Organization Development: An Overview

1. Organization Development: An Overview

2. Defined • Organization development (OD) is an attempt to influence the members of an organization to take greater responsibility for their own actions. It is an organization-wide effort, managed from the top, to increase organization effectiveness.

3. Typical OD Process • Startup, contracting • Assessment, diagnosis • Feedback to clients • Action planning • Interventions, implementation, evaluations • Managed by internal or external facilitator, consultant

4. OD Profession—Brief History • 1940s survey research and feedback • 1950s action research • 1960s efficiency studies, motivation, quality circles • 1970s strategic change, planned change • Theorists: Lewin, Likert, Beckhard, Bennis, Levy, Argyris, Schein, Burke, Senge

5. Ways to discuss OD • As a profession • As a philosophy/paradigm • Theories and models • Tools and techniques

6. Need for OD Today • Organizations experience rapid change, so more need for OD • Current OD Topics: change management, appreciative inquiry, coaching, continuous learning, emotional intelligence, large-scale interventions, learning organization, self-managed teams, systems thinking

7. Planned OD Change • Strategic OD: • Organizational transformation • Cultural change • Self-designing organizations • Strategic management

8. Planned OD Change—cont’d • Work from a plan with vision, milestones, measures and celebrations • Must involve top management • Usually has a champion (facilitator) • Best if planned and implemented via teams

9. Balanced Scorecard Benchmarking/Total Quality Management Business process reengineering Cultural change Organizational learning Involves changes to organizational structures and processes Establishes core competencies Some OD Change Models

10. Difference in OD and Org. Behavior • Organization behavior is the study and application of knowledge about how people, individuals and groups, act in organizations. • OD takes a long-range approach to improving organizational performance and efficiency and focuses on the total system.

11. OD Resources • Fifth Discipline, Senge • Practicing OD: A Consultant’s Guide, Sullivan • Organizational Change and Development, Cummins & Worley • OD: its nature, origin and prospects, Bennis • OD: behavioral science interventions for organization improvement, French & Bell

12. OD is an applied behavioral science concerned with:(added 10-30-06) • The health of the organization • Organizational effectiveness • The organization’s capacity to solve problems and capture successes (AI) • The organization’s ability to adapt, change, or of self-renewal • The organization’s ability to create a high quality of life for its employees

13. Possible OD consultant recommendations (added 10-30-06) • Teambuilding • Strategic planning • Appreciative Inquiry • Alignment of various systems (i.e. performance management, HR, communication, leadership, etc.) • Peer Teaching • Leadership Coaching • Training • Curriculum Design/Development

14. OD Success Factors(added 10-30-06) • Systematic processes to AI, identify problems, generate solutions, and implementing those solutions • Employee participation • Top management involvement • Organization must be ready for change

15. OD Stumbling Blocks(added 10-30-06) • Lack of Trust within the organization (between individuals, among groups, up and down the hierarchy) • Methods of dealing with conflict • Decision-making processes (how and by whom, top down) • Ownership of organizational goals • Communication patterns (open, candid, feedback) • Leadership (styles, behaviors)