However, it wasn’t until the mid-1970s that systems theory found wide acceptance among students of organizations. Building upon the important work of earlier theorists (Daniel Katz and Robert Kahn, Jay Lorsch and Alan Sheldon, and John Seiler), David Nadler and Michael Tushman at Columbia University developed a simple, pragmatic approach
to organizational dynamics based on systems theory. More or less simultaneously, Harold Leavitt at Stanford University and Jay Galbraith at MIT were grappling with the same issues. Nadler and Tushman’s efforts led to the development and refinement of the approach now known as the congruence model.