Health Behavior and Health Education
theory, research, and practice
theory, research, and practice
Organizational Development (OD) is a field of research, theory, and practice dedicated to expanding the knowledge and effectiveness of people to accomplish more successful organizational change and performance.
OD is a process of continuous diagnosis, action planning, implementation and evaluation, with the goal of transferring knowledge and skills to organizations to improve their capacity for solving problems and managing future change.
History and Application of Organizational Development Theory
OD emerged out of human relations studies from the 1930s where psychologists realized that organizational structures and processes influence worker behavior and motivation.
Lewin's work in the 1940s and 1950s also helped show that feedback was a valuable tool in addressing social processes.
More recently, work on OD has expanded to focus on aligning organizations with their rapidly changing and complex environments through organizational learning, knowledge management and transformation of organizational norms and values.
Key Concepts of Organizational Development Theory
Organizational Climate
Organizational Culture
Deeply seated norms, values and behaviors that members share.
The five basic elements of culture in organizations include:
The subjective features (assumptions, values and norms) reflect members' unconscious thoughts and interpretations of their organizations.
The subjective features shape the behaviors and artifacts take on within organizations
Organizational Strategies
A common OD approach used to help organizations negotiate change, i.e. action research, consists of four steps.