Chapter 3: Values, Ethics and OD Practice

CHAPTER 3 VALUES, ETHICS AND OD PRACTICE. Chapter Authors: David Jamieson and William Gellermann. THE NTL HANDBOOK OF ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE. Principles, Practices and Perspectives. Editors: JONES, B. and BRAZZEL, M. (pp. 46-65)

Definitions: (pp. 46) Values: Standards of importance; such as Integrity, honesty, effectiveness, efficiency, productivity, profitability, service, quality of life. Values are guides about what to pursue and prefer. Ethics: Standards of good and bad behavior based on values. Organization Development: Value-based process of improving individuals, relationships, and alignment among organizational components to enhance the effectiveness of the organization and the quality of life of its members, to better serve the organizations purpose and its fit with the organization system of which the organization is a subsystem. OD Practice: Strategies and methods used in facilitating the OD process.

Values and Ethics in Organizations and Human Systems Development (www.odethicsclearinghouse.org) (pp.56, 57)

FUNDAMENTAL VALUES 1. LIFE AND THE QUEST FOR HAPPINESS: People respecting, appreciating, and loving the experience of their own and others being while engaging in search for and the process of co-creating a good life. 2. FREEDOM, RESPONSIBILITY AND SELF-CONTROL: People experiencing their freedom, exercising it responsibly, and being in charge of themselves. 3. JUSTICE: People living lives whose results are fair and equitable.

PERSONAL AND INTERPERSONAL VALUES (Larger Systems Values)

1. HUMAN POTENTIAL AND EMPOWERMENT: People being healthy and aware of the fullness of their potential, realizing their power to bring that potential into being, growing into it, living it, and generally doing the best they can, both individually and collectively. 2. RESPECT, DIGNITY, INTEGRITY, WORTH, AND FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS OF INDIVIDUALS AND OTHER HUMAN SYSTEMS: People appreciating one another and their rights as human beings, including life, liberty, and the Quest of Happiness. 3. AUTHENTICITY, CONGRUENCE, HONESTY AND OPENNESS, UNDERSTANDING AND ACCEPTANCE: People being true to themselves, acting consistently with their feelings, being honest and appropriately open with one another and both understanding and accepting others who do the same. 4. FLEXIBILITY, CHANGE AND PROACTION: People changing themselves and acting assertively in a continuing process whose aim is to maintain or achieve a good fit between themselves and the external reality within which they live.

SYSTEM VALUES (Values at personal and Interpersonal Levels) 1. LEARNING, DEVELOPMENT, GROWTH AND TRANSFORMATION: People growing in ways that bring into being greater realization of their potential, individually and collectively. 2. WHOLE-WIN ATTITUDES, COOPERATION-COLLABORATION, TRUST, COMMUNITY AND DIVERSITY: People caring about one-another and working together to achieve results that are good for everyone, experiencing the spirit of community and honoring the diverse that exists within it. 3. WIDESPREAD, MEANINGFUL PARTICIPATION IN SYSTEM AFFAIRS, DEMOCRACY, AND APPROPIATE DECISION MAKING: People participating as fully as possible in making decisions that affect their lives. 4. EFFECTIVENESS, EFFICIENCY, AND ALIGNMENT: People achieving desired results with an optimal balance between results and costs and coordinating the energy of systems, subsystems, and macro systems (especially energy, needs, and desires on human being within those systems) In the recent years, values such as Spirituality and Community are gaining voice, Sustainability is being raised, and Human Potential and Personal Development values are reemerging.

Ethics, Ethical Dilemmas and Ethical Competences. (pp. 59-62) Ethics based on values help OD practitioners guide themselves as they move along the paths of their work and lives.

OD Ethics: A Statement of Values and Ethics by Professionals in OD and HSD. (Gellermann,

Frankel, and Landenson. 1990) RESPONSIBILITY TO OURSELVES: Acting with integrity and Authenticity; striving for self-knowledge and personal growth; asserting individual interests in ways that are fair and equitable. RESPONSIBILITY FOR PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND COMPETENCE: Accepting responsibility for the consequence of our acts; developing and maintaining individual competence and establishing cooperative relations with other professionals; recognizing our own needs and desires, and dealing with them responsibly in the performance of our professional roles. RESPONSIBILTY TO CLIENTS AND SIGNIFICANT OTHERS: Serving the long-term well-being of our client system and stakeholders; conducting ourselves honestly, responsibly, and with appropriate openness; establishing mutual agreement on a fair contract. RESPONSIBILITY TO THE OD-HSD COMMUNITY: Contributing to the continuing professional development of other practitioners and field of practice; promoting the sharing of professional knowledge and skill; working with other professionals in ways that exemplify what the profession stands for. SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY: Acting with sensitivity to the consequences of our recommendations for our client system and the larger systems within they are a subsystem; acting with awareness of our cultural filters and with sensitivity to multinational and multicultural differences and their implications; promoting justice and serving the well-being of all life on earth.

Ethical Dilemmas: are created through the conflict among competing rights, obligations and interests. MISREPRESENTATION AND COLLUSION: including the illusion of participation, client presenting a partial picture, or adopting the clients bias. MISUSE OF DATA: including sharing confidential information or presenting partial data to support a prior conclusion. MANIPULATION AND COERCION: using undue practitioner influence, a client misleading a practitioner, or incorporating inappropriate threats and rewards to reach certain outcomes. VALUES AND GOALS CONFLICT: including differences on means or ends with clients or differences with a co practitioner. TECHNICAL INEPTNESS: including inappropriate intervention, shortchanging, diagnosis, or working beyond ones competence. CLIENT DEPENDENCY: including clients needing too much of the practitioners help or the practitioner not helping the client develop and learn capabilities. INTELLECTUAL HONESTY: showing up concepts, ideas, models, and tools in various forms in presentations, handouts, PP documents, and books, with no reference to the creators and the presumption that they were created by the current author.

Being aware of these ethical issues helps OD practitioners recognize and respond to them. It is crucial then to develop Ethical Competence through a reflective practice, for which practitioners have: Informed their intuition with a clear understanding of their own beliefs, values, ethics, and potential ethical challenges. Reflected on their own experiences to create a knowledge base for future actions. Practiced their use of values and ethics in a way that makes them available when they are needed (Model of ethical decision making).

Desired Intentions lead to Desired Outcomes: Choice is the central value of OD (Bernie, 1969) (pp. 62, 63) Most OD values involve personal conduct and how practitioners work with others. The central requirements to be an OD practitioner are: 1. To strive for authenticity, congruence, openness, and wholeness. 2. To be who we really are and not a set of personas. 3. To acknowledge the whole person intellectual, emotional, spiritual, physical and this complexity. 4. To model open exchange between people that leads to deeper understanding. 5. To strive for Integrity and to operate in a fair and just manner. 6. To be accountable and trustworthy. 7. To keep all stakeholders in mind and ensure equitable treatment and unbiased justice. 8. To include differences with respect and dignity and believe in the value and rights of diversity.