Organizational development is concerned with the planning and implementation of programmes designed to enhance the effectiveness with which an organization functions and response to change.
Organizational development is concerned with process, not systems or structure, process refers to the ways people act, react and interact.
There are seven approaches for improving organizational development, which exists in their own right and is seldom if ever referred to as organizational development interventions, which includes team building, change management, organizational transformation, total quality management, customer care programmes, business process re-engineering and performance management.
OD involves a group of motivated individuals working toward a common goal, and team building is a critical aspect of success. Managers of sd such structures must have a robust understanding of personality types to ensure a productive and collaborative work environment. Team building games and activities promote the formation of creative skills and relationships in the organization.
Why Is Organizational Development Important to Businesses?
The answer to this question may seem obvious: because it addresses and fixes a problem, thereby increasing a business’s effectiveness. While this can be true, OD works to improve organizations in a more systematic way, organization-wide, as Beckhard put it. The purpose of OD is to balance the strengths and weaknesses of a business, restructuring the employment of that business’s resources (i.e. human capital) accordingly to use them most efficiently and productively. This means thorough assessment, planning, employee engagement and training where necessary, and incremental measures to maintain employee performance.
What Does Organizational Development Mean for HR Managers?
HR management used to deal primarily with issues of employment and employment law. Previously, the duties of HR staff included recruiting, organizing training, filling vacancies, and advising department heads on hiring and firing. But these days, HR management has begun to play a more substantial role in the strategic development of organizations. This partly involves integrating OD into more traditional HR activities. And, when thought through, it is a natural combination.
Beyond the bottom line of an organization’s efficiency and productivity, OD can help create an environment of engaged employees living up to their potential. HR managers use OD principles to design jobs which best suit the company’s needs, recruit employees who best fit those jobs, and give them all the tools they need to perform at high levels. HR managers may find a more fitting role for an employee who is performing poorly — one that better suits that employee’s skill set. In turn, the employee is motivated, engaged, and works harder toward the company’s vision.
The fact that OD focuses on the health of both the individual and the entire organization is important for HR managers. One cannot exist without the other. Effective OD works to ensure every individual’s goals and vision are aligned with that of the organization.
Clearly, there is a great deal of overlap between HR management and OD. And, more and more, strategic HR management is involved with or responsible for implementing OD. An in-depth understanding of OD and its underlying behavioral science can be very useful for those looking to enter HR at the managerial level.