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

Introduction: Organizational Development and Training
Any organization, being a living organism, is in the process of continuous change. Nobody can
stop this process. No specific action is needed for changes to happen.
Some changes in organizations may be considered positive; then it is common to use the term
‘development’. Which changes are deemed ‘positive’ – that depends on the desired direction of
development. Other changes may be undesirable and when they take place may be referred to as
‘deterioration’.
Somebody may be in charge to determine a preferable direction – shareholders, politicians, etc., or
any kind of owners or sponsors. Somebody may only be in charge to ensure that only desirable
change takes place.
Both the development and deterioration of an organization may be more or less sustainable; it
depends the change impacts the initial causes or impetus for the change. When the change
depletes limited and non-renewable resources - thus diminishing the possibility of a similar move in
a future - the process is not sustainable. When the change affects the cause in a way that
increases the possibility for continuing progress in the same direction – then the process is
sustainable.
The virtues and vicious cycles of sustainable developments and deteriorations at different levels
and in different parts of an organization’s are influenced by interrelated changes from routine or
incidental variations and fluctuations within vitally important internal and external parameters. The
process is ongoing. Sound complicated? In fact, it is just as simple as life itself. It would be much
more difficult to imagine life as a kind of primitive combination of clearly defined, fixed, and
predictable things (such ‘life’ would never appear and could never exist). Organizations need
management to control all these intricate factors and to ensure that the overall process goes in the
direction that best promotes effective and efficient fulfilment of the mission. In order to survive, an
organization must do the right things in the right way. In order to do things in the right way,
activities must be organized in the right way.
Organizational development is merely the process of development as applied to an organization.
We shall use this simple statement so as not to get twisted in endless discussions about the
differences between the academic subject of Organization Development (OD) versus
organizational development. As pointed by OD gurus, organizational development (as opposed to
OD) refers to any effort to improve organization, and does not imply assumptions about people,
organizations, or the change process. (Rothwell, 1995) It is not really serious. Behavioural
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