ABOUT OD

Organizational development [OD] isan 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

OD is a response to change, a complex educational strategy intended to change the beliefs, attitudes,

values, and structure of organizations so that they can better adapt to new technologies, markets, and

challenges, and the dizzying rate of change itself. [OD is] an educational strategy employing the widest

possible means of experience-based behavior in order to achieve more and better organizational choices

in a highly turbulent world.

Warren Bennis

What is OD Network?

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

The methodological model for OD is action research; data on the nature of

certain problems are systematically collected and then action is taken as a function of what the analyzed

data indicates. OD is a process of fundamental change, as opposed to fixing a problem or improving a

procedure.  To be OD, it must respond to an actual and perceived need for change on the part of the

client, involve the client in the planning and implementation of the change, and lead to change in the

organization's culture.

Warner Burke