Taxonomies of organizational change

This report presents a taxonomy and data collection methodology for assessing Army organizational effectiveness (OE) interventions. The authors reviewed the literature on organizational development classificatory schema and identified four variable dimensions that can be used to summarize this literature. These variable dimensions are: change agent characteristics, competencies and roles; client characteristics and problems; intervention methods and processes; and outcome objectives and results. Most descriptions of intervention methods were found to be too vague to permit a reviewer to determine exactly what change agents actually do to produce outcome results. It follows that research to identify: (1) the competencies of effective change agents, and (2) the design elements of successful interventions is likely to be most fruitful in advancing knowledge in this field. Three data collection methods designed to capture these variables are proposed for the development and analysis of Army OE intervention case studies. Behavioral event and structured interview protocols to be used to collect data from internal Army OE change agent and client subjects are presented with a classification system which can be use to summarize and code intervention variables.