Organisational Development

Concept:
Organisational development is an intervention strategy that uses group
processes to focus on the whole culture of an organisation in order to bring about
planned change. Organisational development is important form the point of view of
society, customers and workers themselves because overall costs are reduced that
may be a result of reduction of wastes of human efforts, and machines etc, in
addition to that quality of the product improves and more effective organisational
climate is developed.
Different types of conventional training have been developed for the workers
but in 196o's a new integrated type of training programme was developed known as
organisational development. It is a transition period strategy to equip the workers
with the changes made in the organisation. The environment in the traing and that
on the job is quite different. This organisational development programme is carried
out after the training programme was over, till the workers have full knowledge of
work on the job. This is a strategy which utilises groups to concentrate on the whole
culture of the organisation in order to implement changes in a planned way.
In the words of Keith Davis, Organisational development is an intervention
strategy that uses group processes to focus on the whole culture of an organisation in
order to bring change. It seeks to change beliefs, attitude, values, struetures and
practices-in fact, the entire culture of the organisation- so that the organisation can
better adapt to technology and line with the fast pace of change.
According to Dale 8. Beach, organisation development (OD) is, "a complex
educational strategy designed to increase organisational effectiveness and wealth
through planned intervention by a consultant using theory and techniques of applied
behavioural service."
According to George R. Terry, "Organisational development includes efforts to
improve results by getting the best from employees, individually and as members of
working groups."
Actually developmental is a continuous process and it accommodates in itself
many changes that occur in science and technology, economic, market, political
environment, education, knowledge, values, attitude and behaviour of people, culture
etc. Organisation development is a part of overall development in general. It cannot
remain unaffected by the developmental process. The organisation has to change the
beliefs, values and its structure to accommodate the new ideas, beliefs and new
technologies for progress.
This is very essential. The organisation must respond to changes. So that it
can face the challenges ahead. The management of human resources depends upon
organisational effectiveness. Human resources form the main plank of any
organisation. Humans are affected by change. Organisation development
accommodates and incorporates variety of planned changes based on humanistic
democratic values, technology that are sought to improve the effectiveness of
organisation and well being of its employees.
Organisation is an open system and therefore must develop itself by adopting
various changes to meet the challenges thrown out by the constantly changing
environment.
OD incorporates various changes and accordingly takes up management
development and training programmes to cope up with the situation.
Organisation development takes the help of social sciences such as psychology
and sociology and anthropology. A continuous research and theory building is the
crux for OD because it concerns with people.
1
 effectiveness. OD
involves the changes over
organisational
manner in work culrure
helpsincreasing
it
and planned
time in systematic The help from
a
long period of its people, process, strategy, objectives etc.
organisation structure, maintaining organisational
sciences to develop and
is sought
social
various other
health and soothing climate. a training to
the employeesto
is just like
organisational development may oe
Thus way to so
that the necessary changes
in a planned and it is posslbDIE
mould themselvesorganisation without much resistances of workers structures
introduced in the
culture i.e. beliefs, attitudes, values,
in the whole
only through the change
and processes of the organisation.
Characteristics of Organisation Development:
has the following characteristics: seeking
Organisation development departments and subsystems
all the
1. is planned involving
Programme
their coordination. for organisation
is committed to the programmes
management
2. The top
development.
It is related to organisational
objectives. because
interventions
3 research. Continuous research goes on

OD is based on
4
are based on findings. of people to accept the changes
motivate the group
It utilises change agents to
5.
within the organisation as
a part of OD.
the behaviour of people. the changes that
OD lays stress on changing
6. to cope up with
various groups
interaction between
7 ItODseeks
will incorporate. the developments.
should know about
is made so that people
8. Propagation
Feedback is taken.
to the problems
is sought. All problem
discussions solutions
9. OD through constitute action
research.
solving research
10. OD takes pretty long time to implement.
Organisational Development Process

INTAL OUAONOSIS

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OATA COLLECnoN

TEAM DULOUNO

DATA PEED BACK

WTEMETK
PLANINO S T R A T E O Y

Problem: view of the

1. Diagnosis of the
Initial should try to find out an overall
the management consultants and
In the first step, management
should meet the
real problem. Top that is needed. In the
first stage
situation to find the
determine the type of programme
and interview
the experts to various persons iîn the organisation
consultants i l l meet
only, the information.
them to collect
some

2. Data Collection: to determine the climate of

will make the surveys
consultant
In this stage, the of the employees.
and the behavioural problems
the organisation
The consultant will meet groups of people away from their work environment to get
some answers to the questions such as:
) What specific job conditions contribute most to their job effectiveness?
(i)What kind of conditions interferes with their job effectiveness?
ii) What changes would they like to make in the working of the organisation?
3. Data Feedback and Confrontation:
The data which has been collected in the second step will be given to the work
groups, who will be assigned the job of reviewing the data. Any areas of disagreement
will be mediated amongthemselves only and priorities will be established for change.
4. Planning Strategy for Change:
In this stage, the consultant will suggest the strategy for change. He will
attempt to transform diagnosis of the problem into a proper action plan involving the
overall goals for change, determination of basic approach for attaining these goals
and the sequence of detailed scheme for implementing the approach.
5. Intervening in the System
Intervening in the system refers to the planned programmed activities during
the course of an OD programme. These planned activities bring certain changes in
the system, which is the basic objective of OD. There may be various methods
education and
through which external consultant intervene in the system such as
laboratory training, process consultation, team development etc.
6. Team Building:
to examine
During the entire process, the consultant encourages the groupsvalue of free
how they work together. The consultant will educate them about the
communication and trust as essentials for group functioning. The consultant can
a team in OD
have team managers and their subordinates to work together as
sessions to further encourage team building. Following the development
of small
several teams.
groups, there may be development among larger groups comprising
7. Evaluation:
OD is a very long process. So there is a great need for careful monitoring to get
starts. This will
precise feedback regarding what is going on after the OD programme
For evaluation of OD
help in making suitable modifications whenever of necessary.
programme, the use of critique sessions, appraisal changeefforts and comparison
of pre and post training behavioural patterns are quite effective.
The steps in OD are part of a whole process, so all of them need to be applied
if a firm expects to benefits of OD. An organisation which
get the full applies only a
with the results.
few steps and leaves the others will be disappointed