Organizational Development: A Manual for Managers and ... - FPDL

‘Top executives set strategy, middle managers carry it out, and very detailed control and reporting
systems pass thousands of numbers back up the hierarchy to inform those responsible about the
progress. Unfortunately, this model doesn’t work very well any more because it is based on three
assumptions, which are no longer wholly valid:
• Assumption 1 – the organization is a simple ‘closed system’: what it decides to do will
generally take place without too much disruption from outside events.
• Assumption 2 – the operating environment is stable enough for manages to understand it
sufficiently well to develop a relevant detailed strategy and for that strategy still to be
relevant by the time it comes to be implemented.
• Assumption 3 – in an organization there are a series of clear levels, which can be applied
to cause a known response.
These three assumptions have been replaced by three new realities:
• Reality 1 – organizations are complex ‘open systems’, deeply influenced by and influencing
their environments. Often intended actions will be diverted off course by external events or
even by internal political or cultural processes within the organization itself.
• Reality 2 – the environment is changing so rapidly (continuously throwing up new
opportunities and threats) that top managers cannot expect to have a sufficient sense of
what is happening to be able to formulate very detailed strategies.
• Reality 3 – the simple linear model of cause and effect have broken down and many
actions can lead to quite unexpected (positive or negative) consequences. (N.Glass, 1998)
Thus the contemporary view of organization as an open, dynamic, chaotic, self-organizing and
reproductive system that can emerge, function, maintain its own existence - and collapse when it
fails to do so - makes us see organizations as living organisms of a specific nature.
Organizations may be ‘founded’ by someone or appear naturally without preliminary design; they
can be young or old, healthy or sick, chronic invalids or world champions. Hence, they may be
treated for sicknesses and coached to move toward their highest potential as living organisms –
and this is the main business of managers, sometimes supported by consultants or trainers. If
organizations were not living organisms, trainers would not be able to do much with them.
Organizational health
Accepting organizations as living organisms implies the recognition that organizational health is an
important aspect of organizational life. Richard Beckhard, based on multi-year research, insists
that both individual and organizational health can be measured by the same criteria. He proposes
the following ‘Profile of a Healthy Organization’:
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