Theoretical Approaches to the Organizational Development

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Table of Contents

What is organization development?
Theoretical approaches to organizational development
Forces which influenced the emergence of organizational development
References

What is organization development?

Organization development refers to a systematic and ongoing process of designing and implementing effective organizational change. It is also a scientific field of inquiry in which scholars study how best organizations can be developed.

The underlying principle of organizational development is therefore the need to implement change in organizations and manage the change so as to achieve certain predetermined objectives (Cummings & Worley, 2009, p.1).

Theoretical approaches to organizational development

Systems approach

Most of the modern theoretical approaches to organizations are derived from the systems theory founded by Von Bertalanffy in 1951. It conceptualizes organizations as being composed of sub-systems which interact with each other for the common good of organizations.

Each sub-system is considered as being important for the success of the whole and therefore organizations need to be guided by mutual trust, harmony and a unity of purpose. Von Bertalanffy argued that each and every employee was unique and thus there was the need of treating them as such without any cultural stereotypes or prejudices (Burns & Flam, 1987, p.381).

The systems approach has affected the field of organizational development by making organizations understand that each part of the organization is important for the functioning of the whole.

Through the approach, organizations have been able to integrate their various departments to operate in an interdependent manner, a situation which has seen the emergence of what is referred to as line or horizontal management. The harmonization of organizational departments has also led to the emergence of team work in many organizations.

The Contingency Approach

According to Burns and Stalker in an article titled “The Management of Innovation”, as quoted in the FAO Corporate Document Respiratory, it is not possible to have a universal approach to all situations and that different situations require different guidelines and modes of intervention.

Organizations do not exist in a vacuum but rather exist in an environment which is characterized by social, cultural, economic, political and technical forces.

In order for an organization to attain its objectives in an efficient and effective manner, it is good to consider the environments in which it exists and come up with strategies which match those environments, then cultivate an organizational culture which would enable it to thrive in those environments.

The contingency approach has affected organizational development in that organizations have become more inclusive in the process of decision making, which has seen employees have the permission to micromanage their work and come up with the best ways of performing their duties.

The reason is that managements have realized that full control of employees may interfere with their productivity, which in turn negatively affects that of the organizations (Donaldson, 2001, p.5).

Socio-Technical Theory

According to Pasmore in an article titled “Designing Effective Organizations”, and as quoted in the FAO Corporate Document Respiratory, each and every organization comprises of the people, the environment and a technical system. The social system is composed of the employees while the technical system is composed of knowledge, tools and techniques used by the social system.

According to Pasmore therefore, there is a need to maintain equilibrium between these subsystems so that organizations may be effective and efficient. The social technical theory has made organizations to integrate employees’ work with technology with a view of maximizing the available opportunities for attaining organizational goals and objectives (Thompson, 2003).

Action research approach

The approach conceptualizes organizational development as a product of a bottom up strategy to organizational improvement. The philosophy behind the action research approach is that any effective change must be based on evidence. The approach has its roots in Kurt Lewin, who is considered by many scholars as the father of organizational change and development.

Lewin came up with what he called three stage theory which involves three stages or steps namely unfreezing, changing and freezing (Cummings & Worley, 2009). The first step of unfreezing is about doing a cost benefit analysis about the proposed change and weighing whether the pros of the change outweighs the cons, then creating the necessary motivation for the change.

This stage is therefore the preparatory stage and is very crucial because it determines the success of the change if effected. When employees are highly motivated to change, the resistance to change is minimized and vice versa (Cameron & Green, 2009).

The next stage is the change stage which is also known as the transition stage and involves implementing the change. This is the hardest stage in change implementation because employees are always reluctant to move out of their comfort zones despite any motivation (Burke, 2011). During this stage therefore, employees need to be guided and encouraged to undertake the change.

The final stage is the freezing stage, which is also known as refreezing stage. During this stage, the organization has successfully sailed through the change process and is now leaving in a new dispensation. There is therefore the need of creating a new culture in the organization which is in line with the new organizational dispensation (Cummings & Worley, 2009).

Action research has affected organizational development in a variety of ways. In fact, it is the most popular approach in determining organization development in that many organizations actually base their changes on research.

Through research, organizations are able to initiate changes based on data collection and analysis. Some usually develop strategic plans based on empirical data. Programs are also implemented through a rigorous process which is composed of base line surveys, monitoring and evaluation of the programs in an ongoing process.

Forces which influenced the emergence of organizational development

The social force

The social force which influenced the emergence of organizational development was the shift from the classical management theories which viewed employees as robots to be operated by the managers to the human relations approach to management which views employees as social beings with physical, emotional and psychological needs.

The shift brought the need for organizations to put in place fare employee practice which involves things like employee training, team work, flexible working and scholarships to the employees. Through this, organizations are able to improve the competencies of their employees thus leading to increased efficiency, effectiveness and productivity (Jones & Brazzel, 2006).

Political forces

The political forces which led to the emergence of organizational development were the events of the World War II. Prior to the war, organizations largely relied on the scientific management theory by Taylor.

Taylor’s theory was synonymous to colonization in that it viewed employees as laborers and the managers as all knowing elites with an all round knowledge virtually in all aspects of organizational processes, functioning and procedures. After the world war, nations of the world realized that collaboration with each other was far much better than elimination of rivals or competing ideologies.

As a result, organizations realized that all stakeholders were important for their success. Managers therefore started embracing employee inputs by allowing them to be creative, innovative and flexible while discharging their duties. The result was increased productivity because some employees actually had unique talents, which made organizations improve their levels of attainment of objectives (Bradford & Burke, 2005).

Economic force

The economic force which led to organizational development was the global recession of the 1980s, a period of poor economic performance characterized by low gross domestic product for countries, reduced productivity, less income for those working or doing business, inflation and high costs of living.

The recession affected virtually all aspects of human life including organizations both in the public ad private sector. Due to the recession, organizations were forced to come up with strategies of cutting on operational costs. One way mostly adopted was that of training employees so as to enable them undertake various tasks within an organization.

Interpersonal force

Globalization is the interpersonal force which led to the emergence of organizational development. It can be defined as the minimization of the differences between people of the world and the maximization of their similarities through interactions, cooperation and communication.

The advancement in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has transformed the world into a global village. Through ICT and improved means of transport, people are more than ever able to do business with each other without any form of barriers (Scholte, 2005).

Through globalization, organizations have found themselves opening new branches in other countries. Examples of such organizations which have used globalization as an aspect of development include Tesco in the United Kingdom and Wal- Mart stores in the United States.

References

Bradford, D. L., & Burke, W. W. (Eds.). (2005). Reinventing organization development: New approaches to change in organizations. San Francisco, CA: Wiley.

Burns, T.R., & Flam, H. (1987). The shaping of social organization : social rule system theory with applications. London: Sage Publishers. P.381.

Burke , W.W.(2011). Organisation change: theory and practice.(3rd Edn.). Thousand Oaks : SAGE Publications.

Cameron, E., & Green, M.(2009). Making sense of change management : a complete guide to the models, tools & techniques of organisational change. London: Philadelphia.

Cummings, T. G., & Worley, C. G. (2009). Organization development and change (9th Edn.) Mason: OH, South-Western Cengage Learning. P.1.

Donaldson, L. (2001). The contingency theory of organizations. Thousand Oaks, Calif. Sage Publishers. P.5.

Jones, B. B., & Brazzel, M. (Eds.). (2006). The NTL handbook of organization development and change: Principles, practices, and perspectives. San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer.

Scholte, J. A. (2005). Globalisation: A Critical Introduction, (2^nd Edn.). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Thompson, J.D. (2003). Organizations in action: social science bases of administrative theory. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.

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