Organizational Development
Organizational Development
Josh Nebelkopf
PSY/428
August 3, 2011
Dr. Felix Montes
Organizational Development Organizational development can be defined in many similar ways. An easy way of defining it is to state that an organization is a group of people or a team formed together with a collective stated goal or mission to accomplish. Development can be defined as changing, teaching, training, growing, or mentoring the members of the group or the group itself to improve.
Theories Associated with Organizational Development There are three theories discussed in our text. The first is Tuckman’s Stage Model. Tuckman reviewed articles that dealt with the development processes in various groups and concluded that there are common development processes for all groups. Based on these findings, he proposed a stage model of group development that became quite popular. Tuckman’s stage model has five stages of group development and they are forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning (Britt & Jex, 2008). The next theory discussed in the text is Moreland and Levine’s Model. Moreland and Levine theorized that the socialization of group members occurred in five unique stages. The distinct parts of the stages in their theory were that an individual progresses from first being an outsider to the group, a group member, and then an ex-member. Their five stages of group socialization are the investigation stage, socialization stage, maintenance stage, resocialization stage, and the rememberance stage. The final theory discussed in our text is Gersick’s Punctuated Equilibrium Model. Gersick’s theory proposed that organizations go through periods of inactivity versus rapid change depending on the organization’s knowledge of times and deadlines. This theory basically states that when a group knows that it has a set time suspense to accomplish something, they usually spend half their time defining and deciding the best approach to the task before
Josh Nebelkopf
PSY/428
August 3, 2011
Dr. Felix Montes
Organizational Development Organizational development can be defined in many similar ways. An easy way of defining it is to state that an organization is a group of people or a team formed together with a collective stated goal or mission to accomplish. Development can be defined as changing, teaching, training, growing, or mentoring the members of the group or the group itself to improve.
Theories Associated with Organizational Development There are three theories discussed in our text. The first is Tuckman’s Stage Model. Tuckman reviewed articles that dealt with the development processes in various groups and concluded that there are common development processes for all groups. Based on these findings, he proposed a stage model of group development that became quite popular. Tuckman’s stage model has five stages of group development and they are forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning (Britt & Jex, 2008). The next theory discussed in the text is Moreland and Levine’s Model. Moreland and Levine theorized that the socialization of group members occurred in five unique stages. The distinct parts of the stages in their theory were that an individual progresses from first being an outsider to the group, a group member, and then an ex-member. Their five stages of group socialization are the investigation stage, socialization stage, maintenance stage, resocialization stage, and the rememberance stage. The final theory discussed in our text is Gersick’s Punctuated Equilibrium Model. Gersick’s theory proposed that organizations go through periods of inactivity versus rapid change depending on the organization’s knowledge of times and deadlines. This theory basically states that when a group knows that it has a set time suspense to accomplish something, they usually spend half their time defining and deciding the best approach to the task before