Cutting Edge Research in Organizational Transformation
This doctoral research is about a new way to measure transformation of organizational culture based on a type of complexity called vertical complexity. I evaluated all the ways it had been measured over the past 50 years, invented a new method to assess organizations, and tested my assessment with a formal validation study. This approach integrated the wisdom two related disciplines--vertical adult development and organizational development--in a field I call vertical OD.
- Largest vertical OD study to date - 500,000-person organization, n=2,536
- Most comprehensive review of vertical OD assessments conducted so far
- New typology to organize vertical OD assessments by their relative strengths & weaknesses
- New definition of vertical OD - based on vertical complexity
- New model of vertical OD - based on group-related tension
- First time a pattern matching assessment was used in a fixed choice survey
- First time developmental intuition was sidestepped in a face-valid survey
- First time complex adaptive systems theory was used to examine vertical complexity in organizations - over 40,000 scatter plot diagrams - led to discovery of the "bleed-through effect"
- Strongest evidence to date that respondents' own stage stage of vertical development confounds their assessment of a group they inhabit.
- First set of guidelines for future research in the vertical OD field
Flip through the deck - 150 slides
Watch the video - 30-min presentation + 45-min Q&A