Burke Litwin 1992
Juiimul lit MuiiagL-mcni )992,Vi>!. IK. No. 3, . '52.1-545
A Causal Model of Organizational Performance and Change
W. Warner Burke
Teachers College, Columbia University
George H. Litwin The Graduate Center To provide a model of organizational performance and change, at least two lines of theorizing need to be explored—orgatiizational ftuictioning and organizational change. The authors go beyond description and suggest causal linkages that hypothesize how performance is affected and how effective change occurs. Change is depicted in terms of both process and content, with particular emphasis on transformational as compared with transactional factors. Transformational change occurs as a response to the external environment and directly affects organizational mission and strategy, the organiz.ation 's leadership, atid culture, lit ttirn, tfie transactional factors are affected—strtictute. systems, management practices, and climate. These transformational and transactional factors together affect motivation, which, in turn, affects peifornumce. In support of the model 's potential validity, theory and research as wellaspraetke are cited.
Orgatiization change is a kind of chaos (Gleick. 1987). The number of variables changing at the same lime, the magnitude of environmental change, and the frequent resistance of human systetns cteate a whole confluence of ptocesses that are extremely difficult to predict and almost impossible to control. Nevertheless, there are consistent patterns that exist—linkages among classes of events that have been demonstrated repeatedly in the research literature and can be seen in actual organizations. The enormous and pervasive impact of culture and beliefs— to the point where it causes organizations to do fundamentally unsound things ftom a business point of view^would be such an observed phenotnenon. To build a most likely model describing the causes of organizational performance and change, we must explore two important lines of
A Causal Model of Organizational Performance and Change
W. Warner Burke
Teachers College, Columbia University
George H. Litwin The Graduate Center To provide a model of organizational performance and change, at least two lines of theorizing need to be explored—orgatiizational ftuictioning and organizational change. The authors go beyond description and suggest causal linkages that hypothesize how performance is affected and how effective change occurs. Change is depicted in terms of both process and content, with particular emphasis on transformational as compared with transactional factors. Transformational change occurs as a response to the external environment and directly affects organizational mission and strategy, the organiz.ation 's leadership, atid culture, lit ttirn, tfie transactional factors are affected—strtictute. systems, management practices, and climate. These transformational and transactional factors together affect motivation, which, in turn, affects peifornumce. In support of the model 's potential validity, theory and research as wellaspraetke are cited.
Orgatiization change is a kind of chaos (Gleick. 1987). The number of variables changing at the same lime, the magnitude of environmental change, and the frequent resistance of human systetns cteate a whole confluence of ptocesses that are extremely difficult to predict and almost impossible to control. Nevertheless, there are consistent patterns that exist—linkages among classes of events that have been demonstrated repeatedly in the research literature and can be seen in actual organizations. The enormous and pervasive impact of culture and beliefs— to the point where it causes organizations to do fundamentally unsound things ftom a business point of view^would be such an observed phenotnenon. To build a most likely model describing the causes of organizational performance and change, we must explore two important lines of
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