Organisational Development - Change Models
6 models that focus on systems and culture
Think of them as complementary tools in a change leader’s toolkit:
Use Weisbord/McKinsey for diagnosis.
Use Galbraith/Burke–Litwin for planning and execution.
Use Denison/Schein to understand, measure, and shift culture.
1. Weisbord Six-Box Model
Core Idea: Organisation effectiveness depends on six core areas (“boxes”):
Purposes – Why do we exist? Are goals clear and agreed?
Structure – How is work organised and coordinated?
Relationships – How do people interact across units and with each other?
Rewards – What behaviours are encouraged or discouraged?
Leadership – How is direction, decision-making, and integration provided?
Helpful Mechanisms – What systems, processes, or technologies support the work?
How to Apply It: Think of it as a set of lenses
Early diagnostic phase of a change project, merger, or culture review.
Organisational health checks (annual or periodic).
Board or executive retreats — to scan strengths, weaknesses, and misalignments.
Consulting engagements — a quick and credible way to start diagnosing issues.
Step 1 – Frame the purpose
Clarify the scope: whole organisation, a department, or a project team?
Explain that the model is diagnostic, not judgmental — it helps identify where energy is blocked.
Step 2 – Gather data for each “box”
Methods: interviews, surveys, workshops, document reviews, observation. Example questions:
Purposes: “Are we clear on what success looks like? Do all teams share the same definition?”
Structure: “Does reporting and decision-making help or hinder effectiveness?”
Relationships: “How well do departments collaborate? Where are the tensions?”
Rewards: “What gets recognised here — results, effort, innovation, loyalty?”
Leadership: “Is leadership seen as clear, credible, and supportive?”
Helpful Mechanisms: “Do systems (IT, processes, policies) enable or frustrate our work?”
Step 3 – Map strengths and issues
Place findings into the six boxes visually (e.g., a grid on a whiteboard or slide).
Identify patterns: e.g., clear purpose but misaligned rewards; good systems but poor relationships.
Step 4 – Analyse interdependencies
Problems rarely sit in one box alone. Example: weak structure might create unclear leadership; poor rewards might harm relationships.
Explore cause-and-effect links to avoid treating symptoms only.
Step 5 – Prioritise interventions
Use the model to guide conversations about where to start.
Some boxes are leverage points (e.g., fixing rewards may rapidly improve morale). Others require deeper work (e.g., reclarifying purpose).
Step 6 – Revisit over time
The model can also be used as a before-and-after snapshot to track progress.
2. McKinsey 7-S Framework
Core Idea: Developed by McKinsey & Company consultants, Tom Peters, Robert Waterman, and colleagues, the McKinsey 7-S model involves breaking a change program into seven components. Organisational success depends on alignment of these seven interdependent factors, with Shared Values as the starting point:
Purpose: To assess organisational alignment and effectiveness.
Strategy: This is what a company wants to achieve and how it plans to do it.
Structure: This is how a company is organized, including who reports to whom and how tasks are divided among employees.
Systems: These are the formal processes and tools a company uses to get things done, like technology systems, performance evaluation processes, and budgeting procedures.
Shared values: These are the core beliefs and principles that guide behavior and decision-making in a company.
Skills: These are employees’ abilities and expertise.
Style: This is the leadership and management approach within a company, including the leadership style of top executives and the overall company culture.
Staff: This is the company workforce and includes the number of employees, their roles, and their distribution across different functions.
Best Use: Breaking organizational change down into these core components helps prevent overlooking any important factors. Particularly effective in large organisations undergoing strategic transformation, mergers, or restructuring, where all dimensions must be assessed and realigned. Helps leaders spot where misalignment is undermining effectiveness. Broadly about understanding the whole organisation.
3. Galbraith’s Star Model
Core Idea: Strategy is the anchor, but execution requires alignment across five organisational levers. Strategy determines structure, but structure alone isn’t enough — the other levers (processes, rewards, people) must align to reinforce the strategy.
Origins: Created by Jay Galbraith, an academic and consultant focused on organisation design.
Purpose: To design or redesign an organisation’s operating model to deliver strategy.
Five Factors (the points of the star):
Strategy
Structure
Processes
Rewards
People
Best Use: Practical design and restructuring tool. A design framework for building new organisations, functions, or operating models. Ensures operating models and organisational levers align to support strategy execution. Particularly helpful in restructuring or when strategy shifts require new ways of working. More about constructing a new design than general diagnosis.
Differences between McKinsey’s and Galbraith’s models:
McKinsey 7-S is a diagnostic lens: it’s excellent for analysing alignment across soft and hard dimensions. The Starting Point is Shared values, and it seeks to diagnose “What is misaligned?”
Galbraith’s Star is a design lens: it’s practical for restructuring, building new divisions, or aligning to strategy execution. The Starting point is Strategy which is the anchor.; It asks: “How do we build the right organisation for our strategy?”
4. Burke–Litwin Model of Organisational Performance and Change
Core Idea: The Burke–Litwin Model is a comprehensive Organisational Development framework that connects culture, leadership, systems, and performance in a causal way. The model explains how different organisational factors interact to influence performance and change.
Transformational factors → deep, strategic levers that shape the organisation’s direction and culture.
Transactional factors → day-to-day operational levers that support efficiency and alignment.
The genius of the model is its cause-and-effect logic: transformational factors influence transactional ones, which then shape motivation, performance, and ultimately results. It distinguishes between:
The 12 Key Elements
Transformational Factors (Top Layer – Big Shifts)
External Environment – Economic, social, political, technological forces. The organisation must adapt to survive.
Leadership – The vision, behaviour, and credibility of senior leaders who set tone and direction.
Mission & Strategy – The organisation’s purpose and how it plans to achieve it.
Culture – The values, norms, and beliefs that guide behaviour at a deep level.
These drive fundamental shifts. When they change, they cascade down through the system.
Transactional Factors (Middle Layer – Operational Levers)
5. Structure – How roles, responsibilities, and reporting lines are organised.
6. Management Practices – How managers at different levels implement strategies and use resources.
7. Systems (Policies & Procedures) – Standard processes (HR, finance, IT, performance management, etc.).
8. Work Unit Climate – The day-to-day atmosphere in teams and departments (trust, morale, communication).
These ensure alignment and efficiency. They’re easier to adjust but don’t change culture deeply on their own.
Individual & Performance Outcomes (Bottom Layer)
9. Task Requirements & Individual Skills/Abilities – What people need to do and whether they have the skills.
10. Individual Needs & Values – Whether employees’ personal goals align with the organisation.
11. Motivation – The energy and commitment employees bring to their roles.
12. Individual & Organisational Performance – Outcomes: productivity, quality, customer satisfaction, financial results.
These are the end results — but they’re shaped by everything above.
The Burke-Litwin Causal Model of Organizational Performance and Change
Best Use
Distinguishing depth of change
Transformational change: When the external environment, strategy, leadership, or culture shift (e.g., digital disruption, merger, new CEO). These demand deeper interventions.
Transactional change: When adjustments are needed in structure, systems, or practices without altering mission or culture (e.g., reorganisation of reporting lines, process improvement).
Practical Applications
Diagnosis: Helps leaders identify whether issues are surface-level (systems, processes) or deeper (leadership, culture).
Change Planning: Ensures leaders pull the right levers for the scale of change needed.
Cause-and-Effect Thinking: Reminds managers that tweaking systems won’t work if leadership or culture are misaligned.
The Burke–Litwin Model links external pressures → leadership/strategy → systems and practices → people’s motivation → performance outcomes. It reminds us that deep change starts at the top (transformational), not the bottom (transactional).
It distinguishes between deep transformational change vs incremental adjustments. Helps leaders identify the right levers for culture, performance, or strategy shifts, and prevents wasted effort on the wrong level of change.
5. Denison Organisational Culture Model
The Denison Organisational Culture Model (1990) is a practical and research-based tool for linking culture to measurable performance. Denison’s model is built for assessment, benchmarking, and action.
Core Idea: Organisational culture directly impacts performance. Four cultural traits predict effectiveness:
Mission – Do we have a clear direction and purpose?
Consistency – Do we have shared values and systems that create alignment?
Involvement – Are people empowered and engaged at every level?
Adaptability – Can we respond and learn from the external environment?
These traits are arranged in a circular model, balancing:
Internal vs External focus
Stability vs Flexibility
The Denison Organisational Culture Model
Best Use
1. For Cultural Assessment
The Denison model is often applied through survey feedback e.g. Denison Organisational Culture Survey (DOCS).
This gives a quantitative snapshot of culture — where strengths are, where gaps exist.
Example: A company might score high on Involvement but low on Mission, showing people are engaged but lack direction.
2. For Linking Culture to Performance
Denison’s research found these traits correlate strongly with performance outcomes (profitability, growth, customer satisfaction, innovation).
Use the model to connect the dots: show how cultural traits affect KPIs.
Example: Weak Consistency (lack of core values) → poor coordination → slower execution.
3. For Strategy and Change
The quadrant structure helps leaders decide what culture shifts are needed to deliver strategy:
Growth or innovation strategy? → Strengthen Adaptability (external + flexible).
Efficiency or quality strategy? → Focus on Consistency and Mission (internal + stable).
The model acts as a roadmap for culture change programs, making them targeted rather than vague.
4. For Leadership Development
Leaders can use their team’s results to reflect on how their style reinforces or weakens each trait.
Example: Micromanagement undermines Involvement; poor vision communication weakens Mission.
In Practice
Conduct the Denison Survey (or adapt its framework for an internal assessment).
Map culture scores on the circular framework (mission, consistency, involvement, adaptability).
Identify gaps between current culture and what’s needed for strategy.
Prioritise interventions — e.g., strengthen adaptability through customer feedback loops, or involvement through empowerment initiatives.
Track progress by re-assessing after 12–18 months.
The Denison Model is best used when you want to measure, benchmark, and improve culture in a performance-focused way. It’s particularly valuable in organisations that want to link “soft” culture work to “hard” business outcomes.
6. Schein’s Model of Organisational Culture
Edgar Schein’s Model of Organisational Culture gets at the depth of culture. Different from Denison (which is measurement-focused), Schein helps leaders uncover the invisible layers of culture that drive behaviour.
Core Idea: Culture operates at three levels:
Underlying Assumptions (Unconscious, Taken-for-Granted)
The deeply held, invisible beliefs that truly guide behaviour.
Examples: “Mistakes are punished here” (so people play safe). “Management knows best” (so people don’t speak up).
These are the hardest to uncover but most powerful in shaping what people actually do.
Surface Observation (Artifacts):
Start by noticing visible behaviours, rituals, or language. Example: open-plan offices may look collaborative — but are people really sharing ideas?Compare with Espoused Values:
Interview leaders and staff about stated values. Do they align with what you observe?Probe for Underlying Assumptions:
Use focus groups, storytelling, or “laddering” questions (e.g., “Why do people act this way?” “What happens if someone challenges the boss?” Who was / is an organisation hero?).Goal: Identify where the espoused values don’t align with underlying assumptions. That gap often explains performance or morale problems.
2. For Leading Culture Change
Recognise that changing culture means surfacing and reshaping underlying assumptions, not just tweaking symbols or slogans.
Example: A company can say “We value innovation” (espoused) and build a flashy innovation lab (artifact), but if the underlying assumption is “Failure is punished,” real innovation won’t happen.
Use the model to:
Expose misalignments between stated values and lived reality.
Create dialogue about which assumptions serve the future and which must shift.
Reinforce new assumptions through leadership behaviour, policies, and rituals.
3. As a Learning & Reflection Tool
Share the three levels with leadership teams. Ask them:
Artifacts: “What do outsiders see when they walk in?”
Espoused Values: “What do we say we believe in?”
Underlying Assumptions: “What do people really believe is safe and rewarded here?”
This often sparks honest conversation about the real culture vs the desired culture.
In Practice
Culture Audits: Structure surveys or interviews around the three levels - Artifacts, Espoused Values, Underlying Assumptions.
Leadership Development: Help leaders see how their actions reinforce (or contradict) espoused values.
Mergers & Acquisitions: Use Schein to assess cultural fit — artifacts and values may look similar, but assumptions often clash.
Change Projects: Before launching a new initiative, check whether underlying assumptions will support or block it.
How The Six Models of OD Change Fit Together
Think of them as complementary tools in a change leader’s toolkit:
Scanning & Diagnosis
Weisbord → quick scan for organisational blockages.
McKinsey 7-S → deeper diagnostic to check alignment across all dimensions.
🩺 Weisbord + McKinsey → diagnostic health checks (where are we misaligned?).
Design & Alignment
Galbraith’s Star → if strategy changes, design/redesign the operating model to deliver it.
Burke–Litwin → choose the right level of intervention (transformational vs transactional).
🏗 Galbraith + Burke–Litwin → design/redesign and decide the scale of intervention.
Culture & Performance
Denison → measure culture traits and link them to performance outcomes.
Schein → go deeper, uncover underlying assumptions, and work on cultural transformation.
❤️ Denison + Schein → culture as the heart: one measures its effect, the other uncovers its roots.
In summary:
Use Weisbord/McKinsey early (diagnosis).
Use Galbraith/Burke–Litwin for planning and execution.
Use Denison/Schein to understand, measure, and shift culture.
Together, they create a full-spectrum OD toolkit from surface diagnostics → structural design → deep cultural work.