STUDYING CHANGES IN ORGANIZATIONAL DESIGN AND EFFECTIVENESS: RETROSPECTIVE EVENT HISTORIES AND PERIODIC ASSESSMENTS

This paper describes assumptions, rationale. and trade-offs involved in designing the research methodology used in a longitudinal study of the relationships among changes in organizational contexts, designs, and effectiveness. The basic research question concerns when how, and why do different types of organizational change occur. Given this research question and a desire to develop and test generalizable theory about changes in organizational design and effectiveness, we conducted a longitudinal study of over 100 organizations. Data concerning the changes were obtained through four interviews spaced six months retrospective event history over the preceding 6-month interval in aggregate, the four interviews provided a 24-month event history for each organization. Additionally, periodic assesments of the state of the organization's context, design, and effectiveness were collected with twoquestionnaires spaced one year apart. Finally in each organization, the top manager's personal characteristics were assessed after all other data were obtained. This paper examines the alternatives advantages, and disadvantages of the research design decisions. With some hindsight, we also offer some suggestions for future researchers with similar goals of developing and testing generalizable explanations of change processes in organizations.