Introduction

At founding, the mission of the Institute was to:

• improve the effectiveness of symphony orchestra organizations;

• enhance the value they provide to their communities; and

• help assure the preservation of such organizations as unique and valuable cultural institutions.

After talking and working with people in the symphony field, it became apparent that, to advance our mission, we would need to "foster positive change in how symphony orchestra organizations were functioning," and we began to add this phrase to our purpose.

As Institute work has broadened our learning and perspective, it has become clear that we do not have to "re-invent the wheel." For years, progressive industrial and nonprofit organizations have been "changing" in positive and dramatic ways—ways comparable to what we imagined should be possible for symphony organizations. We can observe and learn from these examples. Furthermore, advances in how real organizations can better function are rooted in academic theory and observation by organizational psychologists, whose accumulated knowledge provides a framework for practitioners. So, our primary task, although still formidable, is to determine how best to apply to symphony orchestra organizations the theories and practices that others have discovered and developed.

For this tour, we need a guide, and we have found an excellent one in Laura Roelofs.  Laura will be the principal author of our presentations, assisted by Institute and Harmony staff as well as by outside advisors from time to time.  Our review of Organization Change will be compact and informative.  As we begin to relate organization change concepts to the symphony organization world, we think Laura's combination of symphony organizational experience and academic competence will especially help communicate how organization change processes serve the needs of symphony organizations.

But first, we are sure some are asking, "Exactly what does 'organization change' mean?"  During our tour, we will be addressing quite comprehensively the answer to this question, and linking our answer to symphony organizations. For the first step on our journey, let's adopt the following preliminary definition:

A concerted, planned effort to increase organizational effectiveness and health through changes in the organization's dynamics using behavioral science knowledge.

As noted when we announced this effort, and as will be evident in future material, various words and phrases have been coined to encompass the organizational phenomena we are going to study. However, since the Institute's mission is to foster "positive change" in the way North American symphony organizations function, we believe the simple and direct phrase "organization change" is the best phrase for us to employ at this juncture.

With its many nuances, this field has a very interesting background and history of development. So let's move on with Laura's first chapter, Roots.