IOP3705 – ORGANISATION DEVELOPMENT and CHANGE
Lesson 01 – General Introduction to OD and Change
Textbook Chapter 1 & 2
Key terms:
Organisation development: A system-wide application that applies a broad range of behavioural
science knowledge and practices to help organisations develop their change capability and to achieve
greater organisational effectiveness.
Change management: The process of helping organisations implement specific change, such as a new
structure, a new ICT system, a new work practice or something similar. Attention is directed towards
how well change is implemented and at what cost and speed.
Organisational change: A broader concept than OD that can apply to any kind of change
INTRODUCTION
Organisational development is a system wide application and transfer of behavioural science knowledge
to the planned development, improvement and reinforcement of the strategies, structures and processes
that lead to organisational effectiveness.
OD helps organisations build their change capability and to achieve greater organisational effectiveness.
OD differs from other planned change efforts as the focus is on building the organisation’s ability to assess
its current functioning and to make necessary changes to achieve its goals. OD focuses on improving the
total system using a wide range of activities and organisational change methods such as team building,
structural change, employee wellness and culture change.
ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT DEFINED
Five characteristics covered by the definition:
1. OD applies changes in the strategy, structure and processes of an entire system, such as an
organisation, single plant of a multi plant, department or workgroup, individual role or job.
• A change programme aimed at modifying an organization’s strategy, for example, might focus on
how the organization relates to a wider environment and on how those relationships can be
improved. It might include changes both in the grouping of people to perform tasks (structure) and
in methods of communicating and solving problems (process) to support the changes in strategy
2. OD is based on the application and transfer of behavioural science knowledge and practice
including microconcepts, such as leadership, group dynamics and work design and macro approaches,
such as strategy, organization design and culture change.
3. OD is concerned with managing planned change but not in the formal sense typically associated with
management consulting or project management, which tends to comprise programmatic and expert-
driven approaches to change.
4. OD involves the design, implementation and the subsequent reinforcement of change. It moves
beyond the initial efforts to implement a change programme to a longer-term concern for making sure
the new activities are sustained within the organization.
5. OD is orientated to improving organisational effectiveness. Effectiveness is best measured along
three dimensions.
• OD affirms that an effective organization is able to solve its own problems and to continually
improve itself.
• An effective organization has high financial and technical performance, including sales growth,
acceptable profits, quality products and services and high productivity.
• An effective organization has an engaged, satisfied and learning workforce as well as satisfied and
loyal customers or other external stakeholders.
Page 1 of 55
Summary by L Petzer
, IOP3705 – ORGANISATION DEVELOPMENT and CHANGE
OD is thus the applied behavioural science discipline dedicated to improving organisations and the people
in them by applying the theory and practice of planned change.
OD can be distinguished from change management and organisational change:
• OD and change management both address effective implementation effective implementation of
planned change.
• Both concerned with sequence of activities, processes and leadership issues that produce
improvements.
• Differ in underlying value orientation.
o OD supports values of human potential, participation, development, performance and competitive
advantage
o CM focuses more narrowly on values of cost, quality and schedule
• OD is concerned with the transfer of knowledge and skills so that the system is more able to manage
change in the future
• CM does not necessarily require the transfer of these skills
• OD involves CM, but CM may not involve OD
• Organisational change is a broader concept than OD
• OD can be applied to managing organisational change
• OD is primarily concerned with managing change in such a way that knowledge and skills are
transferred to build the organisation’s capability to achieve goals and solve problems
• OD intends to change the organisation in a particular direction
• Organisational change is more broadly focused and can apply to any kind of change – these changes
may or may not be directed at making the organisation more developed in the sense implied by OD
Organisational change is more broadly focused and can apply to any kind of change – these
changes may or may not be directed at making the organisation more developed in the
sense implied by OD.
OD as a normative re-educative approach to change
rational-empirical approach to change posits that humans are rational beings and will change
autonomously in the presence of contextually appropriate conditions
- This principally implies that given the right information, training and resources, an individual will be
more aware of the benefits of the proposed change and will follow along without resistance.
- the change agent is encouraged to gather the appropriate expertise, conduct research into the
change situation and to clarify issues so as to bring about maximum understanding possible in the
members of the focal group undergoing the change.
power coercive approach to change is usually associated with negative activism in both social and
organizational situations.
- The desired outcome of the power coercive approach is often the compliance of other individuals
or groups within the system.
OD falls into the normative re-educative category of change approaches. The focus of attention with
this approach is the individuals who constitute the social system of the organization with a view to
helping them change and learn.
With the other two change approaches, the direction of the change effort may often be described as top-
down. However, with normative re-educative change, the direction is bottom-up. There are two
principal features of normative re-educative change approaches that resonate with OD methods.
1. Is to improve the problem-solving abilities of the system by fostering growth in the individual
members of that system and
2. Is to encourage a self-diagnosis among these individuals
Page 2 of 55
Summary by L Petzer
, IOP3705 – ORGANISATION DEVELOPMENT and CHANGE
HISTORY OF OD
Five stems of OD practice:
• National Training Laboratories (NTL) (T-Groups)
• Action research / Survey feedback
• Normative approaches
• Quality of work life
• Strategic change and organization transformation.
National training laboratories (NTLs)
This approach involves a small, unstructured group in which participants learn from their interactions and
evolving group processes about issues such as interpersonal relations, personal growth, leadership and
group dynamics. Over time, NTLs or T-groups have declined as an OD intervention. The practical aspects
of T-group techniques for organisations gradually became known as team building, which is one of the
most common OD interventions practised today (Cummings et al., 2020).
Action research and survey feedback
This approach involves the collection of data, data feedback, action planning, implementation and follow-
up. A key part of most action research studies involves the systematic collection of survey data that are
fed back to the client organisation (Cummings et al., 2020).
Normative approaches
This approach is based on the premise that a human relations approach represented the best way to
manage organisations. Based on this approach, organisations were characterised as having one of four
Page 3 of 55
Summary by L Petzer
Lesson 01 – General Introduction to OD and Change
Textbook Chapter 1 & 2
Key terms:
Organisation development: A system-wide application that applies a broad range of behavioural
science knowledge and practices to help organisations develop their change capability and to achieve
greater organisational effectiveness.
Change management: The process of helping organisations implement specific change, such as a new
structure, a new ICT system, a new work practice or something similar. Attention is directed towards
how well change is implemented and at what cost and speed.
Organisational change: A broader concept than OD that can apply to any kind of change
INTRODUCTION
Organisational development is a system wide application and transfer of behavioural science knowledge
to the planned development, improvement and reinforcement of the strategies, structures and processes
that lead to organisational effectiveness.
OD helps organisations build their change capability and to achieve greater organisational effectiveness.
OD differs from other planned change efforts as the focus is on building the organisation’s ability to assess
its current functioning and to make necessary changes to achieve its goals. OD focuses on improving the
total system using a wide range of activities and organisational change methods such as team building,
structural change, employee wellness and culture change.
ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT DEFINED
Five characteristics covered by the definition:
1. OD applies changes in the strategy, structure and processes of an entire system, such as an
organisation, single plant of a multi plant, department or workgroup, individual role or job.
• A change programme aimed at modifying an organization’s strategy, for example, might focus on
how the organization relates to a wider environment and on how those relationships can be
improved. It might include changes both in the grouping of people to perform tasks (structure) and
in methods of communicating and solving problems (process) to support the changes in strategy
2. OD is based on the application and transfer of behavioural science knowledge and practice
including microconcepts, such as leadership, group dynamics and work design and macro approaches,
such as strategy, organization design and culture change.
3. OD is concerned with managing planned change but not in the formal sense typically associated with
management consulting or project management, which tends to comprise programmatic and expert-
driven approaches to change.
4. OD involves the design, implementation and the subsequent reinforcement of change. It moves
beyond the initial efforts to implement a change programme to a longer-term concern for making sure
the new activities are sustained within the organization.
5. OD is orientated to improving organisational effectiveness. Effectiveness is best measured along
three dimensions.
• OD affirms that an effective organization is able to solve its own problems and to continually
improve itself.
• An effective organization has high financial and technical performance, including sales growth,
acceptable profits, quality products and services and high productivity.
• An effective organization has an engaged, satisfied and learning workforce as well as satisfied and
loyal customers or other external stakeholders.
Page 1 of 55
Summary by L Petzer
, IOP3705 – ORGANISATION DEVELOPMENT and CHANGE
OD is thus the applied behavioural science discipline dedicated to improving organisations and the people
in them by applying the theory and practice of planned change.
OD can be distinguished from change management and organisational change:
• OD and change management both address effective implementation effective implementation of
planned change.
• Both concerned with sequence of activities, processes and leadership issues that produce
improvements.
• Differ in underlying value orientation.
o OD supports values of human potential, participation, development, performance and competitive
advantage
o CM focuses more narrowly on values of cost, quality and schedule
• OD is concerned with the transfer of knowledge and skills so that the system is more able to manage
change in the future
• CM does not necessarily require the transfer of these skills
• OD involves CM, but CM may not involve OD
• Organisational change is a broader concept than OD
• OD can be applied to managing organisational change
• OD is primarily concerned with managing change in such a way that knowledge and skills are
transferred to build the organisation’s capability to achieve goals and solve problems
• OD intends to change the organisation in a particular direction
• Organisational change is more broadly focused and can apply to any kind of change – these changes
may or may not be directed at making the organisation more developed in the sense implied by OD
Organisational change is more broadly focused and can apply to any kind of change – these
changes may or may not be directed at making the organisation more developed in the
sense implied by OD.
OD as a normative re-educative approach to change
rational-empirical approach to change posits that humans are rational beings and will change
autonomously in the presence of contextually appropriate conditions
- This principally implies that given the right information, training and resources, an individual will be
more aware of the benefits of the proposed change and will follow along without resistance.
- the change agent is encouraged to gather the appropriate expertise, conduct research into the
change situation and to clarify issues so as to bring about maximum understanding possible in the
members of the focal group undergoing the change.
power coercive approach to change is usually associated with negative activism in both social and
organizational situations.
- The desired outcome of the power coercive approach is often the compliance of other individuals
or groups within the system.
OD falls into the normative re-educative category of change approaches. The focus of attention with
this approach is the individuals who constitute the social system of the organization with a view to
helping them change and learn.
With the other two change approaches, the direction of the change effort may often be described as top-
down. However, with normative re-educative change, the direction is bottom-up. There are two
principal features of normative re-educative change approaches that resonate with OD methods.
1. Is to improve the problem-solving abilities of the system by fostering growth in the individual
members of that system and
2. Is to encourage a self-diagnosis among these individuals
Page 2 of 55
Summary by L Petzer
, IOP3705 – ORGANISATION DEVELOPMENT and CHANGE
HISTORY OF OD
Five stems of OD practice:
• National Training Laboratories (NTL) (T-Groups)
• Action research / Survey feedback
• Normative approaches
• Quality of work life
• Strategic change and organization transformation.
National training laboratories (NTLs)
This approach involves a small, unstructured group in which participants learn from their interactions and
evolving group processes about issues such as interpersonal relations, personal growth, leadership and
group dynamics. Over time, NTLs or T-groups have declined as an OD intervention. The practical aspects
of T-group techniques for organisations gradually became known as team building, which is one of the
most common OD interventions practised today (Cummings et al., 2020).
Action research and survey feedback
This approach involves the collection of data, data feedback, action planning, implementation and follow-
up. A key part of most action research studies involves the systematic collection of survey data that are
fed back to the client organisation (Cummings et al., 2020).
Normative approaches
This approach is based on the premise that a human relations approach represented the best way to
manage organisations. Based on this approach, organisations were characterised as having one of four
Page 3 of 55
Summary by L Petzer
