CHAPTER 1

Introduction
LEARNING OUTCOMES
• After studying this chapter, you should be able to:
– Describe both organisation development (OD) and organisation
transformation (OT), and explain their similarities and differences.
– Explain the relevance of OD and its role within organisations.
– Analyse the evolutionary historical context of OD and have an
understanding of its future.
– Assess the environment of OT and comment on its relevance in
today’s change environment.

Critical Question: What are the major challenges

facing managers in today’s work environment?
MANAGING IN A CHANGING
ENVIRONMENT
‘For the purposes of sustainability, organisations need
to be able to implement both incremental and
transformational change.’
(see Kammen, 1999, cited in Waddell, 6e, p.3)

‘[Managing change] requires organisational and

management skills to compete in a mature market and
develop new products and services.’
(Tushman & O’Reilly, 1996)
MANAGING IN A CHANGING
ENVIRONMENT
 WHAT IS YOUR THEORY OF
CHANGE?
• Do you think change moves in a straight line from A
to B? Or is it more circular?
• How do you react to change? How does your family
react? How did your parents react?
• How do you make sense of Figure 1.1? What are
the main elements involved in a process of change?
• Is the management of change necessary?
Important?

Class Activity: Talk to your classmates and

jot down a few ideas.
WHAT IS ORGANISATION
DEVELOPMENT?
Organisation development is a system wide
application of behavioural science knowledge to the
planned development and reinforcement of
organisational strategies, structures and processes
for improving an organisation’s effectiveness.

Critical Question: Why have these words,

or phrases, been underlined?
ORGANISATION DEVELOPMENT:
VIEWS FROM THE FIELD
Warner Burke (1982)
Organisation development is a planned process of
change in an organisation’s culture through the
utilisation of behavioural science technology,
research and theory.

Critical Question and Activity: What does this mean to

you? Discuss some examples amongst the class.
Wendell French (1969)
Organisation development refers to a long-range
effort to improve an organisation’s problem-solving
capabilities and its ability to cope with changes in its
external environment with the help of external or
internal behavioural-scientist consultants, or change
agents, as they are sometimes called.

Critical Question: What does this mean to you? Is this

better or worse than the previous definition?
Richard Beckhard (1969)
Organisation development is an effort:

(1) planned, (2) organisation-wide, and (3) managed

from the top, to (4) increase organisation
effectiveness and health through (5) planned
interventions in the organisation’s ‘processes’, using
behavioural science knowledge.

Critical Question: Does real change always need to be

managed from the top? Why/why not?
Michael Beer (1980)
Organisation development is a system-wide process of
data collection, diagnosis, action planning, intervention
and evaluation aimed at:
1.Enhancing congruence between organisational structure,
process, strategy, people and culture
2.Developing new and creative organisational solutions, and
3.Developing the organisation’s self-renewing capacity

For Beer, OD occurs through the collaboration of

organisational members working with a change agent
using behavioural science theory, research and
technology.
Dexter Dunphy & Doug Stace (1994)
Organisation development is a ‘soft’ approach that
describes a process of change undertaken in small
incremental steps managed participatively.

Critical Questions: Is OD always a ‘soft’ process?

What do you understand this to mean?
Does it have to be participative?
Warner Burke & David Bradford(2005)
Based on a set of values, largely humanistic,
application of the behavioural sciences, and open
systems theory, organisation development is a
system-wide process of planned change aimed
toward improving overall organisation effectiveness
by way of enhanced congruence of such key
organisation dimensions as external environment,
mission, strategy, leadership, culture, structure,
information and regard systems, and work policies
and procedures.
Critical Questions: What are humanistic values?
Why are values included here?
WHAT MAKES OD UNIQUE?
1. OD applies to an entire system
2. OD is based on behavioural science knowledge
and practice
3. OD is oriented to improve an organisation’s
effectiveness through processes of adaptive
development
4. OD creates change and also reinforces it
5. OD encompasses strategy, structure and process
changes
6. OD is oriented towards improving organisational
effectiveness
CLASS ACTIVITY AND CRITICAL
QUESTIONS
• Give examples to delineate between OD and
OT.
• What are the major differences?
• Can you suggest a ‘middle ground’ or
compromise?

Refer to Figure 1.2 if necessary.

THE INTERDEPENDENCY OF
CHANGE PROCESSES

Critical Activity: Apply an example of where this change process is

evident. (That is, if you change one aspect then it has
an impact on all other facets.)
WHY STUDY ORGANISATIONAL
DEVELOPMENT?
The knowledge gained from studying organisation
development is playing an increasingly important role
in helping organisations change themselves. There
are three major trends to which organisations need to
understand and respond effectively:
•Globalisation is changing markets and environments
•Information technology is changing work and knowledge
•Managerial innovation is responding to these trends and
accelerating their effect on organisations
SHORT HISTORY OF OD:
FIVE DEVELOPMENTS
CLASS ACTIVITY AND CRITICAL
QUESTIONS
Referring to Figure 1.4:
Can you add what have been the developments
over the past five years?

What are the current OD practices?

Hint: In updating the figure, consider recent

management fads and fashions that
have/have not lasted the test of
time (e.g. Quality Management).
LABORATORY TRAINING
Origin: T-groups
• Kurt Lewin’s research: unstructured group in which
participants learn from their own interactions and evolving
dynamics about such issues as interpersonal relations,
personal growth, leadership and group dynamics.
Now: Team Building
• T-group style development expanded into business and
industry.

Critical Questions: This technique is now used in

recruitment strategies. How is this done? Have you
had experience of such a process? Does this remind
you of the TV series ‘Survivor’?
ACTION RESEARCH/SURVEY
FEEDBACK
Origin
• Researchers John Collier, Kurt Lewin and William
Whyte found that research must be closely linked to
action to be useful in managing change.
Now
• OD practitioners now use action research cycles and
surveys to help gather information about an issue or
problem before a change process starts.

Class Debate: ‘It is not the process of gaining

feedback, but what you do with it.’
PARTICIPATIVE MANAGEMENT
Origin
• Likert found that participative management was the
most effective way to make change happen. He
identified four systems:
1. Exploitative authoritative systems (autocratic; top-
down)
2. Benevolent authoritative systems (paternalistic)
3. Consultative systems (workers involved;
management decides)
4. Participative systems (managers and staff involved
in all levels of decision making).
PARTICIPATIVE MANAGEMENT
(CONT.)
Now
• Debates about levels of staff involvement in
managing change.

Critical Question: What are the issues of

importance in these debates?
PRODUCTIVITY AND QWL
Origin
• Eric Trist examined the technical and human sides of
organisations and how they interrelate.
• Aimed at improving productivity AND quality of workers’
lives: an early example of win-win.
Now
• Strongly aligned to TQM developed by Deming and
Duran and pioneered by Toyota, Ericsson and
Sheraton.
STRATEGIC CHANGE
Origin
Beckhard was one of the first to use strategic thinking
to align both the organisation’s relationship to its
environment and the fit between its technical, political and
cultural systems.
Now

A competitive OD strategy involves the whole

organisation and is multi-levelled: might include finance
and marketing, as well as using team building, action
research and survey feedback.
Critical Thinking Activity
The previous approached are evidence that
there is ‘nothing new’ and that today’s theories
are the evolution of previous approaches. For
example,
• is HRM based on Machiavelli’s The Prince?
• Is Strategic Management based on General Sun Tzu’s
The Art of War?

Critical Activity: Research these publications and

identify similarities.
THE EVOLUTION OF OD
Expansion of the OD network
• Growth in professional societies
• Growth in educational programs
New theorists, researchers & practitioners
• Gen 1: Argyris, Bennis, Schein, Beckhard & Tannenbaum
• Gen 2: Burke, Greiner, Lawler III, Margulies & Raia,
Vaill & Lundberg
• Gen 3: YOU!
Wider network of use of OD
• A now-international span of organisations using the OD
approach, both for business and broader organisational
development
THE LIMIT OF OD? THE RISE OF
ORGANISATION TRANSFORMATION
Calls for OT arise when:
• There is a crisis
– OT approaches can respond quickly, often perceived as a ‘quick fix’
and observable, which may even receive significant coverage in the
media as a result
• Where the environment may be unpredictable and
planning would be difficult
• The factors pressing the change are external
– OT also calls for a different leadership style than for OD
– OT is regarded as more ‘revolutionary’ and OD and more
‘evolutionary’
Critical questions: Do you agree or disagree with
these statements? Why/why not?
SUMMARY
• As organisations and their surrounding economy become
more complex and uncertain, the scale and intricacy of
organisational change has increased.
• Organisational change is a fact of life.
• Organisation Development has become a significant
approach to planning change using behavioural science.
• This has been shown to enable organisations to become
more effective.
• Unpredictable environments, external factors and crises
have seen the development of OT as another aspect of
organisation responsiveness to change.