HISTORY OF OD

PREPARED BY:-
SHRUTI MURTHY
OD AS A PLANNED CHANGE
 Concerned with applying behavioral
science Kd and practice to help „o‟s
achieve greater effectiveness
 Managers and staff specialists working
together can form effective relationships
with each other
 Can help them cope with the
consequences of change
 DEFINITION OF OD
 OD is a planned process of change in an
organization‟s culture through the utilization
of behavioral science technology, research
and theory (Warner Burke)
 OD is a system wide application and transfer
of behavioral science Kd to the planned
development, improvement, and
reinforcement of the strategies, structures,
and processes that lead to „o‟ effectiveness
 CHARACTERISTICS OF OD
 OD is a planned strategy to bring about OC
 OD always involves a collaborative approach to
change (consultant and clients co-labour)
 OD programmes include an emphasis on ways to
improve and enhance performance
 OD relies on asset of humanistic values about people
and organizations (use of human potential)
 OD represents a system approach
 OD is based upon scientific approaches to increase
organizational effectiveness (concepts and practices
from sociology, psychology, socio psychology,
education, economics, psychiatry, and management
education)
Emergence of OD from 5 major
stems
1. Growth of the NTL ( National Training
Laboratories) and the development of
training groups known as sensitivity training
or T-groups
2. Classic work on action research conducted
by social scientists interested in applying
research to managing change
3. Normative view of OD (Rensis Likert‟s
participative management framework and
Blake & Mouton‟s Grid to design and operate
organizations )
4. The approach focusing on productivity
and quality of work life
5. The most recent influence on current
practice, involves strategic change and
organization transformation
 EVOLUTION OF OD
 OD has evolved over past 65years from the
applications of behavior science kd and
techniques to solve organizational problems
 OD started in 1940s at MIT
 Pioneering work of applied social scientist
such as Kurt Lewin and psychologists like
Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow
 OD is also attributed to Robert Blake, Jane
Mouton and Herdert Shepherd
 Richard Beckhard claims this distinction as
well
 OD is generally conceded to have evolved
from two basic sources :
1. The application of laboratory method by
NTL
2. The survey research methods
originated by the survey research center
 Kurt Lewin at MIT pioneered both the
methods in about 1945
 1. Laboratory Training
Background (1946)
 A small, unstructured group in which
participants learn from their own interactions
and evolving dynamics about issues like
interpersonal relations, personal growth,
leadership and group dynamics
 Kurt Lewin and his staff at the Research
Center for Group Dynamics at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology were
asked for help in research on training
community leaders
2. Action Research And Survey
Feedback Background
 OD‟s emergence as a practical field of social
science
 The action research contribution began in the
1940s with studies conducted by social
scientists John Collier, Kurt Lewin and William
Whyte
 Members of „o‟ were able to use research on
themselves to guide action and change and
social scientists were able to study that
process to derive new Kd that could be used
elsewhere
 3. Normative Background
 Had a belief that a human relations
approach represented a „one best way‟ to
manage „o‟
 Likert‟s Participative Management
Program- 4 types of systems
 Blake and Mouton‟s Grid OD framework
are both used in organization today
 Likert‟s Four Systems of Mgmt.
 Prof Rensis Likert and his associates at the
University of Michigan studied the patterns and
styles of leaders
 He suggested 4 systems-
1. System 1 Mgmt.- “exploitative-authoritative”
style
-Represents dictatorial leadership behavior
-use negative motivation tactics like fear and
punishment
2. System 2 Mgmt.- “benevolent-authoritative “
style
-managers have confidence and trust in their
employees
-upward communication
-allowing subordinates to participate to some -
extent in decision making
3. System 3 Mgmt.- “consultative style”
-Managers do not have complete confidence
and trust in their subordinates but they seek
advice from them
-The Managers motivate their employees
through rewards and occasionally
punishment
-Make broad policies and general decisions
but leave specific decisions to the lower
level
-Use both upward and downward
communication flow
-Act as consultants so as to resolve various
problems
4. System 4 Mgmt- This is called the
„participative‟ leadership style
- Managers trust their subordinates
completely and have confidence in their
abilities
Thus, Likert found that those managers
who adopted the system 4 approach had
the greatest success as leaders
System 3 and 4 – High Productivity
System 1 and 2 – Lower output
 The managerial grid
 Blake and Mouton
 2-dimensional matrix model of leadership style
 Consists of 9 rows and columns
 Rows- leaders concern for production
 Columns- concern for people
 Impoverished style – no concern for people
or for work (1,1)cell on the grid
 Country club style – high concern for people
and low concern for production(1,9) cell on the
grid
 The
Managerial
Grid
(Blake and
Mouton)
 Authoritarian style – high concern for
production and low concern for
people(9,1) cell
 Team mgmt. style – high concern for
people and production (9,9) cell
 Thus, managers who practice (9,9) are
more effective compared to (9,1) or (1,9)
 4. Productivity & QWL
Background
 Involved joint participation by unions and
management in the design of work and
resulted in work designs giving employees
high levels of discretion, task variety and
feedback about results
 5. Strategic Change
Background
 It involves improving the alignment
among an „o‟ „s environment, strategy &
„o‟ design
 It includes efforts to improve both the „o‟
relationship to its envt. and the fit b/w its
technical, political and cultural systems
 First application of strategic change was
Richard Beckhard‟s use of open systems
planning