The Organization Development Practitioner

Who is the OD Practitioner?

O They may be internal or external

consultants who offer professional services to organizations, including their top managers, functional department heads, and staff groups. O They may be those specializing in fields related to OD, such as reward systems, organization design, total quality, information technology, and business strategy.

Who is the OD Practitioner?

O The increasing number of managers and

administrators who have gained competence in OD and who apply it to their own work areas.

O The three primary tasks of the OD practitioner or

interventionist, Argyris (1970) 1. Generate and help clients to generate valid information that they can understand about their problems. 2. Create opportunities for clients to search effectively for solutions to their problems, to make free choices. 3. Create conditions for internal commitment to their choices and opportunities for the continual monitoring of the action taken.

Competencies of an Effective OD Practitioner

KNOWLEDGE

Foundation Competencies
O Organization Behavior
O Organization Culture O Work Design

O Interpersonal Relations
O Power and Politics O Leadership O Goal-Setting

O Conflict
O Ethics

O Individual Psychology
O Learning theory O Motivation theory

O Perception theory

O Group Dynamics
O Roles O Communication Processes O Decision-Making Processes O Stages of Group Development O Leadership

O Management and Organization Theory

O Planning, organizing, leading, and

O
O O O O O

controlling Problem solving and decision making Systems theory Contingency theory Organization structure Characteristics of environment and technology Models of organization and system

O Research Methods / Statistics

O Measures of central tendency O Measures of dispersion

O Basic sampling theory

O Basic experimental design O Sample inferential statistics

O Comparative Cultural Perspectives

O Dimensions of natural culture O Dimensions of industry culture O Systems implications

O Functional Knowledge of Business

O Interpersonal communication O Collaboration / working together

O Problem solving
O Using new technology O Conceptualizing O Project management O Present / education / coach

Core Competencies
O Organization design O Organization research O System dynamics O History of organization O Theories and models for change

Competencies of an Effective OD Practitioner

SKILLS

Core Competencies
O Managing the consulting process O Analysis/diagnosis O Designing/choosing appropriate, relevant

interventions O Facilitation and process consultation O Developing client capability O Evaluating organization change

The Organization Development Practitioner

Professional Values

O Traditionally, OD practitioners have promoted a set

of values under a humanistic framework including a concern for inquiry and science, democracy, and being helpful. They have sought to build trust and collaboration; to create an open, problem-solving climate; and to increase the self-control of organization members. O More recently, they have extended those values to include a concern for improving organizational effectiveness and performance. They have shown an increasing desire to optimize both human benefits and production objectives.

O In addition to value issues within organizations,

OD practitioners are dealing more and more with value conflicts with powerful outside groups. Organizations are open systems and exist within increasingly turbulent environments. Those external groups often have different and competing values for judging the organizations effectiveness. O Practitioners must have not only social skills but also political skills, They must understand the distribution of power, conflicts of interest, and value dilemmas inherent in managing external relationships, and be able to manage their own role and values with respect to those dynamics.

O Interventions promoting collaboration and system

maintenance may be ineffective in a larger arena, especially when there are power and dominance relationships among organizations and competition for scarce resources. Under those conditions, they may need more power-oriented interventions, such as bargaining, coalition forming, and pressure tactics.

The Organization Development Practitioner

Professional Ethics

O Ethical issues in OD are concerned with how

practitioners perform their helping relationship with organization members. Inherent in any helping relationship is the potential for misconduct and client abuse. OD practitioners can let personal values stand in the way of good practice or use the power inherent in their professional role to abuse (often unintentionally) organization members.

O Ethical Guidelines O Ethical Dilemmas

O Misrepresentation
O Misuse of Data O Coercion O Value and Goal Conflict O Technical Ineptness