HANDOUT 1 IN ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Prepared by: Mr. Voltaire B. Torrion, CHRA, MBA

Learning Outcome:
At the end of the lesson the students can:
a. Discuss organizational development in your own point of view.
b. Discuss the general strategies affecting changes in human systems and toward third-wave
managing and consulting.
c. Elaborate the organization development and transformation & estimating the success of OD
application.

Organizational development (OD) focuses primarily on the human and social aspects of organizations; it
views organizational behavior as consisting essentially of the coordinated goal-directed activities of
several people. Other possible approaches to understanding and intervening in organizations exist one
can focus exclusively on organization structure and design, technology and task design, or organization
environment congruence. Organization development programs attend to these issues, but the principal
emphasis is on all the human aspect of the organization conceived as a social system.

Organization development is both a professional field of social action and an area of scientific inquiry.
The practice of OD covers a wide spectrum of activities, with seemingly endless variations upon them.
Team building with top corporate management, structural change in a municipality, and job enrichment
in a manufacturing firm are all examples of OD. Similarly, the study of OD addresses a broad range of
topics, including the effects of change, the methods of organizational change, and the factors influencing
OD success.

Definitions of Organization Development

 Organization development is a planned process of change in an organization’s culture through the
utilization of behavioral science technology, research, and theory. (Warner Burke)
 Organization development refers to a long-range effort to improve an organization’s problem-solving
capabilities and its ability to cope with changes in its external environment with the help of external or
internal behavioral-scientist consultants, or change agents, as they are sometimes called. (Wendell French)
 Organization development is an effort (1) planned, (2) organization-wide, and (3) managed from the top, to
(4) increase organization effectiveness and health through (5) planned interventions in the organization’s
“processes,” using behavioral science knowledge. (Richard Beckhard)
 Organization development is a systemwide process of data collection, diagnosis, action planning,
intervention, and evaluation aimed at (1) enhancing congruence among organizational structure, process,
strategy, people, and culture; (2) developing new and creative organizational solutions; and (3) developing
the organization’s selfrenewing capacity. It occurs through the collaboration of organizational members
working with a change agent using behavioral science theory, research, and technology. (Michael Beer)

A number of definitions of OD exist above. Each definition has a slightly different emphasis. For
example, Burke’s description focuses attention on culture as the target of change; French’s definition is
concerned with OD’s long term interest and the use of consultants; and Beckhard’s and Beer’s definitions
address
the process of OD. More recently, Burke and Bradford’s definition broadens the range and interests of
OD. Worley and Feyerherm suggested that for a process to be called organization development, (1) it
must focus on or result in the change of some aspect of the organizational system; (2) there must be
learning or the transfer of knowledge or skill to the client system; and (3) there must be evidence of
improvement in or an
intention to improve the effectiveness of the client system.

The following definition incorporates most of these views and is used in this handout:

Organization development is a systemwide application and transfer of behavioral science knowledge to the
planned development, improvement, and reinforcement of the strategies, structures, and processes that lead to
organization effectiveness.
This definition emphasizes several features that differentiate OD from other approaches to organizational
change and improvement, such as management consulting, innovation, project management, and
operations management.

The Growth and Relevance of Organization Development

Most book authors argued that organizations must adapt to increasingly complex and uncertain
technological, economic, political, and cultural changes. They also argued that OD could help an
organization to create effective responses to these changes and, in many cases, to proactively influence
the
strategic direction of the firm. The rapidly changing conditions of the past few years confirm our
arguments and accentuate their relevance. According to several observers, organizations are in the midst
of unprecedented uncertainty and chaos, and nothing short of a management revolution will save them.

Three major trends are shaping change in organizations: globalization, information technology, and
managerial innovation.
 Globalization is changing the markets and environments in which organizations operate as well as
the way they function. New governments, new leadership, new markets, and new countries are
emerging and creating a new global economy with both opportunities and threats.
 Information Technology is redefining the traditional business model by changing how work is
performed, how knowledge is used, and how the cost of doing business is calculated. The way an
organization collects, stores, manipulates, uses, and transmits information can lower costs or
increase the value and quality of products and services.
 Managerial Innovation has responded to the globalization and information technology trends and
has accelerated their impact on organizations. New organizational forms, such as networks,
strategic alliances, and virtual corporations, provide organizations with new ways of thinking
about how to manufacture goods and deliver services.

Characteristics of Organizational Development

1. It is a planned change effort. An OD program involves a systematic diagnosis of the organization,
the development of a strategic plan for improvement, and the mobilization of resources to carry
out the effort.
2. It involves the total system. An OD effort is related to total organization change such as a change in
the culture of reward systems or the total managerial strategy.
3. The top management of the system has a personal investment in the program and its It is managed
from the top. outcomes.
4. It is designed to increase organization effectiveness and health.
a. The total organization, the significant subparts, and individuals, manage their work
against goals and plans
b. Forms follows function (the problem, or task, project, determines how the human
resources are organized)
c. Decisions are made by and near the sources of information regardless of where these
sources are located on the organizational chart.
d. The reward system is such that managers and supervisors are rewarded (punished)
e. Communication laterally and vertically is relatively undistorted.
f. Constant effort exists at all levels to treat conflict, as problems subject to problem-solving
methods.
g. There is high “conflict” (clash of ideas) about tasks and projects, and relatively little
energy spent in clashing over interpersonal difficulties because they have been generally
work through.
h. The organization and its parts see themselves as interacting with each other and with a
larger environment.
i. There is a shred value, and management strategy to support it, of trying to help each
person (or unit) in the organization maintain his integrity and uniqueness in an
interdependent environment.
j. The organization and its members operate in an “action-research” way.
5. Organization development achieves its goals through planned interventions using behavior science
knowledge. A strategy is developed for intervening or moving into the existing organization and
 helping it. The interventions used draw on the knowledge and technology of the behavioral
sciences about such processes as individual motivation, power, communication, perception,
cultural norms, problem solving, goal setting, interpersonal relationships, intergroup
relationships and conflict management.

Timeline of Organizational Development History

o 1947 – National Training Laboratories founded in USA advances the research into applied
behavioral sciences, develops understanding of change agent role and experiential learning.
o 1950’s – Human Relations Movement growth of social and developmental psychology
o 1968 – Creation of the T-Group Lewin and Tavistock Institute develops unstructured group
laboratory training and action learning sets.
o 1974 – OD as Planned Approach to Change Friedlander and Brown research OD as a method of
planned changed effort
o 1980’s – General Systems Theory Neilsen and Schein promote OD as activities that influence the
social process within organization
o 1997- Organizational Effectiveness linking the application of OD in planned development
interventions to the improvement of organizational effectiveness.
o 2000’s to present – Complexity Theory OD continues to be informed by new insights and
research in a number of discipline including natural sciences, biology and physics as well as
developments in the social and behavioral aspects.

Pioneers in the Field of Organization Development

The field of Organization Development (OD) has evolved over the past 70 years as a result of the
research conducted by Kurt Lewin, a visionary psychologist and social scientist, who used rigorous
research methods to create an approach for planned change. He is responsible for introducing his
research to many early professionals who identified themselves as OD Professionals. He also introduced
us to the concept of T-groups which is now known as group dynamics and team development.

Lewin believed he could use the group dynamic process to overcome “the social restraints imposed on
groups by technology, economics, law, and politics.” He believed the use of “Force Field Analysis” could
help people identify the negative forces (pre-set standards) which acted as a barrier to positive forces.

In the early days of Organization Development, most OD professionals learned much about themselves
and group dynamics through T-Group experiences. Lewin was highly respected by his colleagues such
as Rensis Likert, Ken Benne, and Eric Trist, who later started the Tavistock Institute. Prior to this, Lewin
had desperately sought to find a way to escape Nazi Germany and wrote to many professors in the US.
In 1932, he was invited to Stanford University as a visiting professor. This was life-saving for Lewin, his
wife, and their daughter.

Lewin embraced the USA and passionately set out to strengthen democracy. He met Alfred Marrow,
CEO of Harwood Industries, who was studying for his Ph.D. They were interested in implementing a
participative approach to managing and changing organizations through democratic leadership and
employee involvement in decision making which resulted in measurable and sustainable productivity
improvement. Although Lewin passed away in 1947, Marrow continued his commitment to this
participatory approach to management.

In 1944, Lewin founded the Research Center for Group Dynamics at M.I.T. The purpose of the center was
to educate research workers in theoretical and applied fields of group dynamics. Along with Ron Lippitt,
the circle of influencers continued to grow and included Douglas McGregor (Massachusetts Institute of
Technology) and Gordan Allport (Harvard University). Lewin died in 1947, leaving behind many
articles, publications, and his life’s work to his followers.

While most believe Lewin is the founder of the term “Organization Development”, there is no evidence
that proves he ever used the term. According to Ron Lippitt, the term was coined by the groups of
National Training Labs (NTL) consultants, Robert Blake and Herbert Shepard, and Richard Beckhard and
Douglas McGregor. Most of the pioneers in the field of OD became involved in NTL and were
committed to the promotion of T-Groups. Lewin and his associates conceptualized the T-Group process
and created an experimental group called Basic Skills Training (BST) that was to be conducted in Bethel,
Maine in the summer of 1947. Sadly, Lewin passed away before the event. However, the group still met
with Ron Lippitt and others at the helm of the 3-week training event. The purpose of the training was to
create a training center for teams to learn how to lead action training-research projects in organizations
and requires advanced skills and experience leading projects in order to become qualified to conduct this
type of training. During the 1960s, T-groups become a fad in management training with over 20,000
leaders attending NTL workshops. In addition, a growing number of OD practitioners went through
extensive T-Group training as part of their professional development as change agents.

For more detailed information about Kurt Lewin, read Gilmore Crosby’s book on Planned Change, 2021.

Overview of other pioneers in the field of OD:

Eric Trist was a leading figure in the field of Organizational Development. He is also one of the founders
of the Tavistock Institute for Social Research in London. In 1949, his organizational research work with
Ken Bamsforth, studying work crews in a coal mine, resulted in the famous article, “Some Social and
Psychological Consequences of the Longwall Method of Coal Getting.”

Trist, in collaboration with Fred Emery, developed the socio-technical systems model along with others at
the Tavistock Institute. The model analyzes an organization as a socio-technical system, one that interacts
with the external environment. Trist stated every organization is made up of a social system consisting of
a network of interpersonal relationships and a technological system consisting of tasks, activities, and
tools needed to accomplish the organization’s purpose. The systems are both interrelated and
interdependent. Diagnosis determines how these interrelate emphasizing the feedback or lack of it
between the various subsystems.

Carl Rogers (1902-1987) was a humanistic psychologist who agreed with the main assumptions of
Abraham Maslow’s motivation theories. However, Rogers (1959) added that for a person to “grow”, they
need an environment that provides them with genuineness (openness and self-disclosure), acceptance
(being seen with unconditional positive regard), and empathy (being listened to and understood). He also
saw the value of basic encounter groups as an instrument of self-directed change. He believed that the
individual is strengthened by the group experience as he or she learns to trust their experience. He also
contributed to the field of behavior psychology with his approach to counseling using techniques such as
asking open-end questions, showing empathy, listening, mirroring, reflecting, directing, feedback and
guiding.

Rensis Likert was an educator and organizational psychologist known for his research on management
styles and as the founder of the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research. Dr. Likert’s work
includes his research on human behavior within organizations, especially in industrial situations,
examining different types of organizations and leadership styles. He maintained that in order to achieve
maximum profitability, good labor relations, and high productivity; organizations need to make
optimum use of their human assets. He contended that the style of organization leadership that makes
the best use of its human capacity is highly effective workgroups linked together in an overlapping
pattern by other similarly effective groups.

He is known for developing the Systems Four Management Styles, a systems-wide intervention, and the
Likert Scale, a measurement device to determine the degree to which an organization approximates the
System Four Parameters.

According to his work, organizations have varying types of management styles from autocratic to
supportive:
1. Exploitive-authoritative
2. Benevolent-authoritative
3. Consultative
4. Participative – being the most effective.
Ron Lippitt was an innovator throughout his distinguished career, recognized as one of the founders of
group dynamics and “T-groups” (sensitivity groups), the co-founder of the National Training Center for
Group Dynamics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and again later as a co-founder of the
Center on the Research for the Utilization of Scientific Knowledge at the University of Michigan. He
worked with Leland Bradford for 10 years helping build and develop National Training Labs (NTL) and
was associated with NTL for over 30 years. He spent 21 years at George Washington University as a
faculty and researcher, was the founder of Leadership Resources, Inc., and Project Associates, Inc. A
pioneer in the development of experimental social psychology, Lippitt is renowned for his classic work
on the effects of democratic, autocratic, and laissez-faire leadership of small groups, and for his later
work on planned change. His seven-step theory of change is based on the concept of an external agent
creating change through careful planning, diagnosis, assess organization’s capacity and organization
structure, assess change agent’s motivation and resources and commitment, identify change objectives,
the change process, and develop action plans and strategies, explain the role of the change agent,
maintain the change through feedback, gradually transfer learning and terminate the role of the change
agent.

Edgar Schein is one of the founders of organizational psychology and a pioneer of the study of
organizational cultures. In his landmark book Organizational Culture and Leadership, he explains what
culture is, what it does, and how it relates to organizational effectiveness. His views on the theory and
practice of dialogue believes it is a necessary vehicle for understanding cultures. He believes that
dialogue is a central element in models related to organizational transformation.

In his work, Process Consultation, he defined one of the key philosophical underpinnings to organization
development. He stated that in process consultation, the consultant and client work as a team, each
bringing skills, and information that are needed to diagnose problems, determine next steps, and
implement solutions. One of the best descriptions of process consultation is his work, Process
Consultation: Its role in Organization Development. He defines this process as, “a set of activities on the
part of the consultant that help the client to perceive, understand, and act upon the process events that
occur in the client’s environment in order to improve the situation as defined by the client.” (Schein, 1968)

Schein also helped us rethink the practice of career management and development. He described career
dynamics as to how careers evolve from the interaction between employees and the company. He
developed the Career Anchors Assessment.

Douglas McGregor was a student of Abraham Maslow. He has contributed much to the development of
management and motivational theory, and is best known for his Theory X and Theory Y as presented in
his book, ‘The Human Side of Enterprise’ (1960), which proposed that a manager’s individual
assumptions about human nature and behavior determined how an individual manages their employees.
His revolutionary insights into the nature of leadership and management changed the relationship
between managers and employees, paving the way for best practices implemented by some of today’s
most successful companies.

Robert Crosby was a T-group participant in 1953 and was mentored by Lewin associates Ken Benne,
Leland Bradford, and Ronald Lippitt. Crosby worked closely with Mr. Wallen from 1968 to 1975, co-
leading several National Training Laboratories T-groups during that time.

Robert has a history, dating back to the 1950s, of helping organizations in both the public and private
sectors meet or exceed their targeted goals. Crosby & Associates founder Robert P. Crosby crafted his
own approach to change and group dynamics by applying lessons he learned as a community organizer
to the business challenges of project and change management. As a result of his exposure early in his
professional life to some of the founders of organizational development, he uses a transformational
approach to emotionally intelligent leadership.

Richard Beckhard (1918 -1999). He credited for developing the GRPI model of team effectiveness, which
highlights four key conditions (Growth, Roles, Processes, Interpersonal) for teams to succeed. He was
among the pioneer consultants who in the 1950s invented the field of organization development (OD to
describe a consulting approach that was an innovative bottoms-up change effort.
When describing possible intervention strategies Beckhard made several assumptions about the nature
and functioning of organizations including:
1. The basic building blocks of an organization are groups (teams). Therefore, the basic units of
change are groups, not individuals.
2. An always relevant change goal is the reduction of inappropriate competition between parts of
the organization and the development of a more collaborative condition.
3. Decision making in a healthy organization is located where the information sources are, rather
than in a particular role or level of hierarchy.

Reference/s:
 Organization Development & Change. Thomas G. Cummings & Christopher G. Worley.
South-Western Cengage Learning. Copyright © 2008
 Beckhard, Richard. Organization Development: Strategies and Models. Reading, MA:
Addison-Wesley, 1969.
 https://instituteod.com/pioneers-field-organization-development/