Organizational

Development

After reading this chapter, you

should be able to:
Understand organizational

development.
Understand the process of
organizational development.
List the various approaches to
organizational development.

After reading this chapter, you

should be able to (contd.):
Explain organizational

development interventions.
Explain the benefits of
organizational development
interventions.

Organizational Development
Organization Development (OD) is a planned
approach to improve employee and organizational
effectiveness by conscious interventions in those
processes and structures that have an immediate
bearing on the human aspect of the organization.

Organizational development
Organizational development is a deliberate
and systematic process adopted to enhance
the ability of an organization to identify,
understand and accept changes and to benefit
from such changes.

Features of OD

Organizational Development is an educational strategy that

attempts to bring about a planned change.

Organizational Development relates to real organizational
problems instead of hypothetical cases.
Organizational Development uses sensitivity training methods and
lay emphasis on the significance of experiment based training.
Its change agents are almost external consultants outside of the
organization.
The external change agents and internal organization executives
establish a collaborative relationship that involves mutual trust,
influence and jointly determined goals.

Objectives of organizational
development
To improve the ability of the organization to

plan and manage changes.

To identify and allocate the precious resources
of the organization in the most productive
manner.

Objectives of organizational
development (contd.)
To improve the organizational and individual

efficiency for effective accomplishment of

organizational goals.
To achieve improved efficiency in the teambuilding process.

Objectives of organizational
development (contd.)
To develop efficient leadership styles and

better decision-making processes.

To obtain the employees trust,
cooperation and commitment.
To restructure the organizational missions,
objectives and tasks in a judicious and
well-timed manner continuously.

Objectives of organizational
development (contd.)
To identify and resolve the potential conflicts

among individuals.
To ensure the long-term growth and health of
the organization.

Organizational development
process

Organizational development process

(contd.)
Need identification
Environment evaluation
Action plans based on evaluation
Actual intervention
Performance analysis
Stabilization and disengagement

Need identification
First step in the OD process is the

identification of the relevant problems

caused by changes in the external
environment.
Usually the presence of a problem is an
important trigger for undertaking OD.

Need identification (contd.)

Organizations usually nominate internal or

external change agents to carry out the OD

process.
These change agents assess the situation and
then design and conduct the necessary OD
intervention programmes.

Environment evaluation
At this stage, all the necessary information

required by the change agents regarding the

problem and the existing situation is collected
and provided to them.
The information required is usually collected
through interviews, observation, investigation,
task groups or any other committee
constituted specifically for this purpose.

Action plans based on

evaluation
At this stage, the change agents analyse the

information available and also consult the

stakeholders like the management,
employees and trade unions, before framing
the actual intervention programme known as
action plan.

Action plans based on evaluation

(contd.)
The action plan may include, among others,

orientation programmes, team-building,

career planning, change management,
training and development, e-learning,
coaching, leadership development and
talent management.

Actual intervention
At this stage, the intervention programmes

are implemented carefully, usually in a

phased manner.
Throughout the implementation process, the
change agents continually gather all relevant
information about the different aspects of the
intervention programme.

Performance analysis
A complete performance review is done
by the change agents at the end of the
intervention programmes to assess the
action plans effectiveness.

Stabilization and
disengagement
At this stage, the change agents gradually
disengage themselves from the process
and permit the organization and the
system to continue with the rest of the
activities.

Approaches to the study of

organizational development
The approaches to OD are
Data-driven approach
System design approach
Contingency approach

Data-driven approach
In this method, the data collected about
the environment largely drive the OD
process.
The four general forms of data used in
this approach are
Interview data
Focus group data
Organizational survey data
Multiple survey feedback

System design approach

In this approach, the entire organization is

viewed as a complex system composed of

inter-related and interdependent sub-systems.
These sub-systems are unified by appropriate
designs to achieve the organizational goals or
objectives.

Contingency approach
In an uncertain situation, the contingency

approach attempts to study the different

possible scenarios in the environment and
assess their implications for the organization.
It identifies the ifthen relationship and
proposes changes in the goals, strategies and
direction of the organization, if necessary.

Contingency approach (contd.)

It helps the organizations in developing plans

and counter-plans continually on the basis of

their understanding of the emerging situation.