OD Chapter 1

Organizational
Development
Introduction to Organizational Development
Week 2 (Jan 29 to Feb 4)
Introduction to Organizational
Development
1. Definition and concept of OD

2. Historical development and
evolution of OD
3. Theoretical foundations and
models of OD
Organizational Development
 It is the application of social science techniques to

plan change in organizational settings for the
purpose of enhancing organizational effectiveness
and the development of individuals.
Underlying Values
 Concept of people
 Concern for science
 Democratic principles
 The helping relationship
Potential Conflicts with OD
 Conflict with profit making

 Conflict with managerial prerogatives
Organizational Level
Diagnosis
Inputs Transformation Outputs
General Strategy Performance

Environment
Design Factors Productivity
Industry
Structure Culture Satisfaction
Group Level Diagnosis

Organization
Design Group Team
Factors Design Effectiveness
Factors
Culture Productivity,
Satisfaction
Strategy
Individual Level Diagnosis

Group
Design Job Individual
Factors Design Effectiveness
Factors
Personal Productivity,
Characterist- Satisfaction
ics
After Diagnosis
 Feeding back the information

 Choosing interventions
 Managing change
 Institutionalizing change
Team Building
 Improvedgroup
processes
 Communication
 Goal clarification
 Role clarification
 Task orientation
Survey Feedback
 Small meetings to
feedback survey
results
 Meetings used to
formulate change
 Managers conduct
meetings to
indicate
commitment
Employee Involvement
 Quality of worklife
 Quality circles
 Total
quality
management
Re-Engineering
 Job redesign
 Teamwork
 Workperformed by
most appropriate
person
 Advanced
information
technologies used
OD Effectiveness
 More impact on organizational than individual

outcomes
 Works better for white collars than blue collars
 Works better if multiple techniques are used
 Technological change shows more positive
outcomes
Measurement Problems
 Difficult to isolate cause of outcomes since OD

efforts often involve multiple changes
 May be the result of Hawthorne effects
 Change may be due to maturation or passage of time
and not intervention
Ethical Issues
 The role of the OD practitioner

 Who’s values
The Evolution of Organizational
Development: Past, Present, and Future
 Past
 In the early part of the last century, Kurt Lewin developed a
body of ideas that became the foundation of change
management.
 These include:
• Action research. Action research is a form of participatory
problem-solving. By working together, a group is able to more
effectively analyze, address, and fix problems.
 Group dynamics. Group dynamics refers to how groups
behave and interact. This psychological approach helps change
managers understand how employees react to change. In turn,
this helps managers address employee resistance and other
barriers to change.
 Force field theory and analysis. This framework looks at
factors that influence a situation – an individual, goals, and
forces that either hinder or enable an individual’s movement
toward that goal.
• The 3-stage change process. Kurt Lewin’s change model has
informed many other subsequent change frameworks. This
framework identifies three main stages in any change process –
unfreezing previous processes, transitioning to a new state, and
refreezing the new status quo.
 Throughout the latter half of the 20th century, a number of
scholars further developed these ideas.
 Those developments led to change management theories as
they exist today.
 Present
 What does organizational development look like today?
 Here is a snapshot:
• Change management. Change management is the business
discipline devoted to managing change, mitigating risk,
executing change projects, maximizing project ROI, and so on.
Today’s change practitioners use methods developed from the
ideas covered above, such as
John Kotter’s 8-step change model or Prosci’s ADKAR model.
• Organization development. Organization development (OD),
is another field devoted to executing and managing change
projects. Many of the foundational ideas are the same and it
shares many of the same aims. However, its specific methods
and objectives can be distinct from those of change
management.
 Digital change. Today, all businesses are becoming digital.
And change management is also digitizing, through the use of
data, analytics, automation, and other digital tools and
processes. To stay relevant and effective, change managers
should begin digitizing their own approaches to organizational
development.
 We are clearly in the midst of a digital revolution – and change
management will continue to evolve and change during the
coming years.
 Future
 What does the future hold for the evolution of organizational
development?
 Here are a few things to look for:
• More AI, data, and analytics. Today’s most cutting-edge
change managers implement data, analytics, and AI. These can
be used to predict project outcomes, improve team synergy,
analyze project performance, and much more.
• Continual change. The digital revolution is far from over. To
keep up with an economy in transition, businesses should
prepare themselves for continual, ongoing change. In the
coming years, expect more technology-driven changes – not
less.
• Lifelong learning. Today’s businesses are already facing a
digital skills shortage. And in the coming years, the digital
skills gap will widen and become a permanent feature of
business. To keep employees relevant, effective training will
be more important than ever.
 Given these trends, how should change managers prepare for
the future of organizational development?
Preparing for the Future of
Organizational Development
 Here are a few ideas:

• Digitize. The digital ecosystem demands digital tools,
technology, and techniques. The most effective change
managers will be digitally fluent. Change management will
always remain human-centered. But effective use of technology
will also become a requirement.
• Implement modern business practices and processes. Agile
change management, business agility, lean business processes,
and other adaptable business approaches get great results. In the
future, such modern business practices will likely become the
norm.

• Onboard, train, and engage. Since lifelong learning is set to
become common, businesses should prioritize training. Well-
trained employees will be more skilled, more productive, and
more satisfied. To build robust training programs, combine the
right tools with effective training solutions – such as digital
adoption platforms.
• Evolve your organizational change management
function. Poor change management gets poor results. But, as
we have seen, the future only holds more change. Effective
change management therefore, will become a strategic
differentiator.
Backwards & Forwards
 Summing up: We looked at OD values and how the process
operates. We explored major approaches and the difficulties
inherent in evaluating interventions
 Looking ahead: We conclude the semester by looking at
organizational behavior in a global context

OD Chapter 1

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

OD Chapter 1

Uploaded by

Document Information

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

OD Chapter 1

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Organizational

1. Definition and concept of OD

 It is the application of social science techniques to

 Conflict with profit making

Inputs Transformation Outputs

General Strategy Performance

Inputs Transformation Outputs

Inputs Transformation Outputs

 Feeding back the information

 More impact on organizational than individual

 Difficult to isolate cause of outcomes since OD

 The role of the OD practitioner

 Here are a few ideas:

You might also like