Research in organizational change and development. Vol. 12 [electronic resource].

Conversations and the epidemiology of change / Jeffrey D. Ford -- TQM and organizational change : a longitudinal study of the impact of a TQM intervention on work attitudes / Jacqueline A-M. Coyle-Shapiro -- Implementing effective cross-functional teams : a multilevel framework for analysis / Long W. Lam, Sheri J. Bischoff, La Verne H. Higgins, D.Lynne Persing -- Collaborative organizing : an 'ideal type' for a new paradigm / Peter J. Robertson -- The relational healing dimension of organizational development : transformative stories and dialogue in life-cycle transitions / Gurudev S. Khalsa, David S. Steingard -- The professionalization of organization development : a status report and look to the future / C. Ken Weidner, Orisha A. Kulick -- Organizational development as facilitating the surfacing and modification of social rules / Craig Lundberg -- Collaboration and allegory extending the metaphor of organizational culture in the context of interorganizational change / Joseph W. Grubbs, Robert B. Denhardt -- Making change permanent : a model for institutionalizing change interventions / Achilles A. Armenakis, Stanley G. Harris, Hubert S. Feild.

Ideas which are comfortable and familiar are not likely to challenge or transform our thinking. As human beings, our need to reduce cognitive dissonance causes us to seek the familiar and reject the unfamiliar, often without careful reflection. Scholars must overcome such natural tendencies in order to look beyond the reaches of well accepted doctrine, exploring less-understood and less-accepted explanations of the way things are, and consider instead the possibilities that alternative futures could hold. Collectively the chapters that make up volume 12 are a statement of the vibrancy and ever changing nature of the field of organizational change and development.