Richard Beckhard (1918–1999) was an American

organizational theorist An organization or organisation ( Commonwealth English; see spelling differences) is an entity—such as a company, or corporation or an institution (formal organization), or an association—comprising one or more people and having a par ...

adjunct professor An adjunct professor is a type of academic appointment in higher education who does not work at the establishment full-time. The terms of this appointment and the job security of the tenure vary in different parts of the world, but the term is gen ...

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

, and researcher in the field of

organization development Organization development (OD) is the study and implementation of practices, systems, and techniques that affect organizational change. The goal of which is to modify a group's/organization's performance and/or culture. The organizational chang ...

. Beckhard co-launched the ''Addison-Wesley Organization Development Series'' and began the ''Organization Development Network'' in 1967. His work, ''Organization Development: Strategies and Models,'' was published in 1969. Beckhard was an adjunct professor at the

MIT Sloan School of Management The MIT Sloan School of Management (branded as MIT Sloan) is the business school of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT Sloan offers bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degree progra ...

from 1963 to 1984. He died on December 28, 1999. He helped to define

as: "an effort (1) planned, (2) organization-wide, (3) managed from the top, to (4) increase organization effectiveness and health through (5) planned interventions in the organization's 'processes', using behavioural-science knowledge". He was the first to coin the practical precept for decision-makers: "let it happen; f nothelp it happen; f notmake it happen!" Through the Organization Development Network and The Gestalt Institute of Cleveland in the United States and The Professional Development Institute PDI Inc. in Canada, Richard Beckhard shared this precept, for over thirty years, with managers and executives in business and governments. Beckhard published and popularized David Gleicher's

Formula for Change The formula for change (or "the change formula") provides a model to assess the relative strengths affecting the likely success of organisational change programs. The formula was created by David Gleicher while he was working at management consulta ...

. The formula proposes that the combination of organisational dissatisfaction, vision for the future and the possibility of immediate, tactical action must be stronger than the resistance within the organisation in order for meaningful change to occur. Beckhard is also credited for developing the ''GRPI model'' of team effectiveness, which highlights four key conditions (Goals, Roles, Processes, Interpersonal) for teams to succeed. Another area of Beckhard's work was concerned with change and continuity within family-owned businesses.Beckhard, R., and Dyer, W. G., Jr. (1983), Managing continuity in the family-owned business, ''Organizational Dynamics'', 12, 5-12

Selected publications

;Books, a selection * Beckhard, Richard. "Organization development: Strategies and models." (1969). * Beckhard, Richard, and Reuben T. Harris. ''Organizational transitions: Managing complex change''. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1977. * Beckhard, Richard, and Wendy Pritchard. ''Changing the essence: The art of creating and leading fundamental change in organizations''. Vol. 10. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1992. * Hesselbein, Frances,

Marshall Goldsmith Marshall Goldsmith (born March 20, 1949) is an American executive leadership coach and author. Early life and education Goldsmith was born in Valley Station, Kentucky, and received a degree in mathematical economics from Rose-Hulman Institute of ...

, and Richard Beckhard. The leader of the future. Jossey Bass, 1996. * Louis L. Carter,

, Jay Conger, and Richard Beckhard. Best Practices in Organization & Human Resources Development Handbook, Linkage Press, 2000. ;Articles, a selection * Beckhard, Richard, and Gibb Dyer Jr. "Managing continuity in the family-owned business." ''Organizational Dynamics'' 12.1 (1983): 5–12.

References

1918 births 1999 deaths American business theorists MIT Sloan School of Management faculty 20th-century American economists American sociologists {{US-sociologist-stub