consulting today

Is OD Still Relevant?
By Christopher G. Worley, Ph.D.
Organization development (OD) is at an important tions are considered part of human resource managecrossroads in its evolution. Serious questions have been ment; leadership and strategic change methodologies are raised about the future of this applied beshared with the strategy and business policy havioral science discipline. discipline; and reengineering is practiced by inFor example, some believe the more tradustrial engineers and information technoloditional OD practice, with its reputation for gists. focusing on group and interpersonal level Where do these other fields end and OD beissues, such as team building, conflict mangin, or vice versa? Where do emerging issues, agement, diversity awareness, and other husuch as environmental or sustainability auditman process-oriented concerns, is out of ing, creating an internal information system touch with todays business realities. They knowledge base, or managing cross-cultural question whether traditional OD practice organizations belong? These fuzzy boundaries addresses key value-added issues in organimake it difficult to determine what OD is and zations. Others criticize that too many in what it isnt. the field chase every faddish trend that Adoption of successful methods. Another comes along. reason for ODs weak reputation is that it may be a vicIrrelevance Explained tim of its own success. Many of the techniques and inI happen to believe that OD is alive and well. But if terventions invented and practiced by OD professionals you listen to those who believe that OD is dead or on have become mainstream. Consider the following: the life support of wellknown practitioners, Flip charts (and other input collection you can see how it got ...almost every OD intervention is devices) are a standard part of almost into this situation. The every meeting claimed by at least one other discipline. fields definitions are Team building is as prevalent in orfuzzy, its most successganizations as budget planning. ful interventions have become institutionalized, and its Organization surveys, feedback, and problem solvtoo easy to call yourself an OD practitioner. ing meetings are considered a normal part of organiFuzzy boundaries. The problem begins with the zation life. definitions and boundaries of organization developMore and more OD practitioners are sitting at the ment. Although there are more than a dozen definibusiness-planning table, integrating strategic managetions of OD, most suggest that it concerns system-wide ment and change management principles for formulaplanned change, uses behavioral science interventions, tion and implementation. targets human and social processes of organizations The issues and interventions that were once closely (specifically the belief systems of individuals, work identified with organization development are now part groups, or culture), and intends to build the capacity to of traditional business practice. Our interventions have adapt and renew organizations. become institutionalized or refrozen as Lewin would Moreover, there is considerable overlap in the acsay, and thats a good thing. But it also supports the tivities and interventions listed within most OD textcriticism that OD is just a bag of tools and techniques, books. In fact, the boundaries are not all that clear, and and unless OD generates new interventions and thats the source of some of the problems. approaches for dealing with todays business and organWith few exceptions, almost every OD interizational problems, it will lose its identity. vention is claimed by at least one other discipline. ReContinued on next page ward system and performance management interven-

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Low practitioner entry barriers. In some senses, more comfortable with theories of individual psycholOD has shot itself in the foot by coddling a variety of ogy. If that knowledge is used to promote the consultuntrained and inexperienced people. In its attempt to ants own development rather than the client systems be inclusive, people who do not have the background, effectiveness, then an ethical breach has occurred and education, or experience to support an organization ODs reputation as a field is hurt. through complex change can call themselves OD practiThis is a difficult conundrum to unravel because of tioners. The most misunderstood qualification of being ODs value of transferring capacity. That is, the objecan OD practitioner is the most fundative of a true OD effort is to build mental: the role of personal growth and capacity in the client system to hantoo many practitioners are self-development. dle change in the future. If the working their own needs. There are two aspects to this characpractitioner sees that goal as the priteristic. First: should someone who mary or only goal, then improving doesnt understand their personal motithe systems effectiveness is not as vations for doing OD be called an OD practitioner? important and claims of irrelevancy cannot be far off Second, should someone who puts personal growth and may be justified. (their own or their clients) ahead of organization imWhat we must do provement be called an OD practitioner? I am deeply Several key forces, including globalization, technolconcerned that part of the reason ODs relevance and ogy, the workforce, and organizations themselves, will rigor are being challenged is because we influence the future of OD practice. OD is likely to behavent addressed these issues. come more embedded in the organizations culture, In the first case, too many people enter the field of more cross-cultural, and more diverse in the client sysOD because its roots are in the counterdependent traditems it serves. OD practitioners will need to be more tion of overthrowing oppression. Some people who call technologically adept, and be ready to deliver on shorter themselves practitioners are doing the work to overcycle times. Their focus is likely to shift toward innovathrow a generalized belief that all management regimes tion and learning; they will need to be more familiar are authoritarianand they are unaware of that motivawith a wide array of disciplines, and clearer about the tion. When people become OD practitioners because values that guide their practice and behavior. they think organizations should be changed, because Specific actions the field must undertake to be ready they were treated unfairly in an earlier context, or beto meet these trends include: cause all managers are bad and there is no awareness of 1. Define the field. A group of traditionalists bethese motivations, OD becomes a cause. lieve OD was and always should be confined to issues Personal growth work is central to the practice of of human process. Another group of relevance seekOD because it helps to answer the question, Whose ers believe the field has something powerful to offer needs are you working? Unfortunately, too many practhe overly analytic and rational approaches to strategy titioners are working their own needs, are unaware of and organization design. those needs, and are unconsciously intervening in orUnfortunately, the traditionalists see the relevance ganizations to alter power and authority distributions seekers as having sold out to the power elites, when that may or may not be appropriate. These selfcoopted and politically correct. proclaimed OD practitioners unconsciously promote Conversely, the relevance seekers see the traditiontheir view of right without concern for the organizaalists as remnants of the irrelevant side of OD and retions current state, strategy, or values and that hurts tainers of the touchy-feely tradition. They inquire as the fields reputation. to how spirituality in the work place, training, and attenThe second case is more difficult because, as an aption to group process will contribute to the success and plied discipline, it is hard to separate the theory from survival of the organization in a time of great turbuthe practice and even harder to separate the practice lence. from the practitioner. But problems emerge when perYet each camp sees itself as part of OD. The tradisonal growth as part of the practitioners development is tionalists see themselves as the keeper of the flame confused with personal growth as an objective of OD while the strategic wing sees themselves as the relevant practice. rescuers. The current boundaries are too inclusive and For example, OD practitioners with strong commitments to personal growth as an end in itself are often Continued on next page found focusing on human process interventions and

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of agreement that will inform decisions in practice and too fuzzy. Clearly, there is a need for OD definitions to guide development in organizations and society. specify the scope and boundary of the field. What is in3. Develop Practitioners. The development of cluded and more importantly, what isnt excluded as future OD practitioners must be more balanced in OD? terms of the self, practice, and theory. My initial thinking on this suggests three criteria. Most centrally, there is nothing more relevant at For an activity to be labeled OD it must: this juncture of ODs development than for OD practia) involve a change in the system that is the focus of tioners to understand their lives, styles, sources of anxithe effort, ety, and emotional intelligence. The work of our emob) it must have the intent of improving the system, tional intelligence colleagues is clear, c) it must have the intent of it is a skill that can be learned and it building the capacity of contributes directly to personal effecUnfortunately, we are heading in the system to change in tiveness, whether it is as a change the future by involving the wrong direction agent or organizational member. people in the process (not Curiously, and despite the growth in a dictated change). the number of OD graduate pro2. Clarify values. The lack of clarity around the grams (including both masters and doctorate programs), values of the field is an important contributor to fuzzy the focus on personal growth is declining. Only two or definitional boundaries and to the possibility of practithree masters programs require a T-group-like experitioner cooptation through a lack of self-knowledge. Toence, and only NTL, Stanford, the Gestalt Institute, and gether, they produce a situation where the OD practitioUCLA maintain any type of ongoing laboratory training ner is less likely and less able to take tough stands on experiences. tough issues. Since the profession has no agreed upon Instead, many of the new educational programs are value set, practice values default to the individuals valemphasizing more business-oriented curriculums or goues in a specific situation. ing deeper into the traditional process interventions, For example, if a client system ignores environsuch as team building, or change management practices. mental sustainability in its operations, the practitioners This trend must be replaced with a more integrative tendency to address the issue will be more a function of stance. his/her environmental values than the fields. Similarly, In addition, the development of OD practitioners the field had no stance on the downsizing movement or must include a solid grounding in the fundamental the reengineering fads of the 1980s and 90s (see Burke, theories of change and intervention dynamics as well as 1997 for an exception), and it has no stance on technothe broad disciplines that underpin those theories. logical proliferation, third-economy development, child Competent OD practitioners must be familiar with a labor, or the current rounds of downsizing. With strong wide range of social sciences, including anthropology, roots in the social change movement, this is an embarsociology, psychology, and economics, but also issues of rassing state for a field that places values so central to its organizational and national culture, philosophy of scipractice. OD must clarify the values that guide its pracence, research methods, and technology. tice and those values must imply stands on the critical These are no small tasks. To efficiently develop issues facing society. OD practitioners in the future, new methods of exposUnfortunately, we are heading in the wrong direcing people to this broad and deep knowledge base will tion; there has been a clear movement away from focus, need to be developed. As a practical matter, no single agreement, and clarity to confusion, bickering, and fragprogram is likely to be able to address all of these issues mentation. That is, while there is good agreement that in any depth. More likely, programs should develop disthe field needs to clarify what the values are and many tinctive competencies and encourage applicants to efforts have resulted to bring disparate groups together match their needs with curriculum offerings. to discuss them, there is painfully little progress on a Finally, OD practitioner development must include solution. practical experience and application of the material. It is A renewed and invigorated discussion is necessary, one thing to lead and manage an organizational system, one that doesnt produce a long, convoluted, and easily it is quite another to help someone lead and manage ignored list of shoulds and donts but looks for creative ways to expand thinking and provides a point Continued on next page

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a change in an organizational system so that the capability to do it better the next time is enhanced. This suggests that individuals entering the field either need to have amassed a significant amount of work experience or, in the absence of experience, need to have internships or other supervised field work to understand the intertwined nature of practitioner, practice, and theory. Organization development is a powerful technology that can help organizations manage change, achieve objectives, and implement strategies. While many have pronounced OD dead or dying, these prognostications have been occurring for 20 years. OD, like other behavioral science disciplines, is going through its growing pains and there is every reason to believe that it will thrive and survive into the future.

I conclude by borrowing a page out of the appreciative inquiry handbook and noting that we have a choice. We can talk about whats wrong, or we can talk about the contributions that good OD practice makes to individuals, organizations, and society. I know what my choice is. Christopher G. Worley is the director of the Master of Science in Organization Development program at Pepperdine University and co-author of Organization Development and Change (with Tom Cummings) and Integrated Strategic Change (with David Hitchin and Walter Ross). He can be contacted at chris.worley@pepperdine.edu. This article is based on research reported in: Worley, C. and A. Feyerherm. (2001). Reflections on the Future of OD. Presentation to the Western Academy of Management, Sun Valley, ID.

the development of OD practitioners must include practical experience and application of the material.

2002, consulting today. Reprinted with permission of the publisher. Web: www.consultingtoday.com 6325 Hilltop Rd. Orefield, PA 18069 Phone: 610.366.0165 Fax: 610.366.0165 E-mail: editor@consultingtoday.com