Organization Development: A Process of Learning and Changing

W. Warner Burke is the E. L. Thorndike Professor of Psychology and Education and a founder of the graduate programs in social-organizational psychology at Teachers College, Columbia University. Originally educated as a social-organizational psychologist (Ph.D., University of Texas, Austin), Dr. Burke is currently engaged in teaching, research, and consulting. He teaches leadership and organization change and consultation. His research focuses on multi-rater feedback, leadership, organization change, and learning agility. Dr. Burke's consulting experience has been with a variety of organizations in business/industry, education, government, religious, health care systems, and professional services firms.

Prior to his move to Teachers College, Dr. Burke was Professor of Management and Chair of the Department of Management at Clark University. Prior to the Clark assignment, Dr. Burke was an independent consultant from 1974 to 1976. For eight years he was a full-time professional with the NTL Institute for Applied Behavioral Science, where he was Director for Executive Programs and Director of the Center for Systems Development (1966-1974). For eight years beginning in 1966, he also served as the Executive Director of the Organization Development Network.

Dr. Burke is a Fellow of the Academy of Management, the Association for Psychological Science, and the Society of Industrial and Organizational Psychology. He has served on the Board of Governors of the Academy of Management and the American Society for Training and Development (now Association for Talent Development), and he is a Diplomate in industrial/organizational psychology, American Board of Professional Psychology. From 1979 to 1985 he was Editor of the American Management Association's quarterly, Organizational Dynamics, and from 1986 to 1989 he originated and served as Editor of the Academy of Management Executive. Dr. Burke is the author of more than 150 articles and book chapters on organization development, training, change and organizational psychology, and conference planning and author, coauthor, editor, and coeditor of 20 books. His latest (2014) book is Organization Change: Theory and Practice, 4th Edition (Sage).

Among his many awards are the Public Service Medal from NASA, the Distinguished Scholar-Practitioner Award from the Academy of Management, Lifetime Achievement Awards from the OD Network and Linkage, and the Distinguished Professional Contributions Award from the Society of Industrial and Organizational Psychology.

Debra A. Noumair is Founder and Director of the Executive Masters Program in Change Leadership (XMA), Director of Executive Education Programs in Change and Consultation, Academic Program Coordinator of Graduate Programs, and Associate Professor, in Social-Organizational Psychology in the Department of Organization and Leadership at Teachers College, Columbia University. Professor Noumair is currently engaged in teaching, research, consulting, and coaching; the focus of her work is on applying systems psychodynamics to executive education as well as to organization change at multiple levels with individuals, teams, and organizations. She teaches courses on organization change and consultation and executive coaching.

Dr. Noumair is a coeditor of the Emerald book series, Research on Organization Change and Development, and a coeditor of Group Dynamics, Organizational Irrationality, and Social Complexity: Group Relations Reader 3. She serves on the Editorial Boards of The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science and the OPUS International Journal, Organisational and Social Dynamics.

As director of numerous leadership development programs, Dr. Noumair brings her work on individual, group, and organizational dynamics to executives through examining multi-rater feedback and psychological assessments at the individual and group level and through teaching and executive coaching with senior executives nationally and internationally. Much of her executive education work involves partnering with organizations to address the advancement of women through teaching group dynamics and assessment-anchored executive coaching. Dr. Noumair consults to organizations on culture change, senior team effectiveness, intergroup and interorganizational relations, and issues related to diversity at work. A group relations scholar and practitioner, Dr. Noumair is a Fellow of the A. K. Rice Institute. She has consulted to and directed group relations conferences nationally and served on the Board of Directors of the A. K. Rice Institute for nine years.

Dr. Noumair received her bachelor’s degree from Boston University and holds masters and doctoral degrees from Teachers College, Columbia University. She is a member of the American Psychological Association, the Academy of Management, and the Organization Development Network.