What is Organizational Development?

which is at the root of real return on

investment, profitability and long-term
Organisational development (OD) is transformation. Organisational Development
concerned with facilitating change in (OD) is an area of expertise which addresses
organisations through a holistic and this challenge with decades of internationally
humanistic approach that puts people at the tried and tested research and practice,
heart of the process. spanning thousands of professionals.

Here at Roffey Park, we define Organisational Key Characteristics of Organisational

Development as the work of facilitating Development
organisational success, by aligning structural,
cultural and strategic realities of work to Organization Development (OD) is the work
respond to the needs of an ever-evolving of facilitating organisational success, by
business climate. aligning structural, cultural and strategic
realities of work to respond to the needs of an
At the heart of good organizational ever-evolving business climate.
development is the deep connection between
the best business processes and structures on Characteristics of OD include:
the one hand, and the people working within
the organization on the other. In short, it is to • Changes to the structure, culture,
create great organisations! strategy and processes of an individual
job through to an entire organisation.
There are significant differences between
• The application of behavioural science
organisational development and ‘culture
knowledge and practice to facilitate
change’, ‘change management’ and ‘business
transformation within an organisation.
transformation’. Find out more about the
definition of OD here. • The improvement of organisational
effectiveness by involving members of
What is Organisational Development trying to the organisation in understanding the
fix? challenge whilst enabling in them new
skills, knowledge and ways of
To achieve high performance and competitive thinking.
advantage, organisations are often in the
midst of significant learning and change. • The promotion of high productivity,
performance, quality products,
In traditional organisation and leadership financial performance and continuous
theory, the inspirational, top-down vision for improvement.
the organisation is supposedly created by a • The facilitation of change in a flexible,
few and thrust upon the many. adaptive and often participative way.

Such change initiatives may result in a • Sustainability, so consistent change in

successful change of procedures and the right direction continues beyond
structures (the easier bit), but rarely trigger the life of the initial change initiative.
sustainable change in working methods,
culture and organisational effectiveness
OD also operates from a particular set of
values that shape how the work is done. Key
to this is the valuing of human potential and
therefore the importance of understanding the
systemic challenges from a range of
stakeholders and to then engage those
stakeholders directly in shaping the change,
partly so that change is well conceived of but Abraham Maslow (1908-1970), a psychology
also so that, through broad ownership, its professor most famous for his ‘hierarchy of
chance of being understood and implemented needs’, and another important figure in the
are maximised. history of Organisational Development,
believed that when an individual’s needs
The History of Organisational Development
were met, it led to ‘self-actualisation’. When
an organisation was open, and the
individual’s contributions were recognised,
this was more likely to occur. Other theorists
advocated participation as a means of
motivating employees and achieving a greater
performance, and leadership styles that were
democratic and involving were shown to lead
to better organisational performance and
employee satisfaction.
The roots of Organisational Development can
be found in the USA, in the work of Kurt
Lewin (1898-1947). Seen as the founding
father of OD, he founded the ‘Research Center
for Group Dynamics’ at MIT, experimented
with collaborative change processes, and
proposed the first concepts of group dynamics
and action research, which underpin OD.
Lewin found that using participative methods
in small groups led to positive changes in In 1969, Warren Bennis introduced the
attitude and greater commitment from the concept of organisational culture, identifying
people in organisations. A parallel interest in that OD is ‘a complex educational strategy
what happens in individuals and groups in intended to change beliefs, attitudes, values,
work also arose in Europe and the UK over a and structures of organizations so that they
similar period, with Roffey Park founded in can better adapt to new technologies, markets,
1946 and The Tavistock Institute in 1947. and challenges, and the dizzying rate of
change itself’.
 of organizational culture and details how to
utilize or change these for effective,
sustainable, long-term success which brings
the organization along with you.

The Benefits of Organisational Development

Organisational Development is adaptive,

Edgar Schein at the start of the 1980’s, flexible and evolving. It puts people at the
developed this idea of ‘organisational heart of change, emphasises creativity and
culture’, using metaphors of the cultural innovation, and positively affects the bottom
iceberg and lily pad. With the iceberg, Schein line.
shows how difficult it is to see what underlies
the behaviours of an organisation, as most is • OD creates a continuous cycle of
hidden below the surface. With his lily pad improvement, from strategy, through
analogy, he proposes that we can easily see to implementation, evaluation and
the flowers on the water (the behaviours further change.
explicit in an organisation), however unless
we drop down to the stems (the values • OD increases communication across all
supporting those behaviours) and then the levels of the organisation, aligning
partly hidden roots (the assumptions behind employees to shared values and
these values and behaviours), we cannot truly manifesting change from employee
understand what drives the organisation’s feedback.
actions and thoughts of the people within the • OD increases innovation through
organisation. employee development and
engagement and an effective analysis
Behavioural sciences, including of the market.
anthropology, economics, psychology, and
sociology have all had their impact in the • OD increases profit by improved
evolution of Organisational Development, productivity and creativity, reducing
and as a result, in 2002, Toby Egan identified costs, minimizing staff turnover and
there had been 27 definitions of OD between creating a culture of openness and
the period 1969 and 2003. adaptive and ongoing change.

Why is Organisational Development useful?

If you’re involved in any way in helping an

organization to move forwards and evolve,
then it’s imperative to do this with eyes wide
open to the big picture. Organizational
Development not only addresses what may be
more obvious changes that are needed
(structural, business objectives, product
development, strategic direction, stakeholder
requirements, etc), but also the hidden aspects
Using Action Research in Business change model that is conducive to all
levels. The most effective organizational
• What is the likelihood of resistance and change model bases decisions on known data
inertia? – a tendency to do nothing, a and leverages an objective methodology for
state of unchanged (business of the implementation and assessment of the
understanding change) workplace for ongoing continuous
• Is your organization ready for a change? improvement.
-internal (reorganization-restructuring)
and external (changing market Action research is an organizational
behaviors, falling revenues, changing change behavior model that leverages direct
business landscape) business is inputs to derive effective business outcomes
dynamic in nature(inevitable)- to through employee collaboration. Action
sustain in an environment research identifies the data anomalies that are
• Are the leaders committed to the occurring in the workplace and breaks them
change? Rational change (Fear towards down into an actionable plan based on
the unknown employee feedback. The employee input
• Fear regarding the Personal Failure establishes a new business process in the
• Fear of Being Labelled as Incompetent- company and a means to continuously monitor
job security. and provide insight into the output of the
• Fear of Loss of Control over the action plan through ongoing improvement
situation- increase workload (Shani and Coghlan, 2018).
• Threat to personal values, principles or
philosophy-adversely affect social The action research methodology has
networking of the employee. five interwoven steps: diagnosis, analysis,
• Threat of a possible change in the status- feedback, action, and evaluation. Each of the
unnecessary appointing committees five steps in the process build and complement
• Who are the other key stakeholders that one another and serve as a roadmap for the
need to be involved? change agent. The first step in the process is the
• Who or what could derail the change? information gathering and investigative
• What processes are you going to use to phase.
work with others in the design and
Step 1 - Diagnosis
implementation of change? Employee
Behavior & Attitudes During During the initial step a detailed analysis
Organizational Change of the target environment, the change agent
will gather detailed information about the
• What are the important systems and individual, groups, and
processes involved? organization. Reviewing existing policies and
procedures, interviewing employees and
People don’t resist change; they resist being
management, as well as assessing the existing
changed” (Senge, 2000). Groups and people
organizational business processes are some
that make up an organization must be open to
examples of the material the change agent will
change to retain market leadership within their
target. Like a police officer performing a police
industry. To effectively introduce change to a
investigation at a crime scene, the change agent
company, management must consider the
will carefully analyze and identify each of the
implementation of a dynamic organizational
elements at the individual, group, and The change agent will quantify and
organizational level that are contributing to the evaluate the existing data and shape the results
business problem in an attempt to discover the into potential options to deliver the intended
relevant evidence (Pascaru, 2020). results. Analyzing the data for patterns and
identifying the distress in the processes that are
At the individual level, the change agent causing the discord help to provide insight into
will evaluate the overall diversity and how alternative approaches may alleviate the
demographics of the employee base and ask source of the problem and help deliver the
those questions to actively learn about what intended result. The key is objectifying the
shapes their personal values, overall attitude, potential resolution to the extent possible, but
and personality makeup. The change agent not at the expense of the role the individual
will ascertain factors that are motivating and plays in shaping reality.
de-motivating to the workforce and determine
where any gaps may exist between Although performing statistical analysis
organizational and employee expectations. in action research at times is not always precise
nor provides exact answers the approach is still
At the group and organizational level, a valuable tool to the change agent, and there
the change agent will focus on existing formal are measures that can be taken to help facilitate
and informal constructs. Roles, and validate the overall outcome of the result
responsibilities, inter-departmental (Kock et al., 2017). The intent is to attempt to
relationships, and organizationally defined seek and net out the root causes to identify
relationships such as cross functional role- plausible approaches to eliminate or mitigate
mapping and dependencies are also the negative effects that are currently
considered. The overall culture and the team’s impinging on the desired result. Analysis
ability to achieve the company’s desired enables the change agent to create the
outcomes will also help diagnose and establish necessary framework to collaborate with the
an objective analysis for change in the employees and obtain their input for action.
organization.
Step 3 - Feedback
Step 2 - Analysis
Feedback is the process of sharing the
Analysis of the data and preliminary information found in the diagnosis and
findings is a critical second step. Objectifying analysis stages with the internal stakeholders
and capturing relevant patterns that describe and the change agent shaping a go-forward
the situation is an integral activity. For strategy to streamline the organization
example, is there a symptomatic pattern of (Collatto et al., 2018). Action plans are co-
behavior that leads the team to the same developed and prototyped to bring about the
undesirable result on a frequent basis? The necessary change to meet the intended
intent for the change agent is to capture the outcomes within the organization. The change
problem areas and primary concerns that agent’s inputs are recommendations based on
reflect the current mode of business and begin the findings and the employees help to shape
to develop and formulate potential action what is plausible and can be done in the area
plans to implement based on the use of of operations.
statistical action research (Durcikova et al.,
2018).
 The change agent must be careful not make the necessary adjustments prior to
accept all of the recommendations from the deploying solutions out to the whole
organization to avoid creating the same enterprise. An iterative approach allows the
problem but should augment the necessary change agent to observe, consolidate, and
feedback to prototype and validate the new validate the most desired outcome for the
processes in the workplace. The change agent deployment as a whole (Lakiza and
needs to include in the action plan information Deschamps, 2019).
that will counteract fear stemming from
employee’s habits, organizational group Upon remediation, the change agent will
inertia, threats to established relationships, coordinate with all of the relevant stakeholders
etc. The goal of the draft action plan is to lay on the final approach and method for the
out an approach and the intended benefits for deployment and what can be expected in the
the organization, what the employees will final deployment stage. A single point of
receive by following the process, and an escalation is normally set up for the
implementation methodology that overcomes stakeholders to reach out during deployment
employee resistance. to address unexpected issues during the
implementation of the change. Also, as part of
The goal of overcoming resistance is the stage, the change agent will provide ample
allowing the stakeholders to recognize change communication to the stakeholders to maintain
is warranted based on the market forces and is a calm transition to the new approach based on
not a direct attack on their personal and/or results to avoid direct backlash or resistance to
organizational ways of doing things and change.
should be gathered in a positive feedback-
seeking climate (Auh et al., 2019). Open, Step 5 - Evaluation
candid conversation and directly engaging the
Successful implementation is critical,
employees helps to minimize resistance. Also,
and the change agent must administer a means
making the employees and team know they are
to measure the success of the
contributing to the final group goal without
change. Normally the measures are done at the
manipulation and coercion makes them part of
individual, group, and organizational
the solution and not the problem. Throughout
level. Initial results serve as a benchmark, but
the process, the change agent will show
the change agent must consider factors such as
empathy to the individuals and share
acclimatization to the new processes, group
examples of success, along with transparent
cohesiveness, and organizational productivity
communication in establishing an action plan
may initially impact the change brought into
in the organization.
the approach and initially skew the
Step 4 - Action results. Once stabilized, the change agent has
the ability to understand the true impact and if
Action is implementing the proposed necessary, make the iterative modifications to
plan to determine if the approach corrects the the approach to drive the desired outcome
identified problems. Action plans are done in (Lakiza and Deschamps, 2019).
two stages. The initial stage is done by
conducting pilots that are designed to affirm Also, the change agent should consider
the proposed approach in the final the operational implementation and usage of
rollout. During the pilot stage, the team will ongoing continuous improvement into the
process to help mitigate change that may arise ROOTS AND HISTORY OF OD
in the future and identify improvement
opportunities continuously (Paipa-Galeano et From the beginning of time, it is
al., 2020). Ongoing improvements help to probable that humanity has tried consistently,
determine adjustments as an integral part of though imperfectly and with notable
the execution and provide insight to the exceptions, to improve the lot of life. There are
employees as part of the day-to-day many examples from religious literature of the
routine. Also, workplace stress and apathy are
use of consultants in making decisions. One
removed, and meaningful group cohesion
occurs which drives the organization into a common to many religious traditions is the
more outcome-results based environment. consultation of Moses with his father-in-law,
Jethro, to improve the organization of the large
In Conclusion... numbers Of Israelites escaping from Egypt.
To be successful, informed companies Mohammed, also, had his consultants, and one
utilize objective data to roll out organizational could argue that the 12 disciples served as
change management. Action research is an consultants to Jesus. So, as we look at the roots
effective organizational change behavior that led to the formation of OD, we have a
model that entails five interlaced limitless number of options from which to
steps. Coupled with continuous improvement,
draw. Even when exploring the history of OD,
action research enables evaluation of the
organization to rectify and course-correct the one has difficulty, as with any history, in
operations on an ongoing basis. identifying exactly how the field emerged and
developed. In a recent Web chat about the
Action research leverages a scientific- history and origins of the OD field with
based framework to identify the inputs to the
practitioners and theoreticians who had been
problem and establishes processes based on
the feedback of the employees, groups, and around and involved when OD emerged,
organization to yield and maintain the most everyone had a different memory, including
desirable outcomes on behalf of the those who were in the same room at the same
company. The problem-focused design uses time! So, it is difficult to argue that there is a
relevant data in the environment and input single source of the field of OD. What is
from employees to understand and mitigate interesting to note is that almost everyone
the problem. The approach encourages
remembers OD as emerging—that no one set
employee engagement in establishing the
necessary processes and desired outcomes out to create a new field, but the important
which reduces the resistance to change by the concepts and tools that were to make up the
employee. Action research is an outcome- field of OD emerged as people were simply
results based model in the workplace that trying to do their jobs better.
enables employee empowerment, group
cohesion, and a platform to consistently Most of the early names associated with
provide improvement to the organization. the field of OD were, not surprisingly,
psychologists; as a result, our field has been
heavily influenced by the psychological
theories of Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, Carl
Rogers, and B. F. Skinner. Those influences are Richard Beckhard (mid-1960s) — Most reports
still present in management and the field of indicate that Beckhard was the first person to
OD, in such theories as small group dynamics, coin the phrase organization development.
reinforcement theories, the Myers-Briggs Type
W. Edwards Deming (1950s in Japan; 1980s in
Indicator (MBTI), open-ended interviewing,
the United States) — Few would claim that
and so on. Margaret Mead, Gert Hofstede,
Deming used the processes or language of OD.
Fons Trompenaur, Edward and Mildred Hall,
Nevertheless, at least in the United States,
Edgar Schein, and others reflected efforts at
Deming, through his initial work in Japan,
describing cultures from an anthropological
popularized the concept of continuous process
perspective. John Keynes, Thomas Malthus,
improvement, with the emphasis on processes
and others have introduced economic theories.
rather than results, arguing that the best
In the area of quality management and
processes lead to the best results—a good OD
continuous improvement, names such as
concept!
Joseph Juran, W. Edwards Deming, and Kaoru
Ishikawa are considered primary contributors. Wilfred Bion (late 1940s) — Bion was a key
In the area of systems theory, certainly leader in London's Tavistock Institute (in the
biologist Ludwig von Bertalanffy must be UK), where discoveries were being made
included along with more recent contributors about group processes at about the same time
such as Peter Senge and Margaret Wheatley. as T-groups (training groups) were emerging
We could easily fill pages and pages with in the United States. The two concepts
names of people who have made contributions eventually came together as there were
to the field of OD. What follows, in this section, interactions across the ocean.
are a few names selected out of my biases to
Eric Trist (1950s) — Also working in the UK,
reflect only some of the more significant factors
Trist is credited with the development of the
that have contributed to the field of OD. Some
sociotechnical system (STS) in his work in the
of the ideas that follow are based on Alban and
coal mines of England. STS focuses on the
Scherer (2005).
interface among people, machines, and their
Kurt Lewin (mid-1940s) — It is impossible in environment.
this brief paragraph to convey the significance
of Lewin's contributions. Lewin worked with
organizations to improve their productivity
and through various consultancies created the
concepts of force field analysis, sensitivity
training (which led to team building),
feedback, change theory action research, and
self-managed work teams (more about these as
we move forward in this book).
1. When you try to force someone to do what Schein?
they already want to do: a. artefacts
a. they instinctively resist b. shared responsibility
b. they only become more enthusiastic c. Espoused values
d. product quality goes up d. shared assumptions
e. you get things done faster
8. Who pioneered the work on Tavistock
2. "Do your best" is Method?
a. Vague a. Warren Bennis
b. Highly idiosyncratic b. Bensis likert
c. Extremely motivating C. Lippit
d. Wilfred Bion
3. Before you can communicate your vision
you must: 9. The easiest way to change a culture is
a. Understand why your vision inspires you a. rapidly as possible
b. Understand why you care about your b. by tossing out the old and bringing in the
vision new c. reassigning the executive team
c. Be aware of your own hopes, dreams, and D. Building on or strengthening existing
aspirations cultural elements
d. Be willing to let people see how much the E. By instituting new rules and not
vision matters to you tolerating any mistakes
e. All of the above
10. Time is most usefully viewed as:
4. Which one of these is not a characteristic a. something that doesn't pass in boring
of OD? meetings
a. any change b. a scarce resource
b. planned effectiveness c. a way of identifying lazy employees
c. long term d. money
d. aimed at increasing organization e. a tool for provide you with feedback
effectiveness

5. Who coined the terms espoused values

and values in action?
b. Edgar Schein
a. Eric Beme
c. Chrys Argyris
d. Peter Senge

6 . Which one of these contributions is not

credited to kurt lewin ?
a. Force field analysis
B. transactional analysis
c. unfreeze move freeze model
D. Action research
7. Which one of these does not belong to the
model of culture proposed by Edgar