The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science recent issues

"Bridging the Scholar-Practitioner Divide" Special Issue

Hay, G., Heracleous, L. — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 14:01:40 PDT

Revisioning Organization Development: Diagnostic and Dialogic Premises and Patterns of Practice

Bushe, G. R., Marshak, R. J. — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 14:01:41 PDT

This article identifies a bifurcation in the practice of organization development (OD) that is not fully acknowledged or discussed in OD textbooks or journal articles. Forms of OD practice exist that do not adhere to key assumptions and prescriptions of the founders of OD. Some of these dialogical forms of organization development practice are described and contrasts and similarities with the original, diagnostic, form of OD are analyzed. Practices that define dialogical forms of OD are identified with a call for increased acknowledgment of this bifurcation in OD research, practice, and teaching.

Revisioning or Re-Versioning?: A Commentary on Diagnostic and Dialogic Forms of Organization Development

Oswick, C. — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 14:01:41 PDT

Safe Talk: Revisioning, Repositioning, or Representing Organization Development?

Wolfram Cox, J. — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 14:01:41 PDT

Further Reflections on Diagnostic and Dialogic Forms of Organization Development

Marshak, R. J., Bushe, G. R. — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 14:01:41 PDT

Civility, Respect, Engagement in the Workforce (CREW): Nationwide Organization Development Intervention at Veterans Health Administration

Osatuke, K., Moore, S. C., Ward, C., Dyrenforth, S. R., Belton, L. — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 14:01:41 PDT

This article presents a description and preliminary evaluation of a nationwide initiative by the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) called Civility, Respect, and Engagement in the Workforce (CREW). The goal of CREW is to increase workplace civility as assessed by employee ratings of interpersonal climate in workgroups. Once endorsed by the VHA leadership and adopted by the leaders of particular VHA hospitals, CREW was conducted by local facility coordinators who were trained and supported by the VHA National Center for Organization Development. This article explains the conceptual and operational background of CREW and the approach used to implement the initiative, presents results from two CREW administrations with a total of 23 sites, and reports significant preintervention to postintervention changes in civility at intervention sites as compared to no significant changes at comparison sites within each administration. It discusses these findings in the conceptual (theoretical) and operational (intervention evaluation) context of interventions targeting civility.

Narratives and Organizational Dynamics: Exploring Blind Spots and Organizational Inertia

Geiger, D., Antonacopoulou, E. — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 14:01:41 PDT

This article aims to demonstrate how narratives have the potential to bring about organizational inertia by creating self-reinforcing mechanisms and blind spots. Drawing on extensive interview data from a U.K. bio-manufacturing company, the empirical analysis shows how such narratives emerge by constructing a web of related, self-reinforcing narratives reflecting a consistent theme. The analysis demonstrates how the dominant (success) narrative remains vivid despite the existence of deviating narratives and severe crisis. In particular, the empirical findings illustrate how narratives construct a self-sustaining frame of reference, preventing the organization from questioning the principles underlying its past success. The discussion explains how narratives create self-reinforcing mechanisms and blind spots. It contributes to our understanding of the role of narratives in organizational change efforts and illustrates the way such self-reinforcing blind spots become a potential source of organizational inertia and path-dependence.

Why Are Perceptions of Change in the "Eye of the Beholder"?: The Role of Age, Sex, and Tenure in Procedural Justice Judgments

Caldwell, S., Liu, Y., Fedor, D. B., Herold, D. M. — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 14:01:41 PDT

This study investigates main effects of differences in workers (age, sex, and tenure) in conjunction with relevant contextual factors that moderate these main effects on individuals’ procedural justice judgments. Studying 820 employees who underwent change in their respective organizations, the authors found that the positive relationship between unit-level justice context and individual-level judgment of justice is stronger when workers’ personal jobs have low impact and when individuals are similar in age to others in the work unit. Men are more likely than women to view change-related management actions as just, but this relationship is not significant if the organization has undergone shifts in power structures concurrent with the focal change. Tenure relates positively with personal procedural justice judgment but only when the organization has recently changed the types of people it hires. The results have implications for organizations by informing managers that their change-related actions will not necessarily be translated similarly by all individuals participating in the change.

From the Editor

Woodman, R. W. — Wed, 27 May 2009 11:15:52 PDT

The 2008 Douglas McGregor Memorial Award

Wed, 27 May 2009 11:15:53 PDT

"Bridging the Scholar-Practitioner Divide" Special Issue

Hay, G., Heracleous, L. — Wed, 27 May 2009 11:15:53 PDT

Acknowledgement of Guest Reviewers: For Volume 44 (2008)

Wed, 27 May 2009 11:15:53 PDT

Ready for Consideration: International Organizational Development and Change as an Emerging Field of Practice

Neumann, J. E., Lau, C. M., Worley, C. G. — Wed, 27 May 2009 11:15:53 PDT

Identity Construction and Trust Building in Developing International Collaborations

Zhang, Y., Huxham, C. — Wed, 27 May 2009 11:15:53 PDT

The authors argue that international collaborations are both vehicles for wider strategic change and development and contexts within which individuals pursue a process of development and change to move their separate organizations toward a functioning relationship. The authors explore two related aspects—trust building and identity construction—of that internal process of change and development, which, if successful, in turn allow the wider, strategic developments to progress. Drawing on an analysis of a case study of Sino—Australian business collaboration, the authors introduce three concepts relating to identity construction—identity characters, deference action, and identity fit—and show how they relate to a process in which identity—individual and collective—is constantly constructed and reconstructed in formal and informal settings during the trust building process. They argue that trusting attitudes can be reinforced through recognition of deference action and adaptation of identity to fit with collaboration circumstances.

Changing Faces: Adaptation of Highly Skilled Chinese Workers to a High-Tech Multinational Corporation

Hughes, N. L. — Wed, 27 May 2009 11:15:53 PDT

As the first major multinational corporation (MNC) comes to Chengdu, China, the home of the Changing Faces Opera, thousands of young, highly skilled Chinese workers had an opportunity to work for this American MNC. The research question asks: How would these highly skilled Chinese workers adapt and make the change—change their face—to work in an American environment? The Schwartz Value Survey and in-depth interviews provide the data to understand the value systems. The results suggest that adaptation is dependent on social systems and how people learn and make sense of the new culture. A new model of values emerges, consistent with Chinese culture in that it is balanced and connected. The interviews show that although values of these Chinese workers may cluster in similar ways as in the West, often the meanings of the values are different from Western concepts.

Exploring the Role of "Global Mindset" in Leading Change in International Contexts

Bowen, D. E., Inkpen, A. C. — Wed, 27 May 2009 11:15:53 PDT

In this article we introduce "global mindset" as an individual-level variable to help explain the effectiveness of managers leading change in international contexts. We describe and analyze an organization change effort at Johnson & Johnson Consumer Products Brazil with a focus on the degree to which the change leader possessed the intellectual, psychological, and social capitals that compose a global mindset. This is an exploratory analysis intended to help map out the key characteristics of managers associated with effectively leading change in cross-culturally complex situations.

Developing Innovation Transfer Capacity in a Cross-National Firm

Spector, B., Lane, H. W., Shaughnessy, D. — Wed, 27 May 2009 11:15:53 PDT

The study presented in this article analyzes an attempt to transfer a discontinuous product innovation across national boundaries within a biopharmaceutical company. The commercialization process, which had been effective within the company's home market, was less effective in Europe and Japan. The study concludes that when the company engaged in a transformational change intervention, it was able to improve the effectiveness of its international transfer process. The changes required were emergent rather than planned; they were driven by a renewed strategy and did not use the tools of OD nor embed itself in the humanistic values typically associated with OD. The study provides insight into the requirements of product transfer and commercialization to international subsidiaries, which needs to be approached as an international organizational change process, which the authors define as strategically aligned alterations in patterns of employee behavior across international borders.

Transplanting Management: Participative Change, Organizational Development, and the Glocalization of Corporate Culture

Raz, A. E. — Wed, 27 May 2009 11:15:53 PDT

Cross-cultural organizational development and change (OD&C) is often studied from a macro perspective, which either assumes the universal transferability of methods developed in the West or criticizes this premise. This study examines cross-cultural OD&C as an arena for negotiating a "workplace culture" that mediates between global corporate culture and national cultures. The author focuses on an OD&C process of participative management conducted in 2006-2007 in the South Korean subsidiary of an Israeli-based, kibbutz-owned global corporation. Major cultural and interpersonal themes related to the OD&C process are discussed vis-à-vis their local interpretations and factors influencing the change, including lack of standard organizational procedures, mutual trust, cultural alignment, and leadership training. The article concludes by commenting on how to better understand international OD&C by challenging presumptions, such as the objective essence of comparative cultural dimensions and the presumed "national character" of subsidiary employees.

Honoring the Kun Lun Way: Cross-Cultural Organization Development Consulting to a Hospitality Company in Datong, China

Nyberg, R. S., Jensen, T. C. — Wed, 27 May 2009 11:15:53 PDT

This article presents a case study of the adaptation of Western organization development (OD) consulting practices to a Chinese hospitality business in Datong, China. Presented are the founder's personal history and management philosophy as well as the organization development interventions, outcomes, and challenges. The case study describes the consulting experiences of four teams of Western graduate students during the course of their research of and consultation to this company from 2004 to 2008. The cross-cultural relationship between the students and the organization is examined, providing insight into the practice of OD in an international setting.

Thank You Reviewers

Wed, 27 May 2009 11:15:53 PDT

The Challenges of the Scholar--Practitioner: Introduction to the Special Issue

Coghlan, D., Shani, A.B. — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 11:08:50 PST

The Douglas McGregor Legacy

Warner Burke, W. — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 11:08:50 PST

Enacting the Scholar-- Practitioner Role: An Exploration of Narratives

Wasserman, I. C., Kram, K. E. — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 11:08:50 PST

An essential part of Edgar Schein's legacy is his modeling of the role of scholar—practitioner. To better understand this legacy, the authors explored how being a scholar—practitioner is defined by those who ascribe to this role and the challenges and opportunities these individuals face as they go about their work. Their inquiry consisted of 25 interviews, a systematic reflection on their own professional journeys as scholar—practitioners, and a review of others' related work. The authors confirmed that scholar—practitioners identify with the primary tasks of generating new knowledge and improving practice, yet how they prioritize and go about their work varies with where they are on the scholar—practitioner continuum. The authors highlight five themes to clarify the complexities of the role, stimulate further inquiry, continue dialogue, and ultimately lead to the creation of new venues in which scholar—practitioners can thrive and enhance their contributions to the world.

Process Consultation Revisited: Taking a Relational Practice Perspective

Lambrechts, F., Grieten, S., Bouwen, R., Corthouts, F. — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 11:08:50 PST

Process consultation as conceived and reformulated several times by Edgar Schein constitutes a seminal contribution to the process of organization development in general and to the definition of the helping role of the consultant in particular. Under the pressure of a pragmatic turn in organizational change work, the practice of process consultation was fading away during the eighties and nineties. In some particular training and organizational consulting contexts nevertheless, the foundational principles and practices of process consultation are experienced to be more relevant than ever before. A relational constructionist theoretical lens, an emphasis on joint consultant—client practices, and a proper contextual embedding constitute a relational practice perspective that embodies in a new form and language those foundational ideas.

Clinical Inquiry and Reflective Design in a Secrecy-Based Organization

Stebbins, M. W., Shani, A.B. — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 11:08:50 PST

Edgar Schein has consistently maintained that clinical inquiry differs from action research because the setting is created by someone who wants help rather than by the researcher deciding what to study. The authors review emerging literature on clinical inquiry research, participatory action research, collaborative management research, and reflective organization design where change programs have often been initiated by the clients. These perspectives are explored in light of Schein's visual model of the researcher—client relationship, which focuses on different research interventions and different levels of involvement by researchers and clients. All four perspectives are used to analyze an in-depth and contemporary case of organization redesign within a high-technology, secrecy-based company in the defense industry. Implications for theory and research practice are explored.

Dialogical Inquiry: An Extension of Schein's Clinical Inquiry

Coget, J.-F. — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 11:08:50 PST

After examining the main principles and historical origins of Edgar Schein's clinical inquiry, this article introduces dialogical inquiry, an extension of clinical inquiry. Following clinical inquiry's main principles, dialogical inquiry adopts a dialogue over videotaped segments of behavior as its main tool. The goals of dialogical inquiry are (a) to raise participants' awareness about how they interpret work situations in the moment, so that they can increase their effectiveness and (b) to allow the researcher to build actionable academic knowledge. The process of dialogical inquiry has four phases: (a) a life interview with the participant, (b) shadowing and filming the participant in action in the work environment, (c) selecting episodes from the videotaped shadowing for discussion, and (d) a discussion with the participant about these episodes. Like clinical inquiry, and more generally action research, dialogical inquiry is intended to be a method that can help fill the gap between theory and practice.

Toward a Philosophy of Clinical Inquiry/Research

Coghlan, D. — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 11:08:50 PST

The hypothesis underpinning this philosophical reflection on Schein's notion of clinical inquiry/research is that clinical inquiry/research has solid foundations in the operations of human cognition and in the nature of the realm of practical knowing. The reflection draws on the work of the philosopher Bernard Lonergan, who articulates both a clear account of the operations of human knowing and of the realm of practical knowing where knowledge is contextually embedded, and there is a primary concern for the practical and the particular. The purpose of engaging in this philosophical reflection is to articulate the epistemic grounds on which clinical inquiry/research is based to aid clinical researchers to understand and appropriate its vibrant philosophy. The aim is to provide scholar-practitioners with an epistemology, a methodology, and an array of methods to conduct clinical inquiry/research.

Reinvigorating the Struggling Organization: The Unification of Schein's Oeuvre Into a Diagnostic Model

Cataldo, C. G., Raelin, J. D., Lambert, M. — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 11:08:50 PST

With many scholars identifying organizational development and change as increasingly fragmented, it is time to push for coalescence by reuniting the field with its central principles. The work of Edgar Schein is used to derive a model that achieves this task by combining context, content, and process theories of change. This model also supports Schein's contribution to a growing body of knowledge based on the central tension between autonomy and structure. Integrating Schein's theories of career dynamics, process consultation, and culture change, along with the latter's subthemes of psychological safety and resocialization, this model contributes to the scientific body of knowledge by providing a guiding framework that uncovers the central tension as it permeates the context, content, and process of change. To provide practical validity, the model is used in a case study involving Unified Financial Services,¹ a large financial services firm implementing a radical cultural change involving career development.

Reactions, Reflections, Rejoinders, and a Challenge

Schein, E. H. — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 11:08:50 PST

Employee Self-Perceived Creativity After Mergers and Acquisitions: Interactive Effects of Threat--Opportunity Perception, Access to Resources, and Support for Creativity

Jing Zhou, , Shin, S. J., Cannella, A. A. — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 17:29:26 PST

This study examined employees' subjective experiences of creativity after mergers. Based on a sample of 484 employees, results showed the following: First, if employees considered the merger as an opportunity (threat), then they perceived that they exhibited greater (less) creativity after the merger; second, organizational support for creativity moderated the relationship between threat perception and self-perceived creativity in such a way that, when compared with employees who saw the merger as an opportunity, employees who saw the merger as a threat experienced greater creativity when support for creativity was high than when support for creativity was low; and, third, there was a three-way interaction among threat perception, support for creativity, and access to resources such that the two-way interaction between threat perception and support for creativity described in the second point was present only when access to resources was high.

In the Aftermath of an Acquisition: Triggers and Effects on Perceived Organizational Identity

Kovoor-Misra, S., Smith, M. A. — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 17:29:26 PST

This study examines how the POIs of members of an online retail organization were affected after an acquisition. The authors find that (a) POI is more complex than previously understood, and continuity, change and confusion in POI can coexist. (b) The organizational change reactivated previously unresolved POI issues. (c) The structure of POI includes cognitive, affective, and behavioral dimensions, and changes occurred in these dimensions. (d) Top managers and employees who have more interactions with outsiders in their jobs tend to be more confused and make less POI change than employees who primarily deal with internal operations. Finally, (e) the image of the acquired organization and the change strategies used are triggers of POI confusion and/or change in the acquiring organization. This article highlights the experience of individuals in the acquiring organization and suggests that POI is an important lens for understanding and managing organizational changes.

Conversational Profiles: A Tool for Altering the Conversational Patterns of Change Managers

Ford, J. D., Ford, L. W. — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 17:29:26 PST

This article provides a practical tool that managers and change agents can use to see their own conversational patterns in the management of a change, determine whether those patterns may be contributing to the progress of change, and if so, provide insights into what modifications might enhance progress. Based on the conversational model developed by Ford and Ford, this article explains a methodology for creating and analyzing a conversational profile, provides three illustrative cases, and explores implications for research and practice.

How Learning Leadership and Organizational Learning from Failures Enhance Perceived Organizational Capacity to Adapt to the Task Environment

Carmeli, A., Sheaffer, Z. — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 17:29:26 PST

Organizational learning from failures is a key organizational process that can lead to improved outcomes. In this study, the authors address two key questions that have received only limited attention in the literature: (a) how learning leadership enables organizational learning from failures and (b) how these learning behaviors enhance organizational capacities for adaptation to environmental turbulence. Data from a sample of 121 organizations support a mediation model in which learning leadership is linked indirectly, through learning from failures, to perceived organizational capacity to adapt to environmental jolts. The authors discuss the theoretical and practical implications of these findings for the importance of learning leadership, organizational learning from failures, and organizational adaptability.

Changing Attitudes and Behavior of Stakeholders During an Information Systems-Led Organizational Change

Hussain, Z., Hafeez, K. — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 17:29:26 PST

In this article the authors use G. Morgan's (1986, 1997) metaphors to look at the changes to stakeholder attitudes and behavior during an information systems—led organizational change. They discuss the introduction of an organization-wide intranet system in a U.K. National Health Service organization and elicit metaphorical attitudes and infer behavior by using multiple research methods within a longitudinal case study. The findings show that various contextual factors shift the organization's overall stance from psychic prison (repression) to organism (flexible) metaphor. Furthermore, many stakeholders aspire to more than one metaphor at a given time, although a predominant metaphor can still be identified for most stakeholders. The authors present the metaphorical journey map as a tool for capturing attitude and behavioral changes of individuals during the change period. The authors advocate that use of metaphors in such a way can help management better understand the overall social orientation of their organizations and devise appropriate interventions to expedite the change process and increase its legitimacy.