In this article, I discuss events associated with leadership and fiscal crises that occurred at NTL during the late 1960s and early 1970s, after Warren Bennis declined to accept the Director position and until a group of NTL members led by Edith Seashore “rescued” NTL in 1975. In particular, I consider Warner Burke’s experience in the midst of these events. This episode in the history of NTL enables us to reflect on important questions about relationships between the theory and practice of Organization Development and learning from organizational failure.
ArgyrisC. (1969). Today’s problems with tomorrow’s organizations. In EddyW. B.BurkeW. W.DupreV. A.SouthO. P. (Eds.), Behavioral science and the manager’s role (pp. 215-240). NTL Learning Resources Corporation.
2.
ArgyrisC. (1996). Crossroads—Unrecognized defenses of scholars: Impact on theory and research. Organization Science, 7(1), 79-87. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.7.1.79
3.
ArgyrisC.SchönD. (1974). Theory in practice: Increasing professional effectiveness. Jossey-Bass.
4.
BackK. W. (1972). Beyond words: The story of sensitivity training and the encounter movement. Russell Sage Foundation.
5.
BartunekJ. M.RynesS. L. (2014). Academics and practitioners are alike and unlike: The paradoxes of academic–practitioner relationships. Journal of Management, 40(5), 1181-1201. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206314529160
6.
BartunekJ. M.TrullenJ.ImmediatoS.SchneiderF. (2007). Front and back stages of the diminished routinization of innovations: What innovation research makes public and organizational research finds behind the scenes. Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 1(3-4), 295-314. https://doi.org/10.1002/sej.21
7.
BeckhardR. (1969). Organization development: Strategies and models. Addison-Wesley.
8.
BennisW. (1969). Organizational revitalization. In EddyW. B.BurkeW. W.DupreV. A.SouthO. P. (Eds.), Behavioral science and the manager’s role (pp. 185-197). NTL Learning Resources Corporation.
9.
BennisW. G. (1970). A funny thing happened on the way to the future. American Psychologist, 25(7), 595-608. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0029821
10.
BennisW. G.BiedermanP. W. (2010). Still surprised: A memoir of a life in leadership. Jossey-Bass.
11.
BunkerB. B.GorelickC. (in press). Change, innovation and emergence: Reflections on 70 years of change methods. In CadyS. H.GorelickC. (Eds.), The collaborative change library. Nexus4change.
12.
BurkeW. W. (1969). Interpersonal communication. In EddyW. B.BurkeW. W.DupreV. A.SouthO. P. (Eds.), Behavioral science and the manager’s role (pp. 71-77). NTL Learning Resources Corporation.
BurkeW. W. (2018). The rise and fall of the growth of organizational development: What now?Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 70(3), 186-206. https://doi.org/10.1037/cpb0000116
15.
CyertR. M.MarchJ. G. (1963). A behavioral theory of the firm. Prentice Hall.
16.
EddyW. B.BurkeW. W.DupréV. A.SouthO. (Eds.). (1969). Behavioral science and the manager’s role. NTL Learning Resources Corporation.
17.
EdmondsonB. (2014). Ice cream social: The struggle for the soul of Ben & Jerry’s. Berrett-Koehler.
18.
FreedmanA. M. (1999). The history of organization development and the NTL institute: What we have learned, forgotten, and rewritten. Psychologist-Manager Journal, 3(2), 125-141. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0095863
19.
FrenchW. L. (1982). The emergence and early history of organization development with reference to, influences upon, and interactions among some of the key actors. Group & Organization Studies, 7(3), 261-277. https://doi.org/10.1177/105960118200700302
20.
HeracleousL.BartunekJ. M. (2020). Organization change failure, deep structures and temporality: Appreciating Wonderland. Human Relations. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726720905361
21.
HighhouseS. (2002). A history of the T-group and its early applications in management development. Group Dynamics: Theory, Research and Practice, 6(4), 277-290. https://doi.org/10.1037/1089-2699.6.4.277
22.
HirschJ. I. (1986). A history of the NTL Institute for Applied Behavioral Science, 1947-1986. University Microfilms International.
23.
JonesB. B.BrazzelM. (Eds.). (2014). The NTL handbook of organization development and change. Wiley.
24.
KleinerA. (2008). The age of heretics: A history of the radical thinkers who reinvented corporate management. Wiley.
25.
MarrowA. J. (1967). Events leading to the establishment of the National Training Laboratories. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 3(2), 144-150. https://doi.org/10.1177/002188636700300204
26.
MinerA. S.MeziasS. J. (1996). Ugly duckling no more: Pasts and futures of organizational learning research. Organization Science, 7(1), 88-99. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.7.1.88
27.
MirvisP. H.BergD. N. (Eds.). (1977). Failures in organization development and change. Wiley-Interscience.
28.
NoumairD. A. (2018). W. Warner Burke: Learner, leader, scholar-practitioner. In SzablaD. B.PasmoreW. A.BarnesM. A.GipsonA. N. (Eds.), The Palgrave handbook of organizational change thinkers (pp. 199-216). Palgrave Macmillan.
29.
TeeceD. J. (1986). Profiting from technological innovation: Implications for integration, collaboration, licensing and public policy. Research Policy, 15(6), 285-305. https://doi.org/10.1016/0048-7333(86)90027-2
