Definitions of Organizational Development (OD)

Definitions 

The nature and needs of organizations are changing dramatically. Correspondingly, the profession of organization development (OD) has been changing to meet the changing needs of organizations. Therefore, it may be most useful to consider several definitions of organization development.

 “Organization Development is an effort planned, organization-wide, and managed from the top, to increase organization effectiveness and health through planned interventions in the organization's 'processes,' using behavioral-science knowledge.” 
-- Beckhard, “Organization development: Strategies and Models”, Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1969, p. 9.

"OD is a planned process of developing an organization to be more effective in accomplishing its desired goals."   Human Resources Management & Development Handbook

"OD is a planned intervention aimed at improving individual and organizational health and effectiveness."  Jac Fitz-Enz

"Organization development practitioners help companies manage change and align people, process and practices or success.,, In its simplest form, OD work aims to be a catalyst that helps the organization get from where it is today (point A) to its desired state (Point B)" - ASTD American Society for Training and Development

            "Organizational development is a long-term effort led and supported by top management, to improve an organization's visioning, empowerment, learning, and problem-solving processes, through an ongoing, collaborative management of organizational culture-with special emphasis on the consultant-facilitator role and the theory and technology of applied behavioral science, including participant action research."  Organization Development, [French & Bell, 1999] 

"Organizational development is the application of behavioral scientific principles and methods to increase an organization's effectiveness".  US Government Office of Personnel Management

"Organizational development is a management field that focuses on helping organizations to develop their full potential".  University of Massachusetts

"Organization Development (OD) is the process of improving organizations".  Chicago OD Network

"Organizational development is an effort, planned, organization-wide, and managed from the top, to increase organization effectiveness and health through planned interventions in the organization's processes, using behavioral-science knowledge" Richard F. Beckert

"Organizational Development is the field of study and practice that focuses on various aspects of organizational life, aspects that include culture, values, systems and behavior. The goal of O.D. is to increase organizational effectiveness and organizational health, through planned interventions in the organization’s processes or operations. Most often, O.D. Services are requested when an organization (or a unit within an organization) is undergoing a process of change".   University of California

"Our purpose as professionals is to facilitate processes by which human beings and human systems live and work together for their mutual benefit and mutual well-being".   The OD Network

“Organization Development is the attempt to influence the members of an organization to expand their candidness with each other about their views of the organization and their experience in it, and to take greater responsibility for their own actions as organization members. The assumption behind OD is that when people pursue both of these objectives simultaneously, they are likely to discover new ways of working together that they experience as more effective for achieving their own and their shared (organizational) goals. And that when this does not happen, such activity helps them to understand why and to make meaningful choices about what to do in light of this understanding.” -- Neilsen, “Becoming an OD Practitioner”, Englewood Cliffs, CA: Prentice-Hall, 1984, pp. 2-3.

"Organization development is a system-wide application of behavioral science knowledge to the planned development and reinforcement of organizational strategies, structures, and processes for improving an organization's effectiveness."
-- Cummings and Worley, "Organization Development and Change", Sixth Edition, South-Western Publishing, 1997, p.2.

"Organization Development is a body of knowledge and practice that enhances organizational performance and individual development, viewing the organization as a complex system of systems that exist within a larger system, each of which has its own attributes and degrees of alignment. OD interventions in these systems are inclusive methodologies and approaches to strategic planning, organization design, leadership development, change management, performance management, coaching, diversity, and work/life balance."
-- Matt Minahan, MM & Associates, Silver Spring, Maryland

"OD is a field directed at interventions in the processes of human systems (formal and informal groups, organizations, communities, and societies) in order to increase their effectiveness and health using a variety of disciplines, principally applied behavioral sciences. OD requires practitioners to be conscious about the values guiding their practice and focuses on achieving its results through people."- Arnold Minors, Arnold Minors & Associates, Toronto, Canada

Source:

1.      http://www.odnetwork.org/?page=whatisod

2.     http://www.odportal.com/OD/whatisod.htm

3.     http://managementhelp.org/organizationdevelopment/od-defined.htm

Influencing - Characteristics That Differentiate Leaders From Non-Leaders

There are three categories of leadership theories which highlight the key determinants of leadership effectiveness. They are Trait Theories, Behavioral Theories and Situational Theories.

Trait Theories:

There are six traits associated with effective leadership include drive, the desire to lead, honesty and integrity, self-confidence, intelligence and job-relevant knowledge.

Drive: Leaders exhibit a high effort level. They have a relatively high desire for achievement, they are ambitious, they have a lot of energy, they are tirelessly persistent in their activities and they show initiative.

Desire to lead: Leaders have a strong desire to influence and lead others. They demonstrate the willingness to take responsibility

Honesty and Integrity: Leaders build trusting relationship between themselves and followers by being truthful and non-deceitful and by showing high consistency between word and deed.

Self-confidence: Followers look to leaders for an absence of self-doubt. Leaders therefore need to show self-confidence in order to convince followers of the rightness of goals and decisions.

Intelligence: Leaders need to be intelligent enough to gather synthesize and interpret large amounts of information; and to be able to create vision, solve problems and make correct decision.

Job-relevant knowledge: Effective leaders have a high degree of knowledge about the company, the industry and technical matters. In-depth knowledge allows leaders to make well-informed decision and to understand the implications of those decisions.

Behavioral Theories:

They identified behaviors that differentiated effective leaders’ from ineffective leaders. Based on these people could be trained to be leaders. The following are three types of behavioral styles of leadership

i) Autocratic Style: A leader who tended to centralize authority, dictate work methods, make unilateral decision and limit employee participation

ii) Democratic Style: A leader who tended to involve employees in decision making to delegate authority, to encourage participation in deciding work methods and goals, and to use feedback as an opportunity for coaching employees

iii) Laissez-faire style: A leader who generally gave the group complete freedom to make decision and complete the work in whatever way it saw fit.

Research results revealed that employee-oriented leaders were associated with high group productivity and higher job satisfaction. Leaders who exhibited high level of consideration and high level of task orientation achieved high subordinate performance and satisfaction. Some studies reported that democratic style of leadership was most effective, although later studies showed mixed results

Situational Theories:

Situational theories of leadership studies revealed that choosing the appropriate style of leadership depends upon the situation will yield more effective results than following same type of leadership style across all the time. Among various situational theories of leadership Fiedler’s contingency model and Hersey and

Blanchard’s Life Cycle Model outlined the importance of situational factors while choosing the appropriate style of leadership.

Fiedler’s model highlighted that task-oriented style of leadership will be more effective in both the extreme situations such as highly favorable and highly unfavorable situations. If the situations are moderately favorable, relationship-oriented style will be more effective.

Hersey and Blanchard model reported that if the employees are highly matured Psychologically and possess job competency, the enforcing delegating style will be more effective. Similarly if the employees are not adequately possessing job competency and very low in psychological maturity, the enforcing directing style will be more effective.

Trait Approach - The Big Five

The Trait Approach

A trait is what we call a characteristic way in which an individual perceives, feels, believes, or acts.  When we casually describe someone, we are likely to use trait terms:  I am, for example, somewhat of an introvert, a pretty nervous person, strongly attached to my family, frequently depressed, and awesomely intelligent.  I have a good sense of humor, fond of languages, very fond of good food, not at all fond of exercise, and a little obsessive.  You see:  I have just given you ten traits that actually go a long way towards describing me!

Psychologists, especially personologists, are very interested in traits.  They are especially interested in finding which traits are broad and possibly genetically based, as opposed to ones that are rather peculiar and can change easily.  Over the years, we have had a number of theories that attempt to describe the key traits of human beings.

 Agreeableness refers to how you interact with other people, and it involves the level of intimacy you maintain in your personal relationships and how helpful and sympathetic you are. Characteristics of an agreeable personality include trust, straightforwardness, altruism, compliance, modesty, and tender-mindedness.

Conscientiousness refers to your work style. It involves your general dedication to activities; how hard you work and how efficient and focused you are. Conscientious people are typically competent, orderly, dutiful, achievement striving, self-disciplined, and deliberate.

Extraversion refers to how you express yourself. This trait considers your sociability, positive emotionality, assertiveness, and activity or energy level. If you are extraverted, you're probably warm, gregarious, assertive, active, seek

excitement, and tend toward positive emotions.

 Neuroticism refers to your emotional style. It involves the extent to which you experience negative emotions such as worry, self-doubt, stress and tension. Most neurotic personalities display anxiety, angry hostility, depression, self-consciousness, impulsiveness, or vulnerability (or some combination of these characteristics).

 Openness describes your intellectual style - the extent to which you are open to new ideas and innovative approaches, and have an active imagination. Some characteristics of openness include fantasy, appreciation of art, the tendency to have a variety of emotions, action (not reaction), and individual ideas and values.

Test yourself by clicking the link below.

1.http://drphil.com/shows/bigfivepersonalityquiz

2.http://www.personalitytest.org.uk

3.https://www.123test.com/personality-test/

Memo Writing

Memorandum comes from the Latin noun memorandum and has the same root as memorare, memorare translates as to recount, to mention or call to mind.Memos are used within organizations to communicate everything from routine details to complete proposals and reports. Memos are often only a few short paragraphs, but they can be much longer, depending on their purpose. 

Here are some typical uses of memos:

• to inform others about new or changed policy, procedures, organizational details
• to announce meetings, events, changes
• to present decisions, directives, proposals, briefings
• to transmit documents (internal)

Memo Format

• Company and/or department name (without address)

Heading

• To (who gets it)
• From (who sent it)
• Subject (what it’s about)
• Date (when it was sent)  

Body (conveys message)

• Introduction
• Main points

Close

Memo Style

1. Concise: Make your sentences, paragraph, and overall memo as brief and as focused as possible.
2. Clear: Get your purpose straight before you start, then plan what you want to say and in what.
3. Order. Use your memo layout to help your reader (headings, bulleted lists, white space, as appropriate).
4. Direct: Speak directly to your reader, as you would in person or on the phone. Do not pad your ideas with unnecessary details. Think of what questions your reader wants answered, and then answer them.
5. Clean: Reread, revise, copyedit, and proofread.

Memo Structure

Subject Line: Summarizes the main idea; think of it as being preceded by the words "This memo is about."

Introductory paragraph: Quickly orients the reader to what the memo is about.

Give your purpose for writing.

Supply any relevant background information.

Identify any task the memo is related to.

Body: Conveys the information and supporting details relevant to the memo's purpose

Keep paragraphs short and focused; one main idea per paragraph.

Keep sentences tight and informative

Use bullets to list information

Close: End courteously (think of a phone call or face-to-face meeting), stating any expected outcome, action, or other information appropriate to your purpose. For example,

“Please send me your comments and suggestions by January __.”

"Let's meet next week to go over the next stage in the plan."