WHAT IS OD?

ITS
BRIEF HISTORY?
Learning objectives

 The goals, characteristics, and definition of OD;

 A brief history of OD;
 Critical founders who shaped the OD field;
 How the field got its name;
 Values that have informed OD practice;
 The role of the OD practitioner.
THE GOALS, CHARACTERISTICS AND
DEFINITION OF ORGANIZATION
DEVELOPMENT
The goals, characteristics and definition of Organization
Development

 Organization Development (OD) aims to improve the functioning of

individuals, teams, and the total organization by applying behavioral
science principles and practices.
 OD focuses on two dimensions - external adaptation and internal
integration - to ensure organization effectiveness, which is achieved
through the adaptive coping cycle.
 OD practitioners support senior leaders in preparing the organization
internally to deliver the challenging external ambitions.
 OD is a long-term effort to improve problem solving and renewal processes,
with the assistance of a change agent or catalyst, and the use of applied
behavioral science.
Cont.…

 The primary practitioners of OD are the organization's leaders and

managers who are the custodians of organization health.
 OD practitioners are helpers and catalysts to the leaders of the
organization, and they use the technology of applied behavioural science to
support healthy development.
 The characteristics of OD and OD practitioners include being process
experts, total system perspective, problem-solving focus, value-driven,
theory-based, and process-focused.
 The goal of OD is to make change synonymous with development and
ensure that the improvement is sustainable.
What is Organizational Development?

What OD is a field of applied behavioural science expanding our

understanding of human and group behaviour. Such knowledge also
guides and steers our work in developing organizational effectiveness
by improving performance as well as internal health, especially during
a time of change
How Using group and human dynamic processes from applied behavioural
science research, theories and methods to facilitate self-organizing
movement of groups and organizations.
Outcome Dual goals: to improve the organization effectiveness (performance)
that benefits the constituents of the organization, while maintaining
the health of the organization to support the people that work within
the system in a sustainable way.
Values Respect for human differences, commitment to all forms of social
justice and equity. Belief in lifelong learning – emphasis on ‘self-
renewal’ ability of the individual and organization.
Characteristics Of Organization Development

Source of Applied behavioural science disciplines such as sociology,

Knowledge psychology, social psychology, clinical psychology,
anthropology, management studies, occupational psychology,
organization behaviour, behavioural economics, etc
Goal Dual goals of improving organization effectiveness
(performance) and
improving internal health of the system
Focus Total system (alignment and interface between parts)
Emphasize more Design and use processes (any group processes, social
processes, etc) vs expert content knowledge to support client
Role Third-party role – to help, to support the system to do their own
work
Orientation Design and execute planned intervention as well as working
with emergence; intervention starts from the moment client
and ourselves make contact; data collection becomes
intervention, interaction leads to reflection, reflection to data,
data to action, action back to reflection, action cycle (action
research)
Cont.…

Target Human system within social system

Application Apply theory in action, using experience to form working
theories, and using theories to inform methodologies, using
outcomes analysis to circle back to improve theory in action
Values Shamelessly humanistic – affirm respect for all, fight
continuously for social equality and equity, and pursue
lifelong learning
A BRIEF HISTORY OF OD
A Brief History Of OD

 The field of Organizational Development (OD) emerged in the 1950s in

response to a need for better understanding of how organizations work.
 OD is a practice-oriented field that emphasizes the application of theory to
improve organizational performance and development.
 Early pioneers of OD were academics who worked with industrial leaders to
develop new insights and solutions for organizational issues.
 Several critical movements contributed to the development of OD, including
the National Training Laboratory's work on group dynamics and leadership,
the birth of the T-group and other forms of laboratory education, the larger
human relations movement, and the socio-technical system thinking from
the British Tavistock Institute.
Cont.…

 Survey research methods were also a significant development in OD,

allowing leaders to understand the impact of their actions on different
people within the organization and guide improvement strategies.
 Overall, OD continues to evolve and adapt to meet the changing needs of
organizations and individuals within them.
HOW THE FIELD GOT ITS NAME
How the field got its name

 The term "Organization Development" was coined in the late 1950s by

Doug McGregor and Richard Beckhard, who were implementing a company-
wide culture change effort at General Mills called "Bottom-Up
Management".
 McGregor and Beckhard wanted to find a more appropriate label than
"bottom-up management" or "management development" that would
convey the idea of a system-wide change effort. They settled on
"Organization Development".
 In the same year, Herbert Shepard and Robert Blake were working on a
culture change program at the Esso Refinery in New Jersey and also used
the term "Organization Development" to describe their efforts.
Cont.…

 Both programs shared five core characteristics of the field of OD: system-
wide, planned change efforts focused on the total system, targeted at the
social/human side of the enterprise, aimed at improving organization
effectiveness.
 Four other catalytic developments helped formalize the birth of OD
THE BIRTH OF NTL (NATIONAL
TRAINING LABORATORY)
The birth of NTL (National Training Laboratory)

 The NTL (National Training Laboratory) was born out of a three-week

session held in the summer of 1947 at the Gould Academy in Bethel,
Maine.
 The sudden death of Kurt Lewin in February 1947 was a significant
factor in the birth of NTL.
 The founders of NTL were Benne, Bradford, and Lippitt.
 NTL later became known as the NTL Institute for Applied Behavioural
Science.
 The Bethel experience was significant in the growth of NTL's
laboratory training centers.
 The founders of NTL have been involved with staffing in the Bethel
laboratory.
Cont.…

 The experience of attending and staffing a T-group at NTL makes one part
of a community of practitioners.
 Ed Schein is quoted as saying that anyone who has attended and staffed a
T-group at NTL is bound by their experience and has become part of a
community of practitioners.
THE BIRTH OF THE OD NETWORK
The Birth Of The OD Network

 After the success of early OD interventions, people became

interested in the field and began to flock to it.
 In 1964, a small group of practitioners began to meet regularly
to exchange ideas, experiences and learning, most of whom
were NTL alumni or staff.
 Other colleagues began to ask to attend, leading to the
formation of the Organization Development Network (ODN).
 Warner Burke, head of NTL's OD staff, became the first
executive director of the ODN, which has since expanded
globally.
OD PUBLICATIONS
OD Publications

 There have been many OD publications since the 1950s.

 Four significant publications began to document the field's
knowledge: the OD series, OD Practitioner (now called OD
Review), the first OD textbook by French and Bell, and a
second classical textbook by Warner Burke.
 These publications helped set the field in an academic context
and gave voice to what the field was all about.
 The Addison-Wesley OD series was more academic, while OD
Practitioner focused more on practice.
 French and Bell's textbook made teaching OD to
undergraduates possible.
CONSULTANCY WORK AND
EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMMES
Consultancy Work And Educational Programmes

 Consultancy work was crucial for the evolution of OD as a field.

 The experiences of early OD founders working with real
organizations provided rich data to refine OD practices.
 Consultancy work by individuals such as Shepard, McGregor,
Tannenbaum, and Argyris helped build the knowledge base of
the field.
 Growing demand for OD practitioners led to the creation of
non-degree and academic programs.
Cont.…

 The UCLA Learning Community in Organizational Development,

the NTL in Group Development, and over 30 PhD and
certificated programs in the US alone were some of the early
programs that contributed to the standard of practice of OD
practitioners.
VALUES THAT HAVE INFORMED OD
PRACTICE
Values That Have Informed OD Practice

What are the core values of OD practice?

The core values of Organizational Development (OD) practice are as
follows:
1. Democracy and Participation: This value emphasizes the
importance of involving all stakeholders in decision-making
processes to promote active participation and collaboration.
2. Openness to Lifelong Learning and Experimentation: OD
practitioners value learning and experimenting as a means to
continually improve and develop new approaches.
3. Equity and Fairness - The Worth of Every Individual: This value
emphasizes the belief that every individual has inherent value and
should be treated with respect, fairness, and equity.
Cont.…

1. Valid Information and Informed Choice: OD practitioners value

accurate, reliable, and valid information as a basis for
informed decision-making.
2. Enduring Respect for the Human Side of Enterprise: This
value emphasizes the importance of considering the human
dimension of organizations, recognizing that individuals are
not merely cogs in a machine, but rather unique human
beings with their own needs, aspirations, and values.
3. All Human Beings Have the Right to Attain Their Potential: OD
practitioners value the potential of every individual and strive
to create an environment in which everyone can reach their
full potential.
Cont.…

 These values inform the work of OD practitioners, guiding their

interventions to facilitate optimal organization performance.
The personal embodiment of these values is important for the
potency of the practitioner as an instrument. While OD
practitioners may adapt their approaches to the changing work
context, compromising these core values will eventually make
the practitioner feel hollow, unable to help the client system
navigate through doubts into results.
THE ROLE OF THE OD
PRACTITIONER
The Role Of The OD Practitioner

 The role of OD practitioners is to act as third-party change

agents who aid the person(s) in charge and the system itself to
bring about desired changes.
 OD practitioners believe that the systems they are invited into
are capable of sorting out their own problems and choosing their
own path forward, and their job is to facilitate this process by
designing the right types of processes to help surface internal
wisdom.
 The approach of OD practitioners is collaborative and
partnership-oriented, supporting the system to find out what
they want, what approach they should take to get there, and
what types of internal resources they can deploy to get them
there.
Cont.…

 OD practitioners do not impose their views on the client but set

up the platform for the client to do their own work. Their
primary intervention is to suggest and facilitate participative
processes for diagnostic data gathering, informed decision
making, and building client-system commitment for change.
 OD practitioners should be aware of their innate need for
power, control, approval, and esteem, and the external
expectations that clients may have for them to be experts,
which can cause them to slide into the expert and directive
mode of working.
 The concept of "self as an instrument" is critical to the
development journey of OD practitioners.
SELF AS THE MOST CRITICAL
INSTRUMENT IN THE HELPING
RELATIONSHIP
Self As The Most Critical Instrument In The Helping
Relationship

 The concept of 'self as instrument' is a unique trademark of

OD.
 OD practitioners need to pay attention to their own needs and
do their own inner work to increase their ability to support
human systems.
 OD practitioners need to increase their tolerance of ambiguity
and individual differences, examine their control needs and
roles, lower their needs for external approval and feedback,
and work on a higher sense of fun and human need.
 If OD practitioners work out their needs on clients, it can
render them vulnerable.
Cont.…

 Deep self-awareness helps OD practitioners embrace the fact

that they are the ultimate instrument in any consulting
situation.
 The use of self cannot be found among strategic planners or
other technical consultancy experts, except in OD.