W h a t d o e s

Organisational
development has
heen around since
the late 1940s, hut
even practitioners
working in this field
find it difficult to
define precisely.
Valerie Garrow
and Sharon Varney
hold a mirror up
to the discipline
e s pit e t h e t e rm "o rga nis a t io na l
d e ve lo pme nt " fa lling s o me wh a t
o ut of fa vo ur inre ce nt ye a rs in t h e
US, wit h pra ct it io ne rs ra llying
be liind t h e mo re ma ins t re a m
"ch a nge ma na ge me nt " ba nne r, ODh a s be e n
e njo ying s o me t h ing of a re viva l int h e UK. New
t it le s a nd ro le s h a ve s prung up. s uch a s "h e a d
of OD a nd le a rning". "h e a d of wo rkfo rce a nd
OD" a nd "re s po ns ible fo r ODa nd int e rna l
co mmunica t io a s ". In t h e public s e ct o r
pa rt icula rly, ro le s o ft e n co mbine re s po ns ibilit y
fo r HR, ch a nge ma na ge me nt a nd le a rning a nd
d e ve lo pme nt - Int h e t h ird s e ct o r, t h is ca n a ls o
e xt e nd t o go ve rna nce a nd ris k.
De s pit e t h is fa s cina t io n wit h OD, it is no t
a lwa ys cle a r wh a t it invo lve s - ODca n lo o k
a nd fe e l ve ry d iffe re nt fro m o ne o rga nis a t io n
t o a no t h e r. Th is , of co urs e , ma y be t h e s e cre t
of it s lo nge vit y: ODpra ct it io ne rs re quire a
bro a d s kills s e t a nd ra nge of e xpe rie nce a s
we ll a s a d e e p und e rs t a nd ing of t h e s ys t e mic
CASE STUDY
A personal perspective
Christine Lloyd,
executive director,
people and organisation
development for Cancer
Research, says:
"Having worked in and
around the OD field for
25 years, I have come at it from many
perspectives - logical, intuitive, intellectual ond
emotional - but a precise definition or
quantification of the field still eludes me.
For me, the key to working in O D is to accept
where you are in the present moment, work with
the issues that are presenting themselves today
and accept that today's challenges and
responses are the result of a rich tapestry of past
experience, circumstance and intuition. O ne
thing I have learnt, is that you cannot engineer
OD and it is not formula-driven.
My own career in OD has reflected a journey
from the more structured approaches of the
past to current approaches of emergence and
28 ^ ]UNE 2009
flow. I often use the expression "opportunistic
O D " to describe my current preference for real-
time, "in the moment" ways of working.
So what does the future hold far O D ? I am
increasingly noticing movement towards
balancing and integrating the hard and soft
elements of O D and I believe emerging themes
for the future include:
the evolution of organisation design through
the influence of technology and social software
into amorphous networks:
O D linking more closely to "strategic
reframing" rather than limiting it to the HR or
peopie aspects of the organisation;
stronger links with communications and
engagement - shaped by the emergence af a
generation for whom communication is driven
by technology:
an increasing emphasis on risk as o
framework for organisation design:
the current downturn moving organisations
towards arganisatianal effectiveness."
www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/features
Organisational development
nature of organisations. This is why it has
remained as a field of practice (and one
with a rich heritage), rather than a separate
department. OD is a specialism, not
a function.
At a time when we're all looking to
improve organisational performance and
effectiveness, finding out exactly what OD is
and what it can achieve is a smart move.
Most deilnitions of OD originate from the US
where much of the academic, and practical,
work originates. In order to understand
them, it is helpful to trace the roots of
classical OD.
OD is generally considered as a post-war
response to the dehumanising effects of
scientilic management practices, which saw
workers as small cogs within well-oiled
organisational machinery. Work was
fragmented into small tasks, designed and
monitored scientifically by "the
management", often through time and
motion studies.
Ihe humanistic approach of OD began to
replace the machine metaphor of organisations
with natural images, and drew on the
behavioural sciences to suggest how people,
systems and technology could be organised in a
more effective and humane way. The key
strands of work that form the core of classical
OD relate to new humanistic values, training
and development, employee feedback, systems
thinking and action research.
In the 1980s, an increased interest in
organisational culture was in part a response to
the success of Japanese organisations in
fostering quality and excellence. Culture
became particularly important for
understanding post-merger integration
problems, and it became common
practice to approach (Organisational
change through what Jack Welch, former
chief executive of General Electric, called the
hardware of an organisation (its structure and
processes) and its software (the norms and
culture). On top of this, by the 1990s, OD
enveloped the preoccupation with involvement
and participation, later to be known as
employee engagement.
The legacy that still distinguishes
organisational development from general
change management consultancy is its
humanistic values. Psychologists and
social scientists concerned with the
alienation of workers brought a
strongly values-driven approach to
the study of leadership,
management and motivation. OD
recognises the potential of motivated
people in organisations, a trend that
has become increasingly important in
a knowledge economy in which
individuals represent talent and human
and intellectual capital.
OD today tends to be associated primarily
with change. At its heart lies action research:
cycles of data gathering, analysis, action or
change, reflection and evaluation. However,
the "change" that OD now finds itself dealing
with may itseif have changed. Our latest
a time when we are
all looking to improve organisational
effectiveness, it's a smart move to find out
exactly what OD can achieve*
www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/features
A JUNE 2009 29
recognises
the potential or motivated
people in organisations, a
trend that has become
increasingly important in
a knowledge economy'
research into the nature of OD, found that
respondents working in the OD field believed
that traditional concepts of change were out
of step with our turbulent working world (see
Links panel, below). Now practitioners are
talking about working with emergent (some
call it "improvisational") change; this means
establishing a direction for change and
working in a way that is responsive and
adapts to fluctuations in the real world. This
is critical if HR and other business leaders
are to capture and benefit from the
practice of OD.
With the challenging remit of enhancing
organisational effectiveness, it is not
surprising that customer expectations of OD
practitioners are demanding. Job
advertisements specify a whole range of
qualifications, experience and personal
qualities, central to which is the ability to
form partnerships at senior levels in an
organisation. OD jobs often appear towards
the top end of organisational hierarchies
without any clear career paths leading up to
them {see also panel, below).
So how do OD and HR relate to one
another? That too has changed over time. In
recent years, there have been calls for a
rapprochement between OD and HR, not
least because those involved in managing
people and with an understanding of the
behavioural sciences should be combining
forces to champion the human contribution
to organisational effectiveness and change.
Links with strategic HR are recognised by the
practitioners who took part in our study,
although there are some key distinctions.
Organisational development practitioners see
themselves as more free-spirited and loath to
be tied to a department or function. At its
best, OD is non- formulaic and rarely sits
neatly within an organisational hierarchy.
An OD team might be comprised of a range of
individuals from various functions who work
together on a change project and then
disband after their work is done.
OD preserves its integrity by working
outside or at the boundaries of the
system and prides itself on non-
coUusion. For that reason, internal
OD people often consider flve years
to be the maximum time they
would spend in one organisation
before the ability to challenge
becomes weaker.
Practitioners point to two emerging
patterns in the OD field. The first is the
increasing fragmentation of OD in the UK.
The second is its enlargement. The former is
likely becaase of the perceived lack of status of
OD in the UK (as opposed to the US). The
latter is perhaps more likely as more people
become involved in improvement initiatives,
once traditional OD territory.
Whichever direction it takes, an OD
mindset is going to be a valuable asset when
organisations seek to re-align and survive hi
a post- recession worid. ISS
How to become an OD professional
Get some wider experience of business in a
commerciai or operational function. Most of
the OD practitioners in our latest research bad
business experience in areas outside HR,
such as marketing, sales, purchasing, projects,
or operations.
OD is alsa about much more than expertise
with a range of tools and techniques. It is as
much about the qualities of the OD practitioner
as it is about the interventions and requires a
high degree af self-knowledge and ongoing
personal development. Many practitioners in our
research held master's qualifications which, they
explained, had helped them develop advanced
critical reflectian skills.
Seek opportunities to work on cross-
functional projects. Wherever they sit in
the organisational structure, OD practitioners
add value by working at and across boundaries.
They are curious about haw different parts of
the arganisation affect both each ather and
the network of customers, suppliers and
organisational stakeholders. Asking
questians about connections and
organisational-level impact can help you In
developing an OD mindset
About t he authOTS
Valerie Garrow is associate director, HR research
and consultancy, and Sharon Varney on associate,
at the Institute far Emplayment Studies
Research report
The IES' report. Fish or Bird: Perspectives on
Organisational Development.\oo\'.sa\. currentiJK
OD practice through interviews with both
practitioners and senior executives.
www.emplayment-studies.co.uk
FROM THE CIPD
OD Conference
Discover more about OD's crucial role in improving
organisations at the Spotlight on OD Conference
taking place in London on 2^ September.
wvvw.cipd.co.uk/cande/OD
30 < JUNE 2009
www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/features