Page 10 - DMGT520_ORGANIZATION_CHANGE_AND_DEVELOPMENT

Unit 1: Introduction to Organisation Development

Thus, OD interventions focus on the total culture and cultural processes of organisations. Notes
The focus is also on groups, since the relevant behavior of individuals in organisations
and groups is generally a product of group influences rather than personality.
11. Improved Organisational Performance: The objective of OD is to improve the
organisation’s capacity to handle its internal and external functioning and relationships.
This would include such things as improved interpersonal and group processes, more
effective communication, enhanced ability to cope with organisational problems of all
kinds, more effective decision processes, more appropriate leadership style, improved
skill in dealing with destructive conflict, and higher levels of trust and cooperation among
organisational members. These objectives stem from a value system based on an optimistic
view of the nature of man — that man in a supportive environment is capable of achieving
higher levels of development and accomplishment. Also essential to organisation
development and effectiveness is the scientific method — inquiry, a rigorous search for
causes, experimental testing of hypotheses, and review of results. Finally, the democratic
process is viewed as having a legitimate, and perhaps dominant, role in the highly effective
organisation.
12. Organisational Self Renewal: The ultimate aim of the outside OD practitioner is to “work
himself out of a job” by leaving the client organisation with a set of tools, behaviors,
attitudes, and an action plan with which to monitor its own state of health and to take
corrective steps toward its own renewal and development. This is consistent with the
systems concept of feedback as a regulatory and corrective mechanism.

1.3 Historical Perspective of Organisation Development

1.3.1 Early Development

The history of organisation development is rich with the contributions of behavioral scientists
and practitioners. Systematic organisation development activities have recent history.
Kurt Lewin played a key role in the evolution of organisation development as it is known
today. As early as World War II, Lewin experimented with a collaborative change process
(involving himself as consultant and a client group) based on a three-step process of planning,
taking action, and measuring results. This was the forerunner of action research, an important
element of OD, which will be discussed later. Lewin then participated in the beginnings of
laboratory training, or T-Groups, and, after his death in 1947, his close associates helped to
develop survey-research methods at the University of Michigan. These procedures became
important parts of OD as developments in this field continued at the National Training
Laboratories and in growing numbers of universities and private consulting firms across the
country.
The failure of off-site laboratory training to live up to its early promise was one of the important
forces stimulating the development of OD. Laboratory training is learning from a person’s
“here and now” experience as a member of an ongoing training group. Such groups usually
meet without a specific agenda. Their purpose is for the members to learn about themselves
from their spontaneous “here and now” responses to an ambiguous hypothetical situation.
Problems of leadership, structure, status, communication, and self-serving behavior typically
arise in such a group. The members have an opportunity to learn something about themselves
and to practice such skills as listening, observing others, and functioning as effective group
members. As formerly practiced (and occasionally still practiced for special purposes), laboratory
training was conducted in “stranger groups,” or groups composed of individuals from different
organisations, situations, and backgrounds. A major difficulty developed, however, in

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