Organizational Development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Organizational Development - Essay ExampleTwo definitions that more aptly hold still for the thrust of organization ontogeny today areOrganization development is a system-wide application of behavioural science knowledge to the planned development and reinforcement of organizational strategies, structures, and influencees for improving an organizations effectiveness. (Cummings et al, p.2)An astute organization development practitioner would carefully evaluate the working systems with set targets to identify pitfalls and suggest holistic dislodges for improved effectiveness. star of the key components of organization development is limiting charge. Change centering is a complex system which involves shrewd and intelligent application of a range of ideas from the fields of business, engineering, sociology, and psychology. As organizations face stiff competition, changes in the organizations aim imperative for survival. It becomes more and more necessary for the organization to implement a robust change direction system to help the organization grow and sustain and meet the challenges that it faces from within and without. A change management system in its broad outline may be regarded as a structured process that will cause proposed changes to be reviewed for technical and business readiness in a consistent expressive style that can be relaxed or tightened to adjust to business needs and experiences. (Indiana University, 2009)A robust change management practice would involve the convergence of two predominant fields of thought the machinelike focus to change and the human focus on change. Till recently, a lot of companies had likened the different functions of their business to a mechanical clock made up of individual mechanical pieces which they could alter or change to suit a specific situation and produce the desired results. This change could be radical or gradual as was deemed necessary. The need for change management concepts was not realized ti ll their projects faced serious hurdles to execution or encountered stiff resistance. Change management has now come to mean the process, tools and techniques to manage the people-side of business change to achieve the required business outcome, and to realize that business change effectively within the social fundament of the workplace. (Change Management Learning Center, 1996-2008)The foundation stone to the human side of change management was laid by William Bridges in his book named Transitions. (Ed Batista, 2008) Though he relates human behavior to change in a workplace only a few times in his book, this work brought a new post to change management and resulted in two schools of border on to business practice, measurement of success and perspectives of change the engineers approach or the mechanical approach and the psychologists approach. The table below summarizes the major differences in the two approachesEngineerPsychologist wayProcesses, systems, structurePeopleBusiness practicesBPR, TQM, ISO 9000, QualityHuman resources, ODStarting pointBusiness issues or opportunitiesPersonal change, employee resistance (or potential for resistance)Measure of successBusiness performance, financial and statistical metrics calling satisfaction, turnover, productivity lossPerspective on changeShoot the stragglers, carry