Winter  Year 2011  Vol. 43  No.

Journal of the Organization Development Network

International OD Practices
and Challenges
1. Come to the Edge and Go Beyond:
A Letter to Organization Development Practitioners from the New Chair of the Board
Darya Funches
4. From the Editors
6. Socio-Economic Approach to Management:
A Successful Systemic Approach to Organizational Change
John Conbere and Alla Heorhiadi
11. A Holistic Approach to Gender Equality and Social Justice
Michel Friedman and Ray Gordezky
17. Social Entrepreneurship: A Call for Collective Action
Grace Davie
24. Lessons from Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank:
Leading Long-term Organizational Change Successfully
Katharine Esty
29. Effective Group Development:
A Paradoxical Approach for Action Learning Facilitators
Billy Desmond
35. Riding the Waves of the Motivation Cycle: The Absorption Model of Leadership
Zoltán Buzády and Achilles Georgiu
42. Survivor Coping: A Fresh Look at Resiliency in the Wake of Downsizing
Shirley M. Mayton
48. Case History: Organization Development’s Role When Going Global
Therese F. Yaeger and Peter F. Sorensen

Winter  Year 2011  Volume 43  No. 1

OD Practitioner
Published quarterly Anne Gardon, MSW Ross Tartell, PhD
Copyright 2011 Principal, Strategies for Change, Poughkeepsie, NY Pfizer, Inc., New York, NY
Organization Development Network, Inc.
Tim Goodly, PhD Maya Townsend, MSOD
ISSN #0256112312 Senior VP HR, CNN Worldwide, Marietta, GA Lead Consultant, Partnering Resources,
Cambridge, MA
Claire Halverson, PhD
Editor-In-Chief
Chair and Professor in the Social Justice in Peter B. Vaill, DBA
John D. Vogelsang Intercultural Relations Degree at the SIT Graduate Professor of Management,
Institute, Brattleboro, VT Antioch University, Yellow Springs, OH
Advertising
Marilyn Blair George W. Hay, PhD Lynne E. Valek, PhD
Adjunct Faculty, Benedictine University Adjunct Faculty, Alliant International University
Proofreaders Organization Development and Change Consultant Fresno, CA
Loni Davis Oak Brook, IL
Judy Vogel, MLA
Laurie Sacchet Alla Heorhiadi, PhD & EdD Vogel/Glaser & Associates, Inc., Columbia, MD
International Programs
Editorial Review Board Organization Learning & Development Dept. Don D. Warrick, DBA
John Adams, PhD University of St. Thomas, Minneapolis, MN Professor, University of Colorado,
Emeritus Professor, Saybrook University Colorado Springs, CO
Organizational Systems PhD Program David W. Jamieson, PhD
San Francisco, CA Associate Professor and Department Chair, Therese Yaeger, PhD
Organization Learning and Development, PhD and MSMOB-OD Programs
Phillip T. Anderson, PhD University of St. Thomas, Minneapolis, MN Benedictine University, Lisle, IL
Director, Executive and Volunteer Development,
YMCA of the USA, Chicago, IL Homer H. Johnson, PhD Design
Professor, School of Business Administration Whitehouse & Company
Marilyn E. Blair, PhD Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, IL
Principal, TeamWork Consulting, Denver, CO
New York, NY
Judith Katz, EdD
Michael Brazzel, PhD Kaleel Jamison Consulting Group, Troy, NY Production
External Consultant, Columbia, MD DC Typography, Inc.
Anne Litwin, PhD San Francisco, CA
Gordon Brooks, MSOD Anne Litwin & Associates, Jamaica Plain, MA
Deputy Director, MSOD Program
Pepperdine University, Los Angeles, CA Maurice L. Monette, EdD
The Vallarta Institute,
Gervase Bushe, PhD Oakland, CA and Puerto Vallarta, Mexico OD Practitioner is now available to
Segal Graduate School of Business,
Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, BC, Canada Cathy Royal, PhD academic and corporate libraries by special
Senior Consultant, Royal Consulting Group, LLC subscription. We invite you to place this
Steven H. Cady, PhD Riverdale, MD publication on your library shelves.
Graduate Faculty Member, Bowling Green State
University, Bowling Green, Ohio Charles Seashore, PhD Library Subscriptions
Chair, Human and Organization Development USA Canada* All Other*
Allan H. Church, PhD PhD Program, Fielding Graduate Institute, University
PepsiCo, Inc., Pound Ridge, NY Santa Barbara, CA Non-profit $150 $160 $180
David Coghlan, PhD Peter Sorensen, Jr., PhD Corporate
School of Business Studies, University of Dublin, Director, PhD Program For-profit $200 $225 $255
Dublin, Ireland Benedictine University, Lisle, IL ODP Library Subscriptions using
SecureCredit Card Processing.
John P. Conbere, EdD Nancy L. Southern, EdD
Professor and Director of the Doctoral Program, Chair, PhD Organizational Systems Program * All prices in US funds.
Organization Learning and Development, Saybrook Graduate School, San Francisco, CA
University of St. Thomas, Minneapolis, MN

Organization Development Network

Organization Development Leslie Cady, PhD Director of Finance Membership in the OD Network
Network Tamara Hamilton & Operations
Post Office Box 32459 Nicholas Corne • Individual Membership:  $200
Newark, NJ 07102 Lisa Kimball, PhD
• Persons over 65:  $100
T: +1 973.763.7337 Laurie Lemieux, MSOD Administrative Staff
F: +1 973.763.7488 Joselissa Cerda • Full-time students in a degree program
Matt Minahan, EdD Coordinator, Events and Operations (employed half-time or less):  $100
www.odnetwork.org
Brian K. Wilson
• Online Membership:  $175
Board of Trustees Christine J. Young, MBA
For information regarding Please direct all inquiries to:
Darya Funches, EdD advertising opportunities in
Chair ODNetwork@ODNetwork.org
Executive Director the OD Practitioner, please
Andrew Bennett Peter F. Norlin e-mail Marilyn Blair at
mblair@odnetwork.org
Michael F.Broom, PhD
 A Letter to Organization Development Practitioners
from the New Chair of the Board
Come to the Edge and Go Beyond
By Darya Funches
Twenty years ago, moving into the position of Chair of the
Board of the NTL Institute, I said “Come to the edge.” Now,
20 years later, in 2010, I have just become the Chair of the
Board of Trustees of the Organization Development Network.
As I consider the past, present, and future of the field of Orga-
nization Development and the Organization Development
Network at the field’s center, I am still drawn to paraphrase
the English poet, Christopher Logue:
Come to the edge.
We might fall.
Come to the edge.
It’s too high!
COME TO THE EDGE!
And they came,
and she pushed,
and they flew.
When we do not willingly come to the edge, and we hug the
familiar ways of doing, being, seeing, and knowing beyond
their usefulness, we end up at the edge anyway, about to fall
off the cliff of the past, into an abyss before doing what it
takes to earn our wings to fly. An alternative is taking flight
with fresh vision, recapturing the spirit of why we do what
we do in the first place. So now, I say to the field of Organiza-
tion Development and to us as practitioners: “Come to the
edge and go beyond. Come to the edge and fly.” At the edge
is where we find solutions to recurrent and systemic issues;
solutions needed most right now by today’s organizations and
the practitioners who assist them.
My love for this field of work is in part based on the expe-
rience of coming to the edge and flying, pushing myself and
being pushed by mentors and teachers, and my own visions
and dreams beyond limitations that no longer work, moving
into new territories; and helping organizations and leaders do
the same. On the edge, organizations see their true purposes
in the context of building healthy and productive organiza-
tions and societies while bringing substantial benefits to
their stakeholders and communities. On the edge we see how
closely woven the world is, and how choices in one corpora-
tion affect all the rest of us for generations. We see the kind of
ground on which we need to stand to help organizations and
societies co-create new realities. Our field can help support
organizational effectiveness, sustainability, and social justice.
I’ve spent most of my professional career being a voice in
the field for what we can do to apply ourselves in the context
of the future in which we are living right now: a time that
demands simple concepts and tools that work well in the
midst of rapid change, complexity, uncertainty, and diverse
cultural contexts to create positive, sustainable results; con-
cepts and tools that work with individuals, groups, organiza-
tions, communities, and beyond.
As we look at the needs of the world today, we may rede-
fine success, leadership, and organizational and corporate
models for the 21st century. We can clarify the relevance of
Organization Development to creating, restoring, and renew-
ing vibrant economies and how to help organizations and
communities make decisions that consider future genera-
tions. We can build more interdisciplinary alliances to create
transformation and change and develop professionals from
different disciplines in conscious use of the field’s body of
knowledge.
Kurt Lewin said “There is nothing so practical as a good
theory.” We need to use theory and approaches that work in
shorter periods of time—as opposed being “long term strate-
gies.” We need approaches that will allow for different types of
data, such as accurate intuitive data, along with conventional
data sources to be able to act responsively in situations where
we cannot conduct large numbers of interviews or initiate sur-
vey feedback. Where would we find OD practitioners in the
context of crisis situations, such as Katrina in New Orleans
or September 11 in New York? Are we present to assist in the
crisis itself or are our theories and tools only good for rela-
tively stable situations? We need to use approaches to address-
ing large scale trauma and conflicts in our theory and practice
as well as concepts and tools assisting with prevention and
intervention in the midst of crises.
From the Chair of the OD Network Board of Trustees 1
 What do we bring to a world where entrepreneurship
and a small business economy is becoming more critical
and to address collaborative business alliances and inter-
organizational performance? How do we develop concepts
and techniques in a global world that take indigenous culture,
including indigenous culture in the Americas, into account
in strategy, design, and operations? This will ultimately result
in new organization theories or new ideas to most of us that
come from ancient wisdom of other societies. We need a vari-
ety of approaches for transformation, beyond change. Why?
Leaping from the edge across an abyss can’t be done incre-
mentally, step by step. When such a leap is what is called for,
it is done by transformation, not by incremental change.
There is a demand for new concepts and tools that
everyone can use and that everyone can learn to use. I call it
“Everyday Organization Development.” For at least 20 years,
scholars/practitioners have questioned whether Organization
Development is dying, changing, transforming, revitalizing,
innovating, or reinventing itself. In all of this time, however,
everything that is a part of the field has expanded into every-
day life and into the hands of many institutions, corpora-
tions, disciplines, and communities. People around the world
practice Organization Development concepts and techniques,
often unknowingly, to solve short term and long term prob-
lems. So the field is alive and expanding yet often not in the
hands of people who are in this profession. There’s no point
in saying “Who took my cheese?” In fact, we can consider that
we’ve done a good job putting Organization Development out
into the world.
John Carter, winner of the Organization Development
Network’s 2009 Lifetime Service Award, said, “The Network
should see itself as the center of a wheel, where many other
organizations are the spokes. The Network is the only orga-
nization among all the others who gather together through it
whose central identity and focus is the field of Organization
Development. We should be pointing out to the world—wher-
ever what we’ve developed is being practiced, saying ‘See, this
is OD!’, ‘See, that is OD.’”
Since its inception, the Organization Development
Network has been a central gathering place for many practi-
tioners, scholars, and organizations dedicated to the practice
of OD. For 35 years, it has been a place we can call home; a
place where practitioners can share, speak, listen to, and play
with our friends and colleagues. Today, we are a Network of
networks, in a field that has spawned a world of organizations
and individuals who practice what we have developed.
The Network was born at a time of major social and eco-
nomic change. Then, it was the only game in town represent-
ing the field of Organization Development. We were at the
edge. Peter Vaill, one of the scholar/practitioners present in
2 OD PRACTITIONER  Vol. 43 No. 1  2011
the early years of the Network says: “The Network’s situa-
tion is different now from when it was riding the great wave
of interest in Organization Development 30 years ago in the
early 1970s. Almost anything ODN did was the right thing to
do, and was needed, valued, and appreciated. Today, organiza-
tional issues are much more complex, internal organizational
resources and skill sets are much more plentiful, and there
are hundreds of firms willing to do for organizations and
individual professionals things for which ODN was the only
provider 30 years ago.”
The Network’s mission is to advance the theory and
practice of Organization Development as a discipline of
applied behavioral science in the world. Yet, Carter is right.
OD is now everywhere. Where a village is attempting to create
clean water for itself in another country, we can say, “That is
OD.” Where a corporation is using the body of knowledge to
get high performance, we can say, ”That is OD.” The body
of knowledge we’ve developed is used throughout the world,
whether it is called OD or not. Now it is time to advance the
awareness of what Organization Development is and how it
can be used to address short term and long term issues and
opportunities for organizations and communities, making the
world a better place for current and future generations.
Visions for the Field and the Network
We each carry our own visions and dreams for the field, the
Network, and for us as a community of scholars and practi-
tioners. I hold the vision of a sustainable diverse world where
the wholeness of individuals, organizations, communities,
and cultures are valued. It is a world where we live in har-
mony and in truth with nature and one another and build
knowledge and access wisdom from science, art, and culture.
It is a world where we value the visible and invisible aspects
of reality and strive to become increasingly conscious of
what we co-create as individuals, groups, organizations, and
communities.
The Board of Trustees has been thinking for a couple
of years about the Network as a Network of Networks. As I
listen, I see the Organization Development Network as a hot
spot in the center, a Network of Networks, advancing knowl-
edge and education in the field, supporting organizations in
understanding the use and value of OD for their effectiveness,
and supporting the assessment, professional development,
and certification of practitioners from the applied behavioral
sciences and other disciplines in Organization Development.
We collaborate with other stakeholders in the field to assist
one another. We help advance the field through timely and
relevant theories and techniques for today’s economic, social,
and cultural challenges.

We move to the edge and go beyond it. This is what
makes us a hot spot in the Network of Networks. We are
part of the leadership for new forms of organizations. We
remember from our roots that our work is a part of creating
democratic processes and the ability to live and work produc-
tively in community while fulfilling our potential as individu-
als, groups, and organizations. Our work is beyond having
successful careers; it is about helping to create the balance
between the tensions, demands, and needs of employees,
owners, customers, technology, and the physical environ-
ment while helping those organizations make their positive
contributions to the world positive ones. We go beyond doing
what makes everyone comfortable and are willing to speak
truths that help organizations make choices that build and
bring integrity, beauty, service, and sustainability as part of
being effective and successful. I see us as a Network that
plays a leadership role among change agents and transform-
ers in the field, so that we help chart the direction of the
field and its capabilities through how we design and what
we produce from Network conferences and events, research
and publications, and other services. We attract practitioners
for continuous professional development and organizational
leaders as members for opportunities to address current and
future challenges. The Organization Development Network
graduates from being only a place where practitioners gather
to exchange with one another; although this is a great part of
us we want to keep. We go beyond being a place to retreat to
being a place that advances into the world, using all the media
available to demonstrate the field’s value where it can meet a
need. As a leader, we look ahead, and form an agenda.
As a Network of Networks, we can multiply the poten-
tial impact of what each one of us does and what each local/
regional network does. We bring organizations and practi-
tioners to the table and also sit at their tables with them. We
need all of our stakeholders and thought leaders to work with
us in building the direction of the Network. This includes you.
Implications and Invitations to Action for Practitioners
It may be true that there is nothing as practical as a good
theory. When working at the edge, there is also nothing as
practical as a good vision or a good dream held by those with
the courage, confidence, commitment, capacity, and capabili-
ties to make the vision into reality. On behalf of the Network,
I invite you to join us in building a new vision and strategies
to achieve it. And, I invite you to come to the edge as you
do it.
»» Go to the edge and beyond, personally and profession-
ally in your work. This means doing our deepest personal
Darya Funches, EdD, is Founder and Principal for REAP
Unlimited, a consulting firm using multiple disciplines
to help organizations, groups, and individuals change,
transform, and grow. From 1985–90 she developed
a system for transformation that is visionary and
accelerates business results. As a Partner in Innovative
Global Resources, she helps global businesses use the
power of indigenous culture to become high performing
and sustainable. OD Network designated her as one of
twelve Sages of OD in 1985. She served as faculty for
AU/NTL, Gestalt Institute-OSD, USC in Washington DC,
and as Chair of the Board for NTL Institute. She holds
an EdD in Organizational Change and Transformation
from the University of Massachusetts; a MPA focused
on Admin­istrative Behavior from the University of
North Carolina; a Bachelor of Mathematics from
Lake Forest College; and is a graduate of the Gestalt
Institute of Cleveland.
work to have more positive impact in what we do, and
being relentlessly creative in the work we bring to
organizations.
»» Share the knowledge we each are building in our work in
the Network and in publications.
»» Join the Network of Networks and the local network in our
respective areas.
»» Participate in the OD Network’s Vision and Strategy Proj-
ect in 2011. We’ll keep you posted about how and when.
»» Attend and contribute to OD Network Conferences,
­Webinars, and Events.
»» Encourage organizations you know to get involved in
the Network. We’re interested in putting the “O” back in
Organization Development and supporting organizations
as members.
»» Let us know your professional development and business
needs. This is a key part of being a professional develop-
ment organization. We want to make sure we create pro-
cesses and approaches that strengthen our relationships in
this area with members.
Often we do not know the impact of the work we do in this
field. Still, we need to keep moving to the edge and beyond.
When we do so, it is like being in the midst of creation, every
day. Together, I know we can continue to make a positive dif-
ference in the world through this discipline we call Organiza-
tion Development. I pledge to do what I can to help us come
to edge, go beyond, and fly, holding this field, what we can
contribute to the world, and all of you in my heart.
Come to the Edge and Go Beyond 3
From the Editors
International OD Practices
and Challenges
Coming on the heels of the August 2010
OD World Summit in Hungary, this issue
attempts to offer a greater connection with
OD theories and practices from beyond the
US. As the OD consulting of the OD Net-
work’s membership expands to unfamiliar
cultures and territories, many of us are
realizing that we are ourselves undergoing
a paradigmatic shift. We suspect that our
efforts to understand cultural diversity or
improve how we apply OD abroad do not
sufficiently equip us to face the challenges
of a shrinking world. We are realizing
better that wisdom about OD already exists
among the people and cultures we are
encountering. Some of these colleagues
do not even call their work “OD.” Some
only dialogue about OD within their own
culture or on the South-South axis. Some
work in corporations, but many others
work in governments, NGOs, homelands,
shantytowns, favelas and barrios pobres.
Some even live in non-capitalist economic
systems or non-democratic (à la US) politi-
cal systems. These realizations invite us to
take on a beginner’s mind.
In assembling this issue, we invited
articles that addressed questions such
as: How is the practice of OD changing
to meet global issues? What OD theories
and approaches are being developed to
meet organizational challenges in societ-
ies beyond the US? How is OD different
in non-capitalist, less individualistic, and
more communitarian societies? What OD
practices are being used to support inter-
national networks?
The net we cast yielded responses
from authors who work in Canada, the
United Kingdom, Hungary, and countries
in Africa, Asia, Central American, and the
Former Editors
Larry Porter 1973–1981
Raymond Weil 1982–1984
Don & Dixie Van Eynde 1985–1988
David Noer 1989–1992
Celeste Coruzzi 1993–1995
David Nicoll 1996–2000
Marilyn E. Blair 2000–2008
4 OD PRACTITIONER  Vol. 43 No. 1  2011
Caribbean. Some submissions were work-
shop presentations and we hope to include
the potential articles in future issues of the
ODP. Language was a challenge in a few
cases, because the ODP and the authors
lacked funds to provide publishable
trans­lation. This ODP issue, therefore, is
by no means representative. It presents
only a taste of what we are learning from
colleagues working in various countries
and cultures.
Much of what is termed “Inter­
national OD” refers in the US to the work
of colleagues who are connected with
US organizations with field sites in other
countries; hence the emphasis on cultural
competency and the challenges of apply-
ing US practices. Therese Yaeger and Peter
Sorensen’s Organization Development’s
Role When Going Global presents an
excellent example of the complexities of
expanding a US based company to India,
Africa, and Asia.
This issue of the ODP intentionally
focuses more on theories and practices
arising from elsewhere. John Conbrere
and Alla Heorhiadi describe a different
tradition of organization development that
has evolved in France, the Socio-Economic
Approach to Management (SEAM). This
movement shares many of the beliefs and
practices of traditional OD but adds some
distinct practices and a core belief that
“organizations do not exist only to make
money, they exist to serve society in gen-
eral and all the employees in particular.”
Working with civil society organiza-
tions in Asia and Africa, Michel Friedman
and Ray Gordezky describe a multi-
factorial (individual, organizational, and
societal) and holistic (head, heart, and
hands) organization development program
that promotes equality by creating a core
group of change agents and a critical mass
of individuals who believe in the need for,
and take part in, raising awareness about
gender equality and social justice.
Billy Desmond’s effective group devel-
opment model from the UK marries group
functioning and increased action learning
and draws upon the legacy of the Tavis-
tock Institute, Gestalt therapy, and Ralph
Stacey’s complexity theory.
Based upon their work with
organizations in Hungary, Zoltán Buzády
and Achilles Georgiu have developed what
they call the absorption model of leader-
ship that builds on the Gartner Consulting
Group’s Hype Cycle and Mihály Csíkszent-
mihályi’s flow theory.
Katherine Esty suggests directions
in which to expand OD practice beyond
corporations and traditional nonprofits.
Esty’s Lessons from Muhammad Yunus
and the Grameen Bank describes how
Yunus has led a long-term change effort
that has had significant impact on poverty.
The Grameen bank in Bangladesh gives
small loans to thousands of poor people,
primarily women, previously thought to be
bad credit risks.
Social entrepreneurship has become
a trend in international development.
Social entrepreneurship has also stepped
in where laissez-faire deregulation and the
outsourcing of government functions have
reduced the ability of government to tend
to the common good. Grace Davie’s Social
Entrepreneurship: A Call for Collective
Action raises important questions about
for-profit and nonprofit entrepreneur
ventures with a social change agenda such
as healthcare delivery or job creation. She
challenges social entrepreneurs to pay
attention to entrenched power relations, to
be clearer about their values and ultimate
goals, and to develop linkages with social
justice campaigns, especially those that
emphasize grass-roots participation as
opposed to individual initiatives.
John Conbere and Alla Heorhiadi and
one of this year’s student paper winners,
Shirley Mayton, also shift our attention
to the fact that not all is well in corporate
systems. Downsizing, for instance, as an
institutionalized management tactic and a
means of increasing shareholder profit, is
less than totally successful and has human
casualties for the downsized and for the
survivors alike. These authors place value
on the belief that organizations exist for
more than making money. Might there
be ways that OD consultants can do more
than help perpetuate systems or aspects
of systems that don’t work? Mayton’s
article, for instance, concludes that we can
intervene to help downsizing survivors to
become more resilient. Could some of us
 Maurice L. Monette, EdD, is a
partner with The Vallarta Insti-
tute, which provides leadership
also do more to influence the systems to the social sciences have rich networks
use downsizing more judiciously and to of professionals and academics in many coaching, organizational capacity
focus more intently on service to employ- countries and regions around the world building support, and evaluation
ees and to society? and are publishing theories and prac- services to foundations and civil
Finally, as a guest editor who lives and tices in many languages; how does our society clients. In the past year
works in Mexico and other parts of Latin own understanding of what OD is and he has served organizations in
America and an editor who has consulted isn’t support or hinder our connections
Africa, South Asia, Europe, and
in Latin America and Europe, we are left and cross-fertilization with practitioners
with some unanswered questions about in these fields and with OD practitio- the Americas. He lives in Mexico.
OD theories and practices originating ners who identify with or work in these A member of ODN editorial
around the world: other fields? boards for 20 years, he guest
1. What kind of outreach does the OD 3. How can we encourage more mutual ­edited the 2006 ODP issue on
Network and its members need to development of theories and practices Cultures of Participation at Work
invest in to reach the broader wealth with practitioners outside the US?
in Cuba and the US. He can be
of theories and practices (old and new) Maurice L. Monette, Guest Editor
that is under­represented in US circles? John Vogelsang, Editor reached at maurice.monette@
2. Other professions/fields like philan­ vallartainstitute.com
thropy, economics, development, and

™
Upcoming Special Issue
Journal of the Organization Development Network
of the OD Practitioner
Fall 2011 Key questions we hope to pursue in this special issue include:
■■ How can OD contribute to creating an integral definition of
OD and enviromental, organizational, and economic sustainability? 

Sustainability ■■ What could it mean to the field to embrace sustainability as a larger

purpose of OD? 
Guest Editors: John Adams, Cathy Royal, ■■ What is the role of OD in creating and supporting the
and Allan Church
transformation needed to create organizations focused on the triple
bottom line?
■■ How do we work in the era of “post-peak OD?” Our economy is
entirely dependent on perpetual growth to “bigger and better” and
this may not be possible much longer.
■■ How do we work with systems, communities, and nations around
climate change and its impact on sustainable interventions,
ecosystems, and food crises as we manage oil spills in Michigan,
Louisiana, the Gulf, as well as in Nigeria and other areas globally? 
■■ What new knowledge and understanding do OD practitioners need
to help organizations consider their important role in creating a
sustainable world?

Submission deadline for articles is July 1, 2011.

From the Editors 5

 “Traditional management features a fragmented analysis of organizations that is based on
financial data without sufficient attention to the persons involved. SEAM, the socio-economic
approach, factors both people and finances into analysis.”
Socio-Economic Approach
to Management
A Successful Systemic Approach to Organizational Change
By John Conbere In the United States organizational change
and Alla Heorhiadi and development work has a rich history,
including the influence of Kurt Lewin,
Rensis Likert, Douglas MacGregor, War-
ren Bennis, the socio-technical tradition
of Tavistock, and more recently, work in
large scale change, appreciative inquiry and
chaos / complexity. In France, a different
tradition has evolved, the Socio-Economic
Approach to Management (SEAM). This
movement, based in the Socio-Economic
Institute of Firms and Organizations
Research (ISEOR), began in 1973. SEAM
shares many of the beliefs and practices
of American OD, but adds some premises
and practices that make this approach quite
distinct.
While courses on SEAM are taught
at two business schools, Central Michigan
University and New Mexico State, the
SEAM approach is not widely known in
the United States. There have been some
articles and books (Boje & Gomez, 2008;
Boje & Roslie, 2003; Buono & Savall,
2007) mentioning SEAM but they mostly
describe how to do SEAM and are not spe-
cifically focused on the value system that
underlies this approach. The purpose of
this article is to introduce the reader to the
SEAM approach, pointing out its values,
along with similarities to and differences
from traditional OD consulting.
In a way, the SEAM approach seems
simple. None of the steps is surprising for
an American OD practitioner, and some
of its management tools share common
grounds with the OD tool-kits. A socio-
economic intervention “can be considered
a ‘machine for negotiating’ innovative
6 OD PRACTITIONER  Vol. 43 No. 1  2011
solutions, with the underlying goal of
reducing the dysfunctions experienced by
the enterprise” (Savall, 2007, p. 3). Innova-
tive solutions are data driven and these data
have accumulated over 35 years of experi-
menting into a solid database, which is part
of why the SEAM intervention has been
effective repeatedly. The difference comes
from the deeper goals of the intervention,
systemic aspect of the consulting team,
and the researcher-intervener role of each
consultant.
SEAM offers a methodical, tested way
to assess the hidden costs in an organiza-
tion. Identifying such costs is not a practice
one often finds in other management con-
sulting, although there is the OD consul-
tants’ intuitive belief that the hidden costs
are very real. Without the SEAM measure-
ment, however, the hidden costs remain
hidden, and can be easily shrugged off by
managers as soft.
SEAM is based on a set of values and
a belief system about management that
is different from traditional management
premises. Traditional management features
a fragmented analysis of organizations that
is based on financial data without sufficient
attention to the persons involved. SEAM,
the socio-economic approach, factors both
people and finances into analysis. The
result is an intervention that works with the
whole organizational system. A core belief
of SEAM consultants is that organizations
do not exist only to make money, they
exist to serve society in general and all the
employees in particular. Therefore SEAM
rejects the idea that employees are human
capital, a term that degrades employees
into non-human commodities. Once an
employee is a commodity, there is no moral
issue in firing the employee. Instead,
SEAM’s values insist that the cause of
employees’ poor productivity begins with
the way the employees are managed. This
is akin to the belief of W. E. Deming and
others, who believed that poor production
begins with poor management. The result
of the SEAM approach is the development
of trust and security among employees,
which are prerequisites to full productivity.
Before describing the process, we
should offer definitions of the terms that
for us are almost a business card of SEAM.
The first term is actors, the term that SEAM
practitioners use to talk about all employ-
ees in organization. In sociology, the term
actors is used to describe all members of
an organization. The purpose of this delib-
erately non-hierarchical term for owners,
leaders, and employees is to reinforce the
idea that all actors have significant impact
on the organizational effectiveness.
The second term is hidden costs and
performance. According to Savall and Zardet
(2008), “A cost is said to be hidden when it
does not explicitly appear on the company
information system, such as the budget,
financial accounting, and cost account-
ing, or in the usual ledgers and logbooks”
(p. xx-xxi). Hidden costs include “absentee-
ism, industrial injuries and occupational
diseases, staff turnover, non-quality, and
direct productivity gaps” (Savall, Zardet,
& Bonnet, 2008, p. 149). Hidden perfor-
mance issues lead to poor productivity and
thus to hidden costs.
The SEAM process
The process is referred to as Intervention-
Research and is a more transformative
process than traditional action research.
Before the intervention, SEAM consultants
meet with the organization’s leader, educat-
ing the leader about SEAM. When the
leader decides to use the SEAM process,
one or more SEAM consultants enter an
organization, gather data from partici-
pants, synthesize the data, and feed the
synthesized data back to the participants.
The next important step is to work with the
participants to assist them to identify the
Socio-Economic Approach to Management: A Successful Systemic Approach to Organizational Change
necessary changes and ways to implement each. Themes are identified, illustrated by
these changes. The last step is to assess the field-note quotes, with a thorough analysis
effectiveness of the change process. of root causes of the hidden dysfunctions.
Essentially SEAM is a deliberate The ISEOR database consisting of 3,450
process which includes a very specific categories of dysfunctions is there to help
approach, using data from over 35 years guide the analysis. This use of the database
of research to shape an intervention that is the application of a generic contingency
will involve actors from throughout the principle (see below for definition) to the
organization to uncover hidden costs specific organization.
and potential and make changes that will The analyzed data are fed back to
increase the organizational effectiveness. the top management team in the “mirror
The SEAM design first involves top leader- effect.” The first part of the mirror effect
ship to get their support and understand- is the detailed feeding back of what the
ing, and then cascades the change work consultants heard. Typically, there are at
Typically, there are at least 50 to 100 “chunks” of severe types
of hidden costs that are found. The leadership team sees
data indicating the extent to which the organization is not
reaching its potential. The response typically is a mix of shock
and recognition. Shock happens due to the overwhelming
data presented in the sheer volume of information about
organizational dysfunction and hidden costs. Using Lewin’s
language, the mirror effect helps thoroughly “unfreeze” the
top management team, shocking them into action.
through the organization as needed. The least 50 to 100 “chunks” of severe types of
outcome is an intervention that flows two hidden costs that are found. The leader-
ways: a) top-down, when leaders begin and ship team sees data indicating the extent to
support the change work; and b) bottom-up which the organization is not reaching its
when all actors are engaged in identifying potential. The response typically is a mix
and reducing hidden costs and perfor- of shock and recognition. Shock happens
mance issues. This is the French blend due to the overwhelming data presented
of top down and participative OD. The in the sheer volume of information about
intervention begins with the commitment organizational dysfunction and hidden
of top management and modeling of new costs. Using Lewin’s language, the mirror
practices, and then moves on to extend the effect helps thoroughly “unfreeze” the top
intervention to the rest of the organiza- management team, shocking them into
tion in a highly participative manner. The action. The outcome is agreement about
assumption behind this is that the actors the need to invest time and effort into
have the knowledge and ability to do the organizational change.
changes necessary to improve the climate Typically the leaders sensed some of
and effectiveness of the organization. the hidden costs and missed potential, but
SEAM emphasizes the importance of had no idea of the magnitude. The overall
the buy-in of the leaders of the organiza- result of the mirror effect is threefold. The
tion, for which purpose the CEO and other first is the leaders agree to work on projects
top managers are invited for a seminar to within their scope to begin to reduce
understand the basic premises of SEAM hidden costs. The second is the leaders
concepts. The second step is a diagnosis, become supportive of the vertical interven-
in which consultants interview all top level tions – moving the analysis and correc-
actors (the leadership team) for 1 to 2 hours tion of hidden costs down through the
7
organization. The third result may be less Consultants facilitate these projects. At losses that accrue from hidden costs and
obvious. The leaders have begun a process the same time, diagnosis begins in other poor performance.
of change, which will include changing groups, lower on the hierarchy of the The change in leaders’ attitude to how
their beliefs about the nature and role of they lead may become important here.
organization. This is the horivert process (in
management. Whether or not they realize French, pronounced “ori-vair”): working Another important task is getting employ-
it, the leadership team has embarked on a with the leadership team is the horizon- ees to believe that the change process is
journey in which a combination of par- tal phase, and then cascading down the done fairly and that the change work that
ticipative and directive management will hierarchical flow chart and working with a employees undertake will be rewarded and
shape the organizational culture, changing number of other teams or groups are the not punished. Employees need to believe
the roles of all organizational actors. In the vertical phases. that their environment will improve if the
language of Chris Argyris, the SEAM inter- As the intervention progresses, the intervention succeeds. Too often during
vention works to shift the organizational horivert process shapes the next steps. organizational change work, employees’
beliefs from Model 1 theory-in use to Model The leadership group starts on one or more experience is that their participation in
2 theory-in-use (Argyris & Schön, 1978). projects. The leadership group chooses interventions does not lead to real long-
term change, or even may be punished in
Employees need to believe that their environment will improve some manner. The task of the leadership
group and the consultant(s) is to create a
if the intervention succeeds. Too often during organizational realistic hope in employees that participat-
change work, employees’ experience is that their participation ing will really make a difference.
The diagnosis in the vertical level
in interventions does not lead to real long-term change, or even proceeds by gathering data and assess-
may be punished in some manner. The task of the leadership ing the extent to which the six financial
consequences of dysfunctions are present:
group and the consultant(s) is to create a realistic hope in excess salary, overtime, overconsumption,
employees that participating will really make a difference. non-production, and risks. (Excess salary
means additional expenses when higher
A few weeks later, the mirror effect the project(s), which is the mark of their salaried actors are paid for the work that is
continues with the expert opinion of the taking ownership of the need for change assigned to lower paid actors.) The verti-
consultants. Note that this is not “expert in their level of operation. At the same cal work groups then explore the extent
consulting” as described by Schein (1990), time, detailed SEAM analysis begins within to which the six dysfunctions are present:
in which the consultant gives the solution one or more vertical silos. In each silo, working conditions, work organization,
to the organizational problem. Rather it the process cascades down the organiza- communication-coordination-cooperation,
is the consultants using their experience tion in the same order: diagnosis, mirror time management, integrated training, and
and 35 years of ISEOR research to help effect involving the actors in that part of strategic implementation. The specificity of
identify the root causes of the dysfunc- the organization, and one or more projects the diagnosis, which looks for six financial
tions. Thus, the discussion is about what developed by these same actors, with the consequences and six dysfunctions, is no
seems to be invisible, such as taboos and goal of reducing hidden costs. The verti- accident. These issues have been identified
unstated ideas. The skill of the consultants cal diagnosis records in detail the extent to through more than 1,200 interventions
in identifying the root causes, and present- which hidden costs and underperformance that are recorded in the ISEOR database.
ing them in a manner that actors can hear are present in that part of the organization. As with the mirror effect, consultants
without feeling blamed, is part of the core The tools used in the vertical diag- feed the results of the analysis back to the
skill set of SEAM consultants. What tends nosis are the result of the experience, employees.
to happen in the mirror effect is that actors documented through the ISEOR database, The next step is to reduce the dys-
are not surprised by the dysfunctions of the most prevalent failings that lead to functions and thus the hidden costs. Six
themselves. What they are surprised at is hidden costs in organizations. For instance, management tools drive the change:
the magnitude of the dysfunctions and the there are five indicators of hidden costs: 1. The internal/external strategic action
resulting hidden costs. absenteeism, occupational injuries and plan is a 3–5 year plan that allows all
The diagnosis stages are the most diseases, staff turnover, non-quality, and actors to know the direction of the
labor intensive, and the diagnostic prepara- direct productivity gaps. These data are change work and their roles therein.
tion often takes the majority of the con- gathered and analyzed to assess the extent 2. The priority Action Plan is a half-yearly
sultants’ intervention time. Following the to which they are present. In the SEAM plan that allows the organization to
diagnostic in the top management group, intervention, for the first time, the orga- identify the new valued added tasks to
the participants begin to identify and work nization receives detailed feedback based, be implemented.
on projects that will convert hidden costs. on solid data, on the extent of the specific 3. The competency grid is used to assess

8 OD PRACTITIONER  Vol. 43 No. 1  2011

 Figure 1: The elements of SEAM

leads to added value for the organiza- into account critical factors that shape the
Dysfunctions
tion. The principle of contradictory inter- financial bottom line.
subjectivity­refers to the fact that actors Assessing hidden costs and perfor-
Structures Behaviors perceive truth differently, and they all aremances allows an intervener to demon-
strate return on investment. Without
right, according to their beliefs and percep-
assessing hidden costs and performances,
tions. Contradictory inter-subjectivity draws
Hidden costs on the ontological belief that in human an intervener cannot effectively address
ROI. Hidden costs and loss in value by
societies, truth is socially constructed, and
therefore is not an objective and unchang- underperformance are high. The amount
All of which lead to ing fact. This belief allows consultants to tends to differ by type of activity, so the hid-
atrophied or enhanced accept different views without having to den costs range from town councils, with
economic performance. prove who is right or wrong. hidden costs of €8,000 per capita per year
In essence, the SEAM approach is (35% of payroll), to electronics manufactur-
The elements of SEAM can be imagined aimed to help actors realize that there ers with hidden costs of €46,000 per capita
as a clover leaf with these components. is potential to convert hidden costs into per year (220% of payroll) (Savall, 2003).
something productive that will benefit the Hidden cost and poor performance
actors and the organization, and to help thecome from organizational dysfunctions,
the skill level of each employee, to actors in each of the parts of the organiza-which are the result of a failure to align
make sure people are trained and can tion to design and implement projects to properly structures and actors’ behav-
gain efficiency in their new activities. convert hidden costs into added value. That iors. These dysfunctions are the result of
This process is not used to fire people, may sound like what many OD consultants management’s failure to listen carefully to
but to find the areas in which employ- claim to do, but there are some differences customers and employees, and so that the
ees can be more effective, and as result, worth noting. problems that are occurring in the field are
satisfied. not addressed. In the US and British man-
4. The time management tool helps assess What is different about SEAM? agement approach to change, more empha-
how well actors use their time. sis is put on changing behavior, and in
5. The strategic piloting logbook is a tool In one sense, the SEAM intervention is traditional French approach, more empha-
for measuring “the results in terms of classic OD. The intervention is based on sis is put on changing structures. SEAM
the value created through management the assumptions that different people emphasizes the need to include both
changes” (Savall, Zardet, & Bonnet, may see truth differently, and that all behavior and structure in its intervention.
2008, p. 6). participants need to be involved in order When traditional management
6. The periodically negotiable activity for the change work to be successful. In reaches a financial crisis (which is often
contract is used “to negotiate additional another sense, the research of 35 years has the result of management’s actions), the
effort required to implement the new made clear that there are typical patterns response often is to cut costs by down-sizing
activities” (Savall, Zardet, & Bonnet, that cross all organizations. For instance, employees to achieve a short-term gain.
2008, p. 109). in looking for dysfunctions in an orga- In the long term, employees are hurt, and
nization, the SEAM process identified the capacity of the organization is hurt,
Henri Savall sees the SEAM interventions five types of indicators of dysfunction: a result that is neither ethical nor fiscally
as based in the three major principles: absenteeism, occupational injuries and wise. SEAM consultants resist the idea of
generic contingency, cognitive interactivity, diseases, staff turnover, non-quality, and laying off employees, because firing people
and contradictory inter-subjectivity. Generic direct productivity gaps. For each of these, is poor business practice and poor ethical
contingency is the principle that allows for qualitative and quantitative evaluations practice. Not only is morale trashed, but
the uniqueness of each organization, and are used to identify the estimated hidden when the organizational economy recov-
“postulates the existence of invariants that costs. Here is where SEAM is very different ers, the organization needs the people who
constitute generic invariants” (Savall, 2010, from traditional­management approach, were fired in order to be fully productive.
p. 2). In other words, there are common- because the cost of the five dysfunctions Rehiring and training slows any returns
alities among organizations that allow is not included in the financial balance to productivity. Further, it is ethically
researchers to predict what is likely to be sheets of the organization, or in the loss/ wrong to fire employees when manage-
present in each organization. profit accounting of the budget. Hidden ment has caused the problem. Ironically,
Cognitive interactivity pertains to costs and hidden performance issues most of the current management training
knowledge creation and can be enhanced should be part of every financial report, focuses mostly on profit and bottom line,
through interaction between actors and the but they are not. As a result, organiza- and not on people, which is contradic-
SEAM consultants. Through successive tions make decisions based on less-than- tory to the universal ethical command to
feedback loops, the sharing of knowledge complete data and without leaders taking treat all employees with love and dignity.

Socio-Economic Approach to Management: A Successful Systemic Approach to Organizational Change 9


By focusing on people, management can
develop new income through reducing hid-
den costs and performance.
SEAM’s core belief is that there is
significant untapped potential in each orga-
nization, and a better approach than down-
sizing is to uncover this potential. The
SEAM approach is ethical, in that it treats
employees as valuable persons rather than
as human capital. The SEAM approach is
also economically effective, in that it taps
into unused potential so that employees are
retained and profits increase. To demon-
strate the economic effectiveness, a mid-
sized company may recoup its investment
of €300,000 in the SEAM intervention
within a year, and sometimes within three
months. (€300,000 is an average fee for a
SEAM intervention in a mid-sized organi-
zation in France.)
The other difference is that SEAM
works as a system that engages in changing
organizations systemically. Often when an
external consultant intervenes in an organi-
zation, it is one or a small group of consul-
tants working to change the organizational
system. There is a somewhat lonely sense
of a small body working to bring about
systems change. SEAM itself is a system
that engages other organizational systems.
The database is shared memory that carries
the results of 1,200 interventions; it is a
systems memory, a knowledge base that is
used to shape the slowly evolving SEAM
interventions. Consultants also share their
experience, during and after interventions.
The fortunate ones live near Lyon, and
meet monthly to discuss their work. Others
gather annually to share their experiences.
Each intervention has the collective input
of the larger team of consultants and the
trends indicated by the database. Often
consultants seem to be individuals or
small groups who try to change a larger
organizational system. With SEAM, the
SEAM system of the consultant team and
the database works to change the organiza-
tional system.
Finally, SEAM consultants are
both interveners and researchers. This
­intervener-researcher function is simi-
lar to the scholar practitioner role of
American OD consultants, discussed so
often at conferences. The task of SEAM
10 OD PRACTITIONER  Vol. 43 No. 1  2011
consultants is two-fold: to help the orga-
nization, and to collect data for the SEAM
database. The database is used to assess
the short- and long-term impact of SEAM
interventions, and to discover the trends
of the problems in industries. The inter-
vention aims at leading the actors in the
organization to examine the hidden costs
and ­collectively find new ways of operating
that will improve individual and collec-
tive performance so that hidden costs
are reduced.
Conclusion
SEAM offers an approach to OD that is
consistent with the core values of OD, as
described in the OD Network Principles
of Practice (http://www.odnetwork.org/
aboutod/principles.php), particularly the
respect for and valuing of the person that
is too often missing from organizational
change efforts. ISEOR’s use of intervener-
researchers has allowed them to establish
a database of over 1,200 interventions as
a base for the evolution of SEAM manage-
ment tools and practices. The collection of
economic data, in which the hidden costs
of organizational dysfunctions are docu-
mented and used as a basis for decision-
making about change is a unique and
powerful aspect of the SEAM approach.
This approach should capture the imagina-
tion of any consultant who is interested in
demonstrating the ROI of organizational
change and having a long-lasting impact
for their consulting effort.
References
Argyris, C., & Schön, D. (1978). Organiza-
tional learning: A theory of action perspec-
tive. Reading, Mass: Addison Wesley.
Boje, D., & Gomez, C. (2008). A study of
socio-economic interventions of trans-
organization storytelling among New
Mexico arts organizations. RSDG-Man-
agement Sciences-Ciencias de Gestión, 65,
199-220.
Boje, D., & Roslie, G. A. (2003). Com-
parison of socio-economic and other
transorganizational development meth-
ods. Journal of Organizational Change
Management, 16(1), 10-20.
John Conbere, EdD, is Profes-
sor and Director of the Doctoral
Program in OD, Department of
Organizational Learning & Devel­
op­ment, College of Applied
Professional Studies, the Univer-
sity of St. Thomas, Minneapolis,
Minnesota. He can be reached at
jpconbere@stthomas.edu.
Alla Heorhiadi, PhD, EdD, is Dis­
tinguished Service Professor in
the Department of Organizational
Learning & Development, College
of Applied Professional Studies,
and Director of the Energetics
Institute, the University of
St. Thomas, Minneapolis,
Minnesota. She can be reached
at aheorhiadi@stthomas.edu.
Buono A., & Savall H. (Eds.) (2007).
Socio-Economic interventions in organiza-
tions. Charlotte, NC: Information Age
Publishing.
Savall, H. (2003). An updated presentation
of the socio-economic management
model. Journal of Organizational Change
Management, 16(1), 33-48.
Savall, H. (2007). ISEOR’s socio-economic
method. In A. Buono, & H. Savall
(Eds.), Socio-economic interventions in
organizations (pp. 1 -31). Charlotte, NC:
Information Age Publishing.
Savall, H. (2010). Work and people: An eco-
nomic evaluation of job-enrichment. Char-
lotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
(First published in 1974.)
Savall, H., & Zardet, V. (2008). Master-
ing hidden costs and socio-economic
performance. Charlotte, NC: Informa-
tion Age Publishing. (First published
in 1987.)
Savall, H., Zardet, V., & Bonnet, M. (2008).
Releasing the untapped potential of
enterprises through socio-economic
management. Geneva: International
Labour Office, and Ecully, France:
ISEOR. (First published in 1974.)
Schein, E. H. (1990). A general philosophy
of helping: Process consultation. Sloan
Management Review, 31(3), 57-64.
 “At the individual level, change team members shifted their awareness of themselves and their
own capacity to achieve a desired goal. In particular, they shifted their goal from an expansive
plan using external resources, books, women lawyers, and expert facilitators, to using their own
skills and resources.”
A Holistic Approach to Gender
Equality and Social Justice
By Michel Friedman Introduction
and Ray Gordezky
Gender equality and women’s rights has
been cited in conferences such as the
Beijing +5 as a critical element to develop-
ment efforts and peace building. Despite
considerable energy invested to further
social justice and achievement of major
gains for women through policy reforms
and in policy and workplace practices,
positive outcomes for women’s lives are far
from the norm. We’ve found two reasons
for the lack of more progress. One is that
insufficient attention has been given to
factors holding inequality in place, such as
cultural norms that maintain the gendered
division of labor, the restrictions on women
owning land, or customs that condone vio-
lence against women. The second reason
for lack of progress is the predominance of
approaches that give preference to rational-
ity and the mind over the body.
For more than fifteen years, our col-
leagues and we have developed and evolved
the Organization Strengthening Program
(OSP) (Rao & Kelleher, 2005; Kelleher,
2009). The purpose of the OSP is to
address women’s rights, gender equality,
and social justice issues with a multi-fac-
torial (individual, organizational, and soci-
etal) and holistic (head, heart, and hands)
organization development program.
Working with civil society organiza-
tions in Asia and Africa we have created
an approach to organization development
and gender equality with the following
elements:
»» individual psychology and conscious-
ness of women and men
A Holistic Approach to Gender Equality and Social Justice
»» women’s access to resources
»» cultural beliefs and practices in which
women and men live and work—both
inside organizations and within the
fabric of communities
»» formal systems, policies, and structures
shaping organization and community
governance
To date, over twenty-six civil society orga-
nizations and community-based organiza-
tions have developed substantial gains for
women’s voices and participation within
their organizations and communities in
India and South Africa (Friedman & Meer,
2007). Programs are currently being car-
ried out in South Africa, India, Morocco,
Albania, Nepal, and Rwanda. We recently
completed a program in Kenya, Tanzania,
and Uganda and another in Ethiopia,
Somaliland, and Sudan.
The program has resulted in women
and men being able to imagine and act on
what was felt to be impossible—to create
greater gender equality. For instance, in
India, organizational partners worked on
issues ranging from children’s rights to
indigenous people’s advocacy. In South
Africa, organizations are working together
on projects, such as anti-poverty programs,
community greening, anti-privatization,
and farm workers’ rights. Within isolated
communities in Tanzania and impover-
ished areas of India, women and men have
worked together to eliminate discrimina-
tory practices that condone physical abuse
of women and made it impossible for
women to own land.
In this paper we will describe key
11
 Figure 1: Organization Strengthening Program

elements of the OSP, illustrate its impact

with a case study from work carried out in Individual
Ethiopia, and conclude with some ques-
tions for those undertaking to scale-up
societal change initiatives.
Experience Behavior
The Organization Strengthening Program Women’s and Resources for
men’s women
consciousness
The OSP is intended to address gender
inequality through practices informed by
Informal, Formal,
organization development, action learning,
capacity building, Ken Wilber’s Integral
Tacit, Explicit,
Model (1996), and feminist theories Hidden Visible
of change. Culture Systems
Rather than offer best practices or Cultural norms Formal policies
prescriptive solutions, the OSP invites and exclusionary and
practices arrangements
organizations to create their own path
toward greater gender equality and social
justice. The program is typically an
18-month process, during which learn-
ing and group accountability are fostered Collective
through peer-learning workshops and
on-the-ground consulting support. The FRAMEWORK
program components, described below,
include Hearing Our Story, three Peer
Learning Workshops held approximately
six months apart, and a writing workshop. programs; and how women and men will be more comprehensive, effective, and
One-to-one consultations with partici­ live within their organization sustainable when change efforts focus on
pating o­ rganizations take place between »» how women and men live in the com- all four quadrants.
peer-learning workshops to support munities they serve The Experience Quadrant concerns the
the organization’s change initiatives. »» ideas for projects they might initiate to invisible, or interior, aspects of individual
During the program, partner organiza- improve gender relations either inside consciousness. It focuses on women’s and
tions strategically analyze what inhibits their organization or in a community in men’s knowledge of and commitment
women’s full participation in their com- which they operate to change toward equality and women’s
munities and organizations and craft rights, and willingness to take action to
organizational change projects. Facilitation In addition, participants are introduced empower women. The Behaviour Quad-
teams typically consist of three consul- to two key practices underlying the OSP rant is the external view, what we can see
tants. Two are usually local and skilled in practices. The first is derived from the OSP and measure of individual consciousness.
Framework, a deceptively simple four-
gender equality. The third is t­ ypically from It focuses on women’s access to resources
outside, i.e., Canada or South Africa, who quadrant model based on Ken Wilber’s such as health, education, or leadership
brings organization development practices Integral Model, which enables organiza- positions. The Systems Quadrant is about
and skills. tions to quickly assess where they put their the institutional and collective aspects
attention and energy (Wilber, 1996; Rao & of consciousness. It concerns formal
Hearing Our Stories: The program begins Kelleher, 2009; Hochachka, 2009). arrangements, including laws, poli-
with a two-day workshop for an OSP facili- The Framework distinguishes two cies, strategies, and budgets. Finally, the
tation team and a three-member organi- polarities: 1) individual and collective Culture Quadrant concerns the interior of
zation change team at the organization’s experience; and 2) hidden and visible collective experience. It focuses on tradi-
office. This meeting invites participants to experience. Constructing a matrix by tions, norms, and practices that shape
experience and reflect upon how gendered combining the two polarities produces four how women and men are treated by each
realities are an integral part of everyday quadrants, or lenses, that guide explora- other and their communities, such as how
organizational life. tion of complex issues (see Figure 1). Many women are excluded from exercising their
During this meeting, using storytelling proposed solutions to gender inequality rights even when constitutions or laws
and collages, the participants reflect on: focus on only one quadrant, or perhaps mandate equality.
»» the organization’s history, culture, and two. Our hypothesis is that interventions The Framework helps organizations

12 OD PRACTITIONER  Vol. 43 No. 1  2011

more fully address the complexity of long
standing social and cultural issues. They
use it by exploring unexamined assump-
tions individuals hold, as well as the
cultural biases and traditions reinforced
by organization and community culture.
The second practice underlying the OSP
is the use of physical movement. Our
hypothesis is that given the high incidence
of violence against women and other forms
of trauma from living in poverty and under
repressive governments, not addressing the
trauma and how it is carried in the body
perpetuates helplessness and fear of taking
action. A body grown numb from trauma
demobilizes the person, withers her spirit.
The practices we use interweave a mixture
of Tai Chi, meditation, finger holds (hold-
ing each finger for a few minutes by wrap-
ping the opposite hand around each of the
fingers), singing, and dancing to work with
the physical energy of the group. These
Capacitar Practices developed by Patricia
Cane as part of a popular education frame-
work (Freire, 1970) were initially intended
for use with poor communities needing
to heal from various traumas (political,
economic, environmental, wars, and so on)
(Cane, 2005). The practices balance one’s
sense of self through movement and build
personal strength to help women and men
address years of powerlessness. These
simple and powerful practices enhance
individual capacity for personal transforma-
tion, which in turn assists broader organi-
zational and social transformations (Cane,
2005; Friedman, 2010).
The OSP then unfolds with three
peer learning workshops, one-to-one
consultations with organizations between
peer-meetings, and a writing workshop at
the end.
The First Peer Learning Workshop: The
first peer-learning workshop brings
together change teams from five to eight
organizations (12–24 individuals). Partici-
pants learn how to use the OSP Framework
as an analytical and action planning tool.
Facilitators support each organization
in developing plans for change projects.
Through peer-learning meetings—small
subgroups consisting of members from
2 to 3 organizations—participants chal- participants in developing deeper insight
lenge existing perceptions and encourage and understanding of the issues that
each other to develop perspectives on their emerged during the change projects. Par-
own organizations, their proposed change ticipants work together to develop a theory
project, and the communities they serve. of change methods to assess their progress
Following the workshop, participants work towards greater gender equality.
for six to eight months to implement their
change projects, supported by an OSP The Writing Workshop: Writing is a power-
ful means of undoing the silence built up
facilitator who visits them at their organiza-
tional setting. from years of exclusion. Writing about
experiences during the OSP helps partici-
The Second Peer Learning Workshop: pants discover a personal sense of power.
During the second peer learning workshop, Specifically, many women participating in
change teams share what they have done. the program have not been in the position
Our hypothesis is that given the high incidence of violence
against women and other forms of trauma from living in poverty
and under repressive governments, not addressing the trauma
and how it is carried in the body perpetuates helplessness
and fear of taking action. A body grown numb from trauma
demobilizes the person, withers her spirit. The practices we
use interweave a mixture of Tai Chi, meditation, finger holds
(holding each finger for a few minutes by wrapping the opposite
hand around each of the fingers), singing, and dancing to work
with the physical energy of the group.
Some teams have been unable to change of expressing their thinking in a way that
anything. Other teams have altered and gets read and listened to. Writing prac-
sharpened the focus of their change proj- tice begins during the first peer-learning
ects. All reflect on lessons learned, and get where participants are encouraged to write,
advice from their peers and the OSP facili- without editing, about their experiences,
tation team. Facilitators introduce concepts their learning, and their observations. This
and processes for use in working with is private writing; only participants wishing
personal and organizational power, help to share their writings with others read to
participants deepen their peer-learning the group. The writing process develops
practice, and support the use of the OSP with participants telling one another a story
Framework to assess their organization or two representing their most significant
and change project. Finally, change teams change experience during the program.
revise their projects based on their insights Participants use their stories to identify
and advice received. During the next six what makes a compelling story, they work
months, change teams continue their work, individually and in small groups to embel-
supported by an OSP facilitator. lish, revise, and edit their stories. The
workshop concludes with a final reading
The Third Peer Learning Workshop: The of the stories.
third peer learning workshop invites
participants to tell stories of their change ADMAS Case Study
process and to identify factors responsible
for what they’ve changed. Where relevant, The following case study provides a brief
the facilitation team provides ideas to assist description of how we used the OSP with
A Holistic Approach to Gender Equality and Social Justice 13
ADMAS in 2007. ADMAS was one of six
organizations from Ethiopia, Sudan, and
Somaliland that participated in an OSP
between 2007 and 2009 (Friedman &
Kelleher, 2009). ADMAS is a network of
seven founding community based orga-
nizations (CBOs) in Dire Dawe a town
in Eastern Ethiopia. As of early 2007,
the network had about 3000 members,
two-thirds of whom were women. All
their members are poor and represent
the most disadvantaged segments of the
local community. Membership is diverse,
including people from different ethnic
and religious groupings. The network
employs about 25 finance officers, with a
large portion of its activities undertaken
by volunteers. Since its founding, ADMAS
has expanded beyond the core activity of
providing access to income (through sav-
ings and credit) to include access to legal
and emotional support, information, and
vocational training.
Organization-Strengthening
Program Activities
When Gender at Work began working
with ADMAS in 2007, the network was
already involved in building relationships
between affiliated CBOs to facilitate shar-
ing of experience and learning among their strategy to identifying the misconcep-
­membership. The network would raise
awareness among members to help them
better understand their roles and respon-
sibilities in changing the circumstances
of poverty.
Before the OSP started, ADMAS mem- to the issue of gender equality and it
bers were addressing problematic, gender
injustice related issues in the Dire Dawe
area. For example, some of the association
members were paying visits to families to
encourage them to provide education for
their daughters, who were regularly pre-
vented from attending school. The Associa- »» providing an educational forum in the
tion was also working on the consequences
of social injustice, but had been unable to
challenge the root causes that underpin the
injustice. ADMAS hoped the OSP would
assist it to break through cycles of injustice, »» collecting and discussing traditional
and address other factors that contribute to
HIV, poverty, and violence.
At the Hearing the Stories workshop,
the team said they wanted to focus on
14 OD PRACTITIONER  Vol. 43 No. 1  2011
addressing gender-based violence. Their
initial thinking was to build a greater
awareness of gender equality between
women and men in the broader commu-
nity, and to expand existing membership
to better access credit and saving. Within
the communities they serve, they proposed
using a paralegal model, with external
experts and women lawyers. They intended
to take an advocacy focus, targeting policy
makers and government to implement
existing laws and policies with respect to
women’s property rights.
At the first peer-learning event, the
ADMAS team showed a shift in aware-
ness by articulating their goal as follows:
to create a core group of change agents
and a critical mass of individuals who
believe in the need for, and take part in,
raising awareness about gender equality.
Their vision for their work after 5 years was
that in parts of Dire Dawe there would be
gender equality. Their vision for 18 months
was seeing the core change agents trans-
form themselves, their families, CBOs, and
their neighbors.
The ADMAS strategy included
face-to-face dialogue, employing great
respect and understanding of diverse
cultural factors. Initially they started
with gender equality but changed their
tions and root causes of g ­ ender inequal-
ity. “We did this,” said a change team
member, “because Dire Dawe is a big
city and is exposed to a ­number of media
influences. People are already exposed
didn’t work much in terms of chang-
ing the behavior of the people. So we
shifted our strategy towards i­ dentifying
the root causes and decided [to work]
with people in changing their hearts and
minds.” Their activities included:
seven CBO offices
»» facilitating learning forums for 245
members (35 members from each of
the seven CBOs)
proverbs, folklores, stories, and songs
that influence gender relations—
classified­into cultural, religious, and
social norms
Ultimately, ADMAS trained 140 change
agents (60 women and 40 men) and
chose to give them freedom to facilitate
change conversations in whatever way
made sense to them. The network sup-
ported the change agents by facilitating
monthly reflection and dialogue meetings
during which change agents could discuss
their experiences.
There were no formal guidelines to
direct the change agent led conversations.
Rather, they drew upon their initial in-
depth and detailed reflections where they
examined myths, proverbs, and miscon-
ceptions. They also used personal stories
and inputs from religious leaders. It was
assumed that after this depth of discussion
the change agents would feel able to facili-
tate similar kinds of conversations in their
communities. This assumption seems to
have been borne out. The important point
is that they were not obliged to conduct for-
mal training sessions. They could have con-
versations anywhere and in whatever way
would engage the people they were talking
to. Some started with real-life problems—a
husband beating a wife; others started with
reflecting on stories that had been written
about in a newspaper, a sister complain-
ing she was unhappy with her husband
and so on.
Organization-Strengthening
Program Results
At the end of the program, the ADMAS
change team reported changes they felt
to be significant. Changes are organized
according the four quadrants of the OSP
Framework. Ideas in one quadrant are
entangled in other quadrants; what’s
important is the conversation that gets
generated by exploring the holistic nature
of the change.
Individual–Experience and Behavior
Quadrants: At the individual level, change
team members shifted their awareness
of themselves and their own capacity to
achieve a desired goal. In particular, they
shifted their goal from an expansive plan
using external resources, books, women
lawyers, and expert facilitators, to using
their own skills and resources. In the
process they cultivated a much greater
sense of independence and confidence,
including the c­ apacity to develop their
own policies based on their lessons and
experiences. The 140 plus change agents
experienced changes at an individual level:
in gaining access to new facilitation and
leadership roles; and in their newfound
confidence, competence, and ability to take
initiative. Finally, change team members
reported the role of Capacitar Practices was
striking. From the first meeting, ADMAS
members were enthusiastic about what
they called the “sports.” Some of their
members have integrated into their daily
lives regular use of various Capacitar Prac-
tices. They m­ aintain that these practices
have helped them keep alive high levels
of hope and well being, as well as an
ability to let go of difficult and traumatic
emotional experiences.
Systems Quadrants–In the Organization:
The change team’s shift from focusing on
the Association lobbying external paralegal
services (courts, law, justice) to developing
a critical mass of change agents signifies
a broadening in collective consciousness
about what actions are possible, and their
collective confidence in their ability to take
successful action. Other organizational
changes have included building stronger
relationships in the broader community,
increased capacity to work with diversity, an
enhanced ability to hold reflective conversa-
tions where multiple perspectives can be
heard and dissenting voices included, and
meaning jointly arrived at without a need
for agreements.
Although ADMAS always worked with
difference and diversity (e.g., Christian,
Muslim, Ethiopian, and Somali members),
they reported they were now working very
consciously with gender differences and
diversity. For example, they use group
norms to ensure that their change teams
contain both women and men (teams
started off with a majority of women,
and now have more or less equal num-
bers of women and men). Both women
and men are present when discussing
gender difficulties, or misconceptions.
Because different change agents work in
the monthly peer-learning spaces, they are
building relationships and learning across as the Government Women’s Bureau. For
different parts of the city and breaking example, this Bureau invited ADMAS to
down fragmentation and isolation between facilitate educational sessions for young
members from different CBOs. As one people and citizens in the city. There’s a
individual said: sense within ADMAS that organic growth
We learned to be true to ourselves— has been unleashed and is unlikely to stop.
when challenges appear we are able The ADMAS team shared examples of
to open them up to dialogue and not norms being challenged and new norms
always say “we know“ and “must do it created amongst the larger community
this way.” There is openness to listen membership. For example, entrenched
to different opinions—if our [political] practices between women and men
leaders were like this we would live are giving way—husbands are sharing
in a different country. Both men and domestic responsibilities, men are being
women are taking responsibility in less violent with their wives, women are
leadership. acquiring property and other rights when
There is collective support for women members when men are
abusive. For example, the community boycotted a man who
took the money his wife had received from the credit program.
Finally, women are increasingly being recognized and valued
as leaders—both as facilitators of dialogic conversations as
well as network leaders in their own right.
Most importantly, the nature of power divorcing, and more parents are sending
and the relationship between the ADMAS their daughters to school. Members are
board and its members in the various challenging and holding each other to
CBOs has been changed by the role change account when they use derogatory terms
agents took on over the time of the OSP. and proverbs. They are encouraging each
Previously the network struggled to sustain other to use more positive expressions and
an active and engaged membership; now to engage with religious scripture more
the change agents have become much critically. There is collective support for
more committed, responsible, and engaged women members when men are abusive.
network members. By the end of the For example, the community boycotted
process ADMAS was working on a gender a man who took the money his wife had
policy, which included guidance for their received from the credit program. Finally,
work with members, as well as a workplace women are increasingly being recognized
policy that would outline women’s and and valued as leaders—both as facilitators
men’s rights, organizational values, and a of dialogic conversations as well as network
vision with respect to gender equality. It leaders in their own right.
is worth noting here that the confidence By building on its own strengths and
gained from the process strongly influ- taking maximum advantage of its partici-
enced ADMAS’ desire and capacity to pation in the OSP, ADMAS has become a
develop their own gender policy without much more effective actor in the spheres of
requiring external help or needing to copy gender equality and social justice.
other organizations’ policy examples.
What Can Be Done to Scale Up and Sustain
Cultural Quadrant—In the Community: Progress on Gender Equality
ADMAS is now recognized as a valuable
player in the development sector; they are The OSP challenges the meaning of gender
engaging more as an actor rather than equality as limited to gender audits and
receiver or beneficiary of other actors, such quantitative measures. This is a far from
A Holistic Approach to Gender Equality and Social Justice 15
 Michel Friedman has worked for
twenty years as a feminist activist
supporting NGOs and CBOs to
The OSP challenges the meaning of gender equality as limited create cultures of equality and
justice. She is a Senior Associate
to gender audits and quantitative measures. This is a far from with Gender at Work. She can be
straightforward process, and a key question is: how sustainable reached at michel.friedman1007@
and scalable are the gains made by participating organizations, gmail.com.

such as ADMAS? Our suspicion is that it is critical to create
supportive structures under which those involved in addressing
gender equality can meet, share learning, and develop new
approaches to societal change.
straightforward process, and a key ques-
tion is: how sustainable and scalable are
the gains made by participating organiza-
tions, such as ADMAS? Our suspicion
is that it is critical to create supportive
structures under which those involved in
addressing gender equality can meet, share
learning, and develop new approaches to
societal change.
We have not yet begun to develop the
mechanisms for creating the kind of global
stewardship needed to address gender
equality more broadly. Such stewardship
would put to the test the often-quoted idea
to “think globally and act locally.” There are
numerous questions; among them: Does
stewardship imply building international
organizations that address gender issues to
counterweigh for the emphasis on eco-
nomic growth? Is such a broad stewardship
effort sufficient to address gender issues
that are essentially local? How can we
connect the power and accessibility of local
civil society organizations and faith-based
organization with stewardship at national
and/or international levels? What are the
design criteria for such a system and what
might such a system look like?
There are at least three design criteria
to consider for building a global learning
system capable of successfully addressing
in a sustainable manner the complexity of
gender inequality.
Peer Learning: As we’ve seen at the local
level, peer learning assists organizations
to reflect on what approaches are work-
ing and why; then using the insights
gained to guide future action. The same
could happen at a global level connecting
those organizations already working on
gender equality.
Bridge-Spanning Capability: This suggests
a system capable of bridging between civil
society, government, and for-profit organi-
zations and across sufficiently diverse con-
stituencies, jurisdictions, and disciplines
to equal the complexity of factors and
stakeholders keeping the current situation
in place.
Global Learning Platform: This suggests
a learning system capable of connecting
actors and activities at the local, national,
and international levels.
It is an open question whether or not orga-
nizations involved in addressing women’s
rights, donor’s who can support this work,
governments with their policy making and
enforcement mechanisms, and businesses
that generate opportunity and economic
power have the collective will, capability,
and understanding to make such global
stewardship for gender equality a reality.
Our work suggests there’s reason
to hope.
References
Cane, P. (2005). Living in wellness: a capaci-
tar trauma manual. Santa Cruz, CA:
Capacitar International.
Freire, P. (2000). Pedagogy of the oppressed.
New York, NY: Continuum.
Friedman, M., & Kelleher, D. (2009).
In their own idiom: Reflections on a
gender action learning program in the
horn of Africa. Retrieved from http://
Ray Gordezky has helped orga-
nizations and communities for
­twenty years to engage posi-
tively with the growing complexity
they face. He is a co-founder of
­Threshold Associates, an associ-
ate of Gender at Work, and serves
as a faculty member with the
­Canadian Organization Develop-
ment Institute. He can be reached
at ray@thresholdassociates.ca.
www.genderatwork.org/article/
in-their-own-idiom.
Friedman, M., & Meer, S. (2007). Change
is a slow dance. Retrieved from http://
www.genderatwork.org/article/
change-is-a-slow-dance.
Friedman, M. (2010). Becoming the change
you wish to see in the world. Retrieved
from http://www.genderatwork.org/
article/becoming-the-change-you-wish-
to-see-in-the-world-sep-2010.
Hochachka, G. (2009). Developing sustain-
ability, developing the self: An integral
approach to international & community
development. Retrieved from http://
www.drishti.ca/index.php?option=
com_content&view=article&id=8&Ite
mid=4.
Kelleher, D. (2009) Action learning for
gender equality. Retrieved from http://
www.genderatwork.org/article/
action-learning-for-gender-equality.
Rao, A., & Kelleher, S. (2005). Is there life
after gender mainstreaming? Gender
and Development, 13(2), 57-69. doi:
10.1080/13552070512331332287.
Wilber, K. (1996). A brief history of every-
thing. Boston, MA: Shambhala.

16 OD PRACTITIONER  Vol. 43 No. 1  2011

 “There are allusions in the mainstream literature to social entrepreneurs who use protest
tactics to put pressure on governments. Overwhelmingly, though, this literature ignores the
importance of grassroots action and dwells on the individual, portraying social change as a
highly atomized process. ”
Social Entrepreneurship
A Call for Collective Action
By Grace Davie Social entrepreneurship is a twenty-some-
thing year-old concept with a shifting and
contested set of meanings. The term most
often refers to someone who launches a
for-profit or nonprofit venture with a social
change agenda such as healthcare delivery
or job creation. Perhaps the classic example
is Muhammad Yunus who started the Gra-
meen Bank in Bangladesh. Now a global
business, it has given small loans to thou-
sands of poor people, primarily women,
previously thought to be bad credit risks.
Plan Puebla, the Highlander Research and
Education Center, and the Self-Employed
Women’s Association (SEWA) have also
been heralded as exemplars of social
innovation. These organizations “focus
explicitly on mobilizing existing assets of
marginalized groups to improve their lives,
rather than delivering outside resources
and services” (Alvord, Brown, & Letts,
2004, p 270). As Bill Drayton recently told
one interviewer, social entrepreneurs want
to transform entire systems: “you give
people fish, that’s good. Help them to learn
to fish, that’s a little better. But changing
the fishing industry, now that’s where the
real leverage is . . . that’s where entrepre-
neurs comes in” (Bloomberg TV, 2009).
Social entrepreneurship has rightly
been described as the latest fashion in
international development (Fowler, 2000).
It has made a mark on American foreign
policy discussions. The Obama administra-
tion held a Summit on Entrepreneurship
in 2009 intended to “highlight and support
business and social entrepreneurship
in Muslim majority countries” (High­
tower, 2009). Philanthropies and donor
Social Entrepreneurship: A Call for Collective Action
organizations facing tightening budgets
appear enthused about social entrepreneur-
ship’s market-friendly approach as opposed
to those approaches said to create donor
dependency. Some in the nonprofit world
are touting social entrepreneurship as a
“bold” career choice for idealistic youth
seeking personal satisfaction in their work
(Dorsey & Galinsky, 2006). Finally, social
entrepreneurship is gaining a foothold on
college campuses. Professors are challeng-
ing students to design creative solutions to
the world’s most pressing problems—from
violence and inequality to human traffick-
ing and environmental destruction.1
Social entrepreneurship presents
some great opportunities for higher
education, international development,
philanthropy, advocacy, and community
organizing. Yet it also presents some real
dilemmas. Can social entrepreneurship
live up to its proponents’ greatest expecta-
tions? Will it secure lasting support from
donors, corporate partners, and universi-
ties? How can educators ensure that their
discussions with students about social
transformation translate into excellent
research and appropriate conduct in the
field? What might the turn towards social
entrepreneurship mean for ongoing social
justice campaigns (especially those that
emphasize grass-roots participation as
opposed to individual initiatives)? How
can this new field win over progressives
1. See Ashoka’s Changemaker Campus initiative
(www.ashoka.org/changemakercampus) and
the Transformative Action Institute
(www.transformativeaction.org).
17
suspicious of corporate-sounding words
like “entrepreneur?” Do social entrepre-
neurship’s assumptions about the power
of business models to change the world
overlook the critical role of civil society, not
to mention the need to hold governments
and corporations accountable (Edwards,
2010)? And what is the message here about
accommodation versus agitation? Are
social entrepreneurs expected to cast down
their proverbial buckets where they are in
the harsh waters of privatization? More
definition is needed about the endeavor’s
paramount aims. This essay argues that
social entrepreneurs should rethink their
relationship with collective action; that they
should feel free to revisit old ideas while
also looking for new ones; and that they
would do well to either defend or reject the
field’s implicit assumptions about social
innovation and markets.
What is Social Entrepreneurship?
Most discussions of social entrepreneur-
ship begin with Bill Drayton. As an
assistant administrator at the United States
Environmental Protection Agency in the
1970s and early 1980s, Drayton helped
create the political conditions necessary
for legislative action to limit air pollution.
He then set out to find other strong-willed
individuals working to transform dys-
functional systems. Drayton scoured the
globe looking for people recognized by
their peers as problem-solvers. In 1980,
he established Ashoka: Innovators for the
Public, a grantmaking organization that
supports innovators and their pattern-
breaking solutions.
David Bornstein’s How to Change the
World: Social Entrepreneurs and the Power of
New Ideas (2004) compellingly describes
Drayton and several remarkable recipients
of Ashoka fellowships. Yet, the book also
relies on a common trope in the main-
stream literature: the social entrepreneur
as a special type of person. They are
described as passionate and imaginative,
unwilling to wait for governments or corpo-
rations to act, and determined to realize
their ideas despite all odds against them.
Social entrepreneurs often say they “just
can’t stand” to see things the way they are.
18 OD PRACTITIONER  Vol. 43 No. 1  2011
They become utterly possessed by their social entrepreneurship forever fetishizes
vision. As one Ashoka document explains, the new idea, the search for novelty will
social entrepreneurs have a “committed obscure the fact that meaningful social
vision and inexhaustible determination change might be achieved by securing the
to persist until they have transformed an political will needed to implement ordinary
entire system” (Light, 2006). good practice (2006, p. 49).
Similarly, Gregory Dees defines the The early meanings of “entrepreneur”
social entrepreneur as a “rare breed” (Dees, seem to haunt the term “social entrepre-
1998, p. 6). They are “one species in the neur.” In the early 1800s, Jean Baptiste
genus of entrepreneur [emphasis added]. Say first defined the entrepreneur as
They are entrepreneurs with a social mis- someone who embarks on a risk-strewn
sion” (Dees, 1998, p. 3). Not just anyone, quest to create value. In the early 1900s,
he suggests, should be able to self-identify Joseph Schumpeter expanded on this by
as a “social entrepreneur.” His defini- emphasizing the entrepreneur’s rarity as
What both sides of this debate ignore, however, are the
“neo-liberal” assumptions underlying the entire paradigm.
Whether one sees social entrepreneurs as a rare breed of
individuals adept at the mysterious arts of social alchemy, or
whether one prefers a looser definition that includes
organizations and individuals, the mainstream definitions
presume that social entrepreneurs create “value” and that
their ideas must find their place within markets.
tion “preserves their distinctive status well as the newness of his ideas. Martin
and assures that social entrepreneurship and Osberg echo Say and Schumpter
will not be treated lightly.” Dees’s vaguely when they describe social entrepreneurs
taxonomic language implies that the social as few and far between. They have called
entrepreneur’s abilities are innate not for a “rigorous” (read “narrow”) defini-
learned; that gatekeepers are guarding the tion of social entrepreneurship. The social
field; and that only individuals qualify as entrepreneur is someone who “creates a
social entrepreneurs, not groups. new stable equilibrium, one that provides
Paul Light has tried to broaden the def- meaningfully higher levels of satisfac-
inition of the social entrepreneur, warning tion for the participants in the system . . .
that a narrow focus on the individual can the entrepreneur engineers a permanent
produce a “cult of personality,” such that shift from a lower-quality equilibrium to
worthy people and innovative organizations a higher-quality one” (2007, p. 34). Using
are refused needed support (2006). Light the creators of eBay as their example, they
advises researchers and donors to keep an describe social entrepreneurs as creating
open mind by studying how social innova- “a powerful ecosystem that simply [can’t] be
tion happens instead of assuming it takes dissembled.” The “delta between the quality
a rare breed. In other words, if we focus of the old equilibrium and the new one [is]
too much on the rugged individual we risk huge” (2007, p. 34). Social entrepreneurs
overlooking the importance of teachable not only pursue their vision “relentlessly,”
skills, such as knowing how to mobilize they catalyze an irreversible reaction with a
public support for a proposal and how measurable “delta.”
to get things done within organizations Debates about how to define the social
(Light, 2006, p. 48). And, if the field of entrepreneur are important insofar as
they determine where this promising new
field is going and under what size tent.
Dees recommends an exclusive definition
while Light calls for a more inclusive one.
What both sides of this debate ignore,
however, are the “neo-liberal” assumptions
underlying the entire paradigm. Whether
one sees social entrepreneurs as a rare
breed of individuals adept at the mysteri-
ous arts of social alchemy, or whether one
prefers a looser definition that includes
organizations and individuals, the main-
stream definitions presume that social
entrepreneurs create “value” and that their
ideas must find their place within mar-
kets. Moreover, the mainstream literature
accepts the premise that even the best ideas
for social change must be sellable. Social
entrepreneurs are described as uniquely
talented at winning converts, overcom-
ing resistance, and producing demand
for their innovations. (See, for example,
Bornstein’s profile of UNICEF’s tireless
child-health-care visionary, James P. Grant.)
The mainstream literature alludes to the
entanglements of culture, the dangers of
political risk-taking, and the inheritances
of history. Yet the drama always plays out
on the stage of m­ arkets, which, however
flexible, ultimately decide if the social
entrepreneur’s idea will take hold. It is not
policies that must be changed or dogmas
overturned but markets that must be dis-
covered and exploited.
Critiques of Social Entrepreneurship
A few voices have expressed alarm about
this and questioned what the turn to
social entrepreneurship means for social
justice movements, international develop-
ment, governance, and the “global South.”
Writing from a NGO background, Alan
Fowler contends that “civic innovation”
offers a better development paradigm than
social entrepreneurship. He presents civic
innovation as authentic, since its inspira-
tion comes from the public, while social
entrepreneurs simply “commercialize their
initiatives” (2000, p. 647).
Civic innovation’s focus is on popular
engagement rather than enterprise,
allied to a mobilization of resources
from within the citizen base. It draws access to goods and services that should be
on relational life that people know and rights, not commodities” (p. 23).
trust and takes this forward in new Farmer also objects to social entrepre-
ways to deal with new problems in the neurship’s infatuation with the new. Train-
dynamic context in which people live ing community health workers to prevent
(2000, p. 648). disease among the poor, for instance, is an
old idea, he points out. In South Africa, the
Fowler sees social entrepreneurship as place where I do my research, community
“strongly informed by the current ‘priva- health workers were proven capable of
tization’ climate in the North” (p. 645). making a major impact on public health as
Nongovernmental organizations are now early as the 1940s. The problem was that
expected to “generate value-added, not to advocates of community-based healthcare
create reform.” They do not “produce social failed to secure adequate state support to
benefits, but services. They are working make these health workers as effective as
for ‘clients’ with needs, not constituen- they could be. As Farmer reminds us, even
cies with interests” (p. 643). Conversely, with persistent lobbying, governments and
Fowler would like to see changes in “how other powerful interest groups often cannot
the North works and behaves towards other be convinced to invest in needed social
economies and societies,” something he innovations unless put under pressure. The
implies social entrepreneurs cannot accom- failure of community healthcare to take off
plish (p. 651). when the idea was first proposed in South
Fowler’s “North–South” language with Africa means that extraordinary people like
its inevitable ring of righteous indignation AIDS-home-care activist Veronica Khosa
immediately places his critique in tension must now essentially reinvent the wheel
with the mainstream literature’s cheerier, (Bornstein, 2004).
can-do tone. Notably, he offers no practical The crux of Farmer’s critique resides
specifics about how global North–South in a metaphor: the social justice bus. Pro-
relations might be reformed (something ponents of social entrepreneurship need to
promoters of social entrepreneurship get on the bus, he insists. Only the social
would surely want to see spelled out). justice movement can ensure that health
Nevertheless, his criticism of social entre- care, jobs, food, water, education, and
preneurship’s willingness to go along with other things deemed essential to a life with
free-market principles and the decentraliza- dignity are treated, not as commodities, but
tion of social welfare services, no matter as basic human rights that must be made
what the problem at hand, is one worth available to all. Farmer exhorts us not to
taking seriously. ignore that “only governments can confer
Health activist Paul Farmer has made rights . . . nongovernment organizations,
a similar argument. Rather than calling universities, foundations, and forward-
for the empowerment of civil society, he thinking businesses are not, alas, in the
calls on social entrepreneurs to join the business of conferring rights” (p. 24).
social justice movement. Business models Social entrepreneurs can lend their talents
just don’t apply everywhere, he says. It is to the struggle to ensure that all people
disturbing that social entrepreneurs are have a chance to have a decent life. But
lauded for doing what governments ought social entrepreneurship cannot substitute
to do: “we live in an era in which simply for this struggle.
seeking to provide high-quality medical These definitions have consequences.
care to the world’s poorest is considered Rejecting “social entrepreneurship” in
innovative and entrepreneurial [emphasis favor of “civic innovation” would result
added]” (2009, p. 23). Farmer confesses in a development industry that is respon-
that this makes him “wince.” The talk sive to grassroots NGOs. Alternatively, a
about “clients,” “products,” and “sustain- definition that emphasizes rare personal
ability” perpetuates the idea that markets traits would give foundations, funders, and
can solve all problems. The lingo of service- other gatekeepers the discretion to decide
delivery “can be used to deny the destitute who qualifies and who doesn’t. Conversely,
Social Entrepreneurship: A Call for Collective Action 19
a definition that deems social entrepre-
neurship something that can be learned
rather than an innate ability would benefit
teachers and institutions of higher educa-
tion seeking to generate student interest,
alumni support, and academic distinction.
Farmer’s perspective is refreshing because
he cares little about the field per se, but he
obviously cares deeply about persuading
people to do the right thing. Farmer writes:
“We need hope and energy to tackle the
diseases that should have been wiped out
decades ago” (p. 27). And Farmer identi-
fies what is clearly missing from current
discussions of social entrepreneurship: an
overt political agenda.
The Missing Piece
Social entrepreneurs tend to accept that
the world’s cards have already been dealt.
They appear to be uninterested in linger-
ing over the past. And they often say they
aren’t willing to “wait for the revolution,”
a phrase that gestures simultaneously
towards class revolution, green revolution,
and other “utopian” visions. I agree that
the daunting realities our world faces today
should not be ignored while we fantasize
about radically different futures, peopled
by enlightened leaders and enlightened
publics. With refreshing urgency, the
social entrepreneurship movement insists
that individuals must act now. We need
to “be the change” we want to see in the
world, as M. K. Gandhi­famously put it.
The social entrepreneur’s role is to show
others, including governments, that better
approaches are both workable and scalable.
What I have not heard proponents of
social entrepreneurship express, however,
is an overarching strategy aimed at promot-
ing structural change though movement-
building. Personally, I would like to see
more social entrepreneurs engage in
advocacy. There are allusions in the main-
stream literature to social entrepreneurs
who use protest tactics to put pressure on
governments. Overwhelmingly, though,
this literature ignores the importance of
grassroots action and dwells on the indi-
vidual, portraying social change as a highly
atomized process.
To be clear, there are exceptions. One
20 OD PRACTITIONER  Vol. 43 No. 1  2011
recent study stands out. Harvard research-
ers have compared several social-change
organizations, including Highlander and
SEWA, and concluded that the most effec-
tive were those that went beyond dissemi-
nating a new technology or a new skill and
engaged in politically transformative move-
ment-building (Alvord, Brown, & Letts,
2004). These organizations also enjoyed
the advantages of operating in democratic
countries that tolerate their methods.
Although we should not romanti-
cize social movements or assume that
civic engagement is a cure-all, my strong
sense is that the profoundly revolution-
ary changes social entrepreneurs envi-
sion are probably changes that could only
transpire on a large scale when historically
oppressed people grasp their latent power
and band together to compel powerful
groups to meet their demands. As some
of the world’s most inspiring nonviolent
activists have shown, this is best done by
making everyone feel they share a com-
mon destiny, that we are bound together by
insoluble bonds of human-mutual respon-
sibility, obligations of the spirit, and that
right actions and right principles must be
embraced and lived out without regard for
personal gain or personal shame.
Bornstein’s authorial choices are rel-
evant here. He doesn’t paper over Ashoka’s
political missteps in South Africa or
Nigeria, where the organization struggled
initially to win legitimacy. Still, I wonder
if Bornstein played it too safe. Many of the
changemakers he profiles attack injustices
affecting children, the ill, and the disabled,
which allows him to skirt the problem of
readers who might suspect that “able-bod-
ied” adults can, to some extent, be blamed
for their plight. Moreover, the only chapter
he devotes to a protest movement focuses
on India’s Disability Rights Movement, a
group unfamiliar to North American read-
ers, his likely target-audience. Bornstein
describes Javed Abidi’s realizations in the
early 1990s that people with disabilities in
India would only be able to prevail over the
physical and cultural barriers they faced
if state policies changed. Seeing the need
to lobby the government, Abidi organized
a protest to convince Parliament to pass a
disability bill.
The photograph of this rally raised
questions for me. We see Abidi in a wheel
chair with his fist in the air. He is flanked
by four other wheel-chair-using protestors
and a number of men and women, some
walking, some clearly limping. India’s
national federations for the deaf and the
blind are also represented. Someone holds
a placard calling for the speedy implemen-
tation of a proposed disability bill. One
placard reads: “give us jobs.”
With Farmer’s critique in mind, this
image reminded me of a photograph taken
amid South Africa’s 1973 Durban strikes
when African factory workers, angered
about low wages, stopped work. Thou-
sands of workers classed as “unskilled”
joined a general strike that disrupted the
city for over a week and slowed trade out
of Durban’s busy port. After these strikes,
Black workers reticent to join trade unions
after years of government repression began
to organize again for their rights. This
made way for the rebirth of South Africa’s
Black labor movement, which itself proved
critical in ending apartheid. Although the
visionary leadership of Mandela, Tutu,
and others was essential to the negoti-
ated settlement, so too was the collective
action of well-organized workers and civic
organizations whose collective action made
reform appear absolutely necessary. The
trade unions working in tandem with the
liberation movement convinced multi­
national corporations and other onlookers
of the perils of leaving the regime to its
own devices.
These two photographs are strikingly
different in terms of their likely impact
on viewers. In the image of the Durban
strikers, we see muscular laborers wear-
ing tattered work garb and marching with
smiling faces and spear-like sticks raised
above their heads. One Indian man appears
to join the march, perhaps a store-clerk
or a trader. This image would have been
extremely threatening to White newspaper
readers in the late-apartheid period. Not
only would it have hinted that the racially
classified might one day unite against
the government’s divide-and-rule tactics,
it would have conveyed to White South
Africans the uncertainty of their privileges.
For years, the government had successfully
propped up White (and to a lesser degree
Mixed-race) living standards through dis-
criminatory wage scales, grossly unequal
pensions, segregated schools and neigh-
borhoods, and the migrant labor system,
which relied on poor African households
in rural areas to supply cheap labor to the
cities and the mines. Whites looking at this
image would have been compelled to con-
sider the possibility that their control over
the engines of government and industry
might one day succumb under the pressure
of social unrest.
Granted, there are voices in the field that acknowledge the
importance of social movements. Some of their writings
offer a needed correction to the mainstream literature’s near
deification of the social entrepreneur as a rare and special type.
Nonetheless, the field could go much farther . . .
By contrast, the photograph of the
disability rights march in India would
probably not make North American readers
today feel the least bit threatened. (I’m not
sure about Indian readers.) It is not a pic-
ture of poor people demanding concessions
from the wealthy. The protestors look like
professionals and intellectuals. The image
does not ask North American readers to
contemplate an adjustment in their own
lifestyle. For me, this image underscores
the tameness of the mainstream literature.
This literature eschews militant activism.
It depicts collective protest as a useful
supplement to the work of the social entre-
preneur, but stops far short of suggesting
that collective action ought to be central to
their mission.
To give another example, Dorsey and
Galinsky discuss Teach for America, an
organization established in 1985 by college
student Wendy Kopp, in their book, Be
Bold: Create a Career with Impact (2006).
In the mid-2000s, Teach for America was
placing over 4,000 young teachers a year
in struggling schools. The book calls it a
“movement” changing America’s national
consciousness. Be Bold also profiles Karen
Tse, the founder of an organization dedi-
cated to advancing human rights in devel-
oping countries through education and
rights-advertising. Tse recalls the moment
she recognized the need to forge a “united
front” against human rights abuses (p. 35).
And, the book quotes City Year co-founder
Michael Brown: “If you’re involved in the
social sector, you need to stay involved
in the larger social change objective. You
need to leverage your work from a policy
perspective” (p. 51). We hear social entre-
preneurs talking about their individual ven-
tures as part of broader social movements
and larger human rights campaigns. We
see them striving to influence government
policy. Nonetheless, there is no indication
that social entrepreneurs might one day
attempt to build broad popular support for
a shared plan of action if the problems that
concern them remain unsolved.
Be Bold is published by Echoing
Green, a grant-making NGO modeled after
Ashoka. The book’s purpose is to inspire
young people to “think big” when consid-
ering a career in the nonprofit sector. I
wonder, though, if this book actually gives
young readers the misleading impression
that social change is synonymous with
self-discovery; that changing the world is
really about finding the pluck to pursue
one’s dreams: “the people profiled in Be
Bold prove that there is not one path to
your goal. There is only your way” (Dorsey
& Galinsky, 2006, p. 94). Unfortunately,
this representation of social change
ignores the alternative possibility that
young people with the gumption to “be
bold” might pool their energies with other
like-minded people. Social entrepreneur-
ship as it exists today appears to have no
answer to the question of how collective
action should figure in the fight to address
today’s most pressing problems. Granted,
there are voices in the field that acknowl-
edge the importance of social movements.
Some of their writings offer a needed
Social Entrepreneurship: A Call for Collective Action
correction to the mainstream literature’s
near deification of the social entrepreneur
as a rare and special type. Nonetheless, the
field could go much farther, I believe, by
explicitly encouraging collective action as
Scott Sherman has done in his bid to bring
social entrepreneurship under the rubric of
“transformative action.”
Transformative Action
A provocative alternative to the mainstream
literature can be found in the growing
corpus of essays and teaching manuals
written by Scott Sherman. He and his col-
leagues are now promoting what they call
“transformative action,” a combination of
non­violence, social entrepreneurship, and
positive psychology—three mutually sup-
portive pillars. First, to change the world
you must have the courage to speak out
against injustice and the ability to persuade
others not to participate in dehuman-
izing and destructive systems. This is
what Gandhi, King, and other proponents
of nonviolence advocated. Nonviolence,
wrote King, “seeks to attack the evil system
rather than the individuals who happen
to be caught up in the system. . . . It not
only avoids external violence or external
physical violence but also internal violence
of spirit” (1957, pp. 12–13). Desmond Tutu
makes a similar point about reconciliation
in post-conflict situations, where “the cen-
tral concern is not retribution or punish-
ment . . . the central concern is the healing
of breaches, the redressing of imbalances,
the restoration of broken relationships,
a seeking to rehabilitate both the victim
and the perpetrator, who should be given
the opportunity to be reintegrated into the
community” (2000, p. 55).
The second pillar of transformative
action is offering one’s would-be opponents
persuasive evidence that concrete advance-
ments can indeed be made over the status
quo. This is where social entrepreneurship
comes in (although nonviolence also offers
many examples of leaders who persuaded
people that alternatives were possible). “In
any constructive program,” writes Sher-
man, “there must be positive creative goals.
Normally, revolutions are reacting to the
problems of the past—trying to overthrow
21
some unjust social order. But transforma- aims it could pave the way for important the dictates of current antipathies towards
tive revolutions look towards creating a conversations about the possibility of col- big government? Does this model too
better future” (p. 15). The visionary’s job is lective action. It seems a shame not to have readily accept the assumption that the
not just to tear down but to build up—to this conversation since there are so many state should play a minimal role in man­
design something different, inclusive, people, especially young people, enthused aging society while giving a maximal
and inviting. about social entrepreneurship. This silence role to the market and to bootstrapping
The third pillar involves something poses a particular problem for aspiring ­individuals? Might social entrepreneur-
akin to self-care. The successful change- social innovators, it seems to me, because ship end up functioning like what James
maker must not become burnt-out, it leaves them vulnerable to the influence ­Ferguson has called an “anti-politics
depressed, egomaniacal, or caustically of powerful institutions that are very clear machine” (1994)? (Ferguson examined
angry. “[T]ransformative action theory pos- about their ultimate objectives and will development agencies in Lesotho, South
tulates that anger, while effective in mobi- readily use all available resources and Africa in the 1980s, where NGOs helped
lizing a social movement, will not be very people, including social entrepreneurs, to to authorize all kinds of interventions
effective in actually solving the problem” (p. advance their aims. in society while remaining silent about
­apartheid and ignoring inequalities per-
petuated by labor migration.) Will social
My lingering question is this: Is there an unstated or entrepreneurs, like development experts
inadequately articulated set of long-term goals that could in Lesotho, ignore entrenched relations
of power?
be brought to the surface? What would transformative action My intention here is to be constructive,
look like if it were taken to the next level—the level of a not dismissive. Social entrepreneurship
is an exciting phenomenon. I only wish
potentially powerful mass movement? What foundational for greater clarity about the field’s politics,
principles are we being asked to build upon and how do values, and ultimate goals. My recom-
mendation would be that proponents of
those link to practical next-steps? These principles and social entrepreneurship continue to work
goals need not be dictated from the leaders. to empower those living closest to today’s
major social and economic problems, while
also striving to change the “systems, struc-
13). Sherman draws on the cross-cultural­ Certainly, the appearance of ideo- tures, values, and relationships that prevent
and neurobiological studies of happiness logical neutrality can be useful to a new most of the world’s population from
conducted in the last two decades which field seeking credibility and institutional participating equally in the fruits of global
suggests that people are more fulfilled and staying power. Of course, diplomacy is progress” (Edwards, 2009, p.10). If social
more effective in their work when they act always important. But isn’t there a dan- entrepreneurs listened to and learned from
altruistically and practice the art of content- ger that social entrepreneurship might historically disempowered people and built
ment. The changemaker’s batteries must get hijacked, or that it could splinter into upon upon their social-change agendas,
somehow get recharged. an ever increasing number of directions, this to me would represent a truly bold
My lingering question is this: Is there never effectively speaking with one voice? contribution to community organizing,
an unstated or inadequately articulated set Is transformative action still too accommo- international development, advocacy, and
of long-term goals that could be brought dating of the “neo-liberal” ethos that made higher education.
to the surface? What would transformative Farmer cringe? Is it too accepting of the
action look like if it were taken to the next premise that education, access to health- References
level—the level of a potentially power- care, electricity, housing, etc. are “services”
ful mass movement? What foundational to be delivered rather than basic human Alvord, S., Brown, D., & Letts, C. (2004).
principles are we being asked to build upon rights? If so, such an acceptance would Social entrepreneurship and societal
and how do those link to practical next- smack of what Karl Polanyi described as transformation: An exploratory study.
steps? These principles and goals need not commodified citizenship, a situation in Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 40
be dictated from the leaders. But they could which rights are reduced to what can be (260), 260-282.
be openly discussed and vocalized by the secured in exchange for participation in the Bornstein, D. (2004). How to change the
larger social entrepreneurship/transforma- market and so-called “social rights” are off world: Social entrepreneurs and the power
tive action community. Perhaps if Sherman the table (1944). of new ideas. Oxford: Oxford University
and his colleagues, along with other lead- To be a social entrepreneur in the Press.
ing advocates of social entrepreneurship, United States today, must you limit your Dees, J. D. (1998). The meaning of “Social
were more transparent about their ultimate goals to ones that fit comfortably within Entrepreneurship.” Original Draft, 31

22 OD PRACTITIONER  Vol. 43 No. 1  2011


October. http://www.caseatduke.org/
documents/dees_sedef.pdf.
Dorsey, C., & Galinsky, L. (2006). Be bold:
Create a career with impact. New York:
Echoing Green.
Drayton, B. (2009, October 9). Interview
on Bloomberg TV.
Edwards, M. (2010). Small change: Why
business won’t save the world. San Fran-
cisco: Berret-Koehler.
Farmer, P. (2009). Three stories, three
paradigms, and a critique. Innovations
(Special Edition for the Skoll Forum):
19-27.
Ferguson, J. (1994). The anti-politics
machine: “Development,” depoliticization,
and bureaucratic power in Lesotho. Cam-
bridge: Cambridge University Press.
Fowler, A. (2000). NGDOs as a moment
in history: Beyond aid to social entre-
preneurship or civic innovation? Third
World Quarterly, 21 (4): 637-654.
Hightower, D. (2009, November 23). A
new beginning: President Obama’s
Entrepreneurship Summit. Foreign
Press Center Briefing, Washington DC.
King, M. L. Jr. (1991[1957]). The power of
nonviolence. In J. M. Washington (Ed.),
A testament of hope: The essential writings
and speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr.
(pp. 12 -15). New York: Harper Collins.
Light, P. C. (2006, fall). Reshaping social
entrepreneurship. Stanford Social Inno-
vation Review, 46-51.
Grace Davie received her PhD from
the University of Michigan in 2005.
She is now Assistant Professor of
Light, P. C. (2005). Searching for social
entrepreneurs: Who they might be, History at Queens College–CUNY
where they might be found, what they where she teaches courses on
do. Paper prepared for presentation at Africa, history and memory, and
the annual meeting of the Association the global history of nonviolence.
for Research on Nonprofit and Vol- She is the author of Baselines
untary Associations, November 12-18,
and Battle Lines: The Poverty
2005.
Martin, R. L., & Osberg, S. (2007, spring). Question and the Social Sciences
Social entrepreneurship: The case for in South Africa, 1890-2010 (forth-
definition. Stanford Social Innovation coming from Cambridge University
Review, 28-39. Press). Professor Davie’s current
Polanyi, K. (1944). The Great Transforma- research interests include social
tion: The political and economic origins of
transformation in contemporary
our time. Boston: Beacon Press.
Say, J. B. (2001 [1803]). A treaty on political Africa. She can be reached at
economy. New York: Transaction Press, grace.davie@qc.cuny.edu.
Schumpeter, J. (1989). Economic theory
and entrepreneurial history. In
R. Clemence (Ed.), Joseph Schumpeter,
Essays on entrepreneurs, innovations, busi-
ness cycles, and the evolution of capitalism
(pp. 253–271). Edison, NJ: Transaction
Publishers.
Sherman, S. How we win: The science of
solving society’s problems. Unpub-
lished Mansuscript
Tutu, D. (2000). No future without forgive-
ness. New York: Doubleday.
Social Entrepreneurship: A Call for Collective Action 23
 “While today a cloud of controversy swirls around academic circles about the impact of microcredit
on poverty, Yunus continues to stay the course and flourish as Managing Director at Grameen.
This article looks at the leadership and management style of Muhammad Yunus and explores what
can be learned about leading long-term change from his forty years at the Grameen Bank.”
Lessons from Muhammad Yunus
and the Grameen Bank
Leading Long-term Organizational Change Successfully
By Katharine Esty “There is nothing more difficult to
take in hand, more perilous to con-
duct, or more uncertain in its success,
than to take the lead in the introduc-
tion of a new order of things.”
— Niccolo Machiavelli
The Prince (1532)
I first met Muhammad Yunus in 1993
when I was consulting to UNICEF in Ban-
gladesh. I was wowed, mesmerized, and
bowled over. Here was a person who was
dedicating his life to eliminating poverty
and who had been able to transform an
experimental project to lend money to
the poorest of the poor into a huge and
thriving bank, the Grameen Bank, with
millions of borrowers across Bangladesh.
Yunus has successfully led the Bank since
1983. His model of small loans to the poor,
or microcredit, has been so successful
that people have come from all over the
world to sit at the feet of the Bangladeshi
banker and learn from him. Microcredit
has spread round the globe, and in 2006,
Yunus achieved worldwide recognition
when he received the Nobel Peace Prize.
While today a cloud of controversy swirls
around academic circles about the impact
of microcredit on poverty, Yunus continues
to stay the course and flourish as Man-
aging Director­at Grameen. This article
looks at the leadership and management
style of Muhammad Yunus and explores
what can be learned about leading long-
term change from his forty years at the
Grameen Bank.
I have been conducting research on
the leadership of Muhammad Yunus for
24 OD PRACTITIONER  Vol. 43 No. 1  2011
the last three years. When I went back to
Bangladesh in January 2010, I interviewed
him twice, for two hours each time. While
there, I also interviewed 14 others who
know Yunus in various capacities—people
who work at Grameen, two of his brothers,
and an editor of the English newspaper.
I had another interview with Yunus in
September 2010 in the US. I have also
interviewed about a dozen people here in
the US who worked with Yunus at vari-
ous periods of his long career. I have read
the four books authored by Yunus and a
number of books about the Grameen Bank.
I have also familiarized myself with many
of the current articles on microcredit and
microfinance.
From this research and supported by
the knowledge I gained from thirty years as
an organizational consultant, I have identi-
fied eight key actions that undergird the
successful leadership of Yunus for so many
years. I compare and contrast these factors
with John Kotter’s and Rosabeth Kanter’s
models of successful change and conclude
with some preliminary thoughts about
how leading successful long-term change
differs from leading more time-limited
change efforts.
Most of what has been written about
organizational change is about short-term
change: a new program, a merger, or a
restructuring effort. Less attention has
been given to what is necessary to lead
change successfully over the long haul.
It makes sense that, just as a marathon
requires quite different skills and abilities
than a sprint, so long-term change must
require a somewhat different skill set and
abilities than leading a change project or management team. When I interviewed a practices completely upside down. Not only
program with a one or two year time frame. number of the executives at the Grameen did he lend to the poor with no collateral,
Bank in Dhaka, I found most of them were which was unheard of, but also, when
The Leadership of Muhammad Yunus the original team going back to those first he discovered that women used loans
loans in Jobra. Of course, some have come to improve the situation of their family
In 1972, Yunus returned to Bangladesh and gone. His second in command and the more often than men did, he focused on
after eight years as a student and professor heir apparent for many years recently left lending to women. When he started out,
in the US and became a professor of eco- the bank. I was told he had appeared too only 2% of bank borrowers in Bangladesh
nomics. He had no intentions of becoming eager for Yunus to retire and he was edged were women. In the 1980s, women in
a banker. Bangladesh had been devastated out. Bangladeshi villages spent their lives in
by its War of Liberation and a famine The early years of his organization the confines of their family compounds
followed shortly thereafter. In his autobi- were rocky. In spite of Yunus’ impressive and many had never even touched money.
ography and again in an interview with results, none of the bankers in the region As the years passed, Yunus succeeded in
me, Yunus has told me how the faces of would help Yunus expand his experimental attracting women so that today 98% of the
silent starving people haunted him, and his
economic theories seemed like fairytales,
totally useless (Yunus, 1999; Interview, One day he lent some small amounts of money, less than
2010). He wanted desperately to be helpful.
In the nearby village of Jobra, he set up twenty-seven dollars in all, to forty-two impoverished villagers.
a cooperative with farmers and landown- To his surprise, they paid him back. He discovered over the
ers to grow rice more efficiently. The yield
at the end of the season was high but he next months and years that not only do the poor pay back
discovered the farmers had robbed him of their loans even without any collateral, but also they pay
his share of the profits.
Seeking another way to help the poor, back at rates far higher than the 60% rate that was typical of
Yunus took groups of his students and commercial banks. This was the defining moment for Yunus . . .
colleagues for numerous field trips to Jobra
to learn about poverty. One day he lent He had found a practical way to help.
some small amounts of money, less than
twenty-seven dollars in all, to forty-two
impoverished villagers. To his surprise, project. They just didn’t believe Yunus’ Bank’s borrowers are women. Locating his
they paid him back. He discovered over the reports or his numbers. Eventually, in 1983, branches in remote villages, he brought
next months and years that not only do the after years of negotiating with skeptical the bank to the people rather making them
poor pay back their loans even without any bankers and haggling reluctant govern- travel to the larger towns and cities.
collateral, but also they pay back at rates far ment officials, the Bangladesh ­government Other banks lent to individuals but
higher than the 60% rate that was typical recognized his organization, now called instead Yunus required borrowers at Gra-
of commercial banks. This was the defin- the Grameen (village) Bank as an inde­pen- meen to form peer support groups and to
ing moment for Yunus (Yunus, 1999). He pen­dent bank. use their loan for a small business. At first
had found a practical way to help. Although pilot projects usually Yunus thought all the borrowers in a group
Ending poverty became his life pur- flounder when they are taken to scale, should be in the same kind of business.
pose and the vision for his organization. Yunus was able to expand his bank steadily From trial and error, Yunus learned that
It was compelling enough to motivate throughout Bangladesh. In 1983, when the groups of five worked better than ten and
employees and grand enough to provide Grameen Bank became an independent that having a mix of different kinds of busi-
them inspiration. What sets Yunus apart entity, it had 86 branches and 58,000 bor- nesses in each group was more productive
from many other leaders is the fact that rowers; by 2010 there were 2,800 branches than single business groups.
this vision has guided him since 1976. and more than seven million borrowers, all Yunus promoted societal and cultural
Day after day, decade after decade, he has of them poor people (Yunus, 2009). Yunus change as well as organizational change.
struggled relentlessly and single-mindedly knew how to get the resources he needed His overarching goal was always the
against all kinds of obstacles and chal- to fund this growth. During the 1980s and alleviation of poverty and he was ready to
lenges to bring his dream into reality. up until 1995, international aid agencies challenge cultural traditions when they
As Yunus began lending to more and granted Yunus more than 35 million dollars stood in the way. He explained to me that
more people, he saw the need to build an to help his bank expand and move towards he came to understand that transformative
organization. His colleagues and students self-sufficiency. change was possible from living through
evolved over the years into his staff and his Yunus turned conventional banking the late 1960s in the US. He participated

Lessons from Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank: Leading Long-term Organizational Change Successfully 25
in the Civil Rights Movement and protests
against the war in Viet Nam while a stu-
dent at Vanderbilt. He had observed young
people trying to transform their society and
succeeding in some measure.
At his bank, Yunus created a new
culture that would support his overarching
goal using the weekly meetings that all bor-
rowers attended and the Sixteen Decisions,
a list of agreements that all borrowers had
to agree to follow. The Sixteen Decisions
asked borrowers to significantly modify
their traditional ways of living, and went
far beyond the sphere of regulation of other
banks. For example, borrowers had to agree
to keep their families small, build a latrine,
send their children to school, and give up
the practice of dowries when their children
got married.
While a student at Vanderbilt, Yunus
had been impressed by the impact of
professors who encouraged participation in
class compared to the more authoritarian
style of teaching that prevailed in Bangla-
desh. At the Grameen Bank, he sought
total operational transparency and active
participation of all his staff. He asked for
lengthy narrative reports from branch
managers every month so he could keep
his finger on the pulse of the organization
and make any changes that were needed.
He visited every branch himself until there
were nearly a thousand branches. Yet he
was well aware of the necessity of good
management systems and early on pushed
for the development of computerized evalu-
ation and monitoring systems. Even as the
bank and its systems grew, most employees
continued to see themselves working for
the idolized Professor Yunus.
Yunus knew communication was criti-
cal for success (Bornstein, 1996). From the
first years of the bank, he institutionalized
the communication vehicles: internal and
external newsletters, training programs,
manager’s meetings, and seminars for
outside visitors. He has stayed in constant
communication with his managers, his
borrowers, the general public, and bankers
from abroad. More recently, he has been in
touch with people from all corners of the
world, receiving over 1,000 emails a day.
While his vision of lifting the poor out
of poverty has remained constant, Yunus
26 OD PRACTITIONER  Vol. 43 No. 1  2011
changed his strategies and tactics many
times. For example, he first wanted his
organization to be a part of an existing
commercial bank. Later he tried to become
a part of a government bank, and finally, he
decided Grameen should be a totally inde-
pendent bank. Another example of shifting
strategy was how he handled grants. After
having accepted millions of dollars in
grants, Yunus did an abrupt about-face in
1995. He announced he would no longer
accept any aid at all in order to demon-
strate that his Bank could be sustainable
without aid.
Yunus frequently changed his short-
term goals as well as his strategies and
tactics. For example, the goals for the
expansion of the Bank were revised often
as were the goals for the percentage of bor-
rowers who were women. Today there is a
new system of rating each branch in terms
of five goals such as having all the children
of borrowers attending school.
For long-term change, it is clear that
the priority cannot be on short-term wins.
But, as Marshak has suggested, short-term
wins are necessary to create momentum
to ensure long-term survival (2008, p.
63). Yunus managed this paradox skill-
fully, pushing hard on some issues and
biding his time on many others. Yunus
was always aware of the big picture. This
was especially true in dealing with the
Bangladeshi government. He had lifelong
mistrust of government, but he knew when
to fight and when to accept half a loaf and
wait patiently.
From the start, Yunus envisioned a cul-
ture of integrity, hard work, and simplicity
for Grameen that would reflect his values
and be in stark contrast to the lavish perks
and corruption that were usual in Bangla-
desh (Interviews, 2010). To accomplish
this, he hired staff that were young and
malleable and who cared about lifting the
poor out of poverty. New staff underwent a
long and intense training period living in
remote villages away from their families.
The pay was minimal.
Employees of Grameen have never
been allowed to accept gifts—even some-
thing as small as a plum or glass of water.
All offices at Grameen have always been
bare. Managers have simple wooden tables
rather than desks with drawers where
papers can get put away and forgotten.
Yunus himself has always lived very simply
sharing the life of sacrifice that he expected
from his employees. Today, Yunus lives in
a small apartment adjacent to the Bank and
draws a modest salary.
Following several years of extreme
flooding in the late 1990s, an increasing
number of the Bank’s borrowers began
to default. By 2000, it was clear that the
Grameen model of banking had become
a straight jacket and restructuring was
needed for the Bank to survive. Unlike
many founders of companies, Yunus was
able to adapt to these new circumstances.
He was able to let go of the original
Grameen model that had served him so
well and oversee a participative process to
design a new model, Grameen II. Grameen
II offered many new financial services such
as savings plans and insurance and pro-
vided far more flexibility to the borrower.
From the earliest days right up to the
present moment, Yunus has told and retold
the amazing story of Grameen in news­
letters, speeches, articles, books, films, and
broadcasts until it has now has achieved
mythic status. His speeches have always
been rich with powerful metaphors and
vivid anecdotes. He frequently talks about
the time when our grandchildren will have
to go to a museum to learn about poverty.
Or how the poor are like a bonsai tree. As
the pot prevents the seedling from a giant
tree from growing, so their impoverished
environment keeps the poor from reaching
their full potential. For years, he has been
the public voice, the promoter and advocate
of microcredit as well as for his model and
his bank.
In 2009, I heard him speak on a
snowy night in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
His plane from London was late and the
eight o’clock speech began at 9:40 pm.
Despite the long day of travel, his jet lag,
and the fact that for him it was two o’clock
in the morning, a glowing Yunus leapt to
the podium and launched into his speech
with relish. And when it came time for
questions, he was eager to talk until the
last question from the last person was
answered. Later on, during one of my inter-
views with Yunus, I asked him whether he
ever got bored telling the same stories over
and over. He just looked puzzled and shook
his head.
It has not been all accolades and praise
for Yunus. Over the years he has stirred
up wave after wave of detractors both in
Bangladesh and abroad. Among his critics
have been journalists who sought to deflate
the hype that surrounds him. Yunus has
seemed to invite these criticisms by his
exaggerated claims about the Bank, his
way of simplifying complex issues, and his
hyperbolic language, which is more like
a politician’s than a scholar’s. Recently,
several economists from MIT’s Poverty
Action Lab have raised questions about
the impact of microcredit in Bangladesh
and elsewhere. Some of their studies have
concluded that the effect of microcredit on
poverty is weak if not nonexistent. Oth-
ers have acknowledged that microcredit
provides a necessary buffer during the
inevitable crises that the poor face. At
times, Yunus has offered a rebuttal to a
critic as he did to Daniel Pearl’s scathing
appraisal of Grameen in The Wall Street
Journal in 2002. In 2010, as an Indian
microfinance institution, SKS, was getting
a good deal of press for the huge profits
investors have made from the IPO (initial
public offering), Yunus was once again
taking center stage. He has denounced
SKS saying, “Of course (microlenders) can
serve the poor and make a huge profit. But
I would not support it. That’s what loan
sharks have been doing over centuries”
(The Times, 2010).
As I began my research I had won-
dered over and over if Yunus was too good
to be true.
Three years later, and after taking his
critics as well as his admirers into account,
I see his accomplishment as stunning. It is
true that he often exaggerates his accom-
plishments and sometimes oversimplifies
complicated issues. He does take credit for
all he has done and a bit more. But these
are minor frailties.
What is truly important is that Yunus
changed the world. He was not the first one
that came up with the idea of small loans to
the poor, but he was the one who showed
the world that they could work on a large
scale. He was the one who demonstrated
Lessons from Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank: Leading Long-term Organizational Change Successfully
that the people at the bottom of the eco- Lessons from Yunus compared with
nomic pyramid could be brought into the Kotter’s and Kanter’s Change Models
mainstream of financial services. And he
was the one whose work at Grameen pro- For twenty years, as an organizational
vided the major model and the impetus for consultant, I often turned to the thinking
a worldwide microcredit movement. of John Kotter (1998) and Rosabeth Moss
Yunus’ achievements as an organiza- Kanter (1983; 1999) for their insights on
tional developer and leader of change over leading change. Kotter’s eight step model
the long-term are also extraordinary. He for successful change efforts and Kanter’s
was able to take the Grameen Bank from a insights about the skills of change mas-
single branch and help it grow larger and ters guided my consultations. I worked at
larger, despite all the usual challenges of Kanter’s firm from 1984 to 1987 and dur-
developing an organization over time and ing those years often facilitated workshops
He was not the first one that came up with the idea of small
loans to the poor, but he was the one who showed the world
that they could work on a large scale. He was the one who
demonstrated that the people at the bottom of the economic
pyramid could be brought into the mainstream of financial
services. And he was the one whose work at Grameen
provided the major model and the impetus for a worldwide
microcredit movement.
despite the ongoing natural calamities that on change and gave the “Change Master”
plague Bangladesh. It may be helpful for all speech.
organizational practitioners to take a closer Interesting similarities and some
look at how he was able to successfully interesting differences can be seen com-
develop and lead his organization over the paring and contrasting the factors that
long-term. From my research and analysis, undergird Yunus’ successful long-term
I have identified eight lessons that can be leadership at Grameen with the models for
gleaned from such an analysis. Kotter’s and Kanter’s models of change. I
am using Kotter’s eight factors from his
Lessons from Muhammad Yunus about article in Leader to Leader (Kotter, 1998,
Leading Long-term Change p.27-33) and Kanter’s article, The Enduring
Skills of Change Leaders (Kanter, 1999,
1. Set forth an inspiring vision and stick p. 3–7).
with it. All three models agree on the impor-
2. Innovate. Challenge the prevailing tance of developing an inspiring vision.
wisdom. But what is significant and different in the
3. Build a team that owns the dream. Yunus model is the idea of the importance
4. Communicate. Relentlessly com- of sticking with the vision (see Table 1). A
municate within and beyond the key factor in his success in my opinion was
organization. the way he held to his vision over the years.
5. Be Flexible. Change strategies, goals, He did not change or modify it. All three
and tactics as needed. models also believe building a team or
6. Be patient and persevere. Sometimes guiding a coalition is critical to success.
you have to wait. Yunus and Kotter both highlight
7. Embed your values into the organiza- embedding the new ways into the organiza-
tional culture. tion. Kotter’s model, unlike the other two,
8. Brand yourself and your organization. calls for creating a sense of urgency and
27

focusing on short-term wins and consoli-
dating gains. In terms of leading short-
term change, these priorities make sense.
Yunus and Kanter agree on challenging
the prevailing wisdom and the importance
of perseverance. Kanter uniquely focuses
on tuning into the environment and
recognition.
Three of the lessons from Yunus differ
from the other two models of change: flex-
ibility, communication, and branding. First,
flexibility: Yunus was willing to change
strategies, tactics, and goals over and over.
While he never deviated from his vision,
he was ready to change everything else as
circumstances changed. He was guided
by what worked, not theoretical concepts.
Yunus was even willing to give up his own
model when he reorganized and created
Grameen II.
Secondly, the Yunus model places a
priority on communication of all kinds in
contrast to Kotter and Kanter who stress
only the importance of communicating the
vision. It seems today that there is never
enough communication and Yunus under-
stood that communication is a key lever
of change. He developed many different
kinds of mechanisms for internal com-
munication that allowed for his values and
his ways of working to reach the smallest
village in Bangladesh.
Finally, branding: Yunus became the
storyteller of his organization and micro-
credit. He also became a global celebrity
and has made the name of Grameen Bank
known in the far corners of the world.
Table 1: Comparison of Three Change Models
Y U NU S
Create an inspiring vision and stick with it
Innovate
Build a team that owns the dream
Communicate relentlessly
Be flexible
Be patient and persevere
Embed values in the culture
Brand yourself and the organization
28 OD PRACTITIONER  Vol. 43 No. 1  2011
His facile use of the media and his ability
to create a compelling narrative about
the bank and himself differentiates him
from many other leaders. Of course, it is
all the hype that envelopes him that has
spurred some people to criticize him. I
believe, however, that his ability to create
the brand is, perhaps, the most important
factor in explaining how he has been able
to continue to be a successful leader for so
many years.
The leadership of Yunus can be taken
as a starting point for creating a model
for leading long-term change. The model
presented in this paper builds on earlier
models and many of its elements overlap
the major points about successful change
made by Kotter and Kanter. The study of
Yunus broadens our understanding of
leading long-term change successfully,
however, by highlighting the importance
of flexibility, communication, and brand-
ing as well as holding to the vision. For
too long we as organizational practitioners
have limited our thinking about change to
short-term change. We can improve our
practice by raising questions about the
long-term in all our comments and recom-
mendations to clients. Yunus beckons us to
a new frontier.
References
Blakely, R. (2010, August 9). Big guns
battle over small loans. The Times, 37.
Bornstein, D. (1996). The price of a dream:
KOT T ER
Develop a compelling vision
Communicate the vision
Establish a sense of urgency
Build a guiding coalition
Empowering employees
Generate short-term wins
Consolidate gains
Anchor new approaches in the culture
Katharine Esty, PhD, a social
psychologist by training, was Man-
aging Partner at Ibis Consulting
Group, a diversity and organiza-
tional development firm for twenty
years. While at Ibis, she consulted
to UN agencies in several develop-
ing countries including Bangla-
desh. Katharine is the co-author of
Workplace Diversity and a number
of articles on change. Katharine
can be reached at katharine.esty@
verizon.net.
The story of the Grameen Bank. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Esty, K. (2010). Interviews by the author.
Kanter, R. M. (1983). The change masters.
New York: Simon and Schuster.
Kanter, R. M. (1999, summer). The endur-
ing skills of change leaders. Leader to
Leader, 13, 15 - 22.
Kotter, J.P. (1998, fall). Winning at change.
Leader to Leader, 10, 27-33.
Marshak, R. J. (2008). The paradoxes of
sustaining organizational change. OD
Practitioner, 40(2), 61-63.
Warrick, D. D. (2009). Developing organi-
zation change champions. OD Practitio-
ner, 41(1), 14-19.
Yunus, M. (1999). Banker to the poor:
Micro-lending and the battle against world
poverty. New York: Public Affairs.
Yunus, M. (2009). Grameen Bank at a
Glance. Dhaka: Grameen Bank.
Yunus, M. (2010). Building social business.
New York: Public Affairs.
K AN T ER
Communicate aspiration /vision
Challenge prevailing wisdom
Tune into the environment
Build coalitions
Transfer ownership to team
Persevere
Make everyone a hero
 “Dialogue is a deeply relational process where two modes of relating prevail (Buber, 1958). In our
relationships with each other we focus both on the data (I–It mode) to make sense of our world,
and at the same time we are open to meeting another in a way that deeply understands their
experience as if it were our very own (I–Thou mode).”
Effective Group Development
A Paradoxical Approach for Action Learning Facilitators
By Billy Desmond I noticed in my role as an OD consul-
tant and faculty member of a practitio-
ner ­Masters program that experienced
consultants often lacked awareness of
group development and its importance
in ensuring individuals and organiza-
tional learning is sustained over time. I
also ­recognised that as a practitioner–
researcher I often felt uncomfortable
with the linear and formulaic articulation
of the action learning process. It does not
truly reflect the endeavour we as facilita-
tors implicitly know is deeply relational
and contextually bound. In action learn-
ing individuals­choose to come together
in the service of each other, their learn-
ing, and the benefit of the organization
as a whole.
In my own experience of being both a
member and facilitator of action learning,
I had a hunch that attending to the group
functioning seemed to be a critical factor
in terms of the action learning effective-
ness and efficacy. When working well it
seemed individuals mobilized to informed
action benefiting the wider organizational
context.
From 2007–2010, I conducted a
practice-based evidence research activity
with groups who were part of a program
for consulting and change and with mem-
bers within a large charity.
This article shares the findings from
the research, outlining how a facilitator
may foster the conditions necessary for
co-creating a healthy and enriching group
development process through each of the
three phases of a relational model of group
development.
Effective Group Development: A Paradoxical Approach for Action Learning Facilitators
A Relational Group/Team Development
Process
For members of action learning groups,
insight, effective decision making, and
commitment to action that has honour-
able intentionality enfolded within occurs
through dialogue. Dialogue is a deeply
relational process where two modes of
relating prevail (Buber, 1958). In our rela-
tionships with each other we focus both on
the data (I–It mode) to make sense of our
world, and at the same time we are open
to meeting another in a way that deeply
understands their experience as if it were
our very own (I–Thou mode). Engaging in
dialogue is about ensuring individuals are
aware yet cognizant of their role and con-
text to make sense of what is occurring in
their organization at the present moment.
It is in the realm of a dialogic relationship
that people think together, make meaning,
clarify intent, and then mobilize them-
selves and others into action, all the time
conversing and changing as they do so.
From my practitioner–researcher
endeavour, a three phase group/team
development process emerged that can
act as a guide for facilitators in fostering,
negotiating, and co-creating the conditions
for healthy group/team development and
dialogic relating in the here and now. This
model is not wholly new; it builds on well
defined group development theory (Tuck-
man, 1965; Schutz, 1958; Lewin, 1952)
inter-subjectivity (Storlow et al., 1994) and
complexity and process thinking (Stacey,
2003). How individuals configure them-
selves as a group, with others both in and
29
 Figure 1: The Three Phase Model
outside the organization is historically and
culturally bound. This model is also contex-
tually and culturally bound.
The model is not prescriptive, but one
to use with discernment, depending on the
group, its maturity, and the issues or task
being addressed.
The three phases are:
»» Phase 1: Connecting and Contacting
»» Phase 2: Challenging and
Confronting
»» Phase 3: Creating and Committing
Each phase is interdependent, dynamic,
overlapping, and iterative. Attending to
these phases requires group members
to experiment and relate in ways that are
often contradictory and to develop reflexiv-
ity to inquire into their own experience.
It is the questioning of their deeply held
beliefs and assumptions, and reflecting
to make sense of these, which helps to
maintain momentum and a sense of group
growth and learning. Figure 1 offers an
overview of each phase.
Phase 1: Connecting and Contacting
The first phase is a Connecting and Con-
tacting process. In this phase individuals
are encouraged to connect with each other,
acknowledge, and become aware of their
environment and emotions. Dependency
30 OD PRACTITIONER  Vol. 43 No. 1  2011
is encouraged, which is often antithetical
for leaders as it is perceived as a weakness.
Individuals’ ability to make good relational
contact with themselves, each other, and
the strategic task at hand is a whole field
phenomenon and is a function of the per-
son (thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensa-
tions) and their environment. Some of the
rituals of joining a meeting are important
both for maintaining patterns of comfort
and trust, while breaking routines offers
the potential for a different experience of
engagement. It is important that time is
given for this phase as it is a place where
individuals may first start to experience
similarities, allegiances, difference, collabo-
ration, and conflict. It builds on the I–It
mode of relating where understanding of
roles, context, and objectives are required.
It initiates the group process of connecting
with each other and starts to model a way
of relational engagement that connotes
the building of trust and a commitment to
both the task and the interpersonal process
simultaneously. Attention to this phase is
required throughout as the nature of the
working relationship changes depending
on the context. It is the phase that many
groups tend to avoid dwelling in as it initi-
ates the movement from seeing the other
as an object to a subject where people are
inextricably connected in a person to per-
son relationship.
Paradox 1: Slowing down to deepen and
accelerate team connection with the
strategic engagement process
A slow, thoughtful, and attentive start-
ing process is required to ensure pace and
momentum is maintained to fully engage
in dialogue. Individuals in groups need
both holding and containment for safety
and trust to be built. These are basic psy-
chological conditions that support people to
be in relationship with each other. Failure
to do this inhibits individuals’ capacity to
engage in a meaningful dialogue. This
evokes a sense of anxiety, where individu-
als unknowingly seem to take up particular
roles of rescuer, victim, and persecutor
as a way of avoiding the associated fears,
concerns, and isolation. Such behaviour
arising from a lack of awareness lessens
the energy available to effectively work on
the issues of strategic importance. Environ-
mental conditions and emotional factors
need to be considered to create the appro-
priate level of support for engagement
to occur.
Creating a holding and thinking space
By paying attention to the physical environ-
ment we are providing a holding environ-
ment which contributes to creating a space
that feels psychologically safe. Such a place
facilitates exploration and risk taking, to
engage with the unknown, or the known
but unspoken. Consideration must be
given to the location, room, layout, and
facilities to ensure that the environment is
inviting, quiet, and comfortable. The room
is set out in a circle of chairs signifying
connection and equality, where the facilita-
tor creates the space to agree to issues such
as confidentiality, and a dynamic learning
contract. We are of and from our environ-
ment (Lewin, 1952; Parlett, 1991), engaged
in a mutually dynamic process of both
shaping and influencing and being shaped
and influenced at the same time. Thus,
the environment will influence individu-
als, their experience of themselves, each
other, and the mindset brought to the
conversation.
Providing containment for emotions
Containment is a term used by Bion (1962)
and described as a process that enables
feelings to be expressed yet contained to
allow them to be integrated as legitimate
elements of dialogue. It creates the pos-
sibility of “good enough safety” that may
encourage a deeper and more authentic
level of dialogue. Containment is attained
by encouraging the group to engage in a
conversation to check in and define what is
traditionally called their ground rules. An
ongoing process of checking in and hear-
ing how members are feeling in the here
and now before working on issues builds
an emotional awareness and resilience
in the group for the inevitable ruptures
that emerge.
Paradox 2: Individuals are encouraged to
quiet the mind and attend to their sensory
and somatic experience to enable them to
think well together
I noticed that when leaders access
with awareness all aspects of themselves
in the encounter with others, thinking
well together occurred. It is the capacity
for developing emotional intelligence that
sets successful leaders apart from others
(Goleman, 1998). This is the ability of
leaders to make strategic decisions based
on a felt, gut, intuitive knowing, as well as
their intellectual knowing. Inviting leaders
to become aware of the whole of them-
selves; their thoughts, intentions, feelings,
sensory experiences, bodily sensations,
supports a different quality of connection
and contact. I observed that most group
members take little time to pay attention
to their own thoughts, feelings, and body
sensations in the here and now. There are
ever increasing demands placed on leaders
in fast-paced and changing environments.
I noticed that many individuals (sometimes
including myself) arrive preoccupied with
thoughts from their last conversation,
pressing business issues, personal con-
cerns, and anxieties about what to expect.
They are physically present but have not
quite arrived and landed to be wholly
present. There is a sense of not being in
their bodies, only in their heads. “Presence
involves bringing the fullness of oneself
to the inter­action” (Jacobs, 1995, p.220), a
quality to be developed for addressing busi-
ness issues well.
Yet, when people converse at the
outset I often experienced a light headiness
as intellectualizing was rampant. Invit-
ing members to participate in a focusing
activity enabled a different quality of energy
to emerge from the group or team as they
work. A simple focusing exercise enabled
individuals to become aware of thoughts,
feelings, and in particular their bodily
sensations that they arrived with. This
process heightens awareness and individu-
als feel more present and enlivened for the
ensuing task. This process also challenges
duality thinking dominant in our business
world that has an emphasis on separating
experiences such as mind/body, inside/
outside, inclusion/exclusion, and indi-
vidual/team. Attending to the whole person
presents the potential for a more ecological
way of thinking (Day & Powers, 2010) that
includes both somatic-expressive and intel-
lectual ways of knowing at the same time.
In a typical focusing process I would
invite individuals to close their eyes and
slowly talk people through a process of
becoming aware of the rhythm of their
breathing, and then invite them to attend
to their thoughts and to notice any they are
pre-occupied by. They are then encouraged
to note these and let them go. Next, people
are invited to check what they are feeling
and to note this and let it pass. Following
this, they are invited to feel the support of
the chair and to scan their body and notice
any tensions they may be feeling, pay
attention to this and name the feeling. As
it ends, I invite people to slowly come back
to the room and open their eyes and then
make eye contact with each person around
the room and to note their thoughts and
feelings as they do so.
Phase 2: Challenging and Confronting
By this phase I observed there was usu-
ally sufficient level of connection estab-
lished among individuals. There is an
unconscious intra-psychic robustness that
enables both individuals and the group as
a whole to ascertain the degree of differ-
ence that is tolerable. In Challenging and
Confronting, individuals and the group
grappled with issues of power, autonomy,
influence, control, and authority. The aim
is to heighten awareness among members
Effective Group Development: A Paradoxical Approach for Action Learning Facilitators
of their responsibility (i.e., ability to
respond) and to explore the mutuality of
relationships through explicit or implicit
behavioural norms. Individual group
members experience dilemmas and ten-
sions such as: a desire to be different yet
not wanting to be excluded; a time to own
one’s authority while fearful of reprisals;
a desire for autonomy while wanting to
belong; and competition for leadership to
control while remaining a co-equal mem-
ber in the group.
During this phase individuals are
encouraged to challenge assumptions,
express difference, voice concerns, ques-
tioning each others’ competence and
authority, while being reminded of the joint
endeavour of a strategic dialogue. From the
research I noticed this is a time when anxi-
ety, anger, fury, isolation, vulnerability, and
self-righteousness can prevail. Individuals
modify their way of relating to avert being
excluded or reprimanded for the perceived
or experienced differences. Acknowledging
such processes as part of a group process
legitimizes the inter-personal dynamics
and also pre-configures the acceptance and
value of diversity as well as similarity. Also,
it challenges individuals who have often
been rewarded for their individualism,
independence, and invincibility with the
perspective that we as humans are social
meaning making beings. It is the begin-
ning of the group developing a reflexive
capacity where previously held assump-
tions, beliefs, and ways of behaving are
examined in the here and now.
Paradox 3: The past is alive and the future
unfolds in the here and now of the present
moment
Memories of the organization’s history,
as well as their own personal experience
of groups, their personal and professional
history and their hopes and aspirations
are carried in all individuals. Individu-
als are a fractal of the whole organization
and the context within which they reside
at this moment in time. The “lifetimes of
heart, mind, and experience” (Wheeler,
2009, p.6) each individual brings to the
conversation are part of the situation.
I noticed when group members were
addressing important strategic decisions
31
where several, often conflicting views were
held, they often appeared to seek simplified
solutions for complex issues. I also noticed
an apprehension arising in me, a quest
for knowing and a rushing that if pur-
sued would result in seeking a premature
solution. When I inquired it seemed that
familiar patterns of conversations were re-
enacted where the leaders escaped into the
past or engaged as if the future was already
realized. Reflecting on the past is comfort-
ing, often engaged under the auspices of
lessons learned, but it appears to often be
an escape from the reality of today and the
responsibility placed upon the group to
make choices for the future. It seems that
confronting to heighten awareness of their
contact quality and ability to connect and
interact with new aspects of the context
is where meaningful change is achieved.
Inviting individuals to speak in the present
tense and remain close to their collective
experiences minimizes the desire to avoid
reflecting on the current issues. Work-
ing with “what is” helped unlock novel
ways forward.
Facilitating an action learning session
with a group from the same organization
who were in the midst of a change pro-
cess, I noticed an increasing anxiety, my
stomach churned, my heart seemed to be
racing, and I felt a pain of loss experienced
as heaviness in my body. The group mem-
bers were hesitant. I noticed a depressing
bodily experience as I listened to their
avoidance of working in the here and now.
I confronted the group and informed them
of what I thought we had co-created. This
resonated with much of their experience.
Hence, I encouraged the group to stick
with the task, the differences that emerged,
and the anxiety of not knowing, I instructed
that all dialogue was to be spoken in the
first person and present tense. The purpose
of such language is to firstly add energy
and enliven the dialogue. Even though an
event may have occurred in the past, the
re-telling of the experience and the mean-
ing ascribed in the now will be different
from when it originally occurred, hence
new learning can be attained. Secondly, it
is to model the language of responsibility
and ownership and evokes in individuals
a heightened awareness of what they are
32 OD PRACTITIONER  Vol. 43 No. 1  2011
doing, saying, experiencing, and whether caring, diplomatic, and invite others to par-
their argument is sufficiently compelling ticipate. Witnesses are reflective, observant,
and in the interest of the whole organiza- and notice how people relate when working
tion or is primarily of self-interest. Once together. The rebel is provocative, blocking,
the group experimented with this process, resisting, withholding, and retains what
there was an increased awareness of their is difficult to let go. Artists are energetic,
different felt experiences, where conflict spontaneous, and adaptable; and they may
was surfaced and energy for dialogue, be seen as holding the creative and lateral
while increasing feelings of apprehension, thinking expertise.
shifted the de-pressing lethargy. Such roles invoked in individuals,
often out of awareness, have a purpose
Paradox 4: Increasing awareness of the in teams and groups. However, when the
multiplicity of formal and informal roles roles become fixed and ascribed to a par-
fosters cohesion, rather than rupture and ticular individual rather than a function of
fragmentation in group the group to accomplish their work it can
Group members hold a multiplicity lead to stultified contact, fragmentation of
of roles both professionally and person- dialogue, and rupture of the relational bond
ally, such as: leader, executive, professional between members. Leaders/ facilitators
expert, manager, mentor, colleague, friend, need to notice and intervene to comment
partner, parent, and child. In each of these on the process. This may feel risky as it can
roles, individuals have different sources of invoke shame in self or others. Trusting
power in which they are more or less will- the ability of the group to self organize and
ing to take up with authority. I frequently adopt a multiplicity of roles while working
noticed and experienced leaders’ limited with this process releases energy. Inclusion
awareness of the power they hold by virtue of diversity builds internal support among
of their gender, sexuality, race, class, role, group members where implicit assump-
position, and duration in the organization. tions can be addressed, shame is mini-
Sometimes this impacted their ability to mized, and satisfaction is experienced. This
question their assumptions and suspend has significant benefits when working on
judgement to be open to new perspectives. strategic tasks as it enables robust, respect-
It seems for some their identity is so ful, and expansive dialogue rather than
aligned to a particular role that they lack diminishing, avoiding, and manipulating
the flexibility and adaptability in choos- that can lead to poor decision making.
ing with awareness how best they can In a local government senior leaders’
meet, connect, and remain in contact session, I raised the group’s awareness
with another whose views may be polar around the role of gender, race, sexuality,
opposite. When this occurs, they become and hierarchical power and its impact on
stuck and may resort to familiar patterns their organizational issues. I noticed that
of behaviour and communication such as: the absence of attending to the obvious
talking over each other, delaying decisions, manifested as meandering around issues.
using positional power, reverting to the Yet, when discussing a sensitive issue the
past, or imagining the future. two most senior staff were watchful and
Additionally, in groups there are cautious. The conversation that ensued was
roles (group roles) that are unconsciously not comfortable but it did unlock energy.
taken up and are a function of the group’s There was liveliness in the room when
needs rather than merely a function of the individuals were beginning to inquire into
person’s life context. Every group requires their deeply held assumptions and beliefs
a multiplicity of group roles as well as about the vestibules of power in the group.
functional roles to work effectively. Some of Being curious about the group and
the group roles ascribed over time include: encouraging regular review and explora-
intellectual, nurturer, witness, rebel, and tion of group process in the here and now
artist. The intellectual questions, chal- was an aspect of facilitating in this phase
lenges, and unearths assumptions. Nurtur- of group development. Avoidance inhibited
ers use emotional language, are outgoing, accessing the potential of the whole group,
leading to fragmentation in relationships, Paradox 5: Creating and committing to struggling with board members and this
limited engagement, and lost opportunity activity are not one off events but ongoing appeared to be projected onto the group
for sense making. processes that also involve destruction in their work with him. I suggested an
and indifference. experiment, where he selected members
Phase 3: Creating and Committing Individuals are engaged in generative of the group to be his board members. I
dialogue as an ongoing co-created process. then invited him to sit outside the process
This group development phase emerges The group has developed the capacity to and notice what he saw, heard, and felt
when there is sense of interdependency contain anxiety, while understanding how while all members had a conversation as
and confidence in each other. It is by difference and sameness create a tension if they were the board members in the
engaging with and working through the where new insight and actions may be here and now. At intervals, I paused the
issues from the confronting and chal- realized. Individuals become genuinely process for these role participants to share
lenging phase that purposeful, thoughtful engaged with strategic questions as a lived their experience, for observers to say what
action is truly realized. The conditions reality in the here and now of the dialogue, resonated with them, and then to hear
for interdependency are fostered between while not being invested in any particular the client’s experience and learning. It
each other in working with their diverse outcome – a process of creative indiffer- heightened awareness of the projection of
understanding of the unfolding issues, ence (Friedlander, 1918, cited in Clarkson & his insecurity. It enabled the client to exert
where difference, conflict, and challenge Mackewn, 1993). This act of creative indif- his autonomy within the I–Thou meeting
occurred. Addressing issues of power, ference requires a letting go, destruction of between him and other group members.
roles, and emotions in the here and now all the preconceptions, proposed solutions, He committed to having a different quality
of emergent conversations provides the and surrendering to the here and now, of conversation with the board members.
support for taking higher interpersonal and from which new ideas emerge. Such an act
intrapersonal risks required in the creating is often antithetical to group members and Paradox 6: Increased selflessness and
and committing phase. particularly leaders who are expected to be commitment to the collective will unlock
This phase conveys a way of relat- all knowing. energy and pledge to action benefiting
ing and conversing that Shaw associates When this phase of group develop- both self and the organization
with the edge of chaos concept where “a ment is dwelled in, issues are experienced We are continually influencing and
complex network paradoxically experi- by encouraging participation and contribu- being influenced in relationship to others
ences both stability and instability…[and] tion from various communities both inside whether we recognize it or not. Stacey and
spontaneous emergence of new patterns of and outside the group. Action is taken. Griffin (2005) inform us that the individual
meaning…occur” (2002, p.93). Individuals and groups from the wider (mind, emotion, and body) paradoxically
Here individuals engaged in a process field are included. Engaging the wider form the social while being formed by it
of creating, which denotes that they also field in a participative process requires at the same time. As a facilitator, how I
destroy at the same time. They are com- individuals and in particular leaders to own think, feel, and behave will be influenced
mitting to action, which may also mean their authority, take up the role assigned by members of the group, as each group
they will fail or break promises in doing so. to them, and at the same time engage in member will be involved in a process of
It is in this capacity of leaders to live with dialogue to co-create meaning that clarifies mutually influencing each other. This
paradox that new meaning emerges from strategic direction. Commitment to ongo- provides the opportunity to alter habitual
conversations that both had a direction and ing experimentation in the organization patterns of behaving and conversing that
none. In this phase the work has energy, is then required. When something new is consider the group and organization
pace, and a clear sense of purpose. Indi- tried, such as a different kind of conversa- rather than the parts (my role, power, or
viduals experience a felt sense of being on tion, it disturbs what was there before and division). It requires a reflexive capacity
a joint endeavour with a collective respon- creates something different. The difference in the unlearning of facts and ideas that
sibility. Persons exhibit a higher level of created is unknown and knowing only leaders already know from the past and
self-disclosure of their thoughts, feelings, emerges in the doing. It requires repetition requires the courage to venture together
sensations, and intuitions. It is a phase to maintain momentum, as alongside com- into ­creating and committing to new ways
where I–Thou mode of relating is preva- mitment, disappointment occurs, hopes of working on strategic activities. Here, the
lent with individuals open for authentic and promises remain unfulfilled. What group members recognize that that can
meeting with others, where new possibili- differentiates a group functioning at this be both autonomous and inter­connected,
ties emerge in their contact. Some core phase is that they are capable of demon- allowing fluidity in the dialogue as they
elements of Lewin’s (1951) group dynamics strating compassion and a commitment to engage in cycles of action, reflection,
are manifest during this stage, as the group dialogue, particularly holding an I–Thou experimenting, and further sense-making
demonstrates a consistency in its work attitude and way of being and working. both alone and together. This will require
together and takes responsibility for its In an action learning session one the members to forgo at least momen-
own progress. member of the group (the client) was tary “what is in it for me” and to ask the

Effective Group Development: A Paradoxical Approach for Action Learning Facilitators 33


question “what is in it for us,” our group,
our organization, our diverse communities,
society, and environment. This shift from
attending to inner machinations of the
individual and the group to the outer world
of multi-various stakeholders unlocks inno-
vative possibilities.
A senior leader was deciding on an
issue of national and international signifi- group moves forward towards coherence
cance for current and future generations.
Even though the group was aware of its
process, I was attentive to my feelings and
bodily sensations. I was aware of contain-
ing the anxiety of not knowing and the
cusp of excitement as meaning emerged.
I slowed the group process down, inviting
them to attend to the whole of themselves,
their experience of each other, and to
consider the experiences of external clients
and stakeholders to encourage a collective
discernment in decision making. Notic-
ing group process at this phase was all the
more important, particularly the energy
and the decision making interpersonal
dynamics. Energy can be squandered in
making premature decisions. The “what is
in it for us” invites the group to be authen- Clarkson, P., & Mackewn, J. (1993). Key
tic and to live with the consequences of
choices in relationship not only to one
‘self ’ but also in relationship to other
stakeholders.
Conclusion
A healthy team/group development process
requires a symbiotic relationship between
both the individual and collective at the
same time. Individuals need to develop the
capacity to be flexible, adaptable, and work
with paradox, staying with the complexity
of situations. Support is required to prevent
individuals prematurely engaging in reduc- Lewin, K. (1951). Field Theory in social
tionism and simplification of conversations
to diminish their anxiety or as a way of
being deemed omniscience and omnipo-
tent. This, I suggest is a lifelong skill
requiring individuals to have trust in their Parlett, M. (1991). Reflections on Field
mind, emotion, and body ways of know-
ing. It requires courage and strength to live
with inherent paradoxes and uncertainty,
while holding hope in discerning a way
forward of purposeful action; and while
remaining aware and sensitive to the eco-
nomic, ecological, and equality challenges
34 OD PRACTITIONER  Vol. 43 No. 1  2011
Billy Desmond, MSc, MBA, is a
gestalt oriented OD consultant,
executive coach, and gestalt
our organizations face in a world of deplet-
ing resources. Importantly, developing this psychotherapist. He is a member
collective discernment capability within of faculty at Ashridge Business
the group fosters the movement from a School in the UK, working in the
number of individuals engaging on a task Masters in Executive Coaching and
to one of a group cognizant of its difference Masters in Organisational Consult-
collectively committing to the task. When
ing programs. His current inter-
this capability is developed the whole
est is in exploring an embodied
as experienced in contact, connection, chal- approach to OD interventions. He
lenge, creativity, and commitment. This can be reached at billy.desmond@
model offers facilitators an opportunity ashridge.org.uk.
to enhance the learning, by developing
knowledge of group development process,
supported by dialogue to genuinely inquire Stacey, R. (2003). Complexity and group
into people’s phenomenological experi- processes: A radically social under-
ences of the issues they hold, and inviting standing of individuals, London:
reflection, but also importantly, reflexivity. Brunner-Routledge.
Stacey, R., & Griffin, D. (2005). A complex-
References ity perspective on researching organiza-
tions. Oxford, UK: Taylor & Francis.
Bion, W.R. (1962). Learning from experience. Stolorow, R., Atwood, G., & Brandschaft,
London: Heinemann. B. (1994). The intersubjective perspective.
Buber, M. (1958). I and thou (R.G. Smith, Northvale, NJ: Jason Aaronson.
Trans). New York, Charles Scribner and Tuckman, B. (1965). Developmental
Sons. sequence in small groups. Psychological
Bulletin, 63, 384-399.
figures in counselling and psychotherapy: Wheeler, G. (2009). New directions in
Fritz Perls. London: Sage. Gestalt Theory: Psychology and psy-
Day, A., & Power, K. (2009, winter). Devel- chotherapy in the age of complexity. In
oping leaders for a world of uncertainty, D. Ullman, & G. Wheeler (Eds.), Co-
complexity, and ambiguity. 360° The creating­the field: Intention and practice
Ashridge Journal, 20–25. in the age of complexity (pp 3–44). New
Goleman, D. (1998) Working with emotional York: Routledge
intelligence. New York: Bantam Dell.
Jacobs, L. (1995) The therapist as “other”:
The patient’s search for relatedness. In
R. Hycne, & L. Jacobs (Eds.), The heal-
ing relationship in Gestalt Therapy (pp.
215–235). Gouldsboro, ME: The Gestalt
Journal Press, Inc.
science: Selected theoretical papers. New
York: Harper.
Lewin, K. (1952). Field Theory in social
­science. London: Tavistock.
Theory. The British Gestalt Journal, 1,
69–81.
Schutz, W. (1958). FIRO: A three-dimen-
sional theory of interpersonal behavior.
New York, NY: Rinehart.
Shaw, P. (2002). Changing conversations in
organizations. London: Routledge.
 “Many still think of a leader as being self-motivated and as someone who has to motivate others.
However, leaders do not motivate others, they create more or less successful environments
in which motivation and performance can take off. Incentives and other similar tools are only
enhancers, but not motivation per se.”
Riding the Waves of the
Motivation Cycle
The Absorption Model of Leadership
By Zoltán Buzády Generally, there are three main reasons
and Achilles Georgiu that jobs are resented, writes Mihály
Csíkszentmihályi, the psychologist and the
architect of the notion of flow (2003). The
first is that the job is pointless. The second
is that the work is boring and routine. The
third is that the job is often stressful, espe-
cially when employees cannot get along
with a supervisor or colleagues. Of course,
these factors can be inflated or mitigated
by factors in the general business environ-
ment such as hype-cycles or recessions, but
the bottom line is that leadership matters!
High employee turn-over is particularly a
problem in knowledge intensive sectors,
such as consulting, or in the outsourcing,
and other professional service industries.
In these sectors leadership is not only
about striking the right balance between
standardization and sufficient degree of
change, but performance is equal to the
quality of service.
If you are a manager in these fast-
moving­business environments, you are
likely to have experienced another typical
problem: overriding corporate goals are
broken down into smaller divisional objec-
tives, which typically a centrally-adminis-
tered HR department further divides down
into departmental and individual perfor-
mance measures. Sadly these objectives are
often not particularly motivating for your
subordinates, do not enhance the output
of your team, and may go counter to your
personal management and leadership style.
The statistician George Box once
said that all models are wrong, but some
of them are useful. What is striking is
that despite the numerous management
Riding the Waves of the Motivation Cycle: The Absorption Model of Leadership
models, all aimed at increasing leader-
ship effectiveness and subordinates’
per­formance, few truly integrate existing
wisdom and experience. They tend to over-
emphasize­one or another factor in the
leadership equation: over-emphasizing the
role of the leader, making false assumptions
about subordinates, or ignoring impor­tant
influencing factors given varying situations.
Others substitute the need for personal
leadership with corporate vision and with
company-wide HR systems. The reality is
that we have to change our thinking on
some of the premises of leadership, in
particular on some common wisdom about
motivation. Many still think of a leader as
being self-motivated and as someone who
has to motivate others. However, leaders
do not motivate others, they create more
or less successful environments in which
motivation and performance can take off.
Incentives and other similar tools are only
enhancers, but not motivation per se. Only
the employees can motivate themselves.
This article helps managers to better
understand the underlying dynamics and
motivational cycle of employee perfor-
mance and gives an easy, yet variable tool
for leading more effectively. The model
integrates many elements of existing
practices already effectively applied to lead
individuals, teams, and departments into
a systematic and flexible approach. It also
integrates overriding corporate perfor-
mance expectations with particular leader-
ship expectations and needs.
By observing your direct reports you
will be able to measure their performance
and their attitude toward their job. If you
35

systematically and consistently use the
same criteria and at given periods, then you
will be able to see that they tend to follow
a natural wave, a cycle of personal motiva-
tion. By taking the right type of action at
the right phase, you will not only be more
attuned with them as individuals, but you
can also become a more efficient manager.
You will better know when to increase and
decrease their workload, how to interact at
the different phases along the absorption
cycle, and when to promote or to dismiss
your employees in order to increase your
departments’ overall efficiency. In addition,
by better understanding their motivational
cycle, you could even reduce unneces-
sary employee turn-over rates in your
department.
This proposed leadership tool has
many parallels to the “Hype Cycle curve
on emerging technologies,” which was
first elaborated by the Gartner Consulting
Group. It describes graphically the matu-
rity, the range, and the business adaptation
of new technologies. We believe that the
concept can be successfully extended into a
much wider context and it is even adapt-
able for describing the absorption (assimi-
lation) and personal motivation cycles of
individual employees or teams.
What is Absorption?
If people are enthusiastic about their job,
their subjective effectiveness will also
grow accordingly. However, this does
not automatically mean that their objec-
tive ­productivity and added-value to the
company will also grow congruently.
With higher subjective effectiveness,
employees are more apt to assume more
and more ownership of responsibilities
and a wider range of activities. A higher
level of perceived personal ownership
will help employees accept an increasing
scope of duties and their company loyalty
will become stronger. Since all of these
characteristics are affecting each other and
because the elements are strongly interde-
pendent, we use the term absorption for
summarizing all these motivational and
output-related effects.
The entire curve of the absorption
model consists of four time periods or
36 OD PRACTITIONER  Vol. 43 No. 1  2011
Figure 1: The base model of absorption-based leadership approach
cyclical phases. The time is plotted on the
X axis where the four periods are following
each other in predefined order. On the Y
axis we can track the absorption level indi-
cating the relative level and the intensity of
change that is the slope (see Figure 1).
The Four Phases
The four phases of the model are enthu-
siasm, disillusion, acceptance, and finally
­stabilization. Technically speaking one
phase lasts from one alteration point to
the next one (as indicated by the vertical
thresholds in the diagram). In practice the
duration of each phase can typically range
from a few weeks up to a few months or
even years, depending on the nature of
the work.
Phase of Enthusiasm—Most employees
are usually enthusiastic when a new scope
of duties has been assigned to them. In a
rather short time the inner-driven curi-
osity, which will turn into enthusiasm,
pushes the individuals’ absorption curve to
a higher level. This is the phase when the
efficiency reaches maximum. Generally
speaking, they are highly satisfied and they
like what they have to do. This dedication
will last until they reach their personal
peak, where the schematic curve also
reaches its peak point.
Phase of Disillusion–The second phase
of the model assumes that a sharp rise in
motivation levels and the high productivity
will--after a while--be followed by disillu-
sion, decreasing motivation, and lower-
ing performance levels. One major factor
for this is that employees start to notice
that many of their activities are in fact
repetitive and administrative. Over time,
they become bored and their prospects
are less attractive. This can often result
in a drop in their personal performance.
­Furthermore this is the period when
employees might become overloaded
and have too many things to do parallel
with a lot of details, which are difficult
to handle and systemize. The phase of
disillusion lasts until the curve reaches its
lowest point.
Phase of Acceptance–If people survive the
bottom point of the curve we can say that
they have become tested members of the
organization. People have accepted and
mastered the tasks they had been given to
do. The overall context of their activities
becomes clearer to them and more experi-
ence and relevant information make it pos-
sible for them to create algorithms which
help them to systemize the task difficulties.
Over time employees become more self-
confident, assertive, and grow in self-effi-
cacy. Being able to “see behind the façade”
starts to motivate them again to gain back
their earlier effectiveness level. This phase
continues until the last inflection point of
the curve has been reached, notably that of
stabilization.
 Figure 2: Absorption Radar for Figure 3: The wave-like pattern of the motivational cycle
10 indicators (i) with a 1–5 scale

Phase of Stabilization–In this phase, few numbers and comments. The more then fall back in the phase of disillusion.
em­ployees’ performance is the most stable often you measure, the more realistic and After reaching the bottom point, the third
and this is where they are most account- more precise results you will have. phase of gaining acceptance will gain
able, and their task becomes routine. We do not recommend tracking more momentum and then lead to a leveling out
Employees are operating at their individual than ten indicators because you may lose in the fourth, stabilization phase. Thus,
efficiency optimum. the essence of the technique. In the IT everybody will typically show a wave-like
service support area useful indicators for pattern, following their motivational life-
Step 1: How can we measure the monitoring employees’ absorption could cycle. The concept of wave phenomenon
absorption level? be: deadline accomplishment, work qual- is not a new one. It was much propagated
ity, responsibility, separateness, service by John J. Gabarro (1987). As a leader you
All of us have observed in our private and readiness, work time observance, creativ- constantly have be sensitive enough to
professional life a systematic fluctuation of ity, professionalism, communication, and understand which phase your employees
mood, motivation, and performance over a teamwork. After defining the indicators are in.
given time period. For leadership purposes the next step then is to value your employ- The outcome of the employee survey
we have found it more useful to introduce ees within a scale interval, e.g., between 1 is still based on subjective factors, but
the term absorption, which encapsulates and 5. You can ask your employees to do if we repeat the evaluation recursively
several input factors such as motivation, the same evaluation on themselves, for within predefined time intervals (without
job attitude, productivity, acceptance, loy- their other colleagues, and even for you as looking at the previous results during the
alty, and initiative, which indicate employee their leader. By consequence the plotted rating), then in the long-term our picture
performance. picture of all your employees may become may be considered relatively objective. In
Step one is to determine which of more realistic and objective and you may many workplaces, a quarterly survey has
these different personal factors are of lead- even take some immediate actions if you proven to be enough but in other areas the
ership importance. Ideally as a leader you notice any sensible deflection between the monthly one may be more suitable. Having
would have a mix of centrally-determined estimations. The outcome can be visual- more parallel measurements we may deter-
HR measures plus some measures which ized by the absorption radar as shown in mine more precisely the actual absorption
are important to you in order to increase Figure 2. If you aggregate the results of your level. The interior area of the radar visual-
your leadership efficiency. Our advice is employees, you may get a picture of your izes the alteration of the employees’ - or
also to include some factors suggested by whole team. in aggregated format the whole team’s -
your direct reports or your team members. absorption level. It is generally true that the
Similar to the Management-By-Objective Step 2: Ups and downs of our personal surface of the radar is strongly connected
and the Balanced-Score-Card technique, motivational cycle to a given period of the absorption curve
these personal indicators are then jointly (as seen in Figure 3).
established and agreed with your employ- The absorption level, which is the aggre-
ees. Similarly to the concept of the BSC, gate of these personal factors, will initially
you periodically evaluate the personal increase during the first period, the period
trends. Practically, you quickly jot down a of enthusiasm, reach a peak point, and

Riding the Waves of the Motivation Cycle: The Absorption Model of Leadership 37
 Figure 4: The four abandonment levels

Step 3: Introducing the abandonment

levels

Now let your employee and your leadership

skills interact with each other, knowing
both parties do in fact set their own per-
sonal top and bottom level of expected per-
formance (see Figure 4), which they then
can constantly adjust according to chang-
ing situations. Let us illustrate the effect of
the abandonment levels in detail.

Jump-out. In booming business cycles,

such as the dotcom or IT-bubble was, new
employees may get a new, competing job
offer, which means in practice that their
jump-out level has been lowered by the
new external job opportunity. They might
decide to quit the job in their enthusiasm been minimized, the disillusion phase sufficient for nomination into a higher
phase, feeling that they can do better came quickly. However, his manager position. Individuals may enter an organi-
elsewhere. Conversely in times of recession noticed that his performance and moti- zation when promotions are not possible,
normally the jump-out level of employees vation decreased, so he decided to send and they get promoted only during their
is higher and as a result they remain with Attila to a subject specific training, which stabilization phase. We have found that
the organization until an opportunity helped smoothen the curve by bringing many managers are not so inclined to set
opens for them. him sooner to the acceptance and then to this level explicitly, whilst others have little
During the late 1990s, IT experts the stabilization phase. It took him a few influence over internal promotion matters.
could easily find a new job with better sal- years to maximize his personal absorption Others lose respect by constantly raising
the bar for their employees.
How can a leader influence employees’ motivational cycle and For example: Elena T. started her
career as Process and Procedure Group
effectively reduce unnecessary employee turn-over? Your task manager in the Controlling-Quality
is not merely to measure the absorption and then to set the ­Assurance section of the finance depart-
ment with an international telecom
layoff and nomination levels, which often is done by the HR company in Hungary. After the initial few
department and frequently over-regulated by company policies. months of enthusiasm and disillusion she
reached a rather long-lasting acceptance
In fact, the real task is to enhance employee effectiveness and phase during which she successfully man-
motivation by creating a stable and inspiring environment by aged her team as well as many domestic
and international projects. At the end of
smoothing out the employees natural cyclical ups and downs. her second year she reached her stabiliza-
tion phase. On the initiative of the HR
ary even before they had actually reached curve in the stabilization stage by becom- department she then got promoted into a
the peak point of their absorption curve. ing a subject matter expert in the area of IT completely new area: Senior analyst in the
The typical job-hopping time cycle in this Service Management. Because the market Research and Analysis Office of the Prod-
industry was around a year or even shorter in this service area has started to grow ucts and Markets Department part of the
in those years. For example: Attila R. again, this has resulted in the lowering of commercial division.
started his career during that time as a soft- the official nomination level, thus generat-
ware developer. He reached his peak point ing a lot of opportunities. One was a new Failure level—personal re-orientation.
by Y2K just around the crash, the result position, which then started a new absorp- In their disillusion phase new employees
of which was that his nomination level tion curve for Attila. might also realize their personal limita-
has moved higher due to the fact that the tions or their true inner expectations about
need for IT services had dropped dramati- Nomination level—internal promotion. As their career expectations. If they hit their
cally. Seeing that his efforts didn’t bring a leader you should also set what absorp- self-set personal failure level, then it is
the expected results and his prospects had tion-level you or the organization expects likely that they exit the organization,

38 OD PRACTITIONER  Vol. 43 No. 1  2011

 Figure 5: Altered absorption curve and intervention points

employees natural cyclical ups and downs.

A large amplitude in the curve is not good
news. In fact it means falling from a rather
high peak point to rather low bottom point
in very short time, then having to regain
momentum again. This is rather waste-
ful for individual employees and a strain
for their peers and team members (see
Figure 5).

Step 5: Ways for managers to influence

the absorption curve

Leaders can influence most of the param-

eters of the model. The aim is to smooth
the absorption curve and to foster a higher
level of performance during the stabiliza-
tion phase. There are several ways for
re-orient themselves, and start a new curve the political transition in the region, these managers to actively influence and guide
in a new occupation. organizations have difficulty attracting the evolution of the absorption curve.
For example: Peter B. joined the new employees and thus cannot pick and The first way to modify the shape of
trainee program of a multinational FMCG choose when laying-off would be necessary. the curve is to influence the duration of
company in Central Europe. After reaching As a consequence they have retained many the four periods of the model. The most
a junior management position he felt alien- staff from older times. It is characteristic important is to keep the time interval of
ated in his work environment and went-off at these universities that performance is the disillusion period as short as possible.
to complete an internationally accredited not measured and the minimal expecta- Otherwise, both leaders and employees
coach training course in London. Return- tion levels are also unknown to faculty may run out of time and out of tolerance.
ing to Central Europe, he founded his own and administrative staff, thus diminishing The length of the stabilization stage is also
company, which offers personal coaching international competitiveness. a significant element: leaders should try
and inspiration encounters for fellow disil- The four abandonment levels them- to prolong it as long as possible, since this
lusioned managers. selves are also changing over time. In order is the period of maximal productivity. The
to keep the model as simple as possible, enthusiasm and acceptance periods are not
Laying-off. Depending on business circum- every level is represented by a simple line, so important from this point of view; but
stances and on company policy, manag- showing the actual position of the level still, they should be kept relatively short
ers usually also set the minimum level of at a certain moment in time. The four in comparison with the total lifecycle of
expected absorption/performance. If those abandonment levels are boundaries, which the absorption curve, mostly because both
are not met then the employee will be can be modified (raised or lowered) over periods are unstable.
dismissed. Interestingly we have observed time, however for ease of understanding The second way to influence the
situations with a very peculiar combination Figures 4 and 5 show them as straight lines. model is to actively set the abandonment
where the organizational layoff level was levels and define expected performance.
actually set lower than the individual’s per- Step 4: Acting as a leader to change the Every leader should set management
sonal failure level. In those organizations motivational cycle levels (nomination and lay-off levels) for
many employees have reached their level of every employee individually. The actual
personal resignation, but still remained in How can a leader influence employees’ height of the levels can also be influenced
the organization. Alarmingly for managers, motivational cycle and effectively reduce by external factors. For example, if the
the reported percentage of employees with unnecessary employee turn-over? Your task amount of tasks and the scope of duties
internal resignation is ever-increasing in is not merely to measure the absorption is suddenly increased then the nomina-
many western economies. and then to set the layoff and nomina- tion level will move downward in order to
Government and other public orga- tion levels, which often is done by the HR localize those employees who are the most
nizations including state-universities department and frequently over-regulated suitable to cover the new assignments.
across Central-Eastern Europe cannot by company policies. In fact, the real task Similarly, the lay-off level will also move
compete with the competitive salaries in is to enhance employee effectiveness and downward because even those employees
industry and are lacking a professional motivation by creating a stable and inspir- with low performance levels can be able to
human resource system. Irrespective of ing environment by smoothing out the accomplish some of the increased amount

Riding the Waves of the Motivation Cycle: The Absorption Model of Leadership 39
of tasks. Depending on the situation, the
inverse may also occur. In tight periods
both the nomination and the lay-off levels
will tend to move upwards. This means
that those people whose absorption curve
is somewhere around their bottom point
may have to leave the company and
those who should have been nominated
may be deferred and no higher assign-
ment level will be given to them for the
time being.
The third way is by choosing the
appropriate interventions at the right time.
This can be done by periodically observing
at which stage of the curve the employee
is at a given time. The leader then should
be able to take appropriate measures, in
particular in the inflection points, around
the three action points (see Figure 5).
Customer service in a software devel-
opment house was provided by a small
team that consisted of three engineers
(John, Andrew, Gabor) and their manager
(Alex). The success of the team was based
on the kind of tasks assigned to each of
them. During the enthusiasm period
employees easily take on even urgent and
important tasks since their excitement
gives them power to take on the chal-
lenge. Andrew was a new team member
just climbing the curve of enthusiasm
and as such he was the person taking
every opportunity. John was the senior IT
engineer, already in his stabilization phase.
He could take on any kind of task since he
already had the required routine. Gabor
had reached and got stuck in his disillusion
stage. During the disillusion phase the best
was to avoid giving him urgent and impor-
tant tasks since the lack of enthusiasm
would have increased the amount of errors.
With more mistakes anybody can get more
disappointed and consequently the absorp-
tion level somewhat lowers. Interestingly,
any kind of not-so-urgent but important
task may have a positive motivational effect
and raise the absorption curve itself. Alex
did try to apply this. But since Gabor knew
that his manager had not defined any lay-
off level, the result was that his disillusion
stage remained at low level for a rather
long time. Finally his boss thought that the
only possible solution was to fire Gabor.
The effect on the other team members was
40 OD PRACTITIONER  Vol. 43 No. 1  2011
noticeable: a 30% increase in performance objective itself is not clear for them. Thus
because Gabor was not there anymore to set exact goals, rather than prescribe the
pull down the team. process methods. If your team becomes
productive, enhance it further by support-
Over-shooting point: Here the danger is ing it and allow them to take risks and
that the employees become over-enthusias- failures.
tic. Thus, try to bring them back to earth by
directing them, emphasize technical initia- How to refine the Absorption Model
tion, and carefully select planned team of Leadership
building activities. Avoid any kind of extra
motivation despite their brilliant perfor- Clarify your leadership concept in
mance. This seems to be in stark contrast discussions with your employees
to common wisdom, where one is being »» Explain what you are expecting of them,
rewarded for increasing performance. how they will be measured, what the
Interestingly, any kind of not-so-urgent but important task may
have a positive motivational effect and raise the absorption
curve itself. Alex did try to apply this. But since Gabor knew that
his manager had not defined any lay-off level, the result was
that his disillusion stage remained at low level for a rather long
time. Finally his boss thought that the only possible solution
was to fire Gabor. The effect on the other team members was
noticeable: a 30% increase in performance because Gabor was
not there anymore to pull down the team.
Exhaustion point: We recommend giving consequences and action steps could
a bonus, benefits, or additional training in be at the beginning of your leadership
this phase when absorption level is decreas- relation.
ing. This should help the employees have »» During review periods explicitly make
a soft landing. Equally important and often reference to your leadership concept.
much more redeeming is to emphasize the
personal dimension in your leader-follower Use a balanced-approach to personal
relationship. If you are leading a team, indicators
place more emphasis on techniques that »» Use a number of different measures
aim at overcoming resistance and those (organizational goals, your leadership
that foster mutual understanding of team expectation, criteria set by your team),
members and create a common goal. but not too many, so that you can easily
handle them.
Productivity point: When reaching the pro-
ductivity point, your goal as a leader should Extend the sources of observation
be to increase your employees’ long-term »» As you become more acquainted with
efficiency by heightening the absorption this leadership tool, gradually extend
level as high as possible. You can achieve the observed personal indicator factors
this by reducing your technical super­vision by introducing elements of self-evalu-
roles and empower your employees. As ation, then delegating the evaluation
László Mérö wrote, your employees will of some indicators to the other team-
avoid getting into a difficult and chal- members, and if you are very brave you
lenging situation, not when the defined can ask your employees to evaluate your
objective is hardly achievable, but when the leadership impact on their behavior.

How can the leader further influence
the absorption curve and achieve stable
productivity?
»» This can be done by shortening the
time period of the first three phases in
order to reach stabilization phase as
quick possible by:
»»By clarifying the nature of the
motivational-cycle to the employee
during the initial meetings.
»»By fostering socialization through
appropriate training and team-
building exercises.
»»By fostering the learning curve
through professional training off-
the-job and on-the-job rotations.
»» But be aware of the cycle speed of your
industry segment! An IT project envi-
ronment is much more short-lived than
a pharmaceutical research and develop-
ment environment.
What if stabilization phase is reached?
»» When people are performing effectively
and efficiently, minimal leadership
intervention will be required of you.
»» However, employees are exposed to
more or less severe impetus from
within the company and the outside
environment. A promotion or change
of the team members clearly would
start a new absorption curve. In many
instances a new project, a job rotation,
or a major business trip can restart
the curve. But so can a new company
strategy, a reorganization, or changes in
the personal sphere.
Would it be ideal to be constantly in the
enthusiasm phase?
»» Clearly no! On the long run people
will sooner or later burn-out and an
unhealthy level of high employee turn-
over will be the result. Many companies
with over-stretched “up-or-out” policies,
have to spend enormous efforts and
costs on creating alternative systems
to retain their valuable organizational
memory.
This approach to leadership offers a practi-
cal tool to effectively lead your employees
and team members, particularly in a fast-
cycle business environment with much
project work. Its simple methodology can
help you integrate both the centrally-set
organizational goals and your personal
leadership expectations when dealing with
your employees. The absorption model is
just a tool and the real worth of it depends
on how well and how systematically man-
agement applies it in daily practice.
References
Csíkszentmihályi, M. (2003). Good business:
Leadership, flow, and the making of mean-
ing. New York, NY: Penguin Books.
Delong, T., Gabarro, J., & Lees, R. J. (2008,
January). Why mentoring matters in a
hypercompetitive world. Harvard Busi-
ness Review, 86(1),115–121.
Gabarro, J. (1987). The dynamics of taking
charge. Cambridge: Harvard Business
School Publishing.
Gartner Group. (2005). Understanding
hype cycles. Retrieved from http://
www.gartner.com/pages/story.php.
id.8795.s.8.jsp.
Mérö, L. (1996). Mindenki másképp egy-
forma. Budapest, Hungary: Tericum
Kiadó Kft.
Riding the Waves of the Motivation Cycle: The Absorption Model of Leadership
Zoltán Buzády, PhD, is Assistant
Professor of Management and
Organization at the Central Euro-
pean University Business School
located in Budapest, Hungary. He
holds an MBA from CASS Business
School, London and a PhD in Strat-
egy and Organization. His research
interests and publications focus
on Organizational B
­ ehaviour,
Leadership, and Change Man-
agement. He can be reached at
zoltan@buzady.hu.
Achilles Georgiu is Adjunct
lecturer of IT Management at the
Central European University Busi-
ness School. Besides MSc degrees
in Computer Sciences and Infor-
matics Management, he has more
than 13 years of international
and multicultural experience in IT
Service Management and ample
knowledge of mainstream IT
management and control frame-
works. He has developed a special
focus on human motivation, team
building, and performance man-
agement. He can be reached at
achilles@georgiu.hu.
41
 “While out-placed employees may receive third-party support and experience a range of
choices, in-place employees or survivors face little choice, experience increased pressure,
and struggle to function in a social environment of heightened anxiety and ambiguity.”
Survivor Coping
A Fresh Look at Resiliency in the Wake of Downsizing
By Shirley M. Mayton Since the first significant layoffs in Cor-
porate America began in the late 1970s,
employee downsizing has grown from
a temporary cost reduction strategy to
an institutionalized management tac-
tic employed for reasons beyond acute
economic pressure (Cascio, 1993; Chad-
wick, Hunter, & Walston, 2004; Guthrie
& Datta, 2008). In a comprehensive
review of employee downsizing research
conducted since 1984, Datta, Guthrie,
Basuil, and Pandey (2010) found that the
promised results of employee downsizing
on organizational market returns, profit-
ability, and other financial outcomes are at
best equivocal.
These lackluster outcomes are
understandable when considering the
impact of downsizing on employees who
remain employed, often called “survivors.”
The strains of overwork, organizational
changes, anxiety over potential job loss,
and lack of choice often result in physical
illness, emotional trauma, and extreme
disengagement termed “survivor sick-
ness” (Noer, 1993). Increases in workplace
conflict (Gilson, Hurd, & Wagar, 2004),
risk-aversion, and rigidity (Cascio, 1993),
hindered innovation and problem solving,
and decimated social networks (Dough-
erty & Bowman, 1995) impede employee
performance and motivation after a
downsizing event. Surprisingly, Datta et.al.
(2010) identified only 26 studies out of 91
investigating the impact of downsizing on
survivors, with only three considering how
employees cope effectively.
While out-placed employees may
receive third-party support and experience
42 OD PRACTITIONER  Vol. 43 No. 1  2011
a range of choices, in-place employees
or survivors face little choice, experience
increased pressure, and struggle to func-
tion in a social environment of heightened
anxiety and ambiguity. Given the global
magnitude, frequency, and recent spike
in employee downsizing, survivor coping
remains under-researched (Chadwick et
al., 2004; Datta et al., 2010; Guthrie &
Datta, 2008). This paper explores sur-
vivor coping through theoretical frame-
works that can further inform this area of
inquiry and offers suggestions to support
employee resiliency.
The Traumatized Workplace
To further clarify the impact of downsizing
on the individual survivor, understanding
the workplace as a social system becomes
important. Horman and Vivian (2005)
suggest that like individuals, organizations
become traumatized “entities” and pres-
ent with work climate symptoms of stress,
lack of hope, closed boundaries, narrowed
focus, and a general systemic anxiety,
in perhaps what can be termed “post-
traumatic­organizational stress.”
Comella (1996) suggests that Bowen
Family Systems Theory, which defines
and interprets family dynamics as natural
emotionally-based social systems, can be
applied to organizations to better under-
stand their emotional systemic processes
in two ways. Specifically, Bowen Theory
maintains that groups, such as families
or organizations, operate as an emo-
tional system-in-balance with disruptions
impacting the entire system’s functioning.
Organizations have traditionally viewed The Organizational Achilles’ Heel acknowledgement and little support from
the impact of downsizing or restructuring the organization.
as individualized and have neglected to Miller (2002) defines an incongruity
recognize the larger community impact. between an organization’s rational systems The Mechanics of Coping
Secondly, Bowen Theory stresses that of how members think things are suppose in a Downsized Environment
heightened anxiety is frequently shared or to work and the emotional or relational
transferred to others within the relational systems of how things actually do work. Underlying resiliency are the mechan-
system in an effort to manage the strong The highly potent emotional element is ics of coping and the specific strategies
emotion. The level of anxiety transference often ignored, marginalized, or dismissed that support adaptability and rebounding.
and the resultant disruption is another by organizations (Frost, 2004; Mumby & Armstrong-Stassen (1994) stated the need
blind spot of organizations under trauma. Putman, 1992) and consequently becomes to examine how survivors of downsizing
Downsizing, or its threat, disrupts social an “Achilles’ Heel” that may lead to cope in order to identify those strategies
networks and relationship systems as anxi- organizational failure when downsizing. that best mitigate these negative effects and
ety telegraphs through the organization, Organizations are simply ill-equipped and support the performance of both individu-
als and organizations. She utilized the
stress and coping framework of Lazarus
The level of anxiety transference and the resultant disruption is and Folkman (1984) and the coping evalu-
another blind spot of organizations under trauma. Downsizing, ation framework of Latack and Havlovic
(1992) in much of her research.
or its threat, disrupts social networks and relationship systems Lazarus and Folkman (1984) define
as anxiety telegraphs through the organization, impacting coping as the behavioral and cognitive
effort to manage demands that exceed
flexibility, limiting responsiveness, fostering chronic anxiety, perceived resources. Coping is seen as a
and igniting the “flight or fight” response, which cannot find function of the relationship between an
individual’s psychological, social, and orga-
appropriate expression within the organization. Negative nizational resources and his or her primary
emotional contagion hobbles employees and consequently, (how much of a threat to me?) and second-
ary (can I handle it?) appraisal. Lazarus and
organizational recovery. Folkman further identified coping choices
along two dimensions, problem-focused
impacting flexibility, limiting responsive- unfamiliar when dealing with emotional and emotion-focused. Latack and Hav-
ness, fostering chronic anxiety, and igniting systems (Gallos, 2008). lovic (1992) built on this foundation and
the “flight or fight” response, which cannot Family models of resiliency may offer proposed an evaluative framework for cop-
find appropriate expression within the insight into adaptive social and emotional ing by delineating these two dimensions
organization. Negative emotional conta- systems that could be applied to organi- further into a 4X4 matrix, labeling control-
gion hobbles employees and consequently, zational contexts. For example, the social oriented coping (adaptive) vs. escape/
organizational recovery. Bowen Theory can support system, an important contribu- avoidance coping (maladaptive) for specific
offer a more informed view of emotional tor to resiliency, is a primary element cognitive and behavioral actions.
systemic behavior within organizations that becomes disrupted in downsizing From this conceptual viewpoint,
experiencing the trauma of downsizing. and ­contributes to poor job performance ­Armstrong-Stassen (1994) found that dis-
Miller (2002) echoes these sentiments (Amiable­& Conti, 1999; Armstrong- positional optimism, sense of self-mastery,
in The Anxious Organization, describing Stassen­, 1994) with the quality of rela- and perceived social support were related
the contagion of anxiety and its impact on tionships with other survivors a variable to use of control-coping. Self-reports of
individuals, whose collective dysfunction that impacts outcomes (Brockner et al., increased organizational commitment,
ultimately threatens the well-being and 1997). Frost (2004) and Gallos (2008) improved job performance, and decreased
success of the organization. Miller points suggest that certain individuals begin to turnover intention was positively corre-
out that since little can be done to address act as “toxin handlers,” natural helpers lated with control coping and negatively
the threat directly, especially if the threat is within the social system who willingly correlated with escape coping. Supervisor
only perceived, stress and anxiety continue tend to the emotional needs of others support was found to be an important
to circulate as the organization and the and attempt to provide the social support mediating variable in moderating negative
employees try to “get rid of it” through desperately needed. These “helpers,” most impact on survivors. However, how survi-
maladaptive responses that perpetuate often managers, are strategically impor- vors perceived a workforce reduction was a
an ever widening cycle of anxiety-shifts tant to maintaining organizational func- more important determinate in the choice
and reactions. tioning, yet often burnout due to lack of of coping strategies than perceptions of

Survivor Coping: A Fresh Look at Resiliency in the Wake of Downsizing 43

available resources, such as supervisor
support.
Using the Lazarus and Folkman
(1984) paradigm and the Latack and
Havlovic (1992) evaluative framework to
investigate coping strategies of survivors
seems to unnecessarily limit the range of
coping options that survivors have at their
disposal and perhaps inaccurately judge
their value. This problem seems reflective
of the larger challenge for researchers in
conceptualizing and accurately classifying
coping strategies (Skinner, Edge, Altman,
& Sherwood, 2003). However, one element
that Lazarus and Folkman bring into focus
is cognitive appraisal and its function as a
mediator between the stressor in the envi-
ronment and the impact of stress on the
individual. Lazarus (1990) states, “stress is
a subjective versus an objective phenom-
enon” (p. 3). Consequently, this can become
a potential mechanism for improving cop-
ing and resiliency. Although several studies
have investigated the relationship between
cognitive appraisal and distress in the work
place, Maurier and Northcott (2000) inves-
tigated the impact of cognitive appraisal on
physical and mental health of nurses under
the threat of layoff. These researchers
found that depression and poor physical
health were significantly related to apprais-
als of high levels of threat and negatively
related to positive reappraisals. Interest-
ingly, and contrary to what the Lazarus and
Folkman coping construct would suggest,
escape coping and planful problem solv-
ing strategies both were associated with
health decline and depression, similar to
the results found by Armstrong-Stassen
(2004). This may be a function of futility
experienced when expressing the natural
urge to take action by planning ahead (i.e.,
fight versus flight as an outcome of the
stress response) in a situation over which
one has little control and in many cases is
emergent and unpredictable. These results
also call into question what can be catego-
rized as adaptive versus maladaptive coping
without understanding context.
Amiot, Terry, Jimmieson, and Cal-
lan (2006) in a 2-year longitudinal study
involving an airline merger found that
managing employee perceptions sur-
rounding the merger and ensuring that
44 OD PRACTITIONER  Vol. 43 No. 1  2011
employees were consulted, informed, and
viewed leadership as effective resulted in
reports of less stress, increased self-efficacy,
and the use of control-focused coping strat-
egies. This in turn predicted good adjust-
ment to the merger as measured by job
satisfaction and identification with the new
organization. The researchers concluded
that event characteristics managed by the
organization have an impact on cognitive
appraisals that act to inhibit maladaptive
avoidance coping and support control
coping, both in the short and long-term.
Similar to other research, this study found
that high stress appraisals activated the use
of both escape and control coping.
When considering the above results,
decreases in employee functioning, capabil-
ity, health, and well-being can be hypoth-
esized to be a result of how employees
appraise the situation and attempt to cope.
The inability of individuals to effectively
cope appears to be a contributing factor to
poor results from downsizing. Employees
are the individuals who execute the work
in organizations and shoulder the burden
of organizational leadership’s poor execu-
tion of downsizing. Gallos (2008) cites in
her article that research from the Finnish
Institute of Occupational Health “found
that workers who survived massive staff
downsizing were five times more likely to
die from heart disease or stroke in the 3 to
5 years after the cuts than employees from
stable work environments” (p. 358). Conse-
quently, the maintained health, motivation,
and perseverance of employees in spite of
the hardship and difficulty in a downsized
environment are surely of paramount
importance and central to organizational
resiliency. Cascio (1993) suggests that
downsizing practices, originating from
a hierarchical manufacturing paradigm,
continue to be inappropriately applied
to white-collar and information workers,
creating significant damage to the remain-
ing workforce, and easily sending organiza-
tions into a downward spiral.
What Works and Why Organizations
Don’t Do It
Based on current research, the answer of
when downsizing will more likely result
in promised organizational outcomes,
or at least not result in further organiza-
tional trauma, can be outlined. Chadwick
et al. (2004) identify supportive Human
Resources policies and practices as a
critical variable in determining outcome:
increasing a sense of survivor employment
security, building professional confidence,
training supervisors in counseling skills,
and increasing management communica-
tion as having the most impact on survi-
vors’ attitudes and performance. Even then,
positive financial and organizational results
did not materialize until 2 to 3 years after
the downsizing events, with larger down-
sizings requiring a longer recovery period.
Datta et al. (2010) also summarized
multiple factors identified in the research
literature as mitigating the negative
consequences of downsizing on reduced
employee commitment and job involve-
ment. These include open, accurate, and
helpful communication, supervisor and
work group support, positive reactions
from co-survivors, perceptions of fairness
and justice, management trustworthiness,
sense of control over circumstances and
self-efficacy, involvement and empower-
ment, allowed input, expression of views,
and appeals to decisions.
In a highly insightful article, Gallos
(2008) shares her own experience from
the “toxic” trenches and describes in detail
her attempt to function in an organization
permeating with negative emotional under-
currents. She states that in any organiza-
tion, change and unrealistic performance
expectations create strong emotional reac-
tions, which each individual is expected to
absorb and manage themselves. Concur-
rently, the implicit work contract advises/
demands that strong emotions, especially
negative ones, are “taboo” (Maitlis &
Ozcelik, 2004; Mumby & Putnam, 1992).
Echoing the theory of traumatized organi-
zations from a social systems perspective,
Gallos purports that trauma, from any
number of sources including downsizing,
leads to emotional overload that cannot be
“absorbed,” goes underground, and creates
a toxic environment that disrupts produc-
tivity. Viewing this from a family systems
perspective (Comella, 1996; Papero, 1996;
Wiseman, 1996), anxiety is transferred
throughout the social network to such an
extent that individuals spend a majority
of time trying to manage emotions, which
demand priority. In such an emotionally
charged environment, individuals and the
organization weaken under the “cumula-
tive build up” of emotional chain reac-
tions (p. 357).
Compounding this, supervisors’ sup-
port dissipates in a downsized environment
(Datta et al., 2010) due perhaps to feeling
ill-equipped and uncomfortable in dealing
with the emotional needs of employees.
The business culture norm that “strong
emotions are taboo” operates against the
informal counseling process and any provi-
sional support offered by an inexperienced
and unequipped “helper” could worsen
the situation.
Calling for attention to the human side
of organizations, Gallos (2008) suggests
several practices for organizations to adopt
in order to constructively address the emo-
tional over-load that undermines employee
well-being and work productivity. These
practices include:
»» education on toxic emotions;
»» wellness programs that provide on-site
stress management education and
practices;
»» “safe zones” in which individuals can
work outside of pressurized environ-
ments for a time;
»» institutionalizing work and personal
life balance practices and policies;
»» establishing rituals and arenas that
permit processing of emotions; and
»» use of skilled “surrogate helpers” and
third-party counseling teams who can
offer healthy and safe exploration of
emotional reactions.
Gallos (2008) ends her discussion by
recommending that organizations need
both a realistic understanding of human
emotional systems and the development
of capabilities to handle them appro-
priately. One component of this would
involve a different approach to leadership
development in greater alignment with
modern day challenges faced by manag-
ers in order to support “healthy leader-
ship and ­organizations . . . that promote
caring cultures, individual resiliency, and
extraordinary p­ erformance . . . organiza- trauma and capable of recovery. Research
tional models that support high productiv- from the field of Positive Psychology may
ity and high ­attention to human needs at help inform these practices and offer
work” (p. 364). new insight into creating supportive
As reported above, the emotional and work environments.
psychological impact on survivors can be
quite strong and devastating, not to men- Positive Cognitive Strategies
tion physically harmful. When considering
how inadequate organizations remain in Armstrong-Stassen and Schlosser (2008)
supporting survivor resiliency and how brought the field of Positive Psychol-
important these strategies may be for orga- ogy into the literature of downsizing to
nizational recovery and the health and well- demonstrate its value in understanding
being of employees, acting purposefully the responses of survivors. In their study,
to manage the aftermath of downsizing is a positive relationship was found between
When considering how inadequate organizations remain
in supporting survivor resiliency and how important these
strategies may be for organizational recovery and the health
and well-being of employees, acting purposefully to manage
the aftermath of downsizing is both an ethical and business
imperative. Perhaps more importantly, the creation of a culture
of resiliency within an organization prior to trauma occurring
may be the most strategic and sustainable course of action.
both an ethical and business imperative. generalized optimism, future success
Perhaps more importantly, the creation of a expectancy, and positive thinking coping.
culture of resiliency within an organization This was then correlated with self-reports
prior to trauma occurring may be the most of effective coping, increased job perfor-
strategic and sustainable course of action. mance, and satisfaction over the downsiz-
ing period. The authors concluded that
Supporting Natural Resiliency through optimism is a valuable resource for sur-
Positive Organizational Behavior vivors and point to training interventions
that are currently being used to develop
Given this review of the impact of down- positive psychological resources like hope
sizing on organizations and individuals, a and optimism (Youssef & Luthans, 2007),
consistent thread prevalent throughout is self-efficacy, positive reframing, and socio-
the emotional impact on survivors and the emotional support.
upheaval of the emotional systems within Seligman (1998) outlined an approach
which they work. Many of the practices for learning optimism by changing explan-
correlated with positive outcomes after atory style. Optimistic individuals use a
downsizing, as reported by Datta et al. temporary, specific, and external explana-
(2010), point to ensuring that employee tory style for negative events that fosters a
negative appraisals and emotions are self-efficacious perspective, while pessimis-
minimized and positive and enabling tic individuals use permanent, generalized,
­reactions are maximized. Along with this and internal attributions to explain negative
and in support of it would be conceptual- events. The opposite sequences are used by
izing this resiliency process ecologically, each to explain positive events. Seligman
specifically by viewing the organization purports that pessimists exhibit a type of
as a whole relational system impacted by “learned helplessness” or lack of control
Survivor Coping: A Fresh Look at Resiliency in the Wake of Downsizing 45
over their environment and suggests that
individuals can learn optimism similar
to learning any other behavioral skill by
gaining awareness of current explanatory
patterns and then purposefully choosing
more enabling ones.
The Value of Positive Emotions and
Positive Spirals
Cohn, Fredrickson, Brown, Mikels, and
Conway (2009) show a direct connection
between positive emotions and resiliency,
which enables survival and flourishing
in adversity. Fredrickson’s (2000, 2009)
“broaden-and-build-theory” creates a
foundation from which to understand the
contribution of positive emotions in broad-
ening individual thought-action repertoire, »» Design internal processes or structures
problem-solving orientation, adaptation
skills, and social connections that build
social and psychological resources. An
“undo” effect also results from positive
emotions, which speeds physiological
recovery from the cardiovascular effects of
negative emotions and the psychological
narrowing of the threat response. Fred-
rickson suggests that positive emotions
optimize health, well-being, and resil-
ience, and her extensive research supports
this hypothesis.
In addition, positive emotions perpetu-
ate “upward spirals” of positive emotions,
performance, and well-being through
expansion and self-perpetuation, while
negative emotions create “downward
spirals” that act to shut down thought-rep-
ertoire, creativity, and recovery (Fredrickson
& Joiner, 2002) and keep individuals in
fight or flight mode. From these results
it is possible to conclude that individuals
who experience positive emotions, either
from their own efforts or as an outcome of
the social environment within which they
work, would be more capable of prob-
lem or control-focused coping, perceiv-
ing and accessing resources, fostering a
sense of well-being, and maintaining a
more optimistic and resilient perspective.
Fredrickson and Losada (2005) identify
that a “positivity ratio” of 3:1 of pleasant
feelings over unpleasant ones is required
for ­positive spirals and human flourishing
to occur.
46 OD PRACTITIONER  Vol. 43 No. 1  2011
Recommendations to Support
Organizational Resiliency
In summation, organizations that create an
environment to support natural resiliency
and effective individual and group cop-
ing before, during, and after downsizing
will have the best chance for a business
rebound. A few suggestions emerge from
this literature review:
»» Develop internal systems and struc-
tures to deal with negative emotional
contagion; provide helpers or counsel-
ing teams to allow for the processing
of strong emotions. Acknowledge and
support relational systems as a natural
and foundational component of work
processes and trauma recovery.
that operate to foster positive emotions
and positive spirals; acknowledge the
value of positivity to work outcomes,
such as creative problem-solving,
innovation, resource creation, and
social networking, as well as for overall
employee health and well-being.
»» Teach resiliency and positive cognitive
coping skills to individuals throughout
the organization, including effective
boundary setting, healthy emotional
disengagement, and differentiation
(Bowen, 1978).
»» Design leadership development
programs from a systems perspective,
inclusive of human emotional and
relational systems as integral to the
operation of the organization; include
skill development needed for leaders
to manage and support these systems
while maintaining healthy boundaries.
Conclusion
This paper reviewed current research on
employee downsizing and found a sig-
nificant deleterious effect on employees
remaining within traumatized institutions.
The research suggests that conditions for
organizational rebounding after downsiz-
ing are tied intimately to the individual
employee’s resiliency and capacity to flour-
ish under stress and ambiguous working
conditions. Current research in Positive
Psychology and application of Bowen
Family Systems Theory offers insight for
fostering an emotionally healthy workplace
that may be better equipped to address
trauma. The importance of positive cogni-
tive strategies, the value of understanding
and acknowledging the role of emotion,
and the contribution of positive emotions
to recovery may significantly contribute to
a more humanistic organizational setting
in which natural resiliency is nurtured and
emerges easily. Organizations should look
to establishing internal systems and struc-
tures that foster a culture of “rebounding”
in light of the inevitable change, trauma
and loss that is part of the current employ-
ment climate.
References
Amabile, T. M., & Conti, R. (1999).
Changes in the work environment for
creativity during downsizing. Acad-
emy of Management Journal, 42(6),
630–640.
Amiot, C. E., Terry, D. J., Jimmieson, N.
L., & Callan, V. J. (2006). A longitudi-
nal investigation of coping processes
during a merger: Implications for job
satisfaction and organizational identi-
fication. Journal of Management, 32(4),
552–574.
Armstrong-Stassen, M. (1994). Coping
with transition: A study of layoff survi-
vors. Journal of Organizational Behavior,
15(7), 597–621.
Armstrong-Stassen, M. (2004). The
influence of prior commitment on the
reactions of layoff survivors to organi-
zational downsizing. Journal of Occupa-
tional Health Psychology, 9(1), 46–60.
Armstrong-Stassen, M., & Schlosser, F.
(2008). Taking a positive approach to
organizational downsizing. Canadian
Journal of Administrative Sciences-
Revue Canadienne Des Sciences De
L’Administration, 25(2), 93–106.
Bowen, M. (1978). Family therapy in clinical
practice. New York, NY: Jason Aronson,
Inc.
Brockner, J., Hurley, R., Dewitt, R., Wiesen-
feld, B., Grover, S., Stephan, J., et al.
(1997). The effects on layoff survivors
of their fellow survivors’ reactions.

Journal of Applied Social Psychology,
27(10), 835–863.
Cascio, W. F. (1993). Downsizing: What do
we know? What have we learned? The
Executive, 7(1), 95–104. Retrieved from
ABI/INFORM Global.
Chadwick, C., Hunter, L. W., & Walston, S.
L. (2004). Effects of downsizing prac-
tices on the performance of hospitals.
Strategic Management Journal, 25(5),
405–427.
Cohn, M. A., Fredrickson, B. L., Brown,
S. L., Mikels, J. A., & Conway, A. M.
(2009). Happiness unpacked: Posi-
tive emotions increase life satisfaction
by building resilience. Emotion, 9(3),
361–368.
Comella, P. (1996). The emotional side of
re-engineered and re-invented work-
places. In P. Comella, J. Bader, J. Ball,
K. Wiseman, & R. Sagar (Eds.), The
emotional side of organizations: Applica-
tion of Bowen theory (pp. 39–46). Wash-
ington, DC: Georgetown Family Center.
Datta, D. K., Guthrie, J. P., Basuil, D., &
Pandey, A. (2010). Causes and effects
of employee downsizing: A review and
synthesis. Journal of Management, 36(1),
281-348.
Dougherty, D., & Bowman, E. H. (1995).
The effects of organizational downsiz-
ing on product innovation. California
Management Review, 37(4), 28–44.
Fredrickson, B. (2000). Cultivating posi-
tive emotions to optimize health and
well-being. Prevention and Treatment,
3(1). Retrieved from http://journals.apa.
org/prevention/volume3/pre0030001a.
html
Fredrickson, B. (2009). Positivity. New
York, NY: Random House Publishing.
Fredrickson, B. L., & Joiner, T. (2002). Posi-
tive emotions trigger upward spirals
toward emotional well-being. Psychologi-
cal Science, 13(2), 172–175.
Fredrickson, B. L., & Losada, M. F. (2005).
Positive affect and the complex dynam-
ics of human flourishing. American
Psychologist, 61(7), 678–686.
Frost, P. J. (2004). Handling toxic emo-
tions: New challenges for leaders and
their organization. Organizational
Dynamics, 33(2), 111–127.
Gallos, J. V. (2008). Learning from the
toxic trenches: The winding road to
healthier organizations and to healthy
everyday leaders. Journal of Management
Inquiry, 17(4), 354–367.
Gilson, C., Hurd, F., & Wagar, T. (2004).
Creating a concession climate: The
case of the serial downsizers. The
International Journal of Human Resource
Management, 15(6), 1056–1068.
Guthrie, J. P., & Datta, D. K. (2008). Dumb
and dumber: The impact of downsizing
on firm performance as moderated by
industry conditions. Organization Sci-
ence, 19(1), 108–123.
Hormann, S., & Vivian, P. (2005). Toward
an understanding of traumatized orga-
nizations and how to intervene in them.
Traumatology, 11(3), 159–169.
Latack, J. C., & Havlovic, S. J. (1992). Cop-
ing with job stress: A conceptual evalu-
ation framework for coping measures.
Journal of Organizational Behavior, 13(5),
479–508.
Lazarus, R. S. (1990). Theory-based stress
measurement. Psychological Inquiry,
1(1), 3-13.
Lazarus, R. S., & Folkman, S. (1984). Stress,
appraisal, and coping. New York, NY:
Springer Publishing Company.
Maitlis, S., & Ozcelik, H. (2004). Toxic
decision processes: A study of emotion
and organizational decision making.
Organization Science, 15(4), 375–393.
Maurier, W. L., & Northcott, H. C. (2000).
Job uncertainty and health status for
nurses during restructuring of health
care in Alberta. Western Journal of Nurs-
ing Research, 22(5), 623–641.
Miller, J. (2002). The anxious organization:
Why smart companies do dumb things.
Tempe, AZ: Facts on Demand Press.
Mumby, D. K., & Putnam, L. L. (1992). The
politics of emotion: A feminist reading
of bounded reality. Academy of Manage-
ment Review, 17(3), 465–486.
Noer, D. (1993). Healing the wounds:
Overcoming the trauma of layoffs and
revitalizing downsized organizations. San
Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Papero, D. (1996). Anxiety and organiza-
tions. In P. Comella, J. Bader, J. Ball,
K. Wiseman, & R. Sagar (Eds.), The
Survivor Coping: A Fresh Look at Resiliency in the Wake of Downsizing
Shirley M. Mayton, SPHR, Vice
President and Senior Consultant
with Right Management, has over
25 years experience in employee
performance enhancement. In her
work, she has enhanced busi-
ness results by helping leaders
promote positive and healthy
work environments that support
efficiency, productivity, and deep
capability on a global scale. She
can be reached at shirley.mayton@
right.com.
emotional side of organizations: Applica-
tion of Bowen theory (pp. 47–53). Wash-
ington, DC: Georgetown Family Center.
Seligman, M. (1998). Learned optimism:
How to change your mind and your life.
New York, NY: Free Press.
Skinner, E. A., Edge, K., Altman, J., &
Sherwood, H. (2003). Searching for the
structure of coping: A review and cri-
tique of category systems for classifying
ways of coping. Psychological Bulletin,
129(2), 216–269.
Wiseman, K. (1996). Life at work: The view
from the bleachers. In P. Comella, J.
Bader, J. Ball, K. Wiseman, & R. Sagar
(Eds.), The emotional side of organi-
zations: Application of Bowen theory
(pp. 31–38). Washington, DC: George-
town Family Center.
Youssef, C. M., & Luthans, F. (2007).
Positive organizational behavior in
the workplace: The impact of hope,
optimism, and resilience. Journal of
Management, 33(5), 774–800.
47
 “The initiative to take Pharma across US borders provides tremendous opportunity for an
OD consultant who can leverage both local OD talent and healthcare experts to assess the
current situation and develop an outcome-based strategy for success. ”
Case History
Organization Development’s
Role When Going Global
By Therese F. Yaeger and Pharma is a successful pharmaceutical
Peter F. Sorensen company operating, until now, solely in the
United States. As a result of their success-
ful hard-line sales history, the environment
at Pharma has been described as “entrepre-
neurial.” Pharma’s corporate culture has
always been aggressive, competitive, and
power-oriented, which has contributed to
its success.
However, being US-centric must
now change, and Marcus, the new CEO
at Pharma, has charged the organization
to become global by next year. Marcus has
identified three global regions—India,
Asia, and Africa—to begin Pharma’s
global efforts.
You are the US OD consultant report-
ing directly to Marcus. Marcus wants to
involve you in the overseas future growth
development for Pharma. He has told you,
“Failure is not an option. We might be a
great US pharmaceutical corporation, but
as CEO, I insist that we become global, and
make it happen now. The announcement
of our new global efforts will be in the
press next week.”
As the OD consultant you have exper-
tise in Global OD, with limited exposure
to regions in Africa, India, and Asia. You
understand Pharma’s past culture, but
you are also aware that in these different
national cultures start-ups do not suc-
ceed as quickly and aggressively as the US
Pharma culture. In fact, with your global
knowledge, you know of instances where
start-up efforts failed because US manage-
ment teams were unaware of the context in
which they were operating.
You understand the no-fail approach
48 OD PRACTITIONER  Vol. 43 No. 1  2011
that Marcus has taken. But you also
wonder what will be needed to support all
the future efforts. Perhaps with the right
people and the right knowledge this global
effort might just work. But you realize that
this effort is bigger and broader than OD.
Right now, more questions than
answers exist. Some of these questions
include:
»» How might OD be of strategic rel-
evance in helping Pharma?
»» Does Pharma understand the eco-
nomic, political, and legal issues that
must be addressed?
»» Does everyone understand the societal
and national cultural values?
»» How will the role of OD be perceived?
»» What specific OD strategies would you
incorporate with on-ground Pharma
management?
»» Finally, how would you measure suc-
cess on this global undertaking?
We have asked three consultants with
global expertise to help unpack all the
answers and questions for this huge cor-
porate global project: Nazneen Razi with
HR and OD knowledge operating globally,
particularly India; Dalitso Sulamoyo, with
first-hand change experience in Africa (par-
ticularly Malawi); and Katherine Shroeder
with expert OD knowledge and experience
working in Japan.
Nazneen Razi
The challenge of doing business globally
cannot be underestimated, particularly
in a country like India, one of the most
culturally, socially, and politically complex
countries in the world. The initiative to
take Pharma across US borders provides
tremendous opportunity for an OD consul-
tant who can leverage both local OD talent
and healthcare experts to assess the current
situation and develop an outcome-based
strategy for success.
According to a recent IMS report
(2010), the pharmaceutical industry in
India is a $10 billion business and among
the top four emerging markets, forecast-
ing double digit growth over the next five
years. If Pharma wishes to enter the Indian
market, the role of OD will be critical in
assessing and addressing the following:
»» Market strategy
»» Launch readiness
»» Acquisition of key talent
»» Cultural and societal forces
»» Legal and regulatory environment
»» Competitive landscape
The pharmaceutical industry in India is
extremely fragmented. Large retail drug
chain stores like Walgreens or CVS do not
exist, rather pharmaceutical retail out-
lets are operated by local small business
owners who are well known by the com-
munities around them, including medical
practitioners and hospital staff. If Marcus
wants a plan that is guaranteed to succeed,
several key decisions will have to be made,
guided by good research and advice. Vari-
ous scenarios can be contemplated with
varying outcomes. For example, should
Pharma sell its own US-manufactured
products in India, or leverage the low cost,
highly intelligent pharmaceutical local
labor market to do the R&D work, and then
market products to India and potentially to
other markets; should Pharma penetrate
one geographic market one product at a
time, or proliferate rapidly?
To optimize the decision-making pro-
cess, the following five-step process should
be proposed to Marcus for implementation
this year to ensure a successful launch
next year, using OD interventions that are
conducive to large scale initiatives:
1. Quarter One—Select High Powered
Teams: A strategic sourcing strategy should
be deployed to engage a group of skilled
local OD and business consultants who are market, economic, and government forces
also market and industry experts. A global at work in this business. During this ses-
leader, either an expatriate from within sion, strategy, structure, design, and other
the firm or a qualified local hire, should organizational constructs can begin to form
be appointed to lead the strategic effort. and get vetted.
Using the right assessment tools to select
and develop a strong leader, who has the 5. 2012—Launch and Measure for Global
cultural sensitivity to lead teams in a very Success: The launch should be a collab-
diverse setting, is critical to this initiative. orative effort by Marketing, HR, and the
business teams. Appropriate financial and
2. Quarter Two—Conduct Rigorous non-financial metrics and measurements
Research: The OD and business teams should be developed to keep plans on track.
should focus their energy to collect data on
the technical aspects of the industry as well The OD function should continue to
Relationships are very important in any African setting,
especially if they involve any cross-cultural work. It is important
to recognize local African talent in an age where Africa is going
through a rebirth that some have described as the African
Renaissance. Global operations have tended to focus more on
bringing expatriates with less recognition of existing talent
on the continent of Africa. A partnership that is built on cross-
cultural OD would be beneficial to its implementation in this
new venture by Pharma.
as around the societal, economic, and regu- monitor progress on an ongoing basis to
latory aspects of doing business in India. ensure that both top line and bottom line
Marketing and legal experts should review objectives are being achieved and teams
the competitive and legal landscape of the are engaged and productive for continued
business, while cultural OD experts should success.
examine the behavioral norms that define
consumer habits and employee needs. Dalitso S. Sulamoyo
3. Quarter Three—Apply Research to Marcus should be commended for his
Inform Key Decisions: Once this data vision to expand Pharma’s operations
is collected, the teams should bring key globally. He should also be commended for
stakeholders together, including health- engaging the services and expertise of an
care practitioners, pharmacists, doctors, OD consultant to aid in the facilitation of
chemists, and others to develop a powerful this expansion to Africa, India, and Asia in
global strategy. Scenario planning should general. There are indeed many questions
be used to create a variety of possible future that need to be considered and answered
scenarios in deciding which direction with regard to the role that OD should play
Pharma should be headed using the data to with this expansion particularly on the
support its trajectory. continent of Africa south of the Sahara.
My OD approach to this proposed growth
4. Quarter Four—Define Strategy and Cri- and expansion onto the continent of Africa
teria for Brilliant Execution: In Weisbord- would involve a two-pronged approach
ian fashion (1987), the team should gather designed to address the critical questions.
the entire system in the room, using an The first order of business would
“all-purpose view finder” to understand the be the identification of local African OD
Case History: Organization Development’s Role When Going Global 49
practitioners that would partner with me in
the specific African countries that Pharma
intends to set up its operations. The
partnership with these local African OD
practitioners would first serve the purpose
of gaining and building trust with the local
workforce and operations. Relationships
are very important in any African setting,
especially if they involve any cross-cultural
work. It is important to recognize local
African talent in an age where Africa is
going through a rebirth that some have
described as the African Renaissance.
Global operations have tended to focus
more on bringing expatriates with less rec-
ognition of existing talent on the continent
of Africa. A partnership that is built on
cross-cultural OD would be beneficial to
its implementation in this new venture by
Pharma. Secondly, since many of the OD
applications and techniques are western
developed, it is critical that these local OD
practitioners serve as the cultural trans-
lators and indigenizing agents for their
acceptance and success. Indigenization in
this instance would be the convergence of
these OD techniques and approach with
local African culture. Thirdly, the local OD
practitioners would assist in the identifica-
tion of successful indigenous applications
such as the utilization of African meta-
phors and proverbs to facilitate change and
convey OD practices to the local setting.
Fourthly, the local African OD practitio-
ners would assist in designing appropri-
ate surveys to assess and understand the
political, economic, social, environmental,
technological, and legal issues that need to
be considered as part of Pharma’s strategy
in establishing its operations. It is critical
to utilize the local OD practitioners so as to
ensure that the questions that might be in
a survey are appropriate.
The second order of business would
be to educate Pharma about African
culture, particularly the collectivist culture
of Ubuntu whose principles are common
in sub-Saharan Africa. Pharma’s corpo-
rate culture which has been described
as aggressive, competitive, and power
oriented has contributed to its success.
However, those cultural factors are in many
respects the antithesis to the prevalent Afri-
can culture found in sub-Saharan Africa.
50 OD PRACTITIONER  Vol. 43 No. 1  2011
Ubuntu represents a powerful philosophy
and cultural approach whereby African’s
view their existence through others in their
society. The approach for Pharma would be
to utilize Ubuntu and its principles as the
cultural integrator for strategic OD. The
western world as exemplified by Pharma,
emphasizes efficiency while the five princi-
ples of Ubuntu emphasize effectiveness in
relationships. I would propose the conver-
gence of these two approaches to produc-
tivity to design an indigenized approach
for Pharma. These five principles should
provide Pharma with a different approach
to competitiveness as follows:
1. Importance of Relationships with
­others—Relationships are very impor-
tant in an African culture. Africans
view relationships as being reciprocal.
The whole notion of people view-
ing themselves through others or the
existence of empathy is an important
dimension in African relationships.
Pharma should consider this as it estab-
lishes its operations in Africa because
people are intrinsically motivated to
contribute more when they are valued
members of the work place. Solidarity
and social harmony are also important
components of African culture when
viewing relationships. In an Ubuntu
culture, Pharma would have sustain-
able and competitive advantages due
to the strong loyalty Africans have to
group goals. Pharma could utilize this
cultural component to foster group
synergy when developing new ideas
and products.
2. Shared Decision Making—Participatory
decision making will be important in
gaining commitment to Pharma’s goals
and the effectiveness of its operations
in the long run. Africans like to reach
decisions by consensus where dis-
senters are recognized so as to foster
harmony. This would be a different
approach for Pharma where perhaps
decisions are primarily top-down.
Creating and fostering harmony builds
a strong sense of commitment in an
African setting.
3. Time—An observation that is gener-
ally shared by those who visit Africa for
the first time is the difference in the
perception of time between westerners
and Africans. In Ubuntu, time is recog-
nized as not being a finite commodity,
but a healer if enough time is allowed
for important decisions to be made.
Western perception is that Africans are
not punctual and treat time carelessly,
while Africans’ perception of time as a
healer could offer Pharma a competi-
tive advantage. If more time is taken
on thinking things through, then all
aspects are considered and decisions
are rational as opposed to rushed. It
would offer Pharma a competitive
advantage in the sense that the best
decisions for the corporation can be
made. Africans also value and respect
older workers because they bring expe-
rience and wisdom to the workplace.
This would be a competitive advantage
for Pharma if some of the organiza-
tion’s leadership consists of older
workers. There is great respect for the
elderly which would result in a more
cohesive work setting for Pharma.
4. Belief Systems—Africans subscribe
to belief systems that are based on
both organized religion from the East
and the West and traditional African
spiritual beliefs. These belief systems
are in most respects part of the African
psyche. To respect them would be to
allow the best in people to come out for
the betterment of the workplace.
5. Loyalty—Africans in an Ubuntu culture
place their personal interests secondary
to the collective, tribe, or the workplace.
There is an African saying that states
“the river that forgets its source will
soon dry up.” If the Ubuntu or compo-
nents of African culture that have been
discussed here were considered as part
of Pharma’s OD approach in Africa,
then Pharma can expect to have loyalty
and commitment from its workforce
which are very valuable dimensions in
the long term.
In generalized terms, African’s view
their place of work as their second home.
Ubuntu would help to facilitate the human
touch and family driven environment in
the workplace. This does not mean that
Pharma should completely negate its
competitiveness. What this means is that
Pharma can maintain its competiveness
while being culturally appropriate in an
African setting. Then the Pharma OD
approach will be more successful at the
organizational and group levels.
Katherine Schroeder
While “going global” is attractive for many
industries in this day and age, particularly
pharmaceutical organizations, it is impera-
tive that top executives undertaking such a
venture are grounded in the reality of what
it truly takes to complete such a task. The
first step, of course, is a clear commitment
from top leadership not only to globalize,
but to devote the resources that it takes to
be successful. While Marcus’s decision is
clear, I would recommend several prob-
ing conversations with him and his senior
leadership team to ensure that they have a
solid understanding of the organizational
resources - time, energy, and money - that
are required for success. You can present
various case studies of other US-based
pharmaceutical companies who have made
the attempt to go global, highlighting key
elements for success and pointing out the
many quagmires Pharma may face. It is
critical that you erode any false sense of
confidence Marcus has about how simple
and straightforward this will be. Globaliz-
ing requires developing the best laid plans,
but remaining open to the unknown fac-
tors, which will most certainly be encoun-
tered on the path.
After grounding Marcus and the
senior leadership team with a less rosy and
more realistic perspective of what it takes
to globalize, I would focus on negotiating
a realistic timeframe for the globalization
process. There is no magic wand to wave
that “makes you global” by next year just
because the CEO proclaims it should be
so. Part of your job as the OD Consultant
is to ensure development of a realistic
timeline. Of course planning the trajec-
tory of this organizational change depends
primarily on the methodology Pharma will
follow to globalize. Make sure that Marcus
hires a Business Development Resource
with solid pharmaceutical experience who
can do the business analysis to recommend
the best way to expand globally. A strate-
gic ­alliance or acquisition may prove to
be more effective than a straight expan-
sion of the Pharma organization into
these markets.
To ensure that the legal, political, and
market perspectives have been assessed,
you should ensure that the Business
Development Resource does a thorough
assessment of the markets in Asia, India,
and Africa to ensure that these truly are
the best options for expansion of Pharma’s
footprint. While it is unlikely that Marcus
came up with these areas by throwing
darts at a world map, you need more data
to ensure that targeted expansions fit
with your overall strategic plan and that
the markets can support your entry. Also,
choosing one entry point for 2012 is worthy
of serious consideration and would narrow
your scope, increasing your possibilities
for success.
If Marcus and the Senior Leadership
Team do decide to expand into Asia, your
work shifts into not just ensuring effec-
tive execution of the business strategy, but
providing the context for effective cross-
cultural relationship building that will
be imperative to Pharma’s success. Help
the senior leadership team begin with the
position that you do not know enough to
make assumptions about what it takes to
create a successful partnership. Humility
in this regard will serve you better than
false confidence.
As you target your territory in Asia,
expand your “cultural due diligence” to
the specific country you have targeted.
You may want to find a resource that can
provide you and the senior leadership
team with key cultural guideposts to avoid
major stumbles out of the blocks. For
instance, the Japanese approach to partner-
ship requires an extended period of due
diligence not just to do fact finding and
data analysis, but to build a strong working
relationship. What may appear as second-
ary “socializing” to the US executive is an
essential part of business in Japan. In fact,
key conversations that may make or break
a partnership occur over drinks and dinner
in the evening.
A global expansion such as the one
Pharma is considering is complex on many
Unleashing Innovation through HR/OD Collaboration
levels. This broad focus makes your OD
role even more critical. Your job is to not
only draw attention to key OD perspectives,
but ensure that key areas of the business
are coming together to make sound deci-
sions. In the end, your most important
work is to probe and ask the questions that
will keep Marcus and his senior leadership
team focused on the reality of what it takes
to succeed as Pharma begins the journey
to globalization.
Yaeger and Sorensen Respond
Applause for these three exceptional OD
contributors who have three very different
approaches to assist Marcus at Pharma!
Nazneen, Dalitso, and Kathy illustrate
how different OD can look when deliver-
ing OD support in three different cultural
regions—India, Africa, and Asia. But
even beyond the three different regional
perspectives, these three respondents have
provided different approaches specific to
assisting Marcus at Pharma.
Each respondent begins their discus-
sion by emphasizing the complexities of
working in a global environment. Nazneen
integrates business and OD strategy, and
builds on and uses some of the best in OD
work (i.e., high-powered teams, data collec-
tion, and measurement).
Dalitso does an exceptional job of inte-
grating his understanding of the African
culture with Western OD. He reminds us
of the need to identify local African OD
practitioners to partner with, and to under-
stand the collectivistic culture and Ubuntu
principles when working in Africa.
The cautions of going global cannot
be emphasized more, as Kathy Schroeder
reminds us of the importance of a realistic
strategic plan. The macro business issues
of “cultural due diligence” and continu-
ing to evaluate whether all of the business
components are coming together make
good business sense. Often, as consul-
tants we have exceptional OD knowledge
to assist the client, but we are naïve at the
larger global business plan that OD must
contribute to.
Thank you again to our expert respon-
dents; and again, remember to be culturally
aware when going global.
51
 Nazneen Razi, PhD, is EVP and Chief Global HR Officer for Jones Lang LaSalle
with over 25 years’ experience leading HR departments at national and global
firms such as Comdisco and CNA Insurance. Ms. Razi earned a PhD in Organi-
References
zation Development and an MBA from Benedictine University in Lisle, Illinois.
IMS Health. (2010, March 16). IMS She holds a Masters degree in English Literature from Osmania University
announces 17 countries now rank as in India. Ms. Razi served as chairman of the board of HRMAC and was on the
high-growth “Pharmerging” markets; advisory boards of Menttium and AON Consulting. She currently serves on the
Forecast to contribute nearly half of Boards of the Chicago Sinfonietta and the Chicago Shakespeare Theater. She
industry growth by 2013 [Press release].
can be reached at nazneen.razi@jll.com.
Weisbord, M. R. (1987). Productive work-
places. San Francisco: Jossey Bass. Dalitso S. Sulamoyo is the President & CEO of the Illinois Association of
­Community Action Agencies, Illinois’ largest anti-poverty network of 40
organizations. His current research interest is the measurement of OD suc-
cess rates in Africa. He holds two masters degrees in Political Science and
Public Administration from the University of Illinois. He is a PhD candidate in

One
Organization Development at Benedictine University. He can be reached at
sulamoyo@iacaanet.org.

Katherine A. Schroeder has been in the organization and individual develop-

University’s ment profession for the past twenty years.  Currently, she is the Director of
Organizational Effectiveness for North America at Astellas Pharma where she
works globally with senior leaders on change management, high performance,
culture change, team effectiveness, and global organizational effectiveness. 
Master of Science Degree in She has a BA from University of Illinois and an MA in International Relations
Organizational Performance from University of Denver and is currently working on her PhD in Organization
Development at Benedictine University. She can be reached at geoschroeder@
helps you apply the most gmail.com.
contemporary, practical knowledge
Therese Yaeger, PhD, and Peter Sorensen, PhD, (co-editors with Homer
from leading-edge thinkers to
Johnson of the Case History feature) are the Associate Professor and Director
• overcome toxic barriers of the PhD program in Organization Development and the MSMOB Programs
• align teams around common goals at Benedictine University in Lisle and Springfield, Illinois. Therese can be
• shape reputation reached at tyaeger@ben.edu.
• build customer relationships

Earn your degree in

18 months 100% ONLINE!
SEE REAL STORIES NOW!
msop.bellevue.edu

RReall LLearning
i ffor RReall Lif
Life
800-756-7920
Accredited by The Higher Learning Commission and a member of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools
www.ncahlc.org • 800-621-7440 • Bellevue University does not discriminate on the basis of age, race, color, religion, sex,
national origin, or disability in the educational programs and activities it operates.
13753 - 08/10

52
3753_OD_Pract_ad.indd 1
OD PRACTITIONER  Vol. 43 No.8/31/10
1  20112:22:25 PM
 3 Free Publications
Available Online to
Members of OD Network

A low-residency program that combines faculty-mentored, individualized

learning with a challenging interdisciplinary core curriculum.

This distinctive program is for professionals seeking a degree that offers:

• Quarterly residencies • Integration of theory and practice
• Academic mentoring • Distinguished faculty
• Learner-centered focus • Flexibility of pace to completion

www.phd.antioch.edu

email: admissions.phdlc@antioch.edu toll-free: 877-800-9466

www.odnetwork.org

BECOME A Pepperdine’s Master of Science in Organization Development

POWERFUL
(MSOD) program has earned an international reputation as the
premier graduate program in the field and as an innovator of

LEADER OF
experiential learning. Designed for the experienced professional,
the MSOD program prepares leaders in managing strategic change

CHANGE. to benefit a triple bottom line – people, planet, profit.

• Eight intensive and interactive week-long class sessions over

two years.
PEPPERDINE’S MASTER OF • The only graduate OD program that spends more than 30 percent
SCIENCE IN ORGANIZATION of class time in international locations.

DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM • Application-focused environment including field work in

organizations and immediate relevance to your clients and staff.

MSOD
• For OD consultants, HR professionals, line and staff managers
and executives.

• bschool.pepperdine.edu/programs/msod
• E-mail us at: msod@pepperdine.edu
• or call for more information: 310.568.5598.
SoE1343_10 OD Practioner Ad:Layout 1 6/14/10 11:58 AM Page 1

Doctorate degree
ORGANIZATION
Development
Be an Agent of Positive Change
The University of St. Thomas Ed.D. degree in Organization
Development is a cohort program designed for working adults
who seek to master the theory and skills of organizational change.
Students are leaders who wish to develop OD skills, and consultants
who seek to improve their practices. Three years of classroom
experience are offered in a blended format, followed by a dissertation.
Classes meet face-to-face for a week each May and for one weekend
SoE1343_10

every other month, coupled with on-line study. Yearly practica

allow students to apply skills in a domestic or international setting.
Join our next cohort beginning in May 2012.
Integrating Theory and Practice
The program welcomes David Jamieson, PhD, a long-time OD
Network leader, starting September 1, 2010, as the new Chair of
for Working Professionals
the Organization Learning and Development department.

For details visit our Web site at

www.stthomas.edu/education/academics/doctoral/od
(651) 962-4459  (800) 328-6819, Ext. 2-4559
soe_old@stthomas.edu
OD Network Products and Services
Publications
»» OD Practitioner, the flagship publica-
tion of the OD Network, is a peer-
reviewed quarterly journal.
»» OD Seasonings is a quarterly online
journal highlighting the experience of
seasoned practitioners.
»» Practicing OD, our online ezine,
provides practice-related concepts,
processes, and tools in short articles
™ by and for busy practitioners.
Advancing the theory All three publications and their submis-
and practice of OD sion guidelines are available online at
www.odnetwork.org/publications.
Member Benefits
Low annual dues provide members with a
host of benefits:
»» Free subscriptions to all three of our
publications.
»» Free access to online job ads in the
OD Network Job Exchange.
»» Discounts on conference registration,
OD Network products (including back
issues of this journal), Job Exchange
postings, professional liability insur-
ance, books from John Wiley & Sons,
and more.
»» OD Network Member Roster, an
essential networking tool, in print and
in a searchable online database.
»» Online Toolkits on action research,
consulting skills, and HR for OD—
foundational theory and useful tools to
enhance your practice.
Professional Development
OD Network professional develop-
ment events offer cutting-edge theory
and practice. Learn more at
www.odnetwork.org/events.
»» OD Network Conferences, held annu-
ally, provide unsurpassed profes-
sional development and networking
opportunities.
»» Regular webinars include events in the
Theory and Practice Series, Confer-
ence Series, and OD Network Live
Briefs.
Online Resources
In addition to the online resources for
members only, the OD Network website
offers valuable tools that are open to the
public:
»» Education directory of OD-related
degree and certificate programs.
»» Catalog of OD professional develop-
ment and networking events.
»» Bookstore of titles recommended by
OD Network members.
»» Links to some of the best OD
resources available.
»» E-mail discussion lists that allow OD
practitioners worldwide to share ideas.
»» Lists, with contact information,
of regional and international OD
networks.
»» Case studies illustrating the value of
OD to potential client organizations.
Join online at www.odnetwork.org/member-
ship or call +1.973.763.7337.
OD PRACTITIONER  Vol. 43 No. 1  2011 55
 S AY b R O O K U N I V E R S I T Y

Do you want to Our accredited distance graduate programs in

Organizational Systems emphasize critical thinking,
design change? complex problem solving, and global inclusiveness.
Focus on Sustainability and Organizational Systems,
Organizational Development and Transformation, or
Our faculty, alumni and students are. Human Systems Inquiry and Social Systems Design.

Come and join us. S C H O L A R S H I p S A N D F I N A N C I A L A I D AVA I L A b L E .

DENNIS JAFFE, KATHIA LASZLO, DAVID WILLIAMS, NANCY SOUTHERN, KEIMA SHERIFF, CARL HILD,
FACULTY FACULTY & ALUMNA STUDENT FACULTY STUDENT ALUMNUS
Designing change Designing change for Designing change to put Designing change for Designing change to teach Designing change for
for global sustainable social innovation and people at the center of cross-cultural leadership businesses to thrive by mak- multicultural healthcare.
family business. sustainable development. emergency medical systems. and sustainability. ing their employees a priority.

G R A D U AT E E D U C AT I O N F O R A H U M A N E A N D S U S TA I N A b L E F U T U R E

WA S C A C C R E D I T E D W W W. S AY b R O O K . E D U TEL 1 800 825 4480 A D M I S S I O N S @ S AY b R O O K . E D U

To be the best, you have to

learn from the best!

Socrates and Plato Salvador Dali and Andy Warhol
Aristotle and Alexander the Great Hunter S. Thompson and Warren Zevon
Andrew Carnegie and Charles Schwab Peter Sorensen and Therese Yaeger

To be the best, you have to learn from the best!

Benedictine’s Master of Science in Management and Organizational Behavior (M.S.M.O.B.) program
boasts world-renowned faculty members who are leaders in their fields, successful businessmen, brilliant
educators, and recognized experts in the management of change.

New industry and new business thinking demands educated professionals who can effectively change and
lead organizations. Learn from people who are proven leaders in change. Earn your M.S.M.O.B. degree
from Benedictine University.

For more information, contact Bryan Frederick, program manager, at (630) 829-6223, or e-mail him
at bfrederick@ben.edu.

Accelerated learning teams begin in April and October. Contact us now for our Spring and
Fall accelerated classes.

5700 College Road in Lisle, Illinois

For more information, contact us at (630) 829-6223, e-mail bfrederick@ben.edu or visit us on the Web at www.ben.edu/odp.
 NON-PROFIT ORG.
744 Broad Street, 16th Floor, Newark, NJ 07102 U.S. POSTAGE
PAID
PHILADELPHIA, PA
PERMIT NO. 856

™
Advancing the theory
and practice of OD

Change is Coming…
Mark Your Calendars
Organization Development Network Conference 2011
October 30 – November 2, 2011
Baltimore Hilton • 401 West Pratt Street • Baltimore, Maryland

Request more information on sponsoring,

exhibiting and Conference programming at
www.odnetwork.org/conf2011.