Notes on Organisational Transformation vs Organisational Development
Organisational Transformation
1. Transformative, radical & massive changes
· This suggests wholesale changes in every respect of the way an organisation is run. (very different structure, systems, processes, functions, tasks, etc)
2. New Ways of Doing Things, New Paradigms
· This means fundamental changes in culture and mindsets.
· It also means to question old beliefs, values and assumptions in managing the organisation which may no longer be relevant.
· Need to differentiate between OT and OD
1. Fletcher suggests that OT evolved out of OD – suggesting that OD is less severe.
2. Old definitions of OD:
· “Organization Development is an effort planned, organization-wide, and managed from the top, to increase organization effectiveness and health through planned interventions in the organization's 'processes,' using behavioral-science knowledge.”
Beckhard, “Organization development: Strategies and Models”, Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1969, p. 9.
3. Newer definitions of OD:
· “Organization Development is the attempt to influence the members of an organization to expand their candidness with each other about their views of the organization and their experience in it, and to take greater responsibility for their own actions as organization members. The assumption behind OD is that when people pursue both of these objectives simultaneously, they are likely to discover new ways of working together that they experience as more effective for achieving their own and their shared (organizational) goals. And that when this does not happen, such activity helps them to understand why and to make meaningful choices about what to do in light of this understanding.”
Neilsen, “Becoming an OD Practitioner”, Englewood Cliffs, CA: Prentice-Hall, 1984,
pp. 2-3.
4. “An approach to organizational change in which the employ...
