A conceptual model of sudden organizational change, the Significant Change Model, is described and graphically displayed. The model includes the organizational member's perception of the degree, magnitude, or abruptness of an institutional change in relation to the individual's imputed value of the perceived change. Both of these factors are combined in the Significant Change Model to produce the behavioral relationship between the organization and its members. A matrix of the model illustrates the interactions between the perceptions of magnitude and value of institutional change. For example, in the first section of the matrix, there is a perception of no change in the organization and an attachment of no positive value to this: the status quo prevails. Nine sections of the matrix are explained with reference to higher education institutions. A further graphic representation of the Significant Change Model occurs by applying the components to the cusp catastrophe model, which provides an additional qualitative dimension toward the development of the model. A Loss and Grief model is also applied to organizational change. (SW)