Understanding Organisation Development

Paul Tosey

• Publisher: CIPD - Kogan Page
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781843984146
• eBook ISBN: 9781843984306
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Organisational Development
• Index: Business

Understanding Organisation Development is essential reading for students studying Organisation Development (OD) as part of a wider HR degree or professional qualification, is the core textbook for the CIPD level 5 Unit 5UOD, and is ideal for professionals looking for a solid theoretical grounding that they can apply in practice. With a clear and accessible format, it will enable readers to understand and analyse the concept of Organisation Development (OD) and its relationship with learning and development (L&D), and develop their understanding of the evolution of OD in contemporary organisations and its role in contributing to major organisational change.Working step-by-step through the broad framework of OD, Understanding Organisation Development takes the reader through its concept and purposes, historical development, the relationship between OD and HRM, the different models of OD and the common processes involved. This essential text will give you a thorough understanding of the knowledge, skills and behaviours required to function effectively in an OD practitioner role.

01

The Concept and Key Purposes of Organisation Development

In this chapter we will explore the concept and key purposes of organisation development and the relationship of organisation development with the learning and development function.

The concept of organisation development

What is organisation development?

Organisation development (OD) is a long-established and prominent approach to organisational change. As change is considered by many authors to be the norm for all organisations these days, OD potentially has a very important role to play.

Reflecting this, OD features on the CIPD Profession Map (Figure 1.1) and is therefore a significant element in the HR practitioner’s repertoire of knowledge and skills.

Figure 1.1 CIPD Profession Map

CIPD Profession Map

All rights in the CIPD profession map are owned by CIPD

Note the focus of this ebook is on OD as a practical and theoretical approach towards improving organisations and managing change. Be aware that you might come across the term OD being used in other closely related ways, for example:

• Organisation development as a (quasi) ‘profession’, comprising those people who practise OD. For example the OD Network (www.odnetwork.org) describes itself as ‘an international, professional association whose members are committed to practicing organization development intentionally and rigorously as an applied behavioral science.’
• Organisation development as the name of a function or department in some organisations. Such departments usually exist for the purpose of supporting organisational change and development. Sometimes OD functions are part of the HR structure. Their approach may or may not use, and is unlikely to be confined to, the OD approach described in this ebook.

An example of an OD function is that at Surrey County Council, a local government organisation in the south of England, which has a department titled ‘Human Resources and Organisational Development’. This provides:

A streamlined service of multi-skilled professionals, ready to support Surrey County Council with the demands of being an employer of choice. Some key areas of focus are:

• Supporting the organisation to manage, engage and develop staff
• Ensuring that our policies, practises and procedures remain fit for purpose
• To advocate the importance of growing our own talent, up skilling our staff and supporting the organisation to develop capability, capacity and effective workforce planning. (Surrey County Council 2015)

EXERCISE 1.2

1. Compare Beckhard’s classic definition with the CIPD Factsheet definition of OD as a ‘planned and systematic approach to enabling sustained organisation performance through the involvement of its people’. Which definition do you favour and why?
2. (Optionally) search for an alternative definition of OD and compare it with these two.

Key purposes of OD

Egan (2001) examined 27 definitions of OD and asked a number of OD experts to identify what was common in those definitions. This resulted in the following list, which suggests that the principal functions of OD are to:

1. advance organisational renewal
2. engage organisation culture change
3. enhance profitability and competitiveness
4. ensure health and well-being of organisations and employees
5. facilitate learning and development
6. improve problem solving
7. effectiveness
8. initiate and/or manage change
9. strengthen system and process improvement
10. support adaptation to change.

We might distil this down to four key purposes:

• to enable an organisation to innovate and survive
• to improve the performance of an organisation and its people
• to enhance the health of an organisation and its people
• to manage the process of change.

To sum up, there are many possible definitions of OD. Features identified in Beckhard’s classic definition are that OD is a planned approach that applies to an entire system, is top-down, is oriented to improving organisational effectiveness and health and employs behavioural science knowledge. As we shall see, OD has incorporated many contemporary developments since Beckhard formulated that definition. The list put forward in Egan’s study reflects a consensus among experts about the principal functions that continue to characterise OD.

The historical development of OD

This section outlines the historical development of OD from its origins in the USA and the UK to a more contemporary focus on culture, transformation and change management. Recent developments include the emergence of a ‘dialogic’ form of OD that sits alongside its more traditional, ‘diagnostic’ form.

Where did OD begin?

Why study the history of OD? Going to the roots of a practice can give you a valuable longitudinal perspective, providing a healthy respect for the contexts in which earlier practitioners worked and help you better understand debates about the theory and practice of OD. Understanding the origins of practices you might employ as an HR professional can help you avoid ‘reinventing the wheel’. However, be reassured that there is plenty of contemporary material, including case studies, elsewhere in this ebook.

In this section, among other things, you will discover why a pyjama factory has a significant role in the origins of OD; and that a tension between concern for the individual’s well-being and organisational performance, which practitioners regularly encounter today, has been a thread running throughout OD’s history.

Although it is clear that the label ‘OD’ became prominent initially in the 1950s and 1960s, in both the USA and the UK, there are varying views on its origins. Adopting the analogy of a mangrove tree to reflect the multi-stranded activities from which OD grew, French et al (2000) identify four ‘trunk stems’:

1. laboratory training (T-Groups)
2. survey research and feedback methodology
3. action research
4. the Tavistock sociotechnical approach.

These terms will all be explained in this section and Chapter 2.

EXPLORE FURTHER

French and Bell’s chapter ‘A History of Organization Development’ (French et al 2000) provides an informative account.

French and Bell also identify a number of prominent theorists and practitioners who contributed to those stems and to subsequent developments, including Richard Beckhard (the author of the definition we discussed above), Chris Argyris, Robert Blake and Jane Mouton, Douglas MacGregor and Warren Bennis among others.

Another view comes from Burnes and Cooke (2012), who argue that taking a ‘long view’ of OD entails going back earlier than the 1950s, as far as the 1930s. In particular, they emphasise the prime influence of Kurt Lewin, whose work is probably key to understanding the nature and principles of OD.

Offal, pyjamas and ice cubes: the work of Kurt Lewin

Kurt Lewin (1890–1947) was a social scientist whose early career involved doctoral studies and teaching at the University of Berlin. With interests already in promoting social justice and democracy, the rise of Nazism prompted him to emigrate to th...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of figures
• Understanding Organisation Development
• 1 The Concept and Key Purposes of Organisation Development
• 2 Organisation Development Models, Tools and Techniques
• 3 The Organisation Development Practitioner: Roles, Styles, Processes and Skills
• References
• Multiple Choice Questions
• Answers to Multiple Choice Questions