Become a HR Organization Development Expert (Document Bundle)

Become a HR Organization Development Expert

Organizational development is a critical and science-based process that helps organizations build their capacity to change and achieve greater effectiveness by developing, improving, and reinforcing strategies, structures, and processes.

There are a few elements in this definition (adapted from Cummings & Worley, 2009) that stand out.

1. Critical and science-based process. OD is an evidence-based and structured process. It is not about trying something out and seeing what happens. It is about using scientific findings as input and creating a structured and controlled process in which assumptions are tested. Lastly, it is about testing if the outcomes reflect the intention of the intervention.

2. Build capacity to change and achieve greater effectiveness. Organizational development is aimed at organizational effectiveness. It, therefore, has a number of (business) outcomes. These can differ between organizations, but usually, they do include financial performance, customer satisfaction, organizational member engagement, and an increased capacity to adapt and renew the organization. These are not always clear-cut. Sometimes it is about building a competitive advantage, in whichever way we define that. We will explore these outcomes later in this article

3. Developing, improving, and reinforcing strategies, structures, and processes. The last part of our definition states that organizational development applies to changes in strategy, structure, and/or processes. This implies a system-approach, where we focus on an entire organizational system. This can include the full organization, one or more locations, or a single department.

Organizational design has become more crucial over time. Today's world is characterized by Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity (VUCA). This VUCA world requires new agility from organizations, and organizational development is the means to that end.
In organizational development, the main stakeholders are both internal and external to the company. Management and employees are internal stakeholders. External stakeholders include customers, investors, suppliers, communities and governments.

Globalization leads to a much greater interconnectedness and opens up organizations to world-wide opportunities and threats.


We already touched briefly on the goals of organizational development. These goals vary between organizations. In corporate companies, increasing profits is likely to be a chief concern. Within charities, the cultural values are of high importance. And in health services, adaptability is central to maintaining good functioning.

If there would be one central goal, it would be increasing the organization's competitiveness.

Competitiveness is the idea that every organization has unique resources and competencies that help the firms to win in the marketplace. This can be the people (a business leader like Elon Musk, or the Google team), an innovative product (SpaceX), superior service (Four Seasons Hotels), or culture (Zappos). It can also be how reactive the organization is to changing market demands. If you're the first to capitalize on an opportunity, for instance, it may solidify your revenue in the next five years.

The goal of OD is to develop these aspects, as they can help a business win in the marketplace.

This means that organizational development differs from the incidental change process. OD focuses on building the organization's ability to assess its current functioning and tweak it to achieve its goals. It is, therefore, a continuous process, whereas change processes are often temporarily.

This also emphasizes the relevance of OD. In this VUCA world, change is becoming a constant factor. OD is an integral approach to ensuring this constant change.

Thank you for your attention.

Regards,

UJ Consulting