History of Organizational Development

By : Tedwin Thomas
MBA - HR
 History of OD
Kurt Lewin (18981947) is
widely recognized as the
founding father of OD,
although he died before
the concept became
current in the mid-1950s.
From Lewin came the
ideas of group dynamics
and action research which
underpin the basic OD
process as well as
providing its collaborative
consultant/client ethos.
 History of OD
Institutionally, Lewin
founded the "Research
Center for Group
Dynamics" (RCGD) at MIT,
which moved to Michigan
after his death.
RCGD colleagues were
among those who
founded the National
Training Laboratories
(NTL), from which the T-
Groups and group-based
OD emerged.
 History of OD
Douglas McGregor and Richard
Beckhard while "consulting
together at General Mills in the
1950s, the two coined the term
organization development (OD) to
describe an innovative bottoms-
up change effort that fit no
traditional consulting categories"
 History of OD
1947 National Training
Laboratories Founded NTL in USA
advances the research into applied
behavioural sciences, develops
understand of change agent role and
experiential learning.

1950s Human Relations

Movement Growth of social and
developmental psychology.
 History of OD
1951 Socio-Technical System Thinking
(STS) Tavistock Institute (UK) research
shows that combining social factors with
technological changes increases
effectiveness, efficiency and moral.

1967 Survey Research Methods Likert

and Mann pioneer survey feedback to help
organizational leaders understand the
impact they have on the people and
performance of the organization.
 History of OD
1968 Creation of the T Group Lewin (USA)
and Tavistock Institute develops unstructured
group laboratory training, and action learning
sets.

1974 OD as Planned approach to Change

Friedlander and Brown research OD as a
method of planned change effort

1980s General Systems Theory Neilsen and

Schein promote OD as activities that influence
the social processes within an organisation. -
 History of OD
1997 Organizational
Effectiveness Linking the
application of OD in planned
development interventions to
the improvement of
organizational effectiveness.
2000s to Present Complexity
Theory OD continues to be
informed by new insights and
research in a number of
disciplines including natural
sciences, biology and physics as
well as developments in the
social and behavioural sciences.
 Five Stems of OD Practice
Laboratory Training

Action Research/Survey Feedback

Current Practice
Participative Management

Quality of Work Life

Strategic Change

1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000

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