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History of Organizational Development

Name

Course

Date

Tutor
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History of Organizational Development.

Origination of Organizational Development (OD) and the purpose of its creation.

Kurt Lewin founded organizational Development (OD) in the early 1940s. According to

Scherer et al., (2015), Lewin played a significant role in OD’s evolution when He and his team

of consultants participated in a company project whose aim was to perform action research in

understanding people’s behaviour at work through planning, reacting to actions, and evaluating

results. Also, Lewin started a form of learning referred to as T-groups (Laboratory training),

which enabled participants involved in the study to learn and gain experiences from their actions

or groups members over time. His compatriots further developed the idea after his death and the

purpose of the OD was to enhance organizations’ health and effectiveness using interventions in

its processes with the help of Behavioural, social knowledge.

How has OD changed during the past 80 years and Why?

From its beginning, when Kurt Lewin developed ideas, such as dynamics associated with

groups, action research, and the stages of the change process, that formed the basis of OD.

However, over the years, several researchers have been able to develop and improve these ideas

to enhance organizations’ ability to coup with the changing situations and times (Burke, 2015).

Burke (2015) also indicates that the adoption of Organizational Development by several

countries in the world has necessitated the conception of new interventions to enable

organizations to seize new opportunities associated with Information technology and

globalization. The change has also been influential in ensuring organizations’ growth, survival,

and sustainability.
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Analysis of OD values and ethics and their importance to OD’s credibility.

Organizational Development emphasizes ensuring there is a growth of trust among

employees in a company. Also, it prioritizes and stresses on the significance of human values

and ensuring every person is treated as a complex being with the ability to grown and develop.

Moreover, the values provided an increased level of self and group responsibility in planning

encouraging people to progress in their affairs. These values indicated that the OD system was

effective in ensuring personnel productivity is increased, and organizational performance and

management are enhanced.

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References

Burke, W. W., & Noumair, D. A. (2015). Organization development: A process of learning and

changing. FT Press.

Scherer, J. J., Alban, B., & Weisbord, M. (2015). The organization development (OD) profession

was born from pioneer ful. Practicing Organization Development: Leading

Transformation and Change, 26.