Organizational Development

What is OD? Organization Development (OD) has been evolving since the 1960s.  Kurt Lewin established the foundation of OD by providing the theoretical foundation to guide OD practice. As stated by biographer Alfred Morrow (1969), "Lewin’s most enduring legacy was his innovative blending of science and practice". OD practices were built on a philosophy that emphasized individual and organizational growth through collaboration. OD intervention approaches include action research, sensitivity training, team building, socio-technical systems, quality of work life, and survey feedback. One classic definition of organization…

Experienced OD practitioners use different OD interventions to develop organizations from good to great. There are two school of thoughts in organization development – Diagnostic OD and Dialogic OD Diagnostic OD Evolving since 1960's, OD takes a diagnostic approach to analyze the organizational context and design OD interventions to make changes.  OD professionals with a diagnostic OD mindset see organizations as an open system, which could be scientifically diagnosed through research to identify objective solutions and regard the change is episodic and can be planned. The…