Organizational Development
INTRODUCTION
The development of your organization and, particularly, how you manage change impacts the success of your business. Organization development activities intervene in the interactions of your people systems such as formal and informal groups, work culture and climate, and organization design to increase their effectiveness using a variety of applied behavioral sciences.
It has been said that organizational development (OD) is to organizations what clinical psychology is to individuals. Thus, OD applies psychological principles to promote healing, growth, and constructive change in organizations. The tools of the trade commonly include, but are not limited to, survey feedback, including multilateral feedback, small group training and team building, and job redesign and enrichment. It has also been said that OD practice tends to be theoretical, concerned primarily with results.
WHAT IS OD?
Beckhard (1) defines Organization Development (OD) as "an effort, planned, organization-wide, and managed from the top, to increase organization effectiveness and health through planned interventions in the organization's processes, using behavioral-science knowledge." In essence, OD is a planned system of change.
Planned. OD takes a long-range approach to improving organizational performance and efficiency. It avoids the (usual) "quick-fix".
Organization-wide. OD focuses on the total system.
Managed from the top. To be effective, OD must have the support of top-management. They have to model it, not just espouse it. The OD process also needs the buy-in and ownership of workers throughout the organization.
Increase organization effectiveness and health. OD is tied to the bottom-line. Its goal is to improve the organization, to make it more efficient and more competitive by aligning the organization's systems with its people.
Planned interventions. After proper preparation, OD uses activities called interventions to make system...
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