CHAPTER - 1

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Kurt Lewin (1898–1947) is the founding father of OD, although he died before the
concept became main stream in the mid-1950s. From Lewin came the ideas of 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" (RCGD) 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-
groups and group-based OD emerged.
Organization development as a practice involves an ongoing, systematic process of
implementing effective organizational change. OD is both a field of applied science focused on
understanding and managing organizational change and a field of scientific study and inquiry. It
is interdisciplinary in nature and draws on sociology, psychology, particularly industrial and
organizational psychology, and theories of motivation, learning, and personality. Although
behavioral science has provided the basic foundation for the study and practice of OD, new and
emerging fields of study have made their presence felt. Experts in systems thinking,
in organizational learning, in the structure of intuition in decision-making, and in coaching (to
name a few) whose perspective is not steeped in just the behavioral sciences, but in a much more
multi-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary approach[citation needed], have emerged as OD
catalysts or tools.
People often do not know what is meant by „organizational development‟ and yet, if they
work in international development, it is very likely that they will have been involved in it.
Essentially, it is a planned, organization-wide effort to achieve strategic goals more effectively
and efficiently. This report draws on current literature, good practice examples, interviews and
case studies on organizational development, to distil useful frameworks and recommendations
for future work. It is structured to address the different stages and components of the
organizational change process.

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 Organization development (OD) is the study of successful organizational change and
performance. OD emerged from human relations studies in the 1930s, during which
psychologists realized that organizational structures and processes influence worker behavior
and motivation. More recently, work on OD has expanded to focus on aligning organizations
with their rapidly changing and complex environments through organizational
learning, knowledge management and transformation of organizational norms and values. Key
concepts of OD theory include: organizational climate (the mood or unique “personality” of an
organization, which includes attitudes and beliefs that influence members‟ collective
behavior), organizational culture (the deeply-seated norms, values and behaviors that members
share) and organizational strategies (how an organization identifies problems, plans action,
negotiates change and evaluates progress).

1.2 ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

1.2.1 Meaning of Organization Development

Given the approaches to planned change: structure, technology and people change, a
major approach to people change is organization development (OD). Organization development
aims to improve the organization‟s self-renewal process so that managers adopt a management
style appropriate to the new and changing environmental variables. It is an approach to introduce
change in business organizations. “Organization Development is a planned and systematic
attempt to change the organization, typically to a more behavioral environment.”
It is “a change effort that is planned, focused on an entire organization or a large sub-
system, managed from the top, aimed at enhancing organizational health and effectiveness, and
based on planned interventions made with the help of a change agent or third party who is well
versed in the behavioral sciences.”
O. D. is the act, process or result of furthering, advancing, or promoting the growth of an
organization Academy of Management & Professional Development
OD is response to change, a complex educational strategy intended to change the beliefs,
attitudes, and structures of organizations so that they can better adapt to new technologies,
markets and challenges. OD programmes equip people to accept change resulting from external
environmental forces like market, technology etc. It is a long-range programme aimed to change

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behavioral attitude of people and performance of the total organization, thereby creating better
coordination between human beings and the organization.

1.2.2 Definition of Organization Development

According to Beckhard “Organization Development is 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.”
According to Nielsen “Organization Development is the attempt to influence the
members of an organization to expand their candidness with each other about their views of the
organization and their experience in it, and to take greater responsibility for their own actions as
organization members. The assumption behind Organization Development is that when people
pursue both of these objectives simultaneously, they are likely to discover new ways of working
together that they experience as more effective for achieving their own and their shared
(organizational) goals. And that when this does not happen, such activity helps them to
understand why and to make meaningful choices about what to do in light of this
understanding.”
According to Bennis “Organization development is a responds to change a complex
educational strategy intended to change the benefits, attitudes, values and structure of
organizations so that they can better adopt to new technologies, markets, challenges and dizzying
rate of change itself.”
According to Edgar Schein “An organization is the planned coordination of the activities
of a number of people for the achievement of some common explicit purpose or goals through
the division of labor and function, and through a hierarchy of authority and responsibility.
Development is the act, process, result or state of being developed-which in turn means to
advance, to promote the growth of, to evolve the possibility of, to further, to improve or to
enhance something. Two elements stand out viz. (a) Development may be an act, process or an
end state. (b) Development means bettering something Academy of Management & Professional
Development.”

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1.3 HISTORY OF ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

1.3.1 Indian History of Organization Development

In today's highly turbulent business environment, 'change' has become an in evitable part
of life. Organizations that do not change when needed or are not sensitive to then need for
change do not survive long. The revolution in the form of IT is reshaping the core competencies
needed in a knowledge environment. Organizations, in order to be successful, need to place a
high priority on pro activity and systematic understanding of organizational issues and on
responding to current and future external customer needs. Workforce mobility and diversity are
creating new employee needs along with new expectations about the work culture, and these
needs, too, have to be systematically understood and responded to. HR leaders are challenged
to become effective strategic partners in the creation of world class learning
culture.Indian organizations are no exception to these compulsions.
Organizational Development (OD) in India started in early sixties with a group of people
from educational institutions like the two Indian Institutes of Management, SIET Institute
Hyderabad, Larsen & Toubro (L&T), State Bank of India and such other corporations sending
their staff to National Training Laboratories (NTL). The Indian Society for Applied Behavioural
Science was formed as an Indian NTL by many people associated with it like late Udai Pareek,
Dharni Sinha, Suresh Srivastava, Nitish De, Francis Meninzes etc. Among the founders are
living persons like Paul Siromani, Fr. E. McGrath, Prof. Ishwar Dayal and Somnath
Chattopadhyay. OD was very popular until eighties. The last two decades can be considered as
HRD decades and OD has been treated as a part of the role of HRD Professionals. However as a
large number of Human Resource Development (HRD) professionals have not acquired
competencies as OD facilitators, OD has remained dormant. In the NGO sector, Self-renewal
replaced OD and the academy of HRD popularized the concept of Self renewal among the not
for profit organizations. About a decade ago Roland Sullivan facilitated a whole system change
workshop with about a hundred NGOs participating in Hyderabad. Later Marvin Weisboard
along with Sandra Janoff visited India and trained a group of trainers in Future Search approach.
Also the Large Scale Interactive Process (LSIP) got popularized with Eicher consultancy and the
Academy of HRD. A few organizations started using the same in recent times.

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1.3.2 International History of Organization Development

The organization development as an applied behavioral (sociological and psychological)

discipline is come from America. Its principle is the organizational culture, attitude and behavior,
problem-solving and framing improvement by targeted action. It is identified relatively new field
of sciences, which development has four important distinct sections:
The beginning of organization development was in the forties, when Kurt Lewin realized
with his T-group experiments that “a special learning opportunity resides in, if a group puts itself
into the center of the learning”, The first executed T-group in a small group training with
behavioral scientists and researchers‟ participation was in Bethel in 1947 where they could get
experiences about the feedback of the collective interactions. This behavioral based training
supported the basis model of the so-called experimental learning.
The next formation of organization development was the attendance of feedback surveys,
where the company would be able to know more about itself with using questionnaire survey and
the results and it would be motivated itself to make organization change.
The third important step is the engagement of the action research method, which due to
the collaboration of social scientists and employees was included organizational diagnosis,
analysis of diagnosis‟ data, exhibition of organizational problems‟ reasons, proposals to change
and examination of obtained results. Under this process the decision on changes would be
improved, commitment for changes and effectiveness of implement Skip to main content

1.4 EVOLUTION OF ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

 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" (RCGD)
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- Groups and group-based OD emerged.

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 Douglas McGregor and Richard Beckhard while "consulting together at General
Mills in the 1950s, the two coined the term organization development (OD) to
describe an innovative bottoms- up change effort that fit no traditional consulting
categories"
 1947 – National Training Laboratories Founded NTL in USA advances the research
into applied behavioral sciences, develops understand of change agent role and
experiential learning.
 1950‟s – Human Relations Movement Growth of social and developmental
psychology.
 1951 – Socio-Technical System Thinking (STS) Tavistock Institute (UK) research
shows that combining social factors with technological changes increases
effectiveness, efficiency and moral.
 In the mid-1970s, O.D. was first introduced in India in Larsen and Toubro as a formal
and structured part of the HRD department. 1967 – Survey Research Methods Likert
and Mann pioneer survey feedback to help organizational leaders understand the
impact they have on the people and performance of the organization.
 1968 – Creation of the T Group Lewin (USA) and Tavistock Institute develops
unstructured group laboratory training, and action learning sets.
 1974 – OD as Planned approach to Change Friedlander and Brown research OD as a
method of planned change effort
 1980‟s – General Systems Theory Neilsen and Schein promote OD as activities that
influence the social processes within an organisation.
 1997 – Organizational Effectiveness linking the application of OD in planned
development interventions to the improvement of organizational effectiveness.
 2000‟s to present – Complexity Theory OD continues to be informed by new insights
and research in a number of disciplines including natural sciences, biology and
physics as well as developments in the social and behavioral sciences.
 1-10 Five Stems of OD Practice Current Practice Laboratory Training Action
Research/Survey Feedback Participative Management Quality of Work Life Strategic
Change 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000

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 TABLE 1.4.1: PREDECESSORS OF ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Term Decade Capacity-building approaches

 Provide public sector institutions
 Focus on and design individual functioning
1950‟s and
Institution Building organizations Models transplanted from the
1960‟s
North
 Training in Northern universities
 Shift to strengthening rather than establishing
Institutional strengthening 1960‟s and Provide tools to improve performance
and development 1970‟s  Focus still on individual organizations and
training in the North
Development  Reach target groups previously neglected
management and 1970‟s  Focus on improving delivery systems and
administration public programmes to reach target groups
 Development is about people; emergence of
Human resource 1970‟s and people-centered development
development 1980‟s  Key sectors to target are: education, health
and population
 Capacity building broadened to sector level
(government, NGO and private)
 Focus on networks and external environment
1980‟s and
New institutionalism  Attention to shaping national economic
1990‟s
behavior
 Emergence of issues of sustainability and
move away from focus on projects
 Reassessment of the notion of technical
Late cooperation (TC) Stressed importance of
Capacity development 1980‟s and local ownership and process Participatory
1990‟s approaches as the key
 Seen as „the way to do development‟

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  Increased participation in capacity building
Emphasis on continuous learning and
adaptation
 Balancing results-based management and
Capacity development/
2000s long-term sustainability Systems approach
knowledge networks
and emerging talk of complex systems
Emphasis on needs assessment/analysis
 Spread of ICT-based knowledge networks
 Increased donor coordination

FIGURE 1.4.2: INTERCONNECTIONS IN ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT

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1.5 FEATURES, OBJECTIVES AND CHARACTERISTICS OF OD

1.5.1 Features of Organisation Development

Organization development has the following features:

 It aims to bring planned and systematic change in the organisation.

 It aims to change the whole organization or its major part; a functional area or a
department. Small changes in the inventory control system or sales strategies do not
require comprehensive organization development programmes.
 The effort to change organizational set up is initiated at the top level though members
at other levels also participate in the change program me.
 Organisation development programmes aim to improve long-run performance of the
enterprise by raising their working to a higher level.
 Organisation development programmes are initiated by the top level managers but
they are developed with the help of change agents. Change agent is a person or a
group of persons who ensure that planned change is effectively implemented in the
organisation.
 Change agents have knowledge of the organisation development techniques which
help to introduce change. A change agent can be an internal consultant, employee or
manager of the company or external consultant or organisation development specialist
who helps in introducing change in the organisation.
 It is a broad concept and aims to bring comprehensive change in the organisation. It
also attempts to change the values, beliefs, attitudes, philosophies and culture of the
organisation.
 It is a dynamic concept. It recognizes changes in the environmental variables and,
thus, need to change the organisation structure to achieve its objectives.
 It is a gradual movement from simple training programmes to make people learn new
ways of working to more sophisticated, complex and comprehensive methods of
training that make change have lasting impact on them. Comprehensive change
programmes and training programmes include collection of data, analysis of data,
making and implementing suitable change strategies.

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  It is a major departure from old to new, from undesirable to desirable and educates
people to accept new norms of behavior.
 A range of methodologies is used to enhance professional development.

1.5.2 Objectives of Organisation Development

The objectives of OD are:

a. to increase the level of inter-personal trust among employees

b. to increase employees' level of satisfaction and commitment
c. to confront problems instead of neglecting them
d. to effectively manage conflict
e. to increase cooperation and collaboration among employees
f. to increase organizational problem-solving
g. to put in place processes that will help improve the ongoing operation of an
organization on a continuous basis
As objectives of organizational development are framed keeping in view specific
situations, they vary from one situation to another. In other words, these programs are tailored to
meet the requirements of a particular situation.
But broadly speaking, all organizational development programs try to achieve the
following objectives:
a. making individuals in the organization aware of the vision of the organization.
Organizational development helps in making employees align with the vision of the
organization
b. encouraging employees to solve problems instead of avoiding them
c. strengthening inter-personal trust, cooperation, and communication for the successful
achievement of organizational goals
d. encouraging every individual to participate in the process of planning, thus making
them feel responsible for the implementation of the plan
e. creating a work atmosphere in which employees are encouraged to work and
participate enthusiastically
f. replacing formal lines of authority with personal knowledge and skill
g. preparing members to align with changes and to break stereotypes

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 h. creating an environment of trust so that employees willingly accept change
According to organizational-development thinking, organization development
provides managers with a vehicle for introducing change systematically by applying a broad
selection of management techniques. This, in turn, leads to greater personal, group, and
organizational effectiveness.

1.5.3 Characteristics of Organization Development

Following are the characteristics of OD

1. Planned Change:

Organizational development (OD) is an educational strategy for bringing about planned

change. Planned change concept makes it different from other approaches for change in
organizations.

2. Encompasses the Whole Organisation:

This change covers the entire organisation. Organizational Development is the

development of the whole organisation so that it can respond to change effectively.
OD tends to ensure that all parts of the organisation are well coordinated in order to solve
the problems and opportunities that are brought by change.

3. Long Range Change:

OD is a long term process. It may take months or years to implement it. OD is never
intended to be a stopgap arrangement or measure.

4. Systems Orientation:

OD is concerned with the various groups in the organisation and their interactions with
each other. It is concerned with formal as well as informal or social relationships. It is concerned
with group structures, processes and attitudes.
OD emphasizes on the relationships among the groups not on the groups themselves.

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5. Change Agent:

The services of outside experts are obtained, generally, to implement the OD process. In
OD, “Do it yourself” programmes are discouraged. When the primary change agent is a
consultant from outside the organisation, he can operate independently without ties to the
Organizational hierarchy and politics of the organisation. The personnel director is the internal
agent of the organisation who coordinates the programme with the management and the external
agent.
As the external agent also works with the management, there is a three way relationship
of the personnel director, management and the outside consultant as they develop the OD
programme. Very rarely, an internal change agent is used by the organisation, who usually is a
specialist on the personnel staff.

6. Problem Solving:

OD emphasizes on problem solving rather than just theoretical discussion of the

problems. The focus on real, ongoing problems rather than the theoretical or artificial ones is
called actions research. Action research is a very important feature of OD. Sometimes, OD is
called organizational improvement through action research.

7. Experiential Learning:

In the traditional approaches, training was provided to the people by lecture and
discussion method, in which people talk about only abstract ideas. But in OD, particularly learn
by experiencing in the training environment the kind of human problems they face on the job.
This approach tends to produce more changed behavior than the traditional approach.
Theory is also necessary and desirable, but the ultimate test is how it applies in real
practice. These answers are provided by OD.

8. Collaborative Management:

In contrast to the traditional management structure where orders are issued at upper levels
and simply carried out by low levels, OD stresses collaboration among levels. In OD,
organizations are viewed in a systems perspective.

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9. Group Process:

In OD, an effort is made to improve interpersonal relations, open communication

channels, build trust and encourage responsiveness to others. For this OD relies on group
processes like group discussions, inter group conflicts, confrontations and procedures for co-
operations.

10. Organizational Culture:

OD assumes that the culture of every organisation is different from the culture of the
other organizations. The assumption that a particular solution can be applied to the problems of
all the organizations is generally not made in OD.
Instead the culture of each organisation must be understood and relations consistent with
culture be developed.

11. Feedback:

In OD, feedback is given to all the participants about themselves, which provides them a
basis for their next activities. They generally base their decisions on this concrete data. With the
help of feedback of information, employees will be encouraged to understand a situation and
take self corrective action before somebody else tells them what to do.

12. Situational and Contingency Oriented:

OD is flexible and pragmatic, adapting the actions to fit particular needs. Although some
occasional OD change agent may have to impose a single best way on the group, there is,
usually, open discussion of several better alternatives rather than a single best way.

13. Team Building:

The basic objective of OD is to build better team work throughout the organisation. OD
tries to tie all the groups, small and large, working in the organisation, together to make one
integrated and cooperative group. If any groups have some differences, OD will help them to
find out the ways for solving the differences. The result of effective team work will be improved
organizational performance.

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14. Goals and Development

 All the goals intent on developing the organization must be planned and laid out.
 These goals and their subsequent achievement help develop the organization.

15. Human Values

A very important characteristic of OD is that it focuses on human as well as social values.

This involves treating everyone with fairness, eliminating favoritism and biased behavior,
focusing on everyone's needs, believing in a positive outcome and encouraging the others
towards the same as well, etc.

16. Cooperation

 Similar to collaboration, cooperation helps members compromise and adjust to

different situations.
 It helps them understand what to prioritize.
 It also helps them understand each other better, leading to progress.

1.6 ESSENTIALS OF ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

1. People

Any organization development intervention must have people at its center. Organization
Development is about allowing the people in the organization to create the change the
organization is looking for. OD is a holistic intervention, and therefore isn‟t restricted to the top
brass.
In fact, it works quite the opposite in that it releases everyone from the bottom up to have
a say, and share their knowledge, talent and skills in developing the organization. If your OD
intervention isn‟t people centered, and unashamedly humanistic it is probably not an OD
intervention.

2. To Know Tools, Theory

Whether it is Complexity theory, Action Research Theory, Levin‟s Change Theory,

Systems Theory or Appreciative inquiry the cross discipline theoretical background of OD is
essential to understanding the tools that an OD practitioner will use in their OD practice. If you

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don‟t understand the behavioral sciences, sociology and psychology behind methods such as
game storming, focused conversations or world cafe‟s you won‟t know which tools to use to
deliver the results the organization needs for sustainable performance and organizational
effectiveness.
A mechanic doesn‟t try to fix your car engine without knowing how the combustion
engine works „in theory‟ – by understanding the process the mechanic can quickly identify
where the process is broken and know what tool/method required to make the engine roar back
into life. OD is no different.
Many practitioners dismiss academic theory as ridiculous „ivory tower‟ thinking and not
applicable to the real world. The interesting thing is that the theory that OD is built on is often
criticized by the academic community because it is built on practice and field work
experimentation, worse still, in the eyes of academics, it takes bits of different disciplines
because those „bits‟ are relevant and ignores the stuff that doesn‟t add value to the process. Get
to know your theory and you‟ll get to understand How the OD toolkit works and when to use the
different tools.

3. Be Sustainable

I could have chosen a number of things for number three, but the one I plugged for is that
of legacy. The OD practitioner is the catalyst in OD interventions. They must have the ability to
build the business case for the leadership team, get the leadership team on board to sponsor the
programmer, build relationships with key change agents within the business and draw together
disparate groups to make the intervention successful. They become the center of the intervention.
The use of self as a catalyst of change is a central pillar of OD practice.
This is the paradox of the life of the OD practitioner. You are the center of change whilst
at the same time building a legacy which means that the organization learns how to change itself.
The OD practitioner must translate the practices, and tools that they use so they become
embedded into the way that the organization does things. The questions you ask become the
organization‟s questions. The techniques you use, are understood and used by the organization
you are working with and more importantly you leave the organization in a position where they
have learnt how to develop themselves without the self of the OD practitioner being present.

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1.7 CORE VALUES OF ORGANISATION DEVELOPMENT

Underlying Organization Development are humanistic values. Margulies and Raia

(1972) articulated the humanistic values of OD as follows:

a. providing opportunities for people to function as human beings rather than as

resources in the productive process
b. providing opportunities for each organization member, as well as for the organization
itself, to develop to their full potential
c. seeking to increase the effectiveness of the organization in terms of all of its goals
d. attempting to create an environment in which it is possible to find exciting and
challenging work
e. providing opportunities for people in organizations to influence the way in which they
relate to work, the organization, and the environment
f. treating each human being as a person with a complex set of needs, all of which are
important to their work and their life
g. The encouragement of free-thinking and the spirit of enquiry that seeks to describe
the nature of the universe and of the diversity of life on earth.

There are many thoughts on what constitute 'humanistic values' but the UK Humanist
Society suggests the following twelve that, regardless of a consultant's religious beliefs, seem to
be exactly what organization development consultants should role model.

a. Openness to new knowledge and the acceptance of uncertainty.

b. Self-reliance and independence of thought within the recognition of the ultimate
interdependence of humanity.
c. Concern for the well-being of the whole of humankind. Compassion and concern for
all humans who, in varying degrees, are deprived of the opportunity for self-
fulfillment.
d. Respect for all humans, for other species, and for the environment. The promotion
and preservation of an ecological balance.
e. An approach which seeks to understand the beliefs and values of others.

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 f. A co-operative and problem- solving approach to conflicts of interest. Reasoned
argument as opposed to dogmatic assertion
g. An approach to morals and ethics which takes account of the complexities of modern
living and has as its starting point that moral and ethical behaviour is that which,
except in self-defense, does no harm to the well-being of others. In situations of moral
dilemma, the choosing of solutions which do least harm to the participants.
h. The concept of the democratic ideal. Impartiality towards, and equal treatment of,
individuals and groups whatever their … beliefs.
i. Social attitudes which militate against the exploitation, or physical or psychological
abuse, of humans by humans. A society which educates its members in tolerant, co-
operative living.
j. A humane approach to all actions affecting members of the non-human living world.
k. The creative and artistic potential of human nature. The capacity of the arts, literature,
and recreational activities for expanding perceptions, for increasing the awareness of
self, and for illuminating the human condition. All those circumstances that enable
humans to be free to experience the physical and mental joys of living.

1.8 PRINCIPLES OF ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT

The practice of OD is grounded in a distinctive set of core values and principles that
guide behavior and actions.

Values-Based

The practice of OD is grounded in a distinctive set of core values and principles that
guide behavior and actions. Values-Based Key Values include:

 Respect and Inclusion – equitably values the perspective and opinions of everyone.
 Collaboration – builds collaborative relationships between the practitioner and the
client while encouraging collaboration throughout the client system.
 Authenticity – strives for authenticity and congruence and encourages these qualities
in their clients

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  Self-awareness – commits to developing self-awareness and interpersonal skills. OD
practitioners engage in personal and professional development through lifelong
learning.
 Empowerment – focuses efforts on helping everyone in the client organization or
community increase their autonomy and empowerment to levels that make the
workplace and/or community satisfying and productive.

Supported by Theory

Draws from multiple disciplines that inform an understanding of human systems,

including applied behavioral and physical sciences

Systems Focused

Approaches communities and organizations as open systems; that is, acts with the
knowledge that change in one area of a system always results in changes in other areas; and
change in one area cannot be sustained without supporting changes in other areas of the system.

Action Research

Continuously reexamines, reflects and integrates discoveries throughout the process of

change in order to achieve desired outcomes. In this way, the client members are involved both
in doing their work, and in dialogue about their reflection and learning in order to apply them to
achieve shared results.

Process Focused

Intervenes in organizational or community processes to help bring about positive change

and help the client work toward desired outcomes

Informed by Data

Involves proactive inquiry and assessment of the internal environment in order to

discover and create a compelling need for change and the achievement of a desired future state of
the organization or community. Some methods include survey feedback, assessment tools,
interviewing, focus groups, storytelling, process consultation and observation.

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Client Centered

Focuses on the needs of the client in order to continually promote client ownership of all
phases of the work and support the client‟s ability to sustain change after the consultant
engagement ends.

Focused on Effectiveness and Health

Helps to create and sustain a healthy effective human system as an interdependent part of
its larger environment.

1.9 ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN HR

OD includes various areas pertaining to growth in terms of physical assets and talent
management. Job designing, Organizational/hierarchy structures, performance & productivity
analysis and developing a collaborative learning environment comes under Organizational
development.
Apart from regular HR activities, HR managers contribute to an organization most
through these functions of Organizational Development. The most impactful and successful
organizations are deliberate about how they are organized, how their work is carried out and how
they use and develop their talent to achieve effectiveness. The most successful HR leaders are
also deliberate about driving forward organizational effectiveness for the benefit of the staff,
leadership and the community.

Our organizational development services include:

i. Strategic planning
ii. Needs assessment
iii. Planning
iv. Instructional Design
v. Coaching
vi. Retreats
vii. Team building
viii. Customized learning and development

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Talent Management:

 Recruiting highly skilled resources apt for current and future needs with diversified
talents.
 Develop a system or a process to analyze and improve existing talents to comprehend
with their current weakness and sharpen strengths.
 Educate employees about organizational goals and drive them with passion for
aligning accordingly
 Address workplace issues and resolve them without procrastinating.

Performance Management:

 Make sure to treat performance goals like fundraising goals! Create an environment
of accountability where success is measured!
 Measure what matters.
 Develop and implement a plan to close performance gaps at the Individual, Team,
Department and Organizational levels
 STOP IGNORING LOW PERFORMERS. Demand improvement or design an exit
plan to make way for likeminded.

Development Management:

 Find resources for training and professional development.

 Focus on learning that is directly connected to mission delivery.
 Train staff to be experts in their areas of focus. Leverage internal resources (i.e. other
staff), Board, community partners, business professionals to augment learning.
 Regularly educate staff on the business of your organization including financial
metrics and industry trends and/or best practices.

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1.9.1 Quick Ways to Align Organizational Development in Hr

Considering above factors it is important to understand and align organizational

development with Organizational goals and we could achieve this by prioritizing HR roles. Here
are a list of ways we could make it happen.

1. Recognize the strategic value that HR brings to organizational effectiveness.

2. Making HR activities as important as funding and investment rounds.
3. Involving HR personnel in Strategic planning and Future goals discussions.
4. Set metrics to evaluate HR and enable rewards on successful completion of tasks.
5. Accountability on the results achieved and leveraging them to establish a place in the
board rooms.
6. Give them authority to make important decision impacting organizational behavior
and growth.
7. Hire qualified staff to handle HR activities when the above are enabled and restrict
usage of external elements to delay or impact the growth/results.

1.10 FOUR ELEMENTS OF ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT

1. Goal Setting

 Know your organizations objectives beyond surface rhetoric(“improve test scores

by xx%?”)
 Set specific improvement targets for each strategic objective
 Improvement goals should be absolute targets
 Percentages allow you to turn problems into impersonal statistics
 Real numbers force you to think about the actual number of failing students,
parent complaints, dissatisfied customers, etc. and their costs to the
organization Goal Setting
 Each member of your team should have the information necessary to set three or four
personal or team goals or objectives that build into the organizations strategic
objectives for their area of responsibility
 Leverage PLC or other forms of professional collaboration to set goals, objectives,
measurements, and timelines

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2. Employee Development

 Employee development gives staff members the opportunity to work to their highest
level of potential
 Performance improvement can be a benefit to employee development
 When you send employees to training and classes they come back with new
knowledge they can apply to their job
 Development vs. Training
 Employee Development is imperative for successful succession planning (do we do
this for teachers, auxiliary staff, administrative support….)
 Develop a culture where behaviors such as: informal training, coaching, learning, and
development is standard(normal)

3. Restructuring

 Effective Organization Restructuring goes beyond organizational design

 Considerations related to decision making processes
 Management styles
 Work flows
 Consider using restructuring to combat silos and stagnation
 After World War II -The "one best way" to do a job gradually disappeared as the
dominant logic
 It was replaced by concerns that traditional organizational structures might prevent,
rather than help, promote creativity and innovation
 Education is surrounded by a world of rapid change and innovation
 Life School leadership must have the courage to challenge the Organization Structure
status quo
 Schools are tasked with preparing students for a world of change; are your people,
processes, and technology ready

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1.11 BENEFITS AND IMPORTANCE OF ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

1.11.1 Benefits of Organizational Development

 Incorporate new technology

 Ensure compliance with new legislation
 Manage, reorganize, restructure due to change in funding (revenue)
 Improve student, staff, campus, and/or district performance
 Develop sustainable measurement capability
 Engage organization culture change
 Enhance profitability and competitiveness
 Ensure health and well-being of organizations and employees
 Facilitate learning and development
 Improve problem solving
 Increase effectiveness
 Initiate and/or manage change
 Strengthen system and process improvement
 Support adaptation to change

1.11.2 Importance of Organizational Development

 Organizational development is the use of organizational resources to improve

efficiency and expand productivity.
 It can be used to solve problems within the organization or as a way to analyze a
process and find a more efficient way of doing it.
 Implementing organizational development requires an investment of time and money.
But when you understand its importance, you can justify the costs.

1. Organizational Change:

The process of organizational development identifies areas of company operations where

change is needed. Each need is analyzed, and the potential effects are projected into a change
management plan.

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 The plan outlines the specific ways in which the change will improve company
operations, which will be affected by the change and how it can be rolled out efficiently to
employees.

Without organizational development as part of change management, a company would

have a difficult time developing effective change management programs.

2. Growth:

Organizational development is an important tool in managing and planning corporate

growth. An organizational development analysis brings together sales projections and consumer
demand to help determine the rate of company growth.
This information is used to alter the company business plan and plan the expansion and
use of company resources such as personnel and the distribution network to accommodate future
growth.

3. Work Processes:

When a company is involved in organizational development, it analyzes work processes

for efficiency and accuracy. Any quality control measures required to attain company standards
are put in place.
Evaluators analyze duplicate process, or processes that can be combined for greater
efficiency, and develop and implement detailed plans on how to improve company methods.

4. Product Innovation:

Product innovation requires the analysis of several kinds of information to be successful.

Organizational development is critical to product innovation because it can help analyze each
element of product development and create a method for using it effectively.
Some of the processes that come together in organizational development to assist in
product innovation are competitive analysis, technology development, consumer preferences,
and target market research, manufacturing capabilities analysis and patents and trademarks.

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1.12 PHASES OF OD PROGRAM

The steps in OD are part of a whole process, so all of them need to be applied if a firm
expects to get the full benefits of OD. An organisation which applies only a few steps and leaves
the others will be disappointed with the results.

The following are the seven major phases in the organizational development

1. Initial Diagnosis
2. Data Collection
3. Data Feedback
4. Planning Strategy
5. Intervention
6. Team Building
7. Evaluation.

FIGURE 1.12.1: PHASES OF OD PROGRAM

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1. Initial Diagnosis of the Problem:

In the first step, the management should try to find out an overall view of the situation to
find the real problem. Top management should meet the consultants and the experts to determine
the type of programme that is needed. In the first stage only, the consultants will meet various
persons in the organisation and interview them to collect some information.

2. Data Collection:

In this stage, the consultant will make the surveys to determine the climate of the
organisation and the behavioral problems of the employees.

The consultant will meet groups of people away from their work environment to get some
answers to the questions such as:

(i) What specific job conditions contribute most to their job effectiveness?
(ii) What kind of conditions interferes with their job effectiveness?
(iii) What changes would they like to make in the working of the organisation?

3. Data Feedback and Confrontation:

The data which has been collected in the second step will be given to the work groups,
who will be assigned the job of reviewing the data. Any areas of disagreement will be mediated
among themselves only and priorities will be established for change.

4. Planning Strategy for Change:

In this stage, the consultant will suggest the strategy for change. He will attempt to
transform diagnosis of the problem into a proper action plan involving the overall goals for
change, determination of basic approach for attaining these goals and the sequence of detailed
scheme for implementing the approach.

5. Intervening in the System:

Intervening in the system refers to the planned programmed activities during the course
of an OD programme. These planned activities bring certain changes in the system, which is the
basic objective of OD.

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 There may be various methods through which external consultant intervene in the system
such as education and laboratory training, process consultation, team development etc.

6. Team Building:

During the entire process, the consultant encourages the groups to examine how they
work together. The consultant will educate them about the value of free communication and trust
as essentials for group functioning. The consultant can have team managers and their
subordinates to work together as a team in OD sessions to further encourage team building.
Following the development of small groups, there may be development among larger groups
comprising several teams.

7. Evaluation:

OD is a very long process. So there is a great need for careful monitoring to get precise
feedback regarding what is going on after the OD programme starts. This will help in making
suitable modifications whenever necessary. For evaluation of OD programme, the use of critique
sessions, appraisal of change efforts and comparison of pre and post training behavioural patterns
are quite effective.

1.13 ASSUMPTIONS OF ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

OD is based upon the following assumptions and values:

 Most individuals are driven by the need for personal growth and development as long
as their environment is both supportive and challenging.
 The work team, especially at the informal level, has great significance for feelings of
satisfaction, and the dynamics of such teams have a powerful effect on the behavior
of their members.
 OD programmers aim to improve the quality of working life of all members of the
organization.
 Organizations can be more effective if they learn to diagnose their own strengths and
weaknesses.

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  But managers often do not know what is wrong and need special help in diagnosing
problems, although the outside „process consultant‟ ensures that decision making
remains in the hands of the client.

1.14 FUTURE OF ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT

From the beginning, OD developed and applied its theories of people and change to
organisational life and functioning. Many of the interventions originally pioneered and practiced
by OD professionals are based on the field‟s firm commitment to the human side of the
enterprise. Though being criticised as „too narrow‟ sometimes, many of its interventions have
now become mainstream, shaping the way we all think about how organizations work. This
included „change management‟ (the term was coined by Linda Ackerman Anderson in 1968),
which emerged as a subfield of OD. It also included organization role design, defining how
tasks, authority and systems will be organized and integrated across organisational units and
within individual jobs. As Edgar Schein (2006) points out, OD has been and will remain
extremely influential in organisational life:
It is in fact hard to imagine how organizations will be the same, especially in the West, if
we take away the seminal influence of those early OD thinkers and practitioners. Much has
changed since OD‟s beginnings in the 1950s. There are the ruthless pursuit of efficiency, in the
form of business reengineering in the 1980s, rationalization in the 1990s, and aggressive
outsourcing in the 2000s – all these stemmed from the combined impact of changes in
technology, globalization, competitive pressures, unpredictable socio-political and economic
factors, which together with other factions have all altered the world of work and the ways we
organize work groups. However, despite the changing challenges, the following concerns remain
constant for leaders and OD practitioners. How do we:
 Build a sustainable high-performance organization in which individual workers take
an active part in achieving the required output?
 Appropriately build engaged, proactive, empowered staff when there are limited
reward levers organization can pull while needing to hold staff accountable?
 Solve the problems of aligning and integrating diverse cultural elements?
 Ensure there are fluid two-way communication channels – so that information can
flow upward as well as downward within hierarchies?

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  Help organizations to be externally sensitive and internally agile?
 Build organisational climates that will release human potential and creativity at work
and foster continuous learning and renewal culture within organizations?
In the past few decades, the OD practitioners and academic community have continued to
hold true to their value while shaping and adapting their approaches and methods to address key
organization issues that affect organization success. The rich heritage of OD will continue to
help organizations to meet these challenges, and new concepts and tools will continue to be
invented to tackle ever tougher problems of change and organisational dynamics in an
increasingly complex, global and diverse world. OD practitioners believe that human capital, and
the quality of relationships between people, and between people and organizations, will be more
important than ever in predicting organisational success. We must therefore continue to build and
strengthen the field of OD and maintain its core values while seeking innovative solutions to
resolve the new sets of challenges facing organizations.
If OD can address these shortcomings and overcome competency, strategy, and
leadership barriers, OD will continue to be a major player in the change world for years to come.
With its powerful and influential heritage, solid core and evolving applications and approaches,
OD will continue to play a vital role in equipping HR professionals to support their organizations
in today‟s competitive, turbulent and constantly changing world. Professor David Cooper rider
(1998) believed that OD‟s focus on building healthy organizations contributes to society as a
whole: “The best path to the good society is the construction of great organizations that nurture
and magnify the best in human beings.”

1.15 SUMMARY OF THIS CHAPTER

There is a wealth of information and literature available on organizational development.

This paper synthesizes useful frameworks and best practices for organizations looking to achieve
strategic goals more effectively and efficiently. Organizational development is complex and
requires planning. It is crucial to map the organizational context within which you are hoping to
catalyze change. There are many models for how to manage the change process. Some of the
most helpful include Kotter‟s Eight-Step Process; McKinsey‟s 7-S Framework; and the
European Centre for Development Policy Management approach. To be effective, organizational
development needs to include work at both the institutional and individual level.

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