UNIT 1:

Organizational Development
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
DEFINITION:
 is the act, process, or result of furthering,
advancing, or promoting the growth of organization.
According to this definition, organization development is anything done
to "better" an organization.
 The Growth and Relevance of Organizational
Development

GROWTH:
1. Globalization
2. Information Technology
3. Managerial Innovation
 1. GLOBALIZATION

is the process of interaction and integration

among people, companies, and governments
worldwide.
 2. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

is redefining the traditional business model

by changing how work is performed, how knowledge
is used, and how the cost of doing business is calculated.
 3. MANAGERIAL INNOVATION

• a growing number of organizations are undertaking the kinds of

organizational changes needed to survive and prosper in today's environment.
• They are making themselves more streamlined and nimbler and more responsive to
external demands.
• They are involving employees in key decisions and paying for
performance rather than for time.
• They are taking the initiative in innovating and managing change, rather than simply
responding to what has already happened.
 RELEVANCE OF ORGANIZATIONAL
DEVELOPMENT
• is playing an increasingly key role in helping organizations change themselves. It
is helping organizations assess themselves and their environments, and revitalize and rebuild
their strategies, structures, and processes.
• OD is helping organization members go beyond surface changes to transform
the underlying assumptions and values governing their behaviors.
• The different OD concepts and methods increasingly are
finding their way into government agencies, manufacturing firms,
multinational corporations, service industries, educational institutions, and not-for-
profit organizations. Perhaps at no other time has OD been more responsive and practically
relevant to organizations' needs to operate effectively in a highly complex and
changing world.
Evolution of
RGANIZATIONAL
DEVELOPMENT
 The Evolution of ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
A brief history of OD will help us
clarify the evolution as well as some of
the problems and confusion that have
surrounded it. As OD currently
practiced, it emerged from five major
stems, such as:
LEWIN
 1. LABORATORY TRAINING

The first stem of OD was the growth of

the National Training Laboratories (NTL) and
the development of training
groups, otherwise known as
sensitivity training or T-groups.
• This stem of OD pioneered laboratory training, or
the T-group a small, unstructured group in which
participants learn from their own interactions and
evolving dynamics about such issues as
interpersonal relations, personal growth, leadership,
and group dynamics.
Essentially, laboratory training began in 1946, when Kurt Lewin, (1898 -
1947), a prolific theorist, researcher, and practitioner in interpersonal, group,
intergroup, and community relationships) widely recognized as the founding
father of OD, although he died before the concept became current in the
mid-1950s, and his staff at the Research Centre for Group Dynamics at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) were asked by the Connecticut
Interracial Commission (CIC) for help on research in training community
leaders. A workshop was developed, and the community leaders were brought
together to learn about leadership and to discuss problems. At the end of
each day, the researchers discussed privately what behaviors and group
dynamics they had observed. The community leaders asked permission to sit
in on these feedback sessions. Reluctant at first, the researchers finally agreed.
Thus, the first T-group was formed in which people
reacted to data about their own behavior. The
researchers drew two conclusions about the first
T-group experiment:
1. Feedback about group interaction was a rich
learning experience, and
2. The process of "group building" had potential for
learning that could be transferred to "back-home"
situations.
As a result of this experience, the Office of Naval Research and the National
Education Association provided financial backing to form the National
Training Laboratories (NTL), and Gould Academy in Bethel, Maine, was
selected as a site for further work (since the, Bethel has played an important part
in NTL). The first Basic Skill Training Groups (later called T-groups) were
offered in 1947. The program was so successful that out of Bethel experiences
and NTL grew a significant number of laboratory training centers sponsored by
universities.
In the 1950s, three trends emerged:
1. The emergence of regional laboratories,
2. The expansion of year-round sessions of T-groups, and
3. The expansion of the T-group into business and industry, with NTL members
becoming increasingly involved with industry programs.
Over the next decade, as trainers began to work with social systems of more
permanency and complexity then T-groups, they began to experience
considerable frustration in the transfer of laboratory behavioral skills and
insights of individuals into the solution of problems in organizations. Personal
skills learned in the T-group settings were very difficult to transfer to complex
organizations. However, the training of "teams" from the same organization had
emerged early at Bethel and undoubtedly was a link to the total organizational
focus of Douglas McGregor, Herbert Shepard, and Robert Blake, and
subsequently the focus of Richard Beckhard, Chris Argyris, Jack Gibb,
Warren Bennis, and others. All had been T-group trainers in NTL programs.
Applying T-group techniques to organizations gradually became known as
“TEAM BUILDING” a process for helping work groups become more
effective in accomplishing tasks and satisfying member needs.
 2. ACTION RESEARCH/ SURVEY FEEDBACK
• The second stem of OD was the classic work on action research
conducted by social scientists interested in applying research to managing
change. An important feature of action research was a technique known
as survey feedback. Kurt Lewin, a prolific theorist, researcher, and
practitioner in group dynamics and social change, was instrumental in
the development of T-groups, survey feedback, and action
research. His work led to the creation of OD and still serves as a major
source of its concepts and methods.
• This second stem refers to the processes of action research and
survey feedback. The action research contribution began in the
1940s with studies conducted by social scientists John Collier,
Kurt Lewin, and William Whyte. They discovered that research
needed to be closely linked to action if organization members
were to use it to manage change. A collaborative effort was
initiated between organization members and social scientists to
collect research data about an organization's functioning, to
analyze it for causes of problems, and to devise and implement
solutions.
• After implementation, further data were collected to
assess the results, and the cycle of data collection and
action often continued.
• The results of action research were twofold:
• 1.) members of organizations were able to use research on
themselves to guide action and change, and
• 2.) social scientists were able to study that process to
derive new knowledge that could be used elsewhere.
Among the pioneering action research studies was the work of Lewin at
a Manufacturing Co. (Harwood Manufacturing Company) and the
classic research by Lester Coch and John French on overcoming
resistance to change. The latter study led to the development of
participative management as a means of getting employees involved in
planning and managing change. Other notable action research
contributions included Whyte and Edith Hamilton's famous study of
Chicago's Tremont Hotel and Collier's efforts to apply action research
techniques to improving race relations when he was commissioner of
Indian affairs from 1933 to 1945. These studies did much to establish
action research as integral to organization change.
 3. PARTICIPATIVE MANAGEMENT

• The third stem of OD represents the application

of participative management (to take part or to
get involved) to organization structure and
design.
Today, it is the backbone of most OD applications. A key component
of most action research studies was the systematic collection of survey
data that was fed back to the client organization. Following Lewin's
death in 1947, his Research Center for Group Dynamics at MIT
moved to Michigan and joined with the Survey Research Center as
part of the “Institute doe Social Research.”
The Institute was headed by Rensis Likert, a pioneer in developing
scientific approaches to attitude surveys. Likert's doctoral dissertation at
Columbia University, "A Technique for the Measurement of
Attitudes," was the classic study in which he developed the widely
used, five-point "Likert Scale."
 LIKERT SCALE
• Likert scale is often used in questionnaires, and is the most widely
used scale in survey research. When responding to a Likert
questionnaire item, respondents specify their level of agreement to a
statement.
• A typical test item in a Likert scale is a statement. The respondent is
asked to indicate his or her degree of agreement with the statement
or any kind of subjective or objective evaluation of the statement.
 Sample Likert scale
Ice cream is good for breakfast:
• Strongly disagree o
• Disagree o
• Neither agree nor disagree o
• Agree o
• Strongly agree o
 SCORING AND ANALYSIS:

• After the questionnaire is completed, each item may be

analyzed separately or item responses may be
summed to create a score for a group of items.
 RESULTS OF
ACTION RESEARCH/SURVEY FEEDBACK:
• Another aspect of this study was the process of feeding back data from an
attitude survey to the participating departments had more positive change
in business organizations than that coming from traditional training
courses.
• The effectiveness of this method is that it deals with the system of human
relationships as a whole (supervisors and subordinates can change together)
and it deals with each manager, supervisor, and employee in the context of
his job, his own position, and his own work relationship.
In an early study by the institute, Rensis Likert and Floyd
Mann administered a companywide survey of management and
employee attitudes at Detroit Edison. Over a two-year period
beginning in 1948, three sets of data were developed:
(1) the viewpoints of eight thousand non-supervisory employees
about their supervisors, promotion opportunities, and work
satisfaction with fellow employees;
(2) similar reactions from first- and second-line supervisors; and
(3) information from higher levels of management.
• The feedback process that evolved was an "interlocking
chain of conferences." The major findings of the survey
were first reported to the top management and then
transmitted throughout the organization. The feedback
sessions were conducted in task groups, with supervisors
and their immediate subordinates discussing the data
together. Although there was little substantial research
evidence, the researchers intuitively felt that this was a
powerful process for change.
• In 1950, eight accounting departments asked for a repeat of the
survey, thus generating a new cycle of feedback meetings. In
four departments, feedback approaches were used, but the
method varied, with two of the remaining departments receiving
feedback only at the departmental level. Because of changes in
key personnel, nothing was done in two departments. A third
follow-up study indicated that more significant and positive
changes, such as job satisfaction, had occurred in the
departments receiving feedback than in the two departments that
did not practice.
• From those findings, Likert and Mann derived several conclusions about
the effects of survey feedback on organization change.
 This led to extensive applications of survey-feedback methods in a
variety of settings.
 The common pattern of data collection, data feedback, action planning,
implementation, and follow-up data collection in both action research
and survey feedback can be seen in these examples.
• Part of the emergence of survey research and feedback was based on the
refinements made by SRC (Survey Research Center of Michigan) staff
members in survey methodology. Another part was the evolution of
feedback methodology.
 4. QUALITY OF WORK LIFE

• The fourth stem is the approach focusing

on productivity and the quality of work
life.
 5. STRATEGIC CHANGE

• The fifth stem of OD, and the most recent

influence on current practice, involves
strategic change and organization
transformation.
CHANGE ORIENTATION OF
ORGANIZATIONAL
DEVELOPMENT
 Change Orientation of Organization
• Organizations vary with respect to environment predictability and
organizational change behavior.
• Environmental Predictability – refers to the consistency of the milieu in
an organization . This ranges from unstable and stable
• On the other hand , Change Behavior- refers to the organization’s level of
flexibility that varies from high to low.
 Change Behavior Model
VOLATILE
PROACTIVE PERCPECTIVE
ENVIRONENTAL
PREDICTABILITY

SATISFICING LETHARGIC
STABLE

LOW HIGH

CHANGE BEHAVIOR
 Change Behavior Model

Describes organization with reference to the degree of relationship between two

variables , namely; environmental predictability and change behavior.
• Lethargic organizations have stable goals, rigid goals, and policies. They
exercise a high degree of control.
• Perspective organizations change goals more often . They undergo fast
reorganization, but exercise low level of flexibility.
 Change Behavior Model

• Satisficing organizations have generally consistent goals.

They are centralized with a high degree of flexibility.
• Proactive organizations often change goals in relation to
organizational awareness . They are ready to take
advantage of opportunities.
 Change Outlook of Organizations
• Organizations like wise vary with respect to environmental
certainly and their outlook on change .Environmental certainly
refers to the degree of assurance and confidence is what is
occurring in the milieu . This ranges from uncertainly to certainly
. On the other hand , change outlook refers to the organization’s
view point on change . This varies from positive to negative.
 Change Outlook Model
UNCERTAINTY
WILL STUDY WILL NOT
CHANGE CHANGE
ENVIRONMENTAL
PREDICTABILITY
WILL MAY
CHANGE CONSIDER CHANGE
STABLE
POSITIVE NEGATIVE

CHANGE BEHAVIOR
 Change Outlook Model
Describes organizations with reference to the degree of relationship
between two variables, namely; environmental conditions and
change outlook.
• Will change : Organizations with a positive outlook on change
will definitely change if the environment is certain.
• Will not change : Organizations that dislike any extent of
deviation from the status quo given an uncertain environment will
definitely not change.
• May consider change : Given a secure and definite
government, organizations with a negative outlook on change
may consider adopting change.
• Will study change : Organizations with a mindset of
openness to change will continuously study change even if the
environment is unsure.
 Change Process Model
Change is reality . For any change to materialize whether it is simply
for a small unit or department, certain realities have to be seriously
considered.
• The need to understand the existing condition.
• The effort to encourage change in the employees.
• The decision not to impose change.
• The necessity to lead with a vision.
Change is essentially a process. It involves a progression of
steps, each of which essential its successful actualization. They
include the following:
• Establish or anticipate a felt need.
• Develop a consultant – client relationship.
• Prepare an action plan.
• Implement the action plan.
• Monitor the results.
• Maintain the desired changes and work for continuous improvement.
 Change Process Model
Established a Felt Need
Develop a Consultant-
Client Relationship
Prepare an Action Plan
Implement the Action Plan
Monitor the Results
This shows the Change
Process Model. These are
the 6 steps involved in any
Work for change process. Although
Continuous
Improvement the steps are sequential in
nature, maintaining the
change and continuously
improving it are applicable
to the 5 phases.
FOUR CORE ELEMENT OF
ORGANIZATION
DEVELOPMENT
 Four Core Element of Organization
Development
• Goal Setting
• Employee Development
• Restructuring/Continuous Improvement
• Change Management
 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 objective for their area of
responsibility.
 Employee Development

• Employee development give staff member the

opportunity to work to their highest level of potential.
• Performance improvement can be a benefit to employee
development.
 Restructuring

 Organization of a company with a view to achieving

efficiency and profit or to adapt to a change market.
 It was replaced by concerns that traditional organizational
structures might prevent, rather than help , promote
creativity and innovation.
 Change Management

Change management can be separated into phases

Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3
Preparation Preparation Preparation
• Review Current • Recommendation • Monitoring
Practice • Plan Implementation • Data Gathering
• Intended Outcome • Corrective Action
• Communication • Recognition
Plan 3
Theoretical Background
• The etymology of social constructionism was introduced
by G.H. Mead (1934), Peter L. Berger, Thomas Luckman.
• It is a strand of sociology, pertaining to the ways social
phenomena are created, institutionalized, and made into
tradition by humans.
• Social constructionism conversely puts forth the
viewpoint that such truth, far from being independent of
individuals, actually depends upon their thoughts,
perception, and beliefs.
• BRUTE FACTS – Basic and fundamental and don’t relay on other facts.

• INSTITUTIONAL FACTS – created by social convention and do relay on

other facts.
• The whole of reality is dependent on LANGUAGE and
HABIT/ACTION.
• The strong form denies an important distinction made by
the weak form.
• First introduced by Van Bertalanffy (1950) and was introduced into the
organizational setting by Kataz and Khan (1966).
• System theory is an approach to organizations which likens the enterprise to an
organism with interdependent parts, each with its own specific function and
interrelated responsibilities.
• The organization is an open system, which interacts with the environment and
is continually adapting and improving.
• All part of the organization are interconnected and interdependent.
• The system may be the whole organization, a division, department or team, but
whether the whole or a part, it is important for the OD practitioner to
understand how the system operates and the relationship the parts of the
organization have.
• Social scientist Kurt Lewin developed a well known model
for organizational change in the 1940s.
• The model is similar to changing a block of ice from shape
to another.
• It involves three stages
• UNFREEZE
• CHANGE
• REFREEZE
• This first stage of change involves preparing the organization to
accept that change is necessary, which involves breaking down the
existing status quo before you can build up a new way of
operating.
• Involves creating the right condition for change to occur.
• Unfreezing is necessary to overcome the strains of individuals
resistance and group comformity.
• The traditional journey is central to Lewin’s model and at
the psychological level. It is typically period of confusion.
• People are aware that the old ways are being challenged,
but there is no clear understanding of the new ways
which will replace them.
• The end goal of the model is to achieve a refreeze,
re-establishing a new place of stability and elevate
comfort level by reconnecting people back into
their safe, familiar environment.
LEWIN’S CHANGE THEORY EXAMPLE :
• Developed by Kurt Lewin
• An social science approach which explores social
environment as a dynamic field that impacts individual
action and consciousness in interactive way.
• Field theory also argues that the psychological state of an
individual influences the environment that they inhabit.
• The employee and organization are interdependent.
• Based on the research of individuals
such as Stacey, Wheatley, Black and
Morgan complexity theory provides
a lens at which both academics and
practitioners can analyze and
understand the operation of an
organization, and as such, the
methods by which an intervention
should be structured to deliver the
change the organization is looking
for.
• Complexity Theory is probably better know in Mathematics, the
natural sciences and the development of Algorithms in computer
science, however, in the field of OD is concerned with the
emergence of order and structure in complex and the apparently
chaotic organizational systems
• The Theorist (Stacey 2003, Wheatley 1992, Black 2000 and
Morgan 1997) challenged the traditional view that organizations
had a ‘business as usual’ change model to a non-linear system
which was surrounded by dynamic forms of change. The
unpredictability of change meant that organizational leadership
cannot manage change, but instead support their organization on
its change journey, releasing individuals to adapt as the
organization moves towards the ‘edge of chaos’ providing the
environment for self-management and the avoidance of
liminalities.
• In complexity theory the future is unknowable and as such the ability
to learn is absolutely critical to ongoing organization effectiveness,
navigating the paradox of the desire for stability with that of the need
to flex, adapt and change. Too much stability will stagnant the
organization and prevent proactive adaptive change, too little and the
organization becomes impossible to manage.
• Complexity theory therefore promotes the idea of organizations as
complex adaptive systems which need to respond to the external and
internal environment by remaining on the edge of chaos whilst at the
same time self-organizing and continuously re-inventing the
organizational
PSYCHOANALYTICAL
THEORY
• Developed by Sigmund Freud
• Suggests that early experiences
influence all human behavior
• The Theory explores two
territories of the human mind
Conscious
Unconscious
 The unconscious mind is a reservoir of
feelings, thoughts, urges, and memories that
outside of our conscious awareness. Most
of the contents of the unconscious are
unacceptable or unpleasant, such as feelings
of pain, anxiety, or conflict. According to
The conscious mind includes the theory, the unconscious continues to
everything that we are aware of, those influence our behavior and experience,
parts of our mental processing that we even though we are unaware of these
can think and talk about rationally. underlying influences.
Part of this includes our memory,
which is not always part of
consciousness but can be retrieved
easily at any time and brought into our
awareness.
• Psychoanalytic theory
seeks to address three
core issues to
behavior
The ID
The Ego
The Super Ego
Psychoanalysts argue that all human personality is comprised of these
closely integrated functions.
• The ID refers to our biological or physical functioning which
influences behavior that is unfettered, compelling and lacking morality,
selfish and intolerant of tension. id functions on the principle of
pleasure before anything else and operates at an unconscious or
instinctive level.
• Many of us have experienced what is commonly referred to as a
Freudian slip. These misstatements are believed to reveal underlying,
unconscious thoughts or feelings.
• The EGO is the rationally functioning element of human personality.
• Ego exerts conscious control, trying always to be the mediator between
the id and the superego.
• Ego seeks pleasure based on rationality instead of irrationality and
therefore results in behavior that is rational and always conscious.
• The ego is the aspect we present to the “outside” world, it is our public
face.
• The SUPEREGO represents our moral system.
• It strives to put a right or wrong label on our behavior and is
driven by our own morality.
PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORY
• The Psychodynamic
approach includes all the
theories in psychology
that see human
functioning based upon
the interaction of drives
and forces within the
person or organization,
particularly unconscious,
and between the different
structures of the
personality.
 Psychodynamic Theory

• Psychodynamic Theory explores, experiences that have been pushed out of

conscious awareness and argues that individuals and organisations have an
unconscious that contains vulnerable feelings that are too difficult to be
consciously aware of and as a result have developed defence mechanisms,
such as denial, repression, rationalisation, etc., but that these defences cause
more harm than good and that once the vulnerable or painful experiences
are processed the defence mechanisms reduce or resolve.
 Psychodynamic Theory

• At its core, the theory emphasizes the examination and resolution

of inner conflicts helping organizations and individuals gain a
perspective of pure insight in order to recognize the character
traits, actions, responses, and behaviors that need to be
transformed if performance is to be achieved.
 Psychodynamic Theory

• The application of the theory in the organizational setting seeks

to uncover the underlying conflicts that are the catalysts for the
disturbing and unhealthy symptoms. The first job of the OD
practitioner is to address the symptoms before working with the
client to devise and construct elements of change that can be
implemented
 Psychodynamic Theory
• A psychodynamic theory is a view that explains personality in terms
of conscious and unconscious forces, such as unconscious desires
and beliefs.
• In the early 20th century, Sigmund Freud proposed a psychodynamic
theory according to which personality consists of the id (responsible
for instincts and pleasure-seeking), the superego (which attempts to
obey the rules of parents and society), and the ego (which mediates
between them according to the demands of reality).
 Psychodynamic Theory

• Psychodynamic theories commonly hold that childhood experiences

shape personality. Such theories are associated with psychoanalysis, a
type of therapy that attempts to reveal unconscious thoughts and
desires. Not all psychologists accept psychodynamic theories, and
critics claim the theories lack supporting scientific data. Other
theories of personality include behavioral and humanist theories.
GROUP DYNAMICS THEORY
• Kurt Lewin had a profound
impact on thinking
regarding Group Dynamics.
Two key ideas emerged out
of field theory that are
crucial to an appreciation of
group process:
interdependence of fate,
and task interdependence.
 Task interdependence – Lewin
Interdependence of fate – Groups
argued a more significant factor is
come into being when people realize
where there is interdependence in the
their fate depends on the fate of the
goals of group members. In other
group as a whole. A group will
words, if the group’s task is such that
contain individuals of very different
members of the group are dependent
character, but when an individual
on each other for achievement, then a
learns how much his own fate
powerful dynamic is created. Task
depends on the fate of the entire
interdependence can be positive or
group he will proactively take
negative. In negative interdependence
responsibility for his part in the
– known more usually as competition
groups welfare. However, Lewin
– one person’s success is another’s
argued that Interdependence of fate
failure. Positive interdependence
can be a fairly weak form of
results in the group being a ‘dynamic
interdependence in many groups.
whole.’
 Group Dynamics Theory

• One of the most interesting pieces of Group Dynamics work

concerned the exploration of different styles or types of leadership
on group structure and member behaviour. Three classic group
leadership models we studied – democratic, autocratic and laissez-
faire. The research concluded that there was more originality,
group-mindedness and friendliness in democratic groups. In
contrast, there was more aggression, hostility, scapegoating and
discontent in laissez-faire and autocratic groups.
 Organizational
Conditions That Call
For Organizational
Development Effort
• A continued discrepancy between top management statements of values and styles and
their actual work behavior.
• A big program of activities without any solid base of change goals.
• Overdependence on outside help: With the increasing complexity of organizations and
of the demands of the environment, it is easy to let consultants or specialists `solve the
problem.’
• A large gap between the change effort at the top of the organization and efforts in the
middle of the organization.
• Trying to fit a major organization change into an old structure.
• Lack of process-consultation skills among key members of the organization.
• Applying an intervention or strategy inappropriately.
• Too rapid changeover in top posts, and new people not interested in OD.
• Lack of courage and willingness of top management to call a spade a spade, in relation to
strategy, task, relationships, and concrete achievements.
• There is a pressure on the top management which induces some arousal to action.
• There is some form of intervention at the top, either a new member of the organization, or a
new staff head in organization development.
• There is diagnosis of the problem areas and this induces an analysis of specific problems.
• There is reinforcement in the system from positive results and this produces acceptance of the
new practices.
• There is pressure from the environment, internal or external for change.
• There is a willingness to face the data of the situation and to work with it on changing the
situation.
• The system rewards people for the efforts of changing and improvement, in addition to
rewarding them for short-term results.
• There is leadership and inspired vision among key people.
ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT
PRACTITIONER
 Who is the Organization Development
Practitioner?

• The term Organization Development Practitioner refers to at least three (3) sets of
people. The most obvious group of OD Practitioners are those people
specializing in OD as profession. They may be internal or external
consultants who after professional services to organizations, including their
top managers, functional department heads and staff groups.
 Three (3) Sets of People:
OD Professionals (Generalist Organization
Development Practitioner)
• Traditionally have shared a common set of humanistic values promoting open
communications, employee involvement, and personal growth and development.
They tend to have common training, skills, and experience in the social process of
organization (for example, group dynamics, decision-making and communications).
• In recent years, OD Professionals have expanded those traditional values and skill
sets to include more concern for organizational effectiveness, competitiveness and
bottom-line results and greater attention to the technical, structural, and strategic
parts of the organization. That expansion, mainly in response to the highly
competitive demands facing modern organizations, has resulted in a more diverse
set of OD professionals geared to helping organizations cope with pressure.
 Specializing in fields related to OD
(Specialist Organization Development
Practitioner)
• The content-oriented fields increasingly are becoming integrated with OD’s process
orientation, particularly as OD projects have become more comprehensive, involving
multiple features and varying parts of organization.
• A growing number of professionals in these related fields are gaining experience and
competence in OD, mainly through working with OD Professionals on large-scale projects
and through attending OD training sessions.
• Professionals in these related fields do not fully subscribed to traditional OD values, nor do
they have extensive OD training and experience. Rather, they have formal trainings and
experience in their respective specialties. They are OD practitioners in the sense that they
apply their special competence within an OD-like process, typically by engaging OD
professionals and managers to design and change programs.
 Managers and Administrators
(Functionalist Organization Development
Practitioner)
• Those who have gained competence in OD and who apply it to their own
work areas.
• Studies and recent articles argue that OD increasingly is applies by managers
rather than by OD Professionals. Such studies suggest that the faster pace of
change affecting organizations today is highlighting the centrality of the
manager in managing change
Competencies of an effective Organization
Development Practitioner

• The literature about OD competencies reveals a mixture of traits,

experiences, knowledge, and skills presumed to lead to be effective practice.
For the organization development to be effective, there are core
competencies expected. Such competencies will help effectively bring about
the change process.
 The Two (2) Competency that the OD
Practitioners and Researchers worked to
develop:
Foundation Competencies
• Oriented toward descriptions of an existing system. They include knowledge from
Organization Behavior, Psychology, Group Dynamics, Management and Organization
Theory, Research Methods, and Business Practices.
Core Competencies
• Aimed at how systems changed over time. They include knowledge in Organization Design,
Organization Research, System Dynamics, OD History, and Theories and models for
change; they also involve the skills needed to manage the consulting process, to analyze and
diagnose systems, to design and choose interventions, to facilitate processes, to develop
clients capability to manage their own change, and to evaluate generation change.
Foundation Competencies in Knowledge of Organization Development Practitioner
Individual Psychology
• This requires having a good understanding of the learning, motivation and perception theories. It means
knowing how to deal with people individually, understanding their respective idiosyncrasies and drawing
out the best in them.
Group Dynamics
• This is concerned with managing varied roles in the organization, making correct and favorable decisions,
nurturing group development and professionalizing communication processes.
Organizational Behavior
• This refers to the ability to understand the organizational culture, the skill to design job tasks, the maturity
to handle interpersonal relations and conflicts. It requires possession of high ethical standards, foresight
to set goals, transformational leadership and the gift to handle power and politics in the workplace.
Functional Knowledge
• This concerns expertise in in information technology, project management, logistics, new and emerging
corporate and business developments as well as in marketing, finance, production and human resource
development.
Management
• This calls for proficiency in supervising the administrative functions of the organization
or any unit. It requires skills in planning, organizing, leading and controlling. A holistic
and strategic perspective of the organizational structure and knowledge of theories on
contingency and systems are necessary.
Cultural Diversity
• This refers possession of the art of accepting, understanding and working with
individuals of different cultures, increasing awareness of multicultural dynamics to
develop high performance, adapting to cultural differences and similarities, and applying
effective approaches to managing conflict in multicultural work environment.
Research methods and statistics
• This involves expertise in handling data and information, preparing research designs and
using inferential statistics in decision-making.
Foundation Competencies in Skills of Organization Development Practitioner
Behavioral Skills
• The practitioner will make one see things objectively, maintain impartiality at all times, think
professionally, speak maturely, and act ethically. The consultant/practitioner needs personal skills that will
make him/her look at issues with a high degree of self-discipline, honesty, consistency, and trust, and
interpersonal skills that can help him/her build, facilitate and strengthen relationships with everybody.
Interpersonal Skills
• Practitioners must create and maintain effective relationships with individuals and groups within the
organization and help them gain the competence necessary to solve their own problems.
Intrapersonal Skills or “Self-Management” Competence
• Organization Development is still a human craft. As the primary instrument of diagnosis and change,
practitioners often must process complex, ambiguous information and make informed judgement about
its relevance to organization issues. Because OD is a highly uncertain process requiring constant
adjustment and innovation, practitioners must have active learning skills and a reasonable balance between
their rational and emotional sides, Finally, OD practice can be highly stressful and can lead to early
burnout so practitioners need to know how to manage their own stress.
Leadership Skills
• That will enable him/her to motivate employees, initiate action, inspire them to undergo change,
recognize thoughts, feelings, and behaviors associated with change situations and create change
work environments where emotional honesty and energy are required.
Communication Skills
• That will help with him/her listen to everyone and effectively share his/her ideas with all
concerned key players with clarity and conviction. He also needs presentations skills to balance
verbal and nonverbal messages, respond professionally to questions, and speak, present and
communicate with poise, power and persuasion.
Negotiation Skills
• That will help him/her minimize, if not eliminate resistance, settle conflicts, and bring about
understanding, at the least, acceptance, cooperation, and collaboration among the parties
concerned.
Problem-Solving Skills
• That will enable him/her to accurately perform assessments, systematically diagnose problems,
clarity goals, set priorities, provide corresponding solutions and make critical decisions.
Core Competencies in Knowledge of Organizational Development Practitioner
Organization Design
• The decision process associated with formulating and aligning the elements of an organizational system,
including but not limited to structural systems, human resource systems, information systems, reward system,
work design, and organization culture.
Organization Research
• Field research methods; interviewing; content analysis; design of questionnaires and interview protocol;
designing change evaluation processes
System Dynamics
• The description and understanding how the systems evolve and develop over time, how systems respond to
exogenous and endogenous disruption as well as planned intervention.
History of Organization Development and change
• An understanding of the social, political, economic, and personal forces that led to the emergence and
development of organization development and change.
Theories and Models for Change
• The basic action research model, participatory action research model, planning model, planning model, Lewin’s
model.
Core Competencies in Skills of OD Practitioner
Managing the consulting process
• The ability to enter, contract, diagnose, design appropriate interventions, implement those interventions, manage
unprogrammed events, and evaluate change process.
Analysis/Diagnosis
• The abilities to conduct an inquiry into a system’s effectiveness, to see the root cause(s) of a system’s current level of
effectiveness
Designing/choosing appropriate, relevant interventions
• Understanding how to select, modify, or design effective interventions that will move the organization from its current state
to its desired future state.
Facilitation and process Consultation
• The ability to assist and individual or group toward a goal; the ability to conduct an inquiry into individual and group
processes such that client system maintains ownership of the issue.
Developing client capability
• The ability to conduct a change process in such a way that the client is better to be able to plan and implement successful
change process in the future, using the technologies of planned change in a values-based and ethical manner.
Evaluating organization change
• The ability to design and implement a process to evaluate the impact and effects of change intervention, including control of
alternative explanations and interpretation of performance outcomes.
The Professional Organization Development Practitioner
Role of Organization Development Professionals
Position
• OD Professionals have positions that are either internal or external to the organizations.
Internal Consultants
• Internal consultants are members of the organization and may be located in the human
resources department or report directly to the line manager. They may perform the OD role
exclusively, or they may combine it with other tasks, such as compensation practices, training or
employee relations. These internal consultants typically have a variety of clients within the
organization, serving both line and staff departments.
External Consultants
• They are not member of the client organization; they typically work for consulting firm, a
university, or themselves. Organizations generally hire external consultants to provide a
particular expertise that is unavailable internally, to bring a different and potentially more
objective perspective into the organization development process.
• Professional Values
Values have played an important role in OD from its beginning. Traditionally, OD
professionals have promoted a set of values under a humanistic framework. They have sought
to build trust and collaboration, to create an open, problem solving climate and to increase
self-control of organization members. More recently, OD Practitioners have extended those
humanistic values to a concern for improving organizational effectiveness and performance.
They have shown an increasing desire to optimize both human benefits and production
objectives.
The joint values humanizing and improving their effectiveness have received widespread
support in the OD Profession as well as increasing encouragement from managers, employees,
labor leaders and government officials. Indeed, it would be difficult not to support those joint
concerns. But in practice, OD professional has serious challenges in simultaneously pursuing
greater humanism and organizational effectiveness. Most practitioners are experiencing
situations in which there is a conflict between employees needs for greater meaning and the
organization’s needs for more effective and efficient use of its resources.
 In addition to value issues within organization, OD practitioners are dealing more and
more with value conflict with powerful outside group. Organizations are open systems and
exist within increasingly turbulent environment.
• Professional Ethics
Inherent in the organizational development practice is a high degree of ethical
standards. Organizational development consultants play two important roles. Foremost, the
practice of the organization development profession is deeply rooted in a client-system.
The organization development practitioner is a hired professional with the objective of
helping his/her client about desired changes.
This requires the organization development consultant to handle himself/herself
professionally and avoid any form of misconduct and client abuse. Although professional
ethics implies strong adherence to ethical standards, finding oneself in ethical dilemmas is a
common reality.
 Entering
&
Contracting
 ENTERING AND CONTRACTING

• This step set the initial parameters for carrying out

the subsequent phases of OD: diagnosing the
organization, planning and implementing changes,
and evaluating and institutionalizing them.
 ENTERING INTO AN OD RELATIONSHIP

• OD relationship typically involves clarifying the nature of

the organization’s current functioning and the issue(s) to
be addressed, the relevant client system for that issue, and
the appropriateness of the particular OD practitioner.
 Clarifying the Organizational Issue
• When seeking help from OD practitioners, organizations
typically start with a presenting problem.
• The presenting problem often has an implied or stated solution.
The issue facing the organization or department must be
clarified early in the OD process so that subsequent diagnostic
and intervention activities are focused correctly.
• Gaining a clearer perspective on the organizational issue may
require collecting preliminary data.
• The diagnostic phase of OD involves a far more extensive
assessment of the problematic or development issue than occurs
during the entering and contracting stage. The diagnosis also
might discover other issues that need to be addressed, or it might
lead to redefining the initial issue that was identified during the
entering and contracting stage.
 Determining the Relevant Client
 The relevant client includes those organization members
who can directly impact the change issue, whether it is
solving a particular problem or improving an already
successful organization or department. Unless these
members are identified and included in the entering and
contracting process, they may withhold their support for
and commitment to the OD process.
 Determining the relevant client can vary in complexity depending on the
situation. In those cases where the organizational issue can be
addressed in a specific organization unit, client definition is relatively
straightforward. Members of that unit constitute the relevant client.
They or their representatives must be included in the entering and
contracting process.
 Determining the relevant client is more complex when the
organizational issue cannot readily be addressed in a single unit. Here, it
may be necessary to expand the definition of the client to include
members from multiple units, from different hierarchical levels, and
even from outside of the organization.
 Selecting an OD Practitioner
• The last activity involved in entering an OD relationship is
selecting an OD practitioner who has the expertise and
experience to work with members on the organizational
issue.
• In selecting an OD practitioner, the late Gordon Lippitt, a
pioneering practitioner in the field, suggested several criteria
for selecting, evaluating, and developing OD practitioners.
Lippitt listed areas that managers should consider before selecting a
practitioner—
• including their ability to form sound interpersonal relationships,
• the degree of focus on the problem,
• the skills of the practitioner relative to the problem,
• the extent that the consultant clearly informs the client as to his or
her role and contribution, and
• whether the practitioner belongs to a professional association.
• References from other clients are highly
important. The burden of choosing an
effective OD practitioner should not rest
entirely with the client organization.
Consultants also bear a heavy responsibility in
finding whether there is a match between their
skills and knowledge and what the
organization or department needs.
 DEVELOPING A CONTRACT
• The activities of entering an OD relationship are a necessary
prelude to developing an OD contract. They define the major
focus for contracting, including the relevant parties.
Contracting is a natural extension of the entering process and
clarifies how the OD process will proceed. It typically
establishes the expectations of the parties, the time and
resources that will be expended, and the ground rules under
which the parties will operate.
• The goal of contracting is to make a good decision about how to carry
out the OD process. It can be relatively informal and involve only a
verbal agreement between the client and the OD practitioner.
• Regardless of the level of formality, all OD processes require some form
of explicit contracting that results in either a verbal or a written
agreement. Such contracting clarifies the client’s and the practitioner’s
expectations about how the OD process will take place.
• The contracting step in OD generally addresses three key areas:
• setting mutual expectations or what each party expects to gain from the
OD process;
• the time and resources that will be devoted to it;
• and the ground rules for working together.
 Mutual Expectations
• The client states the services and outcomes to be provided by
the OD practitioner and describes what the organization
expects from the process and the consultant. Clients usually
can describe the desired outcomes, such as lower costs or
higher job satisfaction. Encouraging them to state their wants
in the form of outcomes, working relationships, and personal
accomplishments can facilitate the development of a good
contract.
 Time and Resources
• To accomplish change, the organization and the OD
practitioner must commit time and resources to the effort.
Each must be clear about how much energy and how many
resources will be dedicated to the change process. Failure to
make explicit the necessary requirements of a change
process can quickly ruin an OD effort.
 Resources can be divided into two parts:
• Essential requirements are things that
are absolutely necessary if the change • Desirable requirements are
process is to be successful. From the those things that would be nice
practitioner’s perspective, they can to have but are not absolutely
include access to key people or necessary, such as access to
information, enough time to do the job, special resources or written
and commitment from certain rather than verbal reports.
stakeholder groups. Being clear about
the constraints on carrying out the
assignment will facilitate the contracting
process and improve the chances for
success.
 Ground Rules
• The final part of the contracting process involves specifying how the
client and the OD practitioner will work together. The parameters
established may include such issues as confidentiality, if and how the
OD practitioner will become involved in personal or interpersonal
issues, how to terminate the relationship, and whether the practitioner
is supposed to make expert recommendations or help the manager
make decisions. Failure to address the concerns may mean that the
client or the practitioner has inappropriate assumptions about how the
process will unfold.
 INTERPERSONAL PROCESS ISSUES
IN ENTERING AND CONTRACTING
• Entering and contracting are the first exchanges between
a client and an OD practitioner. Establishing a healthy
relationship at the outset makes it more likely that the
client’s desired outcomes will be achieved and that the OD
practitioner will be able to improve the organization’s
capacity to manage change in the future. The client is
likely to feel exposed, inadequate, or vulnerable..
Moreover, they are entering into a relationship where
they may feel unable to control the activities of the
OD practitioner. As a result, they feel vulnerable
because of their dependency on the practitioner to
provide assistance.
On the other hand, the OD practitioner may have
feelings of empathy, unworthiness, and dependency.
The practitioner may over identify with the client’s
issues and want to be so helpful that he or she agrees
to unreasonable deadlines or inadequate resources.
The practitioner’s desire to be seen as competent and
worthy may lead to an agreement on a project for which the
practitioner has few skills or experience. Establishing a
relationship with a client must be approached carefully; the
initial contacts and conversations must represent a model
of how the OD process will be conducted. A number of
complex emotional and psychological issues are in play,
and OD practitioners must be mindful of their own as well
as the client’s perspectives. Attending to those issues as
well as to the content of the contract will help increase the
likelihood of success.