What is Organization Development?
This is a critical question for our field yet answered in many different ways.
What follows is my (Chris Crosby, President of PNODN Board) unique way to answer the question.
To start, I will share a definition from Dr. Warner Burke of Columbia University. He stated that, "To be OD it must (1) respond to an actual and perceived need for change on the part of the client, (2) involve the client in the planning and implementation of the change, and (3) lead to change in the organization's culture.” Further, Dr. Burke went on to write that,”…organization development is a process of fundamental change in an organization’s culture. By fundamental change, as opposed to fixing a problem or improving a procedure, I mean that some significant aspect of a culture will never be the same.”
Warner Burke’s definition holds high expectations and excludes most OD practiced today. So I will try and lower the expectations while still providing sufficient challenge to various practices.
To be Organization Development you must develop the organization and the people. Therefore, Organization Development is an activity or intervention that develops the organization to reach greater business functioning (obtain measurable goal[s]) and develops people at the same time. If you do an activity that only develops people then it is not OD and vice versa.
See my full paper on what is OD here.
