Organizational Development
Organizational Development
PSY/428 – Cat Jennings University of Phoenix
February 27, 2012
Organization development is when the organization pulls together to ensure that the goals and mission of the organization are achieved in an effective and efficient manner. This also goes hand in hand with the strategies that are to ensure things are structured positively for employees in working environment. Organizational development is defined as: a set of behavioral science–based theories, values, strategies, and technologies aimed at planned change of the organizational work setting for the purpose of enhancing individual development and improving organizational performance, through the alteration of organizational members’ on-the-job behaviors (French & Bell, 1995; Porras & Robertson, 1992, P. 722). In understanding organizational development one should know the process and the theories surrounding the development. The process of organizational development can be broken down into three steps which consist of diagnosis, intervention, and evaluation. This process is similar to Lewin’s three step model of the organizational change process that is unfreezing, transformation, and refreezing. Diagnosis is an in-depth look at the organization collecting all information pertaining to the organization such as the strengths and weaknesses. Once the situation has been diagnosed then the organization can start an intervention while reviewing their strategies implementing new procedures or reviewing the organizations current techniques. Now that we have diagnosed the problem and looked at intervention methods that can correct the development of the organization we can move on to the final step evaluation. We are now able to evaluate the changes that have been made to see how and if the changes are providing the results the organizations looking for. It is important to remember that although there are plenty of theoretical views of organizational change
PSY/428 – Cat Jennings University of Phoenix
February 27, 2012
Organization development is when the organization pulls together to ensure that the goals and mission of the organization are achieved in an effective and efficient manner. This also goes hand in hand with the strategies that are to ensure things are structured positively for employees in working environment. Organizational development is defined as: a set of behavioral science–based theories, values, strategies, and technologies aimed at planned change of the organizational work setting for the purpose of enhancing individual development and improving organizational performance, through the alteration of organizational members’ on-the-job behaviors (French & Bell, 1995; Porras & Robertson, 1992, P. 722). In understanding organizational development one should know the process and the theories surrounding the development. The process of organizational development can be broken down into three steps which consist of diagnosis, intervention, and evaluation. This process is similar to Lewin’s three step model of the organizational change process that is unfreezing, transformation, and refreezing. Diagnosis is an in-depth look at the organization collecting all information pertaining to the organization such as the strengths and weaknesses. Once the situation has been diagnosed then the organization can start an intervention while reviewing their strategies implementing new procedures or reviewing the organizations current techniques. Now that we have diagnosed the problem and looked at intervention methods that can correct the development of the organization we can move on to the final step evaluation. We are now able to evaluate the changes that have been made to see how and if the changes are providing the results the organizations looking for. It is important to remember that although there are plenty of theoretical views of organizational change
References: Braunstein, D. N. (1974). ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT: WHAT 'S IN A NAME?. Interfaces, 4(3), 37-39. Jex, S. M., & Britt, T. W. (2008). Organizational psychology: A Scientist-Practitioner Approach Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.(2nd ed.ch.5). Retrieved from: https://ecampus.phoenix.edu/content/eBookLibrary2/content/eReader.aspx