Page 13 - DMGT520_ORGANIZATION_CHANGE_AND_DEVELOPMENT

Organization Change and Development

Notes  People affected by change should be allowed active participation and sense of
ownership of the change.

 According to Robert Tannebaum the important shifts in values was occurring and he
listed these values in transition as follows:
 Away from a view of people as essentially bad towards a view from people as
basically good.
 Away from avoidance of negative evaluation of individuals towards confirming
them as human beings.

 Away from avoidance of risk taking towards willingness to take risk.
 These values and assumptions may not seem profound today, but in 1950’s they
represented a radical departure from accepted beliefs and assumptions

Self Assessment

Fill in the blanks:

1. According to Warren Bennis, …………………….. is a complex strategy intended to change
the beliefs, attitudes, values, and structure of organisations so that they can better adapt to
new technologies, markets, and challenges.
2. The OD programmer seeks the serious attention and commitment from the …………………
for achieving it’s objectives of improvements.
3. A …………………. in the sense used here is not a technical expert skilled in such functional
areas as accounting, production, or finance.

4. ………………….. focus on the total culture and cultural processes of organisations.
5. The objective of OD is to improve the …………………… to handle its internal and external
functioning and relationships.

1.5 System Theory of OD

A second foundation of organisation development is system theory, which views organisation
as open systemic active exchange with their environments. This theory explains how its
application enhances the practice of OD.
The system theory is one of the most powerful conceptual tools available for understanding the
dynamics of the organisation. Fagen defines system as “a set of objects together with relationship
between the objects and between their attributes”.
System denotes interdependency, interconnectedness, and interrelatedness among elements in
asset that constitutes an identifiable whole or gestalt.
1.5.1 Nature of System

The nature dynamics and characteristics of the open system are well known. Organisations are
open system. Katz and Kahn have described the following characteristics of a system:

1. Input-throughput-output Mechanism: This explains that system takes inputs from the
environment in the form of energy information, money, and people and processes the
inputs via throughputs, conversion or transformation and exports products to the
environment in the form of outputs.

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