Organizational Development

Organizational development (OD) is a field of professional practice focused on facilitating organizational change and improvement. The theory and practice of OD is grounded in both the social and behavioral sciences. The field originated in the 1960s and has [Page 565]been evolving ever since. This evolution has been influenced by a wide range of disciplines including social psychology, group dynamics, industrial/organizational (I/O) psychology, participative management theory, organization behavior, the sociology of organizations, and even clinical psychology.

As a result, the application of OD tools and methodologies (of which there are many) are carried out by a wide range of professionals. For example, although some I/O psychologists also consider themselves OD practitioners, there are many others practicing OD with for-profit and nonprofit client organizations with educational backgrounds as diverse as education, philosophy, training, the military, and human resources. In part, this level of diversity of backgrounds is because of an initial lack of agreement and formal training regarding the nature and boundaries of the field. Today, however, formal training in the field does exist, in doctoral and master's-level programs as well as professional development curricula, including professional certification groups and training firms. In any case the value of the field of OD to continually embrace new perspectives, practitioners, and approaches is one of its defining characteristics; however, it is also a source of discussion among those currently practicing in and writing about the field.

Although there has been some debate over the last few decades as to what is and is not included under the definition of OD, many practitioners agree that the following definition captures the essence of the field: Organizational development is a planned process for driving humanistically oriented, system-based change in organizations through the use of social science theory and behaviorally based data collection and feedback techniques. This definition clearly reflects a number of specific assumptions. These include the importance of data and feedback to OD efforts, the notion of having a social systems perspective, and the humanistically oriented values-based nature of the field. Each assumption is described in more detail in the following text.