Organizational Development

What Is the Classic Definition of “Organizational Development”

Organizational development is often categorized as a melding of the work of early 20th century psychologists, like Freud, Piaget, Binet, and Kurt Lewin, the German clinician often called the “founder of social psychology”, combined with contemporary business strategy and goal achievement policies. That’s a mouthful, isn’t it? Here is a more manageable explanation: Organizational development is a group of people working as a team to reach one or more shared goals.

There are a number of other classic definitions of this strategy for a couple of reasons. One is a function of capitalism and human nature. Since effective organizational development is a primary function of people performance, business psychologists have played a pivotal role in its development. As you probably know, even the most respected psychologists often have different viewpoints, methods, and/or interpretations of human behavior. This has led to some different variations of theories.

Second, business theories tend to evolve just like business conditions. Have some doubt? Do some research and learn about the “experts” that thought Sears, Roebuck and Co. (around 100 years ago) were crazy to try to generate big sales without stores, using an expensive to produce catalogue instead. And, have you forgotten all of the business veterans who were sure that e-commerce would never result in major league income for anyone? As business conditions evolve, different talents, personalities, and skill sets change.

Whether you are a Human Resource professional or a manager of departmental staff, you have a role in making your company’s organizational development plan a success. Here are some suggestions to get you classified as an organizational development star.

Strategies You Can Use to Be More Effective

There tends to be at least two “structures” for organizational development programs in modern companies. One design is to put the major focus on the Human Resource department. Another approach is for senior management to communicate their goals for corporate and departmental achievement to team, department, and division managers for implementation. Managers then create a workable plan to implement the development of staff, with hopes that the group will adopt the motivation and skills necessary to follow the plan to improve operations, results, and efficiency.

If you are part of this strategy, concentrate on the following.

• Have a strong understanding of the goals senior management has set for their organization. Unless they only care about the bottom line at the expense of all else, they will also have more modest goals that are a critical part of their organizational development plan. Be sure you are totally clear on what they want before designing a plan for achievement. Resist the temptation to “read between the lines” as you could be wrong. Ask for any clarification you need to be fully clear on the destination before just jumping on the band wagon.
  
  
• As you design your bullet points of organizational development tasks and methods, share them with the creators of the goals to learn if you are building the “right” program. Because the “people psychological component” of an organizational program is critical, what may appear to be obvious black and white action steps can sometimes quickly become gray areas. Getting thumbs up from the right people can really contribute to the success of the program.
  
  
• Implement the plan with corporate “passion”. If you’re thinking of just hanging on to the back of the band wagon, forget it. Move right to the front, into the driver’s seat, if possible. Once again, because psychology is such a strong component of a successful organizational development program, you risk failure if the staff is not convinced that you are totally committed to this plan.
  
  
• As other employees become convinced that
  - You are dedicated to this program;
  - If they get on board, it will be great for their personal career; and
  - Their sincere involvement will strongly influence a successful outcome for their company;
  

They often become as motivated to make an organizational development program a success as you are.

Because of the vastly different requirements for success dictated by different industries, there is really no single blueprint for success. The details that should be included in an organizational development program may take on approaches that are specific to your company or industry. The diverse personality types of people in different industries (just consider the potential personality difference between software designers and the staff of a major hotel), regardless of corporate goals, may dictate a wide variety of organizational development action plans. The group dynamic of different levels of staff and the extent of communication between teams and departments can influence the success of a good organizational development program, for better or worse.

Following the steps above might help you manage your professional “corner”, whether large or small, of the corporate ladder better than others. Even if you didn’t design the “master plan” for your company’s organizational development vision, you can add or refine some components of the plan to help you motivate your people to “buy in” to the program. If you can get it right, everyone wins. Your company will recognize both the individual and department development that occurs. Your staff should continue to upgrade themselves individually and the team as a whole. And, often, both groups above and below your spot on the corporate organization chart will know that your management efforts resulted in success.