• Total system improvement
• Especially organizational culture – adapting to the opportunities of the environment while enhancing organizational integrity and integration

Approach:

• Collaboration - Participation of the client in the improvement process; involvement of all levels of the organization in the analysis-discovery, planning-strategizing, and implementation of the process
• Increase Capacity - Develop the capacity of the system for continuous improvement of its organizational life; increase competence and commitment
• Planned Change - Engage a process of understanding, setting direction and action
• Empowerment - Finding ways to more fully use people’s gifts, develop individuals and teams, while meeting organizational needs and being successful
• Appreciative Process - Working in a manner that identifies the organization's strengths, core values and patterns of success and then builds on them in developing direction, creating opportunities and solving problems.

Including –

• Vision and direction -- goals, core values, "ownership" of vision
• People – competence & commitment, working style, job satisfaction
• Dynamics -- managing change and stability, trust development, conflict
• Structures & Processes -- adequate resources, physical setting and technology; workforce structure (degree of self management, teams, etc.); parallel systems; decision making processes
• Leadership – strategic management, people development, self-differentiation
• Environment – seeking opportunity in the forces and trends external to the organization that impact the organization
• Alignment – seeking a "fit" between the organization’s strategy for success in its mission & primary task and the organization’s culture, processes and structures

Typical Phases of an OD Effort

1. Discovery  -  The client and ODCT work together to develop a shared understanding of the situation.
2. Contract -The client and ODCT agree on the scope and objectives of the project, and the responsibilities of participates in the project.
3. Diagnosis - The client and ODCT work together in  gathering and understanding data.  The purpose is to establish a shared, deeper & broader understanding of the organization, opportunities and problems, and the context the organization works within.
4. Planning & Designing - The client and ODCT identify the best intervention to make based on the diagnosis.
5. Action & Implementation - The client and ODCT work together to monitor and guide the intervention process.
6. Evaluation - The client and ODCT assess the results, celebrate successes, draw any learnings about the OD process, and identify next steps.
7. Follow-up - ODCT follows up at an agreed time to explore with the client the current status of the OD project and to explore any need for further assistance..

© Robert A. Gallagher, 1999, 2004

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What is OD?

Organization Development (OD) is an effort to increase an organization's ability to  improve itself as a humane and effective system. Elements of OD may include:

1. Finding ways to adapt to the changing context while maintaining and enhancing the organization's integrity and internal integration.

2. Establishing structures, processes and a climate that allow it to effectively manage its important and pressing business (e.g. projects, problems, crises, etc.) while giving adequate attention to strategic issues (e.g., long term development and renewal, planning and envisioning, engaging new opportunities, crisis prevention, etc.)

3.  Increasing the ability to engage formation issues such as:

• vision including the defining of identity, purpose, values, organizational culture and related programs and    activities.
• attracting new people (as staff and/or members) who support the vision
• increased competence and commitment
• creating an alignment, an adequate "fit" among the various aspects of the organization’s life, e.g.

                 -- various sub-systems (people, structure, strategy, processes, etc.) 

                 --  vision & resources of leadership, energy and funds 

                 -- income & expenses 

                 --  physical facilities & program needs and possibilities

• establishing relationships with external "public" or constituencies that have a stake in the organization.

4. Increasing its ability to adapt to new conditions, solve problems and learn from experience. A capacity for self renewal. 

OD does involve problem solving, but its most significant contribution to an organization is in creating an culture that focuses on the continuous growth and vitalization of the system. OD is a normal and vital part of a healthy organization. 

© Robert A. Gallagher, 1997

Various Views of Organization Development

Possibly the Primary Current Definition of OD used by practitioners  ---

Organization development is a system-wide application of behavioral science knowledge to the planned development and reinforcement of organizational strategies, structures, and processes for improving an organization's effectiveness.
-- Cummings and Worley, "Organization Development and Change", Sixth Edition, South-Western Publishing, 1997, p.2.

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Other definitions ---

Organization Development is an effort 
1.planned,
2.organization-wide, and
3.managed from the top 
4. to increase organization effectiveness and health through 
5. planned interventions in the organization's "processes," using behavioral-science knowledge
(R. Beckhard,1969)

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Organization Development is a response to change, a complex educational strategy intended to change the beliefs, attitudes, values, and structures of organizations so that they can better adapt to new technologies, markets, and challenges, and the dizzying rate of change itself. (Warren Bennis,1969)

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Organization Development is a top-management-supported, long-range effort to improve an organization's problem-solving and renewal process, particularly through a more effective and collaborative diagnosis and management of organization culture-with special emphasis on formal work team, temporary team, and inter-group culture- with the assistance of a consultant-facilitator and the use of theory and technology of applied behavioral science, including Action Research (French & Bell 1990).

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Organization Development has been defined as a series of planned processes by which human resources are identified, utilized, and developed in ways that strengthen organizational effectiveness by increasing problem solving capabilities and planning (The Organization Development Institute)

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Organization Development is the attempt to influence the members of an organization to expand their candidness with each other about their views of the organization and their experience in it, and to take greater responsibility for their own actions as organization members. The assumption behind OD is that when people pursue both of these objectives simultaneously, they are likely to discover new ways of working together that they experience as more effective for achieving their own and their shared (organizational) goals. And that when this does not happen, such activity helps them to understand why and to make meaningful choices about what to do in light of this understanding.
-- Neilsen, “Becoming an OD Practitioner”, Englewood Cliffs, CA: Prentice-Hall, 1984, pp. 2-3.

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Organization Development (OD) is the process of improving organizations. The process is carefully planned and implemented to benefit the organization, its employees and its stakeholders. The client organization may be an entire company, public agency, non-profit organization, volunteer group - or a smaller part of a larger organization.

The change process supports improvement of the organization or group as a whole. The client and consultant work together to gather data, define issues and determine a suitable course of action. The organization is assessed to create an understanding of the current situation and to identify opportunities for change that will meet business objectives.

OD differs from traditional consulting because client involvement is encouraged throughout the entire process. The ways in which people communicate and work together are addressed concurrently with technical or procedural issues that need resolution. (Chicago OD Network)