Taxonomic Considerations in OrganL.ent, Assessment and Process Change Taxonomic Considerations in Organizational Development, Assessment and Process Change

Evaluating the impact of organizational interventions and change requires that systematic and reliable information be available at multiple levels of analysis. However, most organizations intervene and initiate change at one level (e.g., the individual or workgroup in a shop) but measure success in terms of effectiveness and outputs at a more aggregate level (e.g., the division, department, or wing). Research evaluating organizational interventions and change has typically focused on organizational levels, in and of themselves, without an analysis of the linkages between levels or processes and the interdependencies amongst outputs from one level or process as inputs to other levels and processes. Moreover, these evaluations have, for the most part, failed to quantitatively examine the interaction among the levels or among the key elements within each level. With respect to organizational assessment and process change-related activities, these interdependencies must be clearly defined and quantified if benefits from change are to be examined systematically (Cascio, 1996; Van Maanen, 1979). Furthermore, researchers (e.g., Bennett, Ruck, & Huffcutt, 1992; and Bennett, Yadrick, & Perrin, 1996) have argued that these linkages might play a critical role in moderating the ability to detect change at subsequent levels. This paper describes a preliminary taxonomy for the assessment of change in organizational Restructuring efforts. The need for cross-level metrics of success and the potential use of linkages and interdependencies for organizational and process diagnosis and prescription will be described and discussed