MGDI 70461: Critical Review of Organizational Development Report

This report provides a comprehensive critical review of the article "Nonprofit Leaders and Organization Development Consultants: Caveat Emptor" by William M. Kahnweiler. The review begins with an overview of the article, summarizing its key arguments regarding the challenges faced by non-profit organizations and the potential pitfalls of engaging OD consultants. The report then explores the central themes of the article, focusing on the pressures faced by non-profits, the author's skepticism toward OD consultants, and the importance of careful evaluation. A detailed analysis of the article's strengths and weaknesses is presented, considering the author's arguments and providing a balanced perspective. Finally, the report concludes by assessing the overall contribution of the article to the field of organizational development, emphasizing the value of its insights for non-profit leaders and the importance of critical evaluation when considering OD interventions. The report is intended for students studying organizational development and leadership.

Organizational Development 1
Organizational Development

Organizational Development 2
Contents
Overview..........................................................................................................................................3
Summary of the article.....................................................................................................................3
Explore the themes..........................................................................................................................4
Strength and weakness of the article...............................................................................................5
Conclusion overall contribution......................................................................................................6
References........................................................................................................................................7

Organizational Development 3
Overview
The role of organizational development in the growth of the business keeps significant
value. The process of organisational development takes place when the company identifies that
an issue remain which can influence the organization and amendment is required (Bryson, 2018).
This paper will review the article of “Nonprofits Leaders and Organization Development
Consultants: Caveat Emptor” in a critical manner so that the strength and weakness of the
article can be presented.
Organizational development
According to Church & Burke, (2017), organisational development is considered as the
process of ongoing diagnosis, implementation, action planning and evaluation, with the aim of
developing better knowledge and abilities to companies in order to bring development in their
capacity for resolving conflicts and managing potential amendments. There are some key
concepts of organizational development theory which should be considered by the organization
at the time of paying attention towards this concept (Kuna & Nadiv, 2018). These are
organizational climate, organizational culture and organizational strategies. It has the nature of
action oriented which aim to help company in adopting –better to the rapid amending external
environment of regulations, technologies and new markets. More information about this paper is
mentioned below:
Summary of the article
The article is represented by William M. Kahnweiler on Non-profit organizations and
according to him there are a plenty of organizations that are facing huge pressure developed by a

Organizational Development 4
corroding funding base doubled with amplified demand for their services. The main motive of
the article is to reflect the importance of organizational development in the organization. The
discussion has been made by him on the reasons to not get engaged in the process of
Organizational Development (OD) for which major five reasons are emphasised in an effective
manner by the author. The author has reflected his worries in the context of development of OD
as it has been found under the article that OD has struggled with its own identity. There are some
major factors regarding OD such as incompetence, over-promising results, pushing to be a
strategic partner and leveraging their presumed advantage to your detriment have been defined in
order to show the complexity of OD in the non-profit organizations. With respect to
incompetence, it has been found that OD has resisted with its own identity.
It is the truth that OD cannot be considered as the gate-keeping function and that is why
there are number of people who prefer OD professional, OD consultant and OD guru. The
discussion has been made on over promising results in which the author has highlighted that
there are many OD who commit organizations for better result before starting an evaluation.
There are so many variables that come into the equation and it is not possible to predict about
future of the organization which become the cause of worries (Anderson, 2016). In the context of
pushing to be a strategic partner, it has been found that the author has highlighted the changing
role of the human resource management OD practioner within the business which can bring huge
challenge. The article has elaborated the major context of the brilliance of OD consultants in the
context of providing the guidance which is sometimes god and sometime not worth to consider.

Organizational Development 5
Explore the themes
The theme of the article is based on Organizational Development Consultants and Non-
profit Leaders. There are number of confronts included in the articles such as a pending shortage
of leadership talent, the lack of processes and planning for leadership succession by the sector,
major funding shortages in general and for those companies that entirely based on the
government funding to operate its business. This kind of organizations has fear of economy
down through which the sector will witness a talent drain of magnanimous proportions. The
author has highlighted some solutions in against of such issues for the purpose of bringing
attention of the people towards handling conflicts within the business. The theme of the article is
based on the challenges faced by non-profit organization in the context of the growth of the
organization. It has been found in the context of challenges that non-profit organizations are need
to be more nimble, embrace change, predict the future accurately, want to act like a business,
desire to gain more by putting less efforts, be more effective and want to increase the motivation
without taking consideration of retaining the staff. It has been suggested by author that the non-
profit organizations should not get engaged with OD consultant in case of having more than one
challenge of above mentioned challenges. The ideas are being suggested by author for the
purpose of reducing the damage infected upon the organization in the form of the decisions.
There are so many reasons are explained under the article in order to not get engaged OD
consultant. This process can be expensive for the company to afford which can hamper the
financial position of the company.
Caveat Emptor is the principle which shows the only responsibility of the buyer in the
context of buying something for the purpose of checking the quality and affordability of goods
before purchase is made. This term shows the responsibility of the person of the organization or

Organizational Development 6
the leader to evaluate all terms in managing the risk within the organization. The involvement of
OD should be involved or not is dependent on the nature of the business in which the role of the
leaders keeps significant value. It has been found that in recent times, the major aim of the
organization is to become success within less time which brings complexities within the
business. The businesses are experiencing an era of quick change and often main discontinuities
and involvement to the world in which the organization work.
Strength and weakness of the article
The article has depicted some strength and some weakness in the context of the
organization development and it is vital for the non-profit organizations to understand the view
of the author as t would be helpful in developing growth of the company within determined
timeframe. According to Zadeh & Ghahremani, (2016), many organizations should consider
major factors of OD such as attitudes, creativity, process and cognitive skills as it is necessary to
focus in order to thrive and survive. It has been argued by Rabadán, Rivera-Salgado &
Rodríguez, (2017), that ability in executing major creative behaviours and cognitive skills are
required foundations to grow organization in a significant manner. To attain the objectives of the
organization, it is vital for the leaders to keep focus on executing valuable amendments that
develop more effective companies.
In the context of the strengths of the article, it has been found that organizational
development has strengths in the context of making improvement within the business; it helps
company for continuing improvement as companies that connect with the organizational
development are committed to constant development business and offerings (Loxbo & Bolin,
2016). The process of OD develops a continuous cycle of improvement for which it facilitates to

Organizational Development 7
develop strategies and planning in order to attain settled objectives. Along with that it develops
an effective bridge for great communication that forces organization to interact with the
employees of the company in order to know more about ongoing situation within the business
(Lewis, Cantore & Passmore, 2016). Employee development can be done in an effective manner
with the help of the organizational development which can amplify the skills of employees in
order to meet evolving market needs.
The author has depicted about the challenges of non-profit organizations which can be
considered as the strength part as the discussion on them helps other organizations to take
appropriate action before hiring OD consultants for the business (Peters, 2018). The strength of
the article can be evaluated in an effective manner as the author has described the reasons to not
engage an OD Consultant by taking consideration of real examples which is helpful in getting
better understanding about the concept of the OD. As it is discussed under the article that there
are no assurance with the work of OD and to explain this statement the author has taken
consideration of the real life examples of the professional. It has been elaborated by them risk are
the major part for the professional capacities every hour of everyday and everyone want to
reduce it to get growth within the business. The involvement of such business with OD can bring
more difficulties for the business as the nature of OD is fuzzy and burdened with risks. Hence,
the results of an OD project cannot be assured majorly in the context of outset of the whole
assignment and at the first stage of the proposal (Kahnweiler, 2013). With the help of giving
reasons by author in the context of not involving in OD process within the business can be
helpful for other non-profit organization to think twice before involving OD Consultants in
making changes within the business in order to reduce the challenges of being more nimble,
embrace change, predict the future accurately, want to act like a business, desire to gain more by

Organizational Development 8
putting less efforts, be more effective and want to increase the motivation without taking
consideration of retaining the staff (Flamholtz & Brzezinski, 2016).
With respect to the weakness of the article, it has been critical reviewed that the article is
based on the organizational development which would be helpful for many non-profit
organizations in order to take consideration of the involvement of the OD Consultants within the
business (Sosik & Jung, 2018). According to analysis, it represented the bad perception towards
OD Consultants because the author has given many reasons to not involve with OD Consultants
in amplifying the growth of the business, however, it is clearly mentioned under the article with
showing challenges that due to more than one challenge, the non profit organization should not
involve it. The author has elaborated real life examples to focus on the involvement of OD
Consultants in the business. As it is mentioned by the author in the article that the things can get
worse before they get better and share his experience that regarding the change. It has been
analyzed that OD process has some challenges as well because it contains some model which
cannot be taken into consideration by the company in making changes within the business in a
practical manner.
Conclusion overall contribution
It can be concluded from above analysis of article is that OD is the major process of
bringing change within the business and to summarize, OD, and that entails good OD, will cost
the company in the term of time and money. It will cover all risks and it has been found that it is
not easy every for the experienced and talented consultants to anticipate future without going
through what is going on within the business. It can be concluded that it can be virtually not
possible to measure in what extent the business can be affected due to involvement of OD

Organizational Development 9
consultants. The contribution of the author in the article for the development of non-profit
organization keeps significant values as he helped in determining correct decisions in order to
bring change within the business still having number of challenges.
This paper has evaluated the article in the critical manner for the purpose of showing the
involvement of OD Consultants in the non-profit organizations. The paper has summarized about
the article and discussed about the theme of the article for the purpose of bringing better
understanding regarding the article. The strength and weakness of the article have been
discussion with taking consideration of the involvement of the author in OD process. The ideas
are being suggested by author in order to reduce the damage contaminated upon the organization
in the form of the decisions. There are so many reasons are explained under the article in order to
not get engaged with OD consultant.

Organizational Development 10
References
Anderson, D. L. (2016). Organization development: The process of leading organizational
change. Sage Publications.
Bryson, J. M. (2018). Strategic planning for public and nonprofit organizations: A guide to
strengthening and sustaining organizational achievement. John Wiley & Sons.
Church , A. & Burke, W. (2017) Four Trends Shaping the Future of Organizations and
Organization Development. OD Practitioner, 40(3): 14-22
Flamholtz, E. G., & Brzezinski, D. (2016). Strategic Organizational Development and Growing
Pains: Empirical Evidence from Europe. International Review of
Entrepreneurship, 14(1).
Kahnweiler, W. (2013) Nonprofit Leaders and Organization Development Consultants: Caveat
Emptor. Organization Development Journal, 31(2):54 61
Kuna, S. & Nadiv, R. (2018) Divided we Stand? Occupational Boundary Work among Human
Resource Managers and External Organization Development Practitioners. Employee
Relations, 40(5): 848-867
Lewis, S., Cantore, S., & Passmore, J. (2016). Appreciative inquiry for change management:
Using AI to facilitate organizational development. Kogan Page Publishers.
Loxbo, K., & Bolin, N. (2016). Party organizational development and the electoral performance
of the radical right: exploring the role of local candidates in the breakthrough elections of

Organizational Development 11
the Sweden democrats 2002–2014. Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and
Parties, 26(2), 170-190.
Peters, S. C. (2018). Defining social work leadership: a theoretical and conceptual review and
analysis. Journal of Social Work Practice, 32(1), 31-44.
Rabadán, L. E., Rivera-Salgado, G., & Rodríguez, R. (2017). Is more necessarily better?
Leadership and organizational development of migrant hometown associations in Los
Angeles, California. Migraciones Internacionales, 6(21), 41-74.
Sosik, J. J., & Jung, D. (2018). Full range leadership development: Pathways for people, profit,
and planet. Routledge.
Zadeh, L. K., & Ghahremani, M. (2016). Factors affecting organizational development (Case
Study: Welfare office of East Azerbaijan province). Human Resource Management, 3(5),
46-51.

Organizational Development 12