Organization Development Basics

Organization Development Basics is a primer on the broad field of OD and offers just the right amount of information to create an understanding of the tools, practices, and core skills of the OD practitioner.

A primer on the broad field of organization development (OD) and a foundation for understanding of the tools, practices, and core skills of the OD practitioner. Organizational Development Basics will help trainers, training managers, and beginning OD practitioners learn the fundamentals of influencing organizational strategy and direction. Learn the basics for managing change and aligning people, processes, and practices for success.

Written by two of the leading experts in the field, Organization Development is a guide to the basic principles of effective organization development. A compendium of theories, practices, diagnostics techniques and figures, it provides practical advice for identifying an organization's needs and determining the most appropriate course of action to maximize organizational capability. It provides an overview of the history and theory of OD and addresses the various phases, the role of the practitioner, aspects of power and politics, and the human resources context. The book also discusses organizational design, culture change, managing transformational change, and developing effective leadership. Bridging the gap between theory and practice, this fully updated new edition of Organization Development now includes coverage of complexity and chaos theory, new case studies describing OD practices and attitudes in countries outside of the US and UK, and new chapters on change and culture and on employee engagement and wellbeing. The authors also have added emphasis on the collaborations between OD and HR functions. It provides a wealth of helpful advice for OD practitioners, HR professionals and those with an interest in helping develop their organization.

Designed for use in undergraduate and graduate programs in organization development, management, human resource development, and industrial and organizational psychology, Organization Development provides readers with an overview of the field and acquaints them with the basic principles, practices, values, and skills of OD. Covering every aspect of the work of an OD professional and featuring numerous illustrative case studies, it shows how OD professionals actually get work and what the first steps in any OD effort should be. Author Gary McLean surveys different ways to assess an organizational situation—including a comparison of the Action Research and Appreciative Inquiry models—and provides forms for devising an action plan based on that assessment. He then looks at how to choose and implement a range of interventions at different levels, as well as how to evaluate the results of an intervention. Organization Development goes beyond the organizational level to look at the application of OD on community, national, regional, and global levels. And it successfully combines theory and practice; process and outcomes; performance and affective results; effectiveness and efficiency.

This book provides leaders a practical model of the basics of Organization Development by offering a broadened approach to facilitate positive change. It represents my lifetime career of practice and application that was greatly influenced by executives, mentors and colleagues. A series of case studies integrating concepts at multiple levels are showcased in each chapter to assist your executive team diagnose and continually improve their organization. The material highlights the process for using strategic guidelines, systematic frameworks, sequencing interventions and evaluation for improving your work environment.

The book provides a good open-systems introduction to the topic of organization change, presenting the big concepts in a way that managers can use.

To effectively adapt and thrive in today’s business world, organizations need to implement effective organizational development (OD) interventions to improve performance and effectiveness at the individual, group, and organizational levels. OD interventions involve people, trust, support, shared power, conflict resolution, and stakeholders’ participation, just to name a few. OD interventions usually have broader scope and can affect the whole organization. OD practitioners or change agents must have a solid understanding of different OD interventions to select the most appropriate one to fulfill the client’s needs. There is limited precise information or research about how to design OD interventions or how they can be expected to interact with organizational conditions to achieve specific results. This book offers OD practitioners and change agents a step-by-step approach to implementing OD interventions and includes example cases, practical tools, and guidelines for different OD interventions. It is noteworthy that roughly 65% of organizational change projects fail. One reason for the failure is that the changes are not effectively implemented, and this book focuses on how to successfully implement organizational changes. Designed for use by OD practitioners, management, and human resources professionals, this book provides readers with OD basic principles, practices, and skills by featuring illustrative case studies and useful tools. This book shows how OD professionals can actually get work done and what the step-by-step OD effort should be. This book looks at how to choose and implement a range of interventions at different levels. Unlike other books currently available on the market, this book goes beyond individual, group, and organizational levels of OD interventions, and addresses broader OD intervention efforts at industry and community levels, too. Essentially, this book provides a practical guide for OD interventions. Each chapter provides practical information about general OD interventions, supplies best practice examples and case studies, summarizes the results of best practices, provides at least one case scenario, and offers at least one relevant tool for practitioners.