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What is organization development and why is it important to long-term organizational success?
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Reply to the following response with *** 125 words minimum, including direct questions to the post***. (please make response as if having a conversation, respond directly to some of the statements in below post.This is not providing an analysis of the original post.Respectfully address it and even ask clarifying or additional questions.)
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1. Organizational Development is the successful use of information and technology to identify shifts in the organization and implement change to contribute to survivability. For any organization to thrive they must be able to adapt and overcome different hardships and scenarios, comparative to evolution. Just as humans have had to change throughout the years to be more suited to our environment, organizations must be able to recognize shifts in culture and climate and make the appropriate changes to accommodate these shifts.
Barry Schwartz suggest many great ideas about making change to the organization. His theory of idea technology adds value to the workplace in that identifying the work that individuals take part in must mean something to them. His question "why do people go to work?" is a valid question which poses a very hard answer. Using OD as a workforce and organization you can identify the "whys" to this question and perhaps make the work that is being performed more valuable and important to those who perform the task. No person goes to work merely for the incentives, people as a whole want more out of a job. They want to feel involved, important, and know that what they do creates something positive in this world.
Organizational development allows for individuals to understand the workplace environment and helps arm individuals with tools to implement change. With a better understanding of the workplace dynamic and structure individuals will be able to observe and determine different organizational climates and cultural differences that could be augmented to create a better and more performance oriented atmosphere.
2. What is organization development (OD)?
I think this definition captures my understanding of OD: "OD is process of planned system change that attempts to make organizations (viewed as socio-technical systems) better able to attain their short and long-term objectives" (Stevenson, 2012). Socio-technical systems speaks to the human and technical sides of the organization meaning the effectiveness of the organization and the well-being of its members as explained in this week's lesson. In other words OD is a design using a collaborative approach for employing strategies towards long term organizational growth and sustainability (solving a problem) by increasing human potential (total organization) using available resources.
Why is it important to organizational success?
B.T (2001) writes,
"the field of OD has expanded over time, in response to the needs of employers who not only want to move their organizations forward in terms of business objectives, but also in terms of employee engagement, as today's employers now understand the connection between employee involvement and organizational success" (np).
In my words, OD is important because people make up the organization so to ensure organizational success (growth and sustainability) people need to feel as if their contributions and well-being are important enough for them to continue to do the work even if it means change. Abad's (2014) study showed a higher percentage of readiness to accept organization redesigning by subjects who's salaries, job promotions, work-life balance, and training (human motivations) would be positively affected by the redesign.
References
Abad, A. N. Z. S. (2014). Investigating the relation of readiness to adopt organizational development and redesigning the organizational structure and process. Advances in Environmental Biology, 2044+.
B. T. (2001, July 12). The Role of Organizational development in Large-Scale Organizational Change.
Stevenson, B. W. (2012). Application of systemic and complexity thinking in organizational development. Emergence : Complexity and Organization, 14(2), 86-99.
3. There are slight variations on the definition of organizational development but a common theme is working towards a positive change for an organization in regards to aligning employee behavior with a company's strategy, processes, structures, and goals. Organization development is geared towards adhering to a company's culture while improving organizational effectiveness. This goal of positive change is used to improve not only the individual employee, but teams, divisions, and ultimately the organization as a whole. Change is not always needed but in order for an organization to implement change, leaders and managers must also embrace the need to "discover new ways of thinking, to be open to examining their values and assumptions" that make up their current worldview" (Stevenson, 2012, pg. 90). Organization development is an essential process that all leaders, managers, and supervisors need to understand and implement.
Organization development is most definitely important to the long-term success of any business or company. Change in itself is difficult but adding to changing priorities, processes or even long-term goals take both an individual and team effort. If change is not communicated effectively or if employees fail to see the big picture, then long-term success may be jeopardized. Companies that look to improving their practices and their people tend to retain top employees and possess more effective teams than ones that do not employ organizational development programs (Schulz, n.d.). Ineffective or non-existent organization development programs may lead to an organization's failure at their long-term goal or strategic mission or vision for the future. Overall organization development is used to develop employees through training programs and intergroup development which is important to long-term success.
Reference:
Schulz, W. (n.d.). Leadership for Long-Term Success.
Stevenson, B. W. (2012). Application of systemic and complexity thinking in organizational development. Emergence: Complexity and Organization, 14(2), 86-99.
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