Christopher G. Worley

Pepperdine University · Organization Theory and Management

This research explored how action learning contributed to the development of trust in a temporary transorganizational system during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. In a world fragmented by digitalization, social upheaval, ethnocentric development policies, and global pandemics, trust among people, companies, and governments has eroded. The...

This study explored how managers implement complex strategic changes with multiple, often conflicting, influences and initiatives. A large, regional operating division of a French electrical utility was implementing a top-down, enterprise-wide digital transformation and developing broad agile capabilities in a participative way. Conclusions from th...

New book How to Do Relevant Research: From the Ivory Tower to the Real World describes “sweet spot” where organization research joins theory and practice, and rigor and relevance, to reach both academics and practitioners with your research. Here are some guidelines!

A guide to doing organizational research that is relevant for practice.

Das Kapitel beinhaltet die Ergebnisse einer breit angelegten Befragung unter 285 führenden europäischen Firmen bzgl. des Reifegrads der Agilität in Ihrem Unternehmen. Die Autoren haben die Befragungsergebnisse mit der finanziellen Performance der Unternehmen in Beziehung gesetzt und nachgewiesen, dass implementierte Agilitätsprogramme geeignet sind...

This chapter chronicles Robert Tannenbaum’s life and contributions to organization development and change. Considered one of the founding fathers of OD, Tannenbaum’s shift from accounting to industrial relations marked an increasing emphasis and passion for humanistic psychology. He was a champion for personal growth within a systems perspective, a...

Change Management is a crucial process for gaining the competitive advantage that is the goal of many organisations. Leaders and change agents are often faced with conflicting challenges of motivating and understanding increasingly diverse workforces, accounting to stakeholders and planning for the future in a chaotic environment. Comprising 12 cha...

This chapter chronicles Robert Tannenbaum’s life and contributions to organization development and change. Considered one of the founding fathers of OD, Tannenbaum’s shift from accounting to industrial relations marked an increasing emphasis and passion for humanistic psychology. He was a champion for personal growth within a systems perspective, a...

This chapter chronicles Robert Tannenbaum’s life and contributions to organization development and change. Considered one of the founding fathers of OD, Tannenbaum’s shift from accounting to industrial relations marked an increasing emphasis and passion for humanistic psychology. He was a champion for personal growth within a systems perspective, a...

Seeking to grow its business while managing the risks of expansion, preserving a family business culture, and ensuring effective succession planning, the French baking firm of Brioche Pasquier Group in 1984 turned to consultants from the Institute for Socio-Economic Organization Research for assistance. Together, they implemented the socioeconomic...

PurposeThis chapter introduces the volume’s theme by describing the challenges of sustainability in the agri-food industry and the critical role of agri-food supply chains. Following a description of traditional and sustainable supply chain management practices, we discuss the likely characteristics of sustainability-oriented innovations and how or...

PurposeThis chapter compares and discusses the 10 sustainability-oriented food supply chain innovations described in the previous chapters. Our purpose is to address and reflect on the questions and challenges introduced in the first chapter. Methodology/approachThe cases are first analyzed in terms of the extent to which the innovations were motiv...

From the begining, we wanted to become a national player, but above all, to produce as close as possible to the consumers and reinforce the closeness between managers and employees within the company. Partnering with ISEOR has helped us implement and formalize organizational structures, to spread the SEAM process throughout the company...

Becoming Agile: How the SEAM Approach to Management Builds Adaptability illustrates the process of becoming an agile organization. Reflecting the principles presented in The Agility Factor, readers are taken on a real-world journey of transformation and change. This short-format case study of the French company Brioche Pasquier highlights how one o...

This symposium address the difficulties associated with the transformation to agility. While a fair amount of research has addressed the definitions, features, and characteristics of agility, there has been a dearth of research related to the transformation to agility. This symposium address one aspect of the transformation: potential sources of re...

The journey to sustainable effectiveness is complex and challenging. On the one hand, it implies an integrated set of complex design features that allows the organization to pursue and achieve three interdependent outcomes: economic, social, and environmental. There is a dearth of frameworks and examples demonstrating 1) how these goals should be e...

PurposeThis chapter integrates organization design and sustainability concepts to describe an accelerated transformational change at the Fairview Medical Group (United States). Design/methodology/approachA case study of the transformation at Fairview Medical Group’s primary care clinics was developed from interviews and first-person accounts of the...

The change management challenge in organizations is overwhelming. The pace, complexity, and scope of change in the environment demands an organization change approach that is pervasive, complex, agile, and integrated. Unfortunately, the change management models, tools, and processes used today were developed during a simpler time and are not genera...

The new business environment favors innovation and agility: companies that not only execute novel ideas once but do so repeatedly. The ability to generate novel ideas, develop viable products, services, or processes, and drive new value for the corporation is required to sustain organization effectiveness. More broadly, the ability to make timely,...

Change Management is a crucial process for gaining the competitive advantage that is the goal of many organisations. This 5th edition of Organisational Change: Development and Transformation has been comprehensively revised to fully explain change management from the perspectives of organisational development and organisational transformation. Lead...

Large group interventions are an important method of organization change. The large group intervention literature is largely descriptive and normative and contains a number of case studies that describe the process and some immediate outcomes. There is a large void with respect to empirical investigation. This research tested fundamental hypotheses...

This chapter provides a rich and thick description of a collaborative, place-based, interorganizational process in the domain of social, ecological, and economic sustainability. Governmental agencies, businesses, philanthropic organizations, NGOs, consulting firms, and private citizens tried to move from an underorganized and tacit set of ineffecti...

Purpose – This chapter explores the use of evolutionary and institutionalization models to understand the progression of sustainability in organizations and their contribution to sustainable effectiveness. It describes the evolution of Gap, Inc.'s sustainability approach, its increasingly central role in the organization's strategy and design, and...

Several choices are available to family firms when intergenerational succession is not an option. One alternative is to explore merger and acquisition (M&A) opportunities. This paper addresses two research questions: (a) What are the key differences between typical M&As and those involving a family firm? and (b) What are the key success factors for...

The increasing interest in economic, social, and ecological sustainability has important implications for the traditional views on organization effectiveness, organization design, and organization development. Managers need to design organizations to achieve a “triple bottom line.” A review of the organization effectiveness literature suggests that...

International organization(1) development and change (OD&C) can be understood as an emerging field of applied behavioral and social science and of practice-based research. Through the processes of creating this special issue, we as editors have come to consider international OD&C as poised on three fronts simultaneously: clarifying applied theory,...

Leaders during a deep and prolonged downturn should introduce organizational practices that build capability in the organization, not only to withstand the uncertainties of rough times better, but also to emerge stronger for the future. We present a set of organization design changes that can create closer connections to the marketplace and better...

This text focuses on the use of organisation development, which is a process that applies behavioural science knowledge and practices to help organisations achieve greater effectiveness. Other paradigms, including organisation tranformation, are also discussed in order to give a balanced perspective on the challenges of being an agent. <br /

Most large-scale change efforts fail to meet their expectalions. A major problem is that even the most advanced change models will stumble when they face organizational designs and management practices that are inherently anti-change. The truth is that the effectiveness of change efforts is largely determined by organizational design, or how a comp...

Several choices are available to family firms when intergenerational succession is not an option. One alternative is to explore merger and acquisition (M&A) opportunities. This paper addresses two research questions: (a) What are the key differences between typical M&As and those involving a family firm? and (b) What are the key success factors for...

This article describes and interprets the results of interviews with 21 pioneering organization development (OD) thought leaders regarding the past, present, and future of the field. Interpretations of the data reveal a pattern of responses that reflects the evolution of the field; adds to our understanding of the definition, values, skills, and tr...

The organizational changes and performance consequences of California hospitals pursuing managed care strategies between 1986-87 and 1991-92 are examined. The results suggest that hospitals made substantive changes in their strategic orientations. The primary source of change, however, was prior levels of commitment. High commitment to managed care...

More and more hospitals are attempting to change their organizations and improve quality, customer satisfaction, and clinical outcomes or reduce costs through participation strategies that involve organizational members on problem-solving teams. The key to the success of these strategies is the effectiveness with which these teams solve pressing or...

This study explored whether two principles describe the relationship between the size of a pay increase (a bonus expressed as a percentage of current salary) and the attractiveness of that increase. Based on a sample of sales personnel (N = 639) and consistent with the constant proportion principle of the psychophysical law, pay increase attractive...

Note: The authors extend a special thanks to Scott Sherman for helping us to keep the voices in our head straight; to our MSOD colleagues – Miriam Lacey, Terri Egan, and Ann Feyerherm – for their commitment to the ongoing conversation; and to Beth Waitkus, Laura Jackson, and the Greenhouse gang for their inputs on messaging and the future of OD. In...