ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT

(Redirected from Organisational development)

Organizational development is the process through which an organization develops the internal capacity to be the most effective it can be in its mission work and to sustain itself over the long term. This definition highlights the explicit connection between organizational development work and the achievement of organizational mission. This connection is the rationale for doing OD work.
'Organization development', according to Richard Beckhard, is defined as: a planned effort, organization-wide, managed from the top, to increase organization effectiveness and health, through planned interventions in the organization's 'processes', using behavioural science knowledge.[1]
There are also a number of methodologies specifically dedicated to Organizational Development such as Peter Senge’s 5th Discipline and Arthur F. Carmazzi’s Directive Communication. These are a few of more popular approaches that have been developed into a system for specific outcomes such as the 5th Discipline’s “learning organization†or Directive Communication’s “Organizational culture enhancementâ€.
According to Warren Bennis, organization development (OD) is a complex strategy intended to change the beliefs, attitudes, values, and structure of organizations so that they can better adapt to new technologies, markets, and challenges.
Warner Burke emphasizes that OD is not just "anything done to better an organization"; it is a particular kind of change process designed to bring about a particular kind of end result. OD involves organizational reflection, system improvement, planning, and self-analysis.
The term "Organization Development" is often used interchangeably with Organizational effectiveness, especially when used as the name of a department or a part of the Human Resources function within an organization.
Organizational Development is a growing field that is responsive to many new approached including Positive Adult Development.

Contents
Definition
History
Important figures
See also
References
External links

Definition


At the core of OD is the concept of an organization, defined as two or more people working together toward one or more shared goals. Development in this context is the notion that an organization may become more effective over time at achieving its goals.
"OD is a long range effort to improve organization's problem solving and renewal processes, particularly through more effective and collaborative management of organization culture-with specific emphasis on the culture of formal workteams-with the assistance of a change agent or catalyst and the use of the theory and technology of applied behavioral science including action research"

History


Kurt Lewin (1898 - 1947) is widely recognized as the founding father of OD, although he died before the concept became current in the mid-1950s. From Lewin came the ideas of group dynamics, and action research which underpin the basic OD process as well as providing its collaborative consultant/client ethos. Institutionally, Lewin founded the Research Center for Group Dynamics at MIT, which moved to Michigan after his death. RCGD colleagues were among those who founded the National Training Laboratories (NTL), from which the T-group and group-based OD emerged. In the UK, working as close as was possible with Lewin and his colleagues, the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations was important in developing systems theories. Important too was the joint TIHR journal Human Relations, although nowadays the Journal of Applied Behavioral Sciences is seen as the leading OD journal.

Important figures



Chris Argyris

Richard Beckhard

Kenneth Benne

Robert R. Blake

Leland Bradford

W. Warner Burke

Tom Cummings

Fred Emery

Charles Handy

Elliott Jaques

Kurt Lewin

Rensis Likert

Gordon Lippitt

Ronald Lippitt

Jane Mouton

William J. Rothwell

Edgar Schein

Donald Schon

Peter Senge

Eric Trist

Saul Eisen

See also


;OD topics

Action research

Appreciative inquiry

Chaos theory in organizational development

Collaboration

Collaborative method

Employee research

Executive development

Group process

Knowledge Management

Leadership development

Managing change

Organizational communication

Organizational culture

Organizational engineering

Organizational learning

Organizational performance

Performance improvement

Positive Adult Development

Process improvement

Quality

Social network

Strategic planning

Succession planning

Systems intelligence

Systems thinking

Team building

T-groups

Value network

Workplace democracy

Workforce planning
;Milestones

Appreciative inquiry

Hawthorne effect

Human Relations Movement
;OD in context

Change management

Coaching

Facilitation

Human resources

Industrial and organizational psychology

Training and development

References


1. Smith, 1998, p261. Training and Development in Australia

External links



[1]

The Society for Industrial Organizational Psychology

The Organization Development Network

Academy of Management Organization Development and Change Division

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