OD Network Tools - Burke-Litwin Model of Organizational Performance and

Change

Burke, W. (1992). Organization Development: A process of learning and changing. (2nd ed.).

Climate. The concept of organizational climate that emerged from this series of studies and
papers was that of a psychological state strongly affected by organizational conditions, such as
systems, structure, and managerial behavior. In their theory paper, Tagiuri and Litwin (1968)
emphasized that there could be no universal set of dimensions or properties for organizational
climate. They argued that one could describe climate along different dimensions, depending on
the kind of organization being studied and the aspects of human behavior involved. They
described climate as a molar, synthetic, or changeable construct. Further, the kind of climate
construct they described was relatively malleable; it could be modified by managerial behavior
and by systems and strongly influenced by more enduring groups norms and values.
Culture. The concept of organizational culture is drawn from anthropology and is used to
describe the relatively enduring set of values and norms that underlie a social system. These may
not be entirely conscious. Rather, they constitute a “meaning system” that allows members of a
social system to attribute meaning and value to the variety of external and internal events they
experience.

The variables that influence and are influenced by climate need to be distinguished from those
influenced by culture. There are two distinct sets of organizational dynamics. One set primarily
is associated with the transactional level of human behavior or the everyday interactions and
exchanges with processes of human transformation; that is, sudden “leaps” in behavior; these
transformational processes are required for genuine change in the culture of an organization.

Organizational change stems more from environmental impact than from any other factor.
Moreover, with respect to organizational change, the variables of strategy, leadership, and
culture have more “weight” than the variables of structure, management practices, and systems;
that is, having leaders communicate the new strategy is not sufficient for effective change.
Changing culture must be planned as well as aligned with strategy and leader behavior.

Transformational refers to areas in which alteration is likely caused by interaction with

environmental forces (both within and without) and which require entirely new behavior sets on
the part of organizational members.

The transactional variables are such in that alteration occurs primarily via relatively short-term
reciprocity among people and groups. In other words, “You do this for me and I’ll do that for
you.”
Each category or box in the model can be described as follows:

External environment. Any outside condition or situation that influences the performance of the
organization. These conditions include such things as marketplaces, world financial conditions,
political/governmental circumstances, and so on.

Mission and strategy. What employees believe is the central purpose of the organization and how
the organization intends to achieve that purpose over an extended time. Strategy is how the
organization intends to achieve that purpose over an extended time scale.

Leadership. Executive behavior that provides direction and encourages others to take needed
action. For purposes of data gathering, this box includes perceptions of executive practices and
values.

Culture. “The way we do things around here.” Culture is the collection of overt and covert rules,
values, and principles that guide organizational behavior and that have been strongly influenced
by history, custom, and practice.

Structure. The arrangement of functions and people into specific areas and levels of
responsibility, decision-making authority, and relationships. Structure assures effective
implementation of the organization’s mission and strategy.

Management practices. What managers do in the normal course of events to use the human and
material resources at their disposal to carry out the organization’s strategy.
Systems. Standardized policies and mechanisms that are designed to facilitate work. Systems
primarily manifest themselves in the organization’s reward systems and in control systems such
as the organization’s management information system, goal and budget development, and human
resource allocation.

Climate. The collective current impressions, expectations, and feelings of the members of local
work units. These in turn affect members’ relations with supervisors, with one another, and with
other units.

Task requirements and individual skills/abilities. The behavior required for task effectiveness,
including specific skills and knowledge required for people to accomplish the work assigned and
for which they feel directly responsible. This box concerns what is often referred to as job-person
match.

Individual needs and values. The specific psychological factors that provide desire and worth for
individual action or thoughts.

Motivation. Aroused behavioral tendencies to move toward goals, take needed action, and persist
until satisfaction is attained. This is the net resultant motivation; that is, the resultant net energy
generated by the sum of achievement, power, affection, discovery, and other important human
motives.

Individual and organizational performance. The outcomes or results, with indicators of effort and
achievement. Such indicators might include productivity, customer or staff satisfaction, profit,
and service quality.

In the causal model, day-to-day climate is a result of transactions related to issues such as

• Sense of direction. The effect of mission clarity, or lack thereof, on one’s daily
responsibilities.
• Role and responsibility. The effect of structure, reinforced by managerial practice.
• Standards and commitment. The effect of managerial practice, reinforced by culture.
• Fairness of rewards. The effect of systems, reinforced by managerial practice.
• Focus on customer versus internal pressures or standards of excellence. The effect of
culture, reinforced by other variables.

In contrast, the concept of organizational culture has to do with those underlying values and
meaning systems that are difficult to manage, to alter, and even to be realized completely.
Moreover, instant change in culture seems to be a contradiction in terms. By definition, those
things that can be changed quickly are not the underlying reward systems but the behaviors that
are attached to the meaning systems. It is relatively easy to alter superficial human behaviors; it
is undoubtedly quite difficult to alter something unconscious that is hidden in symbols and
mythology and that functions as the fabric helping an organization to remain together, intact, and
viable. To change something so deeply embedded in organizational life does indeed require
transformational experiences and events.
Using the model: Data gathering and analysis

Distinguishing transformational and transactional thinking about organizations has implications

for planning organizational change. Unless one is conducting an overall organizational diagnosis,
preliminary interviews will result in enough information to construct a fairly targeted survey.
Survey targets would be determined from the interviews and, most likely, would be focused on
either transformational or transactional issues. Transformational issues call for a survey that
probes mission and strategy, leadership, culture, and performance. Transactional issues need a
focus on structure, systems, management practices, climate, and performance. Other
transactional probes might involve motivation, including task requirements (job-person match)
and individual needs and values.

An OD consultant helping to manage change would conduct preliminary interviews with, say,
fifteen to thirty representative individuals in the organization. If a summary of these interviews
revealed that significant organizational change was needed, additional data would be collected
related to the top or transformational part of the model. Note that in major organizational change,
transformational variables represented the primary levers, those areas in which change must be
focused.

For an organization in which the presenting problem is more a fine-tuning or improving process,
the second layer of the model serves as the point of concentration. Examples include changes in
the organization’s structure; modification of the reward system; management development
(perhaps in the form of a program that concentrates on behavioral practices); or the
administration of a climate survey to measure job satisfaction, job clarity, degree of teamwork,
and so on.

Sample Interview Questions

This section provides a sampling of interview questions that use the model as a guide for
diagnosing organizational issues. The purpose here is to give examples, not to be comprehensive.
Moreover, more specific questions would be asked depending on the type and present situation
of the organization being diagnosed.

External Environment

1. How would you describe your company's current external environment (marketplace) -
relatively stable or rapidly changing?

2. What are the major pressures from the outside that you feel (customer dissatisfaction,
competitors, financial community, etc.)?

Mission and Strategy

3. If your organization did not exist, what difference would it make?

4. What words or phrases would you use to describe the current strategy of the organization?
Leadership

5. How clear are people about the organization's direction?

6. How would you characterize the leadership of the organization (inspiring, autocratic,
benevolent, participative, caring, bottom-line driven, etc.)?

Culture

7. Does your organization have a distinct, apparent, readily identifiable culture? If so, what
words would you use to describe it?

8. What seems to drive people in this organization (or what is it that consistently gets people's
attention)?

Structure

(Functional, product, geography, matrix, mixed)

9. What aspects of your organization are centralized versus those that are decentralized?

10. What is your evaluation (judgment) of how well the organization's structure matches (fits
congruently with) the organization's strategy?

Systems

(Policies and procedures)

11. Organizations may be characterized as "information processing systems." How

effectively/efficiently does your organization process information - do people, for example,
receive timely, accurate information?

12. What primary behavior in your organization gets rewarded - and what is the reward?

Management practices

13. To what extent are you involved in decisions that directly affect you and your work?

14. How willing are you to communicate "bad news" to your boss?

Climate

15. How clear are you about what is expected of you, your responsibilities, role, and goals?

16. How would you describe the interpersonal relations within your work unit - cooperative,
open, trusting, mutually supportive, etc?
Task Requirements & Individual Skills/Abilities

17. To what extent do you believe your skills, knowledge, and experience appropriately fit the
job you currently hold?

18. How challenged do you feel in your present job?

Individual Needs & Values

19. How meaningful to you is the work you are currently performing?

20. To what extent do you feel free to conduct your work the way you think it should be done?

21. What is exciting about your job? What makes you want to come to work each day?

22. What are the blocks, hindrances, barriers that you experience in attempting to do your job,
the way you believe the job should be done?

Individual and Organizational Performance

23. How is your performance measured - what is the yardstick? And do you get adequate
feedback about your performance?

24. What is (are) the primary performance indicator(s) of success?

*Used with permission.