The linearity of the OD model has been criticized and is not supported by longitudinal empirical studies of change (Clark et al,1988; Pettigrew,1985), As Kanter and colleagues indicated: ‘organizations are never frozen, much less refrozen, but are fluid entities’ (Kanter et al, 1992;10). In part, the persistence of the OD approach may reflect its historical antecedents; it may also be due to the symbolic and legitimating function it affords the change agent. As Buchanan and Boddy (1992:24) state: