History of organizational development

Prepared By

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Manu Melwin JoyAssistant Professor

Ilahia School of Management Studies

Kerala, India.Phone – 9744551114

Mail – manu_melwinjoy@yahoo.com

History of OD

• Kurt Lewin (1898–1947) is widely recognized as the founding father of OD, although he died before the concept became current in the mid-1950s.

• From Lewin came the ideas of group dynamics and action research which underpin the basic OD process as well as providing its collaborative consultant/client ethos.

History of OD

• Institutionally, Lewin founded the "Research Center for Group Dynamics" (RCGD) at MIT, which moved to Michigan after his death.

• RCGD colleagues were among those who founded the National Training Laboratories (NTL), from which the T-Groups and group-based OD emerged.

History of OD

• Douglas McGregor and Richard

Beckhard while "consulting

together at General Mills in the

1950s, the two coined the term

organization development (OD) to

describe an innovative bottoms-up

change effort that fit no traditional

consulting categories"

History of OD

• 1947 – National Training

Laboratories Founded NTL in USA

advances the research into applied

behavioural sciences, develops

understand of change agent role and

experiential learning.

• 1950’s – Human Relations Movement

Growth of social and developmental

psychology.

History of OD

• 1951 – Socio-Technical System Thinking

(STS) Tavistock Institute (UK) research

shows that combining social factors with

technological changes increases

effectiveness, efficiency and moral.  

• 1967 – Survey Research Methods Likert

and Mann pioneer survey feedback to help

organizational leaders understand the impact

they have on the people and performance of

the organization.

History of OD

• 1968 – Creation of the T Group Lewin (USA)

and Tavistock Institute develops unstructured

group laboratory training, and action learning

sets.

• 1974 – OD as Planned approach to Change

Friedlander and Brown research OD as a

method of planned change effort

• 1980’s – General Systems Theory Neilsen and

Schein promote OD as activities that influence

the social processes within an organisation. -

History of OD

• 1997 – Organizational Effectiveness Linking the application of OD in planned development interventions to the improvement of organizational effectiveness.

• 2000’s to Present – Complexity Theory OD continues to be informed by new insights and research in a number of disciplines including natural sciences, biology and physics as well as developments in the social and behavioural sciences.

1-10

Five Stems of OD PracticeCurrent Practice

Laboratory Training

Action Research/Survey Feedback

Participative Management

Quality of Work Life

Strategic Change

1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000