Nadler and Tushmans Congruence Model

&
Action Research

Nadler and Tushmans Congruence Model

Nadler developed this model for understanding organizational
dynamics and change.
This model depicts the organization as an input-throughput-output
system.
The three major input factors are:
Environment that imposes constraints and
opportunities about what the organization can do
and can not do.
Resources available to the organization eg people,
knowledge and technology.
History consisting of memories of past success,
failures, important events and critical decisions that
still influence behaviour today.

Nadler and Tushmans Congruence Model

The outputs are:
Performance at the total organizational level, unit or group level
and individual level
Elements of the organization per se are labeled
Strategy what the organization is trying to
accomplish and how it plans to do it
Work the tasks people perform to create products
and service markets.
People that includes formal structures, processes
and systems for performing the work.
Formal organization that includes formal
structures, processes and systems for performing the
work.
Informal organization that includes the organizations culture,
informal rules and understandings.

Informal
Org
Input

Output

Env

System

Resource

Strateg
y

Formal
Org

Work

History

Unit
Individual

People

Nadler and Tushmans Congruence Model

ACTION RESEARCH PROCESS

The intellectual roots of action research can
be traced to Kurt Lewins research on
social

change
social conflicts (Lewin 1948), and
the Tavistock Institutes work on
sociotechnical theory (Emery 1959).

It was intended as a method to overcome

the shortcomings of scientific research,
such as
relevance

and

ACTION RESEARCH PROCESS

It sought to combine action and research
under the assumption that
a

social situation can best be understood if a

change is introduced into it and its effects
observed.

This definition characterizes action

research in terms of the activities making
up the process.

ACTION RESEARCH PROCESS

Kurt Lewin introduced action research to
the field of organizational development.
Based upon systems theory, he stressed
the interrelatedness of the components of
an organization as integral to solving
problems.
Action research attempts to avoid habitual
responses to organizational problems

ACTION RESEARCH PROCESS

This approach to organizational problem
solving is well suited to various
work

groups and
interdisciplinary teams.

A reflective cycle of thought becomes

introduced into group problem solving
efforts, producing an iterative process of
enhanced learning.

ACTION RESEARCH PROCESS

As groups and teams become more
prevalent in the structures of job and
organizational design, action research
enables collective learning to be
experienced.
Team members can promote dialogue in
problem solving activities by using the
ladder of inference to audit language and
behavior patterns.

ACTION RESEARCH PROCESS

The ladder of inference aids groups to
distinguish between
beliefs

and
observable data.

The mental path from observable data to

interpretations then abstractions is often
based upon misguided beliefs; this
movement up the ladder of inference is
typical.

ACTION RESEARCH PROCESS

When working with others in groups, a
conscience effort needs to be made to move
back down the ladder of inference.
Senge would suggest that improved
communication through reflection explores

becoming more aware of your own thinking and

reasoning [reflection],
making your thinking and reasoning more visible to
others [advocacy] and
inquiring into others thinking and reasoning
[inquiry].

ACTION RESEARCH PROCESS

The figure below presents a depiction of the
process of action research adapted from Susman
and Evered (1978).
The key aspects of the model are
data

gathering,
analysis,
action planning,
action taking,
evaluating results, and
back to data gathering in the next cycle.

The present approach paper draws theoretical

underpinning from the aforesaid model.

The Cyclical Process of Action

Research
EVALUATING
Studying the
consequence
of an action

DATA
GATHERING
Identifying or
defining a
problem

ANALYSIS
AND
INTERPRET
ATION
Ascription of
meaning to
the data.

PURPOSE

ACTION
TAKING
Selecting a
course of
action

Individual &
organization
learning
Solving
problems
Bringing
change

ACTION
PLANNING
Considered
alternative
courses of
action for

Data gathering
From a preliminary understanding of the problem,
one has to move towards an understanding of
the

causes,
symptoms, and
outcomes of the problem.

Data, therefore, need to be gathered to

understand the underlying structure of the
problem.
The action researcher starts off with the question
of what information is to be sought.

Analysis
The analysis phase involves
making

sense of the data gathered and

interpreting the meaning.

A good understanding and accurate

interpretation of the data can point the way
towards the steps that must be taken to
change and improve the organization.

Action Planning
This is a critical phase of the action
research process.
Alternative plans of action need to be
generated and their potential impact
assessed.
Once a course of action has been decided
upon, the actual steps need to be charted
out.

Action taking
The action taking or intervention stage is
the actual response to the problem.
In this stage, the critical role of the action
researcher is
anticipating

unforeseen consequences of the

action taken and
planning for them.

Evaluation
This phase consists of reassessment of the
problem.
The current state of the problem is
examined and the impact of the action is
evaluated.
Mid- course corrections, if necessary, are
initiated.

The process of action research, as seen in

the figure, leads to
individual

and organizational learning,

solving

of problems, and

change

in the client system.

Action research is seen to be a process in

two senses of the term:
it

is a sequence of activities within each cycle

(from diagnosis to specification of learning)

and
a

cycle of iterations which may treat the same

problems in multiple sequences of cycles and
move through different problems through the
cycles (French and Bell 1978).

Therefore, in the second stage the task

force may have to contend with the original
problem as well as the new one.

Role of the Consultant/Change Agent in AR

The role is to help the manager plan his actions
and design his fact-finding procedures in such a
way that
s/he

can learn from them,

to serve such ends as becoming a more skillful
manager,
setting more realistic objectives,
discovering better ways of organizing.

In this sense, the staff concerned with follow-up

research consultants. Their task is to help
mangers formulate management problems as