The Burke-Litwin Change Model
The Burke-Litwin change model is an organisational change model. It says that there are 12 key factors that organisations must consider when assessing change. The model groups these factors into different levels.
At the most macro level there are external factors. At the next level down are strategic factors, which include organisational culture. These are followed by operating factors and individual factors, before we reach the most micro factor grouping which is output.
Within this model the interconnected nature of the factors is shown to be somewhat determined by the level of the factors. For example, the strategic factors are most impacted by the external factors and the operating factors, the factor levels that they are sandwiched between.
Learning More
Organisations often seek to change and improve, and often use organisational development programs to do so. There are many models that seek to explain how change in organisations happens. Some models to consider in the first instance include Kotter’s 8 Step Model, Lewin’s Change Model and the ADKAR model.
You can also learn more about the Burke Litwin Model at the excellent toolshero website.
It’s worth noting that there’s a lot of discussion and challenge around organisational change theories.
We like The Burke-Litwin Organisational Change Framework as a way to think about organisations and the factors that affect them and the changes within them. The systemic and interconnected nature of the model is helpful. We think it goes some way towards capturing the complexity of changing systems.
We are, however, of the view that change really can originate from anywhere within an organisation, and we also believe that there are more interconnections than are shown in this model. These, though, are minor points.
In summary, we like the model and think it shows some useful things, but also think organisations are more complex than implied through this model.
Sources and Feedback
The contents of this post have been based on interpretations of Burke and Litwin’s original article on the subject “A Causal Model of Organisational Performance and Change” as published in the Journal of Management in 1992. You can access the paper here.
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