One of the foundational definitions in the field of organizational development (aka OD) is planned change: The field of organizational development (OD) is concerned with the performance, development, and effectiveness of human organizations. ...
“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.”
-- Richard Beckhard, “Organization development: Strategies and Models”, Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1969, p. 9.
To understand the practice of OD, some of the key terms, embedded in Beckhard's formulation, include:
Planned - carefully thought through; based on data; documented
Effectiveness - as measured by actual organizational performance versus desired organizational performance
Health - as measured by the organization's ability to respond, grow and adapt in its environmental context
Intervention - the specific action(s) selected for implementation that are intended to bring about the envisioned change
Processes - how work gets done in an organization; e.g. delivery of service, billing, repair, etc.
External sites: Change management is the process of developing a planned approach to change in an organization. ... In organizational development, OD specialists assist their clients in recognizing that the only constant is change and in acknowledging the critical role of managing change. ...
Minnesota OD Network: http://www.mnodn.org/about_OD/od_defn.htm
However, the overall processes of change and change management remain pretty much the same, and it is this fundamental similarity of the change processes across organizations, industries, and structures that makes change management a task, a process, and an area of professional practice.
Managing change is seen as a matter of moving from one state to another, specifically, from the problem state to the solved state.
The change problem might be large or small in scope and scale, and it might focus on individuals or groups, on one or more divisions or departments, the entire organization, or one or on more aspects of the organizations environment.
Feeds |
Contact