The Facilitation of Organizational Change: An Empirical Study of Factors Predicting Change Agents' Effectiveness

Abstract

This article presents the results of an investigation of whether the personality characteristics and behavioral tendencies of effective organization development (OD) consultants differ significantly from those of less effective ones. From an extensive review of the literature by the author and a panel of three judges, three categories of characteristics were derived for testing: openness and responsiveness to others' needs and concerns, comfort with ambiguity and the ability to make sense of it, and comfort with oneself in relation to others. The study subjects, 105 OD consultants in the U.S. Navy, completed three personality instruments. Peers, fellow consulting team members, and superiors of these consultants (also OD consultants) also rated the subjects' consulting effectiveness. Multivariate analyses showed a strong, significant relationship between consultant effectiveness and the characteristics assigned to the three categories. The results strongly support the hypotheses that the personality characteristics and individual tendencies of effective OD consultants differ significantly from those of less effective consultants.

Reconceptualizing Organizational Change Implementation as a Communication Problem: A Review of Literature and Research Agenda

“…A variety of change agent characteristics have been proposed as important for promoting success during implementation efforts. Hamilton (1988) has developed a list of 37 characteristics and behaviors from a review of relevant literature. She categorizes these into the following groupings: openness and responsiveness, comfort with ambiguity, and comfort with oneself.…”

Benefits Derived by District Assemblies from Their Project Consultants

“…However, most material is descriptive and based on industry experience (Smith, 2002). Few systematic studies have addressed the conditions for successful consulting (Hamilton, 1988;Rynning, 1992). A lot of studies confirm the importance of the consultant's services engaged by companies in order to introduce ISO 9000 quality management systems, but the actual influence of these services has not been fully analyzed (Casadesus et al, 2002).…”

The utilisation of groups for innovation and knowledge transfer

“…They completed two personality questionnaires namely a questionnaire administering the 100 item set of IPIP Big-Five Factor Markers (Goldberg, 1990) and the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), (MyersBriggs, 1982). A third questionnaire was utilised in this study, namely the Consultant Effectiveness Questionnaire developed by Hamilton (1988) based on the requisite competency clusters deemed necessary for consultants working with organisational change. The questionnaire employs nine, fi ve-point Likert scales and was completed by a manager who scored each participant according to the degree to which they believe the change agents 'measured up' to each of nine questions relating to organisational effectiveness.…”