Origins and Evolution of Organization Development

Running head: ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT
Organization Development
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT
1. Origins of OD; evolution of contemporary definitions; relation to psychology
behavior science theories, social and organizational learning theories
-Origins of OD concepts
Kurt Lewin is considered to be the founder of the Organization Development (OD),
however the concept became mainstream only after his death in 1947. Ideas such as action
research and group dynamics were introduced by Lewin which became the foundations of
OD concepts (Anderson 2016). Lewin also introduced the ideas of a collaborated process of
change that involves collaboration of the organization with consultants and clients using a
three step strategy which includes planning, action and measurement (Wojciechowski et al.
2016). This three step process can be considered as the early template for Action research
which is an important component of OD concept. Survey research methods were also
developed by Lewin before his death, which also became a part of OD process (Burnes and
Bargal 2017).
-Evolution to contemporary theories
Early developments of the OD concept was made by Douglas Ms Gregor and
Richards Beckhard who suggested an innovative approach of a bottom-up change process
that could be used for consultations in a traditional manner (Schein 2015). By 1947
understanding of the role of experimental learning and change agent were explored by the
National Training laboratories to be applied to behavioral psychology and the Human
Relations Movement in the 1950’s further helps the development of developmental and social
psychology (Burke 2017; Kelly 2015). By 1951, concepts of Socio-technical Thinking
develop that explained how efficiency, effectiveness and moral of people can be affected by
technological changes (Hughes et al. 2017). Survey research methods such as the pioneer
survey of Likert and Mann helped to understand how organizational performance impact

2ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT
people. By the 1980’s, the contemporary concepts of OD finally emerged as a planned
strategy for change involving a social collaboration (Schein 2015). The complexity theory
developed in the 2000’s provided new insights from the domains od natural sciences such as
physics, biology as well as behavioral and developmental sciences (Bürgisser et al. 2016).
The current practice of OD includes five important aspects: Laboratory Training,
Action Research and Feedback Surveys, Participative Management, Quality of Work Life
and Strategic Change (Burke and Noumair 2015).
Figure 1: Five Steps Of OD. Source Burke and Noumair 2015
-Related behavioral psychology theories and models
The behavioral psychology theories or models that can be can be linked to the OD concepts
include:
Agency Theory: This theory implies a role of an agent (A) in making key decisions on
behalf of of the principal (P) who have employed the agent for the decision making process.