Applying Organizational Development Ideals and Principles

You have probably heard the saying “Change is hard.” This statement is true for organizations as well as for individuals.

Organizational Development (OD) is an approach to improve efficiency and effectiveness within an organization. While historically OD has been practiced in a planned way( (Bushe et al, 2015, p.xv), but with changing times OD consultants believe that instead of using a linear, top down approach, practitioners should use a holistic and humanistic approach…

Put in place the structure for change, and continually check for barriers to it. Removing obstacles can empower the people you need to execute your vision, and it can help the change move forward.

At the core of every successful organization lies that specific organization’s application of the basic principles of organization development. In the book written by Carter (2004) entitled Best Practices in Leadership Development and Organization Change, the concept of organization development was defined as an organization-wide effort and conceptual initiative intended to increase an organization’s viability and effectiveness. In most cases, organization development is described as a change initiative and educational strategy aimed at changing the values, beliefs, attitudes, as well as the structure of an organization for the betterment and improvement of the overall firm’s

The relationship between employee and organizational development is both focuses on the improvements of the organization. According to DeCenzo and Robbins (2007) organization development refers to the “continuous improvements, diversity, and work process engineering” required for the organization to continue to grow (p.214). The continuous changes within the economy, technology, and the business industry is the reason why employee and organizational development is needed. If the organization decides to change how procedures and processing is conducted, it is important for employees to be trained on the new procedures, process of production, and skills needed to perform the new job requirements. In order for organizations to be

Collection of information for this project included books, journals, videos, interviews and performance observation with organization administrators and employees.

Organizational Development (OD) has become more and more important for today’s organizations because the world is moving so fast that organizations have to find ways to be more effective, more innovation, more customer-driven, and more agile. Cumming and Worley (1997) define organizational development as “a process that applies a broad range of behaviour science knowledge and practices to help organizations build their capacity to change and to achieve greater effectiveness”. Therefore, OD will help organizations understand how people act to change and which change methods can work with the resistance to change that usually occurs in organizations undergoing change. In the study of organizational development, it is

In today’s corporate world, there is a learning evolution around employee development in every organization large or small. It is the decision of the organization to transform from traditional to developmental organizations. In my own definition, employee development is encouraging employees to increase knowledge, obtain or acquire new skills and apply new ideas to that of the organization itself and its cultural. Within the book “Beyond The Learning Organization” , There are three type of evolution learning; Traditional, Learning and Developmental. It is how the organization will decide to incorporate development into their own blueprint. Organizations evolve in many different ways based on the core development of its own values and behaviors within the organization using all three evolutions of learning.

According to Caughron, Peterson and Mumford (2011), recent research indicate that the effect of training on several creativity related outcome variables. In order to enhance creativity, HRD interventions are required. HRD is often described as the activities such as training, learning and education to improve people’s knowledge, skills and capabilities (Carbery and Cross, 2015; Ruona, 2016). The importance of knowledge and learning is proved by many studies. McGrath and Powell (2016) identified the importance of skills for promoting sustainable development. Neoliberalism have been encouraged unsustainable development, thus post-productivist vision is required for the sustainable development (McGrath and Powell, 2016). Tjepkema, Horst, H., Mulder (2002) identified that the role of HRD is facilitating and supporting learning opportunities at both organisation and individual levels. HRD interventions can contribute to employee development, improving job performance, problem solving, and organisational performance development.

Many corporations seek out organizational development (OD) professionals to help eradicate an issue. Target is a major retail giant that could use the help of an OD professional to implement change to protect their customers. An intervention could help this company if it is evaluated to be effective. A continual learning approach would also be an asset to Target to help form an organizational development cycle. To help embed the new practices proposed by this intervention a change leadership plan must be established. Once the intervention is complete Target will also be given the option to adopt some of the best practices to aid in the success of the company. Throughout the course my organizational development intervention project has provided a tremendous amount of useful information, but has also lead to areas in which I need further development. An OD intervention is a challenge process that can change a company from borderline defeat to victory.

Change is necessary and an important aspect of all organizations. These changes happen when an organization is heading down a path of a financial downturn or experiencing a lack of customer loyalty. After the vision for the organization is realized, a group of volunteers then assists other members of the organization in understanding and accepting these changes. When one stage is out of sync, all the other steps are then impacted and may not occur. As long as all the first four steps are successful, the next step to creating a successful change in an organization is to identify the resistors in the organization and select the best way to train or remove those barriers. After those barriers are dealt with, the organization can then begin to create a variety of small goals that are easily obtained until you reach the final goal the organization saw in the original vision (Doseck, 2015).

The understanding I now have of Organization Development came at a point in which I was personally experiencing it myself. As someone who has undergone a reduction in work force, this course helped me better understand why transitions happen in a company that is going through an economical or global change. As someone who has worked for over 30 years, I experienced this for the first time ever in my life. I did not quite know the gest of what it all meant because I did not have an understanding regarding

There are many different factors, that when combined can allow for an organization to run effectively and efficiently. One of the factors that take a large part in an organization’s success is organization development. This method focuses on the “human and social aspects of the organization as a way to improve the organization’s ability to adapt and solve problems (Daft, 2013). Throughout organization development, there are strategies or tools that can be used to implement change. It seems as though today, change is inevitable within any organization in order to be successful and remain competitive. The role of managers during times of change is very important and directly affects the organization’s success during the change. The role that managers take in an organization can also affect the organization’s ability to perform well and meet the needs of society. The purpose of this paper is to define and describe mechanistic versus organic design, designing organizations to achieve both efficiency and effectiveness, to define and discuss organization development, the role of managers in shaping organizations to perform well and meet the needs of society as well as tools that can be used to adapt to the changing environment.

Organization development grew out of the human relations traditions of the 1940s and 1950s, and it has had enormous influence on management practices and thinking about how organizational effectiveness can be achieved. Critical manpower and resource shortages faced by all organizations, public and private, during World War II and in the immediate post-war years stimulated a search by social scientist and managers, separately and in cooperation with one another, for effective means to maximize the utilization of existing individual and organizational resources. (Ritcher, I 2007). Organization Development was by tradition about planned change efforts, instituted to enhance organization effectiveness within the context of the traditional, hierarchical, management-as-experts, top-down era. The legacy of leaders and organizations developed in this context remain. Organizational Development is about how organizations and people function and how to get them to function better. Organization transformation signals the need to transform mindsets, engage people and make the deep shift to the ongoing mutual learning environment needed for the long-lasting change characteristic of our world today.

Organizational development (OD) is an application or process of building a greater level of efficiency within the organization. OD develops the ongoing effort geared for long-term effects. OD works to help management and employees on a variety of levels. Organizational development is perhaps unequaled in its ability to meet any type of organization needs. However, the solutions developed from the role of OD may not be necessarily interchangeable with different organizations (Grant, 2010).