Larry Greiner (USC) and Tom Cummings (USC) share that strategy consultants, managers and scholars have long relied on formal strategic planning to embody and implement their more abstract concepts of strategic management.
Research and Insights Archive
Research and Insights from the Center for Effective Organizations
Available Content
4-D Theory of Strategic Transformation: When New CEOs Succeed and Fail
Larry Greiner, Thomas Cummings, and Arvind Bhambri discuss how there is no honeymoon for most new CEOs these days. Instead, they are challenged immediately by their boards to make major changes and improve financial performance. Entering with strong mandates for change, new CEOs frequently launch strategic transformation initiatives.
Doing Research That is Useful for Theory and Practice
Edward E. Lawler III, Allan M. Mohrman, Susan A. Mohrman, Gerald E. Ledford, Jr. and Thomas G. Cummings, (Jossey-Bass, 1999)
Dealing with issues that cut across all social and behavioral sciences, Doing Research That Is Useful for Theory and Practice is full of practical advice on conducting successful research.
Organization-Learning Disorders Conceptual Models and Intervention Hypothesis
This paper by William M. Snyder and Thomas G. Cummings presents a conceptual model that proposes how organization-learning disorders influence organization performance.
The Effects of a Shift-System Innovation on a Turnover and Absenteeism: A Naturally Occurring Field Experiment
In this paper by Thomas G. Cummings and Mark A. Kizilos, the impact of a participatively designed 12-hour shift system on employee turnover and absenteeism was examined in a naturally occurring field experiment.
Large-Scale Organizational Change
Allan M. Mohrman, Susan Albers Mohrman, Gerald E. Ledford, Jr., Thomas G. Cummings, Edward E. Lawler III; Associates. (Jossey-Bass, 1989)
This book provides a comprehensive examination of the theoretical questions and practical issues organizations face when they undergo a large-scale change — that is, a change in the fundamental character of an entire organization.
Personality Measures as a Selection Tool for High Involvement Organizations
R. Nathan, Gerald E. Ledford, David E. Bowen, and Thomas G. Cummings discuss how measures of growth needs and social needs from the Personality Research Form, or PRF (Jackson, 1984) are shown to be a valid selection tool for a high involvement organization, based on the criterion of performance in a content valid pre-employment training program.
Self-Designing Organizations: Towards Implementing Quality-of-Work-Life Innovations
This chapter by Tom Cummings and Susan A. Mohrman develops a strategy for implementing innovations requiring fundamental organizational change.
New Manufacturing Technology and Work Design
Thomas G. Cummings and Melvin Blumberg argue that perhaps most important, new technologies can have a profound impact on work design–how tasks are grouped into jobs and work groups.
Organization Development and Labor Law: Implications for Practice/Malpractice
This article by Charles Maxey and Thomas Cummings suggests that organization development (OD) interventions can inadvertently violate federal labor law.
Assessing Innovative Organizational Design: The Case for A Feedback/Adaptation Model
Organizational change projects entail dynamic complex processes through which organizations and their members learn new ways to function. This paper by T. Cummings and Susan A. Mohrman assesses the appropriateness of traditional evaluation models for the assessment of these projects.
Doing Research: The Case of Organizational Design
T. Cummings, Susan A. Mohrman, A. Mohrman, Jr., and G. Ledford, Jr. present a framework for understanding
a research approach with organizations that are designing and redesigning themselves to adapt to rapid and fundamental societal changes.