According
to Beckhard (1969), 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. Thus, Organization development, according to Richard Beckhard,
is defined as:
- A planned effort,
- organization-wide,
- managed from the top,
- to increase organization effectiveness and health,
- through planned interventions in the
organization's 'processes', using behavioral science knowledge.
For many years, the following
definition was perhaps the standard definition for OD. The definition was
developed in 1969 at a time when an organization was considered to be much like
a stable machine comprised of interlocking parts.
However,
the nature and needs of organizations are changing dramatically.
Correspondingly, the profession of organization development (OD) has been
changing to meet the changing needs of organizations. Therefore, it may be most
useful to consider several definitions of organization development, because it
seems that this definition is no longer fit in a modern society, which has
rapid changed in term of time and space.
Today's organizations operate in
a rapidly changing environment. Consequently, one of the most important assets
for an organization is the ability to manage change -- and for people to remain
healthy and authentic. Consider the following definition of OD. Thus, according
to Cummings and Worley (1997), organization development is a system-wide
application of behavioral science knowledge to the planned development and
reinforcement of organizational strategies, structures, and processes for
improving an organization's effectiveness.
In
dealing with problem solving OD produce a holistic comprehensive solution
rather than just a piecemeal approach. That is, in OD, intending to improve the ffectiveness of people
and organizations by:
1) Establishing relationships with key personnel in the organization
(often called "entering" and "contracting" with the
organization);
2) Researching and evaluating systems in the organization to
understand dysfunctions and/or goals of the systems in the organization
("diagnosing" the systems in the organization);
3) Identifying approaches (or "interventions") to improve
effectiveness of the organization and its people;
4) Applying approaches to improve effectiveness (methods of
"planned change" in the organization),
5) Evaluating the ongoing effectiveness of the approaches and their
results.
