OD PRACTITIONERS AS FACILITATORS OF CHANGE - ANALYSIS OF SURVEY RESULTS

A study was undertaken to determine the degree of knowledge and unders tanding that organization development (OD) practitioners have regardin g key issues in the management of change in organizations. Other varia bles of interest included the preferred mode of influence or consultin g style based on a transformational versus transactional framework and the degree of tolerance for ambiguous situations. Data were collected using two survey instruments, the Managing Change Questionnaire (MCQ) and the Change Agent Questionnaire (CAQ), which were mailed to 1,500 OD practitioners randomly selected from the membership rosters of thre e professional associations. Of the sample, 24% returned completed que stionnaires. Responses were compared with previous findings from manag ers and executives and then analyzed using multivariate analysis of va riance (MANOVA) and multiple regression techniques to identify differe nces among categories of practitioners. Overall, OD practitioners were found to be quite knowledgeable about the concepts covered in the MCQ , more likely to be transformational than transactional in their consu lting approach, and relatively tolerant of ambiguous situations. Forma l educational background and nonacademic training experiences were ide ntified as contributing factors in these trends, as well.