Practicing Organization Development: A Guide for Leading Change: A Third Edition

CHARACTERISTICS OF LARGE-SYSTEM INTERVENTIONS

Large-system interventions have a number of common features that distinguish them from other OD interventions. These characteristics are as follows:

• They are triggered by environmental jolts and internal disruptions;

• They provoke revolutionary or transformational change;

• They incorporate new organizing paradigms;

• They are driven and led by senior executives;

• They require an organizational learning system; and

• They involve multiple organization levels and large numbers of members.

Environmental jolts and internal disruptions can be compelling reasons for large-system change. Such interventions generally occur in direct response to at least three kinds of disturbance (Tushman, Newman, ...