What Makes Od, Od?
WHAT MAKES OD, OD? *
Dr. David W. Jamieson
Organization development (OD) is more than 50 years old. In response to prevailing organizational values-in-operation that were partially a function of the times, OD offered a more holistic view of people and organizations, with an emphasis on humanistic and democratic values, and the belief that this different perspective was not only better for people, but also for organization performance. Prior to World War II, organizations typically operated on principles of mechanistic and bureaucratic systems, including authority-obedience, division of labor, hierarchical supervision, formalized procedures and rules, and impersonality (and many still do!). But following the war, increasing interest in social change, attitudes about democracy, and self-actualization, brought forward distinctly different values that were a counter-force to extant organizational perspectives. French and Bell’s (1999) history of OD stated, “We think most organization development practitioners held these humanistic and democratic values with their implications for different and ‘better’ ways to run organizations and deal with people.” [italics added]
As a social and organization change movement, OD was closely associated with practice, from its beginnings. For example, the action research methodology (as created by Lewin (1948) was associated with real-world problems and the application of group process knowledge to address contemporary issues. The earliest values, philosophy, and methods of practice were influenced by findings from the behavioral sciences and leading management researchers. For example, OD change methodologies were clearly influenced by
• early leadership work that brought legitimacy to participative and democratic methods (Follett 1941, Lewin and Lippitt, 1938; Likert, 1961, Tannenbaum and Schmidt, 1973)
• early human relations work that highlighted the primacy of social factors attitudes, and feelings in
Dr. David W. Jamieson
Organization development (OD) is more than 50 years old. In response to prevailing organizational values-in-operation that were partially a function of the times, OD offered a more holistic view of people and organizations, with an emphasis on humanistic and democratic values, and the belief that this different perspective was not only better for people, but also for organization performance. Prior to World War II, organizations typically operated on principles of mechanistic and bureaucratic systems, including authority-obedience, division of labor, hierarchical supervision, formalized procedures and rules, and impersonality (and many still do!). But following the war, increasing interest in social change, attitudes about democracy, and self-actualization, brought forward distinctly different values that were a counter-force to extant organizational perspectives. French and Bell’s (1999) history of OD stated, “We think most organization development practitioners held these humanistic and democratic values with their implications for different and ‘better’ ways to run organizations and deal with people.” [italics added]
As a social and organization change movement, OD was closely associated with practice, from its beginnings. For example, the action research methodology (as created by Lewin (1948) was associated with real-world problems and the application of group process knowledge to address contemporary issues. The earliest values, philosophy, and methods of practice were influenced by findings from the behavioral sciences and leading management researchers. For example, OD change methodologies were clearly influenced by
• early leadership work that brought legitimacy to participative and democratic methods (Follett 1941, Lewin and Lippitt, 1938; Likert, 1961, Tannenbaum and Schmidt, 1973)
• early human relations work that highlighted the primacy of social factors attitudes, and feelings in
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