Transorganizational Development in Urban Policy Coalitions

Transorganizational Development (TD) is a purposive, planned change strategy concerned with creating and improving the effectiveness of interorganizational coalitions. Unlike bounded, overorganized systems found within most organizations, coalitions frequently exhibit indefinite boundaries and underorganization. As such, they may demand more than the traditional organization development (OD) strategies to effect change. This research focuses on four social problem solving coalitions in an urban setting. Based on field research and a review of recent writings on TD and coalitions, a TD checklist was developed to guide change agents in dealing with coalitions. Borrowing from political science literature, we suggest that a “policy entrepreneur” may possess the centrality and purpose to serve as a TD intervener. Developing or increasing shared norms and values, and establishing predictable, regular structures, roles, and technologies are primary tasks of the policy entrepreneur/TD change agent.