Organization Development
Experiential Approach to Organization Development Donald Brown Eighth Edition
CHAPTER 1: ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND REINVENTING THE
ORGANIZATION
The challenge for organizations
Modern managers must not only be flexible and adaptive in a changing environment; they must be
able to diagnose problems and implement change programs. Organizations are never completely
static. They are in continuous interaction with external forces.
The purpose of this boo is twofold. 1. To create an awareness of the changing environmental forces
confronting the modern managers. 2. To provide the techniques and skills needed for dealing with
change in organizations.
What is organizational development?
The key to survival and success lies not in rational, quantitative approaches, but rather in a
commitment to irrational, difficult-to-measure things like people, quality, customers services and
most important developing the flexibility to meet changing conditions. Employee involvement and
commitment is the true key to successful change.
Organizational development comprises the long-range efforts and programs aimed at improving an
organization’s ability to survive by changing its problem-solving and renewal processes. OD involved
moving toward an adaptive organization and achieving corporate excellence by integrating the
desires of individuals for growth and development with organizational goals. According to a leading
authority on OD, Richard Beckhard, “organization development is an effort: (1) planned, (2)
organization-wide, (3) managed from the top, (4) to increase organization effectiveness and health,
through (5) planned interventions in the organization’s processes using behavioural science
knowledge.
OD is not:
- Micro approach to change
- One single technique
- Random or ad hoc
- Only aimed at raising morale or attitudes.
The characteristics of organizational development
, - Change
- Collaborative
- Performance
- Humanistic
- Systems
- Scientific
A change leader is a person in an organization responsible for changing existing patterns to obtain
more effective organizational performance.
Why organization development?
1. Level of competition: 68 percent of respondents indicated that the organizations were
experiencing a high or very high level of competition.
2. Survival: more than 15 percent indicated that the organization would have ceased to exist within
the next few years without some type of change program.
3. Improved performance: 82 percent indicated that without an OD program, the organization would
have gradually suffered a decline in performance.
Successful firms share the following traits:
• Faster—more responsive to innovation and change.
• Quality conscious—totally committed to quality.
• Employee involvement—adding value through human resources.
• Customer oriented—creating niche markets.
• Smaller—made up of more autonomous units.
The evolution of organization development
1940/1950 – laboratory training methods were developed and applied by a group of behavioral
scientists.
, Who does organization development?
1. OD specialists who are professionals that have specialized and trained in organization
development and related areas.
2. People in a managerial or leadership position who apply OD to their work.
Organization culture
The term culture refers to a specific civilization, society, or group and its distinguishing
characteristics. The term organization culture refers to a system of shared meanings, including the
language, dress, patterns of behaviour, value system, feelings, attitudes, interactions, and group
norms of the members.
Norms are organized and shared ideas regarding what members should do and feel, how this
behaviour should be regulated, and what sanctions should be applied when behaviour does not
coincide with social expectations.
The socialization process
Model for organizational development
CHAPTER 2: ORGANIZATIONAL RENEWAL; THE
CHALLENGE OF CHANGE
Renewal
Organization renewal requires that top managers make adaptive changes to the environment. One
study suggests that the strategic models of top managers play a crucial role in directing
organizational responses to keep pace with changing industry conditions. In today’s business
environment more than at any time in history, the only constant is change.
In solving a given problem, managers must analyze the organization, its departmental subsystem
interrelationships, and the possible effects on the internal environment. This approach, termed the
systems approach, provides a way of observing, analyzing, and solving problems in organizations. The
Experiential Approach to Organization Development Donald Brown Eighth Edition
CHAPTER 1: ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND REINVENTING THE
ORGANIZATION
The challenge for organizations
Modern managers must not only be flexible and adaptive in a changing environment; they must be
able to diagnose problems and implement change programs. Organizations are never completely
static. They are in continuous interaction with external forces.
The purpose of this boo is twofold. 1. To create an awareness of the changing environmental forces
confronting the modern managers. 2. To provide the techniques and skills needed for dealing with
change in organizations.
What is organizational development?
The key to survival and success lies not in rational, quantitative approaches, but rather in a
commitment to irrational, difficult-to-measure things like people, quality, customers services and
most important developing the flexibility to meet changing conditions. Employee involvement and
commitment is the true key to successful change.
Organizational development comprises the long-range efforts and programs aimed at improving an
organization’s ability to survive by changing its problem-solving and renewal processes. OD involved
moving toward an adaptive organization and achieving corporate excellence by integrating the
desires of individuals for growth and development with organizational goals. According to a leading
authority on OD, Richard Beckhard, “organization development is an effort: (1) planned, (2)
organization-wide, (3) managed from the top, (4) to increase organization effectiveness and health,
through (5) planned interventions in the organization’s processes using behavioural science
knowledge.
OD is not:
- Micro approach to change
- One single technique
- Random or ad hoc
- Only aimed at raising morale or attitudes.
The characteristics of organizational development
, - Change
- Collaborative
- Performance
- Humanistic
- Systems
- Scientific
A change leader is a person in an organization responsible for changing existing patterns to obtain
more effective organizational performance.
Why organization development?
1. Level of competition: 68 percent of respondents indicated that the organizations were
experiencing a high or very high level of competition.
2. Survival: more than 15 percent indicated that the organization would have ceased to exist within
the next few years without some type of change program.
3. Improved performance: 82 percent indicated that without an OD program, the organization would
have gradually suffered a decline in performance.
Successful firms share the following traits:
• Faster—more responsive to innovation and change.
• Quality conscious—totally committed to quality.
• Employee involvement—adding value through human resources.
• Customer oriented—creating niche markets.
• Smaller—made up of more autonomous units.
The evolution of organization development
1940/1950 – laboratory training methods were developed and applied by a group of behavioral
scientists.
, Who does organization development?
1. OD specialists who are professionals that have specialized and trained in organization
development and related areas.
2. People in a managerial or leadership position who apply OD to their work.
Organization culture
The term culture refers to a specific civilization, society, or group and its distinguishing
characteristics. The term organization culture refers to a system of shared meanings, including the
language, dress, patterns of behaviour, value system, feelings, attitudes, interactions, and group
norms of the members.
Norms are organized and shared ideas regarding what members should do and feel, how this
behaviour should be regulated, and what sanctions should be applied when behaviour does not
coincide with social expectations.
The socialization process
Model for organizational development
CHAPTER 2: ORGANIZATIONAL RENEWAL; THE
CHALLENGE OF CHANGE
Renewal
Organization renewal requires that top managers make adaptive changes to the environment. One
study suggests that the strategic models of top managers play a crucial role in directing
organizational responses to keep pace with changing industry conditions. In today’s business
environment more than at any time in history, the only constant is change.
In solving a given problem, managers must analyze the organization, its departmental subsystem
interrelationships, and the possible effects on the internal environment. This approach, termed the
systems approach, provides a way of observing, analyzing, and solving problems in organizations. The
