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