioned on two axes:

Self-determination theory

Strong

Edward Deci and Richard Ryan's self-determination theory (SDT) is the best-supported theory of human motivation available, built on decades of experimental work. Its central claim: people have three innate psychological needs, and satisfying them produces autonomous motivation, wellbeing, and persistence.

Goal setting theory

Strong

Edwin Locke and Gary Latham's goal setting theory, developed from the 1960s onward, holds that specific and difficult goals produce higher performance than vague or easy ones, provided the person is committed to the goal and receives feedback on progress toward it.

Burnout

Good

Christina Maslach's definition treats burnout as a syndrome arising from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed, with three dimensions: exhaustion, cynicism or depersonalization, and reduced professional efficacy.

Transformational leadership

Moderate

James MacGregor Burns introduced the distinction in 1978 and Bernard Bass developed it into the dominant leadership theory of the last forty years.

Herzberg two-factor theory

Mixed Mixed, tending weak

Frederick Herzberg's motivation-hygiene theory (1959) proposes that job satisfaction and job dissatisfaction are not opposite ends of one scale but two separate scales with different causes.

Maslow hierarchy of needs

Weak

Abraham Maslow's hierarchy (1943) proposes that human needs are ordered, and that lower needs must be substantially met before higher ones motivate behavior.

Job characteristics model

Strong

Richard Hackman and Greg Oldham's job characteristics model (1975) specifies what makes work motivating, and it is one of the best-supported models in organizational psychology. Its practical strength: it targets the design of the work itself, which is more durable than motivating the person.

Immunity to change

Weak

Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey's immunity to change (ITC) explains why people fail to change behaviors they genuinely want to change. Their claim: the failure is not weak willpower or insufficient knowledge. It is a competing commitment, held with equal sincerity, protected by a big assumption that is usually untested.

Situational leadership model

Weak

Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard's situational leadership proposes that there is no single best leadership style; the effective style depends on the development level of the follower for a specific task.

The learning organization

Weak

Peter Senge's The Fifth Discipline (1990) defines a learning organization as one "where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are continually learning how to learn together."

Double-loop learning

Moderate

Chris Argyris and Donald Schön distinguished two kinds of learning:

Process consultation

Weak Weak as research, strong as practitioner consensus

Edgar Schein's process consultation is a stance rather than a technique. Its definition: "the creation of a relationship with the client that permits the client to perceive, understand, and act on the process events that occur in the client's internal and external environment in order to improve the situation as defined by the client."

Appreciative inquiry

Weak Weak to mixed

Appreciative inquiry (AI), developed by David Cooperrider and Suresh Srivastva, is a strengths-based approach to change. Its premise: organizations move in the direction of what they persistently study, so studying problems produces more problem-focus, while studying what works when the organization is at its best produces more of that.

Open space technology

Weak

Harrison Owen's open space technology (OST) is a large-group method with no pre-set agenda. Participants create the agenda themselves in the opening session, then self-organize into concurrent sessions.

World café

Weak

World café, developed by Juanita Brown and David Isaacs, is a structured conversational process for large groups. Participants sit at small café-style tables, discuss a question in rounds, and rotate between rounds so ideas cross-pollinate.

Future search

Weak

Future search, developed by Marvin Weisbord and Sandra Janoff, is a structured large-group planning meeting that brings the whole system into the room to find common ground and produce action commitments.

After action review

Good

The after action review (AAR) is a structured debrief developed by the US Army and now standard across health care, emergency services, and software operations. It is the cheapest organizational learning mechanism available, and the one most often degraded into a status report.

Survey feedback method

Good

The survey feedback method is one of the two founding OD interventions, alongside action-research. Developed at the University of Michigan's Survey Research Center by Rensis Likert and Floyd Mann in the late 1940s.

Measurement and metrics for organizational development

Not a model Not a model — measurement guidance

Most OD programs are evaluated badly or not at all: no baseline, no comparison, lagging indicators only, and a definition of success that shifts to match the result. This file covers how to measure honestly.

Employee engagement surveys

Mixed

Engagement surveys are the most widely deployed OD instrument and among the most poorly used. This file covers what they can and cannot tell you, and how to run one that produces change rather than a deck.

DORA metrics

Good

DORA (DevOps Research and Assessment) metrics come from a multi-year research program led by Nicole Forsgren, Jez Humble, and Gene Kim, published in Accelerate and the annual State of DevOps reports. They are relevant to OD beyond software because the research established a statistical link between organizational culture and delivery performance.

SPACE framework

Moderate Moderate as a principle, weak as an instrument

The SPACE framework, from Nicole Forsgren, Margaret-Anne Storey, Chandra Maddila, Thomas Zimmermann, Brian Houck, and Jenna Butler, is a framework for measuring developer productivity across five dimensions. It exists specifically to counter single-metric productivity measurement.

High reliability organizations

Moderate

High reliability organization (HRO) theory studies organizations that operate in hazardous, complex conditions and yet have very few catastrophic failures: aircraft carriers, air traffic control, nuclear power, wildland firefighting. The central work is Karl Weick and Kathleen Sutcliffe's Managing the Unexpected.