Organizational Development Interventions: A Meta‐analysis of Their Effects on Satisfaction and Other Attitudes

This meta‐analysis examined the effects from 126 studies that employed organizational development (OD) interventions to modify satisfaction and/or other attitudes. Raju and Burkes's (1983) Taylor series approximation 1 (TSA 1) validity generalization procedure was used to conduct the meta‐analysis. Multi‐faceted interventions have been more effective in modifying satisfaction and attitudes than were OD interventions that used a single human‐processes or technostructural technique. For specific interventions, team building and lab training were the most effective means of changing satisfaction and other attitudes. Also, OD seems to affect attitudes more than satisfaction. Caution is encouraged in generalizing these findings, given (1) the non‐random selection of techniques, (2) the frequent moderating effects of both the participant's organizational level and the methodological rigor of the studies, and (3) this study's frequent failure to account for a substantial amount of the variability of the effect sizes.