Organizational Development (OD) and Change Management



Table of Contents

Introduction1

Discussion1

Expanding Use of OD2

Hard Business Competencies and OD3

Change in Whole Field4

OD Facilitating Alliances and Partnerships4

OD Encouraging Constant Learning5

Conclusion6

References7

Organizational Development (OD) and Change Management

Introduction

Organizational Development is a planned process that aims in making the organization absorb changes and develop to remain competitive. The only thing constant in the world of business is change. The competition is cutthroat in the market and any weakness is likely to be exploited by the competitors. The environment is becoming highly turbulent and the businesses are faced with opportunities and threats virtually inexistent a few years back. The need is to respond to these changes in a quick and effective manner. This is the reason why organizations are becoming increasingly interested in ways to adopt the most effective practices available. This paper presents the increasing use of OD in managing and responding to change. This paper discusses the uses of OD in infusing and adopting change.

Discussion

Organizational development is defined in many ways by different theorists and practitioners. It is worthwhile considering some important definitions in mind when discussing about it. Organization Development is simply a process of change according to the needs of time and is considered essential for survival of business in this fast paced internet world. It is also defined as the long term effort, supported and led by top management with an objective of improving the organization's visioning, learning, empowering, and problem solving processes through an ongoing collaborative management of organization culture, all this in conjunction with utilization of applied behavioral science (French and Bell, 1999). Some describe organizational development as the technique or methodology used to effect change in an organization with an objective of increasing its efficiency (Wamwangi, 2003). In summary, the organization development is a planned process, applies the knowledge from behavioral science and relates to the external environment for effective performance (Cummings, 2004). It aims at changing organization culture, reinforces the processes, structures and strategies of organization, long term in nature and is a process managed from the top of organization.

The organizations are increasingly using OD practices to manage change and relating their firm with the changes in the external environment. The expanding use of Organizational development is visible in business practices. Another thing is the combination of hard/traditional business competencies and OD. Companies are further looking for creating whole system change including the organizational design and cultural change with OD. Companies in attempt to compete better in the markets and acquiring higher shares are using OD to facilitate the alliances and partnerships. Finally, OD is encouraging constant learning in the organization, to better absorb the changes in future.

Expanding Use of OD

The use of OD is expanding very rapidly since its introduction in business world. The organizations are accepting rapidly he effectiveness of OD in bringing up the profitability and productivity of organizations and is continuously expanding. The number of books written on OD and research articles on the same is increasing at rapid ...