Richard Beckhard

An Organization Improvement Program in a Decentralized Organization

Presented here is a description of a planned organization improvement program in a medium-sized decentralized organization. The program had as its goal the improvement of organization effectiveness along the following lines: Improved communications among various parts of the organization Change in managerial style from management by control to management by objectives Improved operating efficiency Increased problem-solving skills of the total management Establishment of a systematic program of growth and development for management executives. This paper deals with the program which the organization followed in working toward its objectives and with the role of the educational consultant in the process. The paper has been organized into five parts: assumptions about organization change, a description of the organizations mission and structure, the identification of the need for improvement, first phases of the program, and a redefinition of the change goals and the program of activities used to implement these new goals. While it is impossible to correlate dramatic profit improvement and measurable increase in operating efficiency fully with this educational effort, there seems to be clear evidence that the program contributed significantly.

Teaching Organizational Psychology To Middle Managers: a Process Approach:

This course has its roots in the teaching of Douglas McGregor and Alex Bavelas, who in the mid-1950s began to develop insights into how to teach MIT middle executives. The course was subsequently developed by Richard Beckhard and Ed Schein and is currently being taught by Schein and Jim Driscoll. The basic problem confronting the instructors is how to take fairly large classes (now some fifty-five Sloan Fellows aged thirty-five to forty-five) and create

The Writing Conference: A Mechanism for Technology Transfer

to produce this book and the possible applications of this methodology for hastening the dissemination of other research and knowledge. A time lag always exists in any field between the discovery of new knowledge, its development, and its application. Physical scientists have found ways of shortening this time gap, but behavioral scientists have not been so successful. This lag is due to many causes,