The Role of the Organizational Development Practitioner Timothy Jenkins Herring University Organization development is a systematic approach or process for implementing organizational change that is effective. This process is an ongoing process. One of the primary functions of organization development is to focus attention on understanding and managing change within an organization. Organization encompasses several fields of study such as psychology, sociology, theories of motivation, personality, and learning (Wendell & Bell, 1994). The basic foundation for organization development has come from behavioral science.
Other areas or fields of study have now been introduced in the study and practice of organization development. The field of organization development continues to grow and also continues to be open to new approaches. Organization development has several objectives. Some of these are to increase the level of trust among employees, increase the satisfaction and commitment level of the employees, preparing to confront problems and not ignore them, manage conflict, increasing the cooperation between employees, and last but not least is increasing the problem solving capacity f the organization.
The organization development practitioner plays a vital role in the implementation of organization development (Fuller & Keys, 1998). In some instances the practitioner maybe a technical expert and in others it could be someone such as a behavioral scientist. Behavioral scientist is familiar with how to get the employees within an organization involved in the decision making and problem solving their problems (Fuller & Keys, 1998). Practitioners must process knowledge of human behavior.
The practitioner can be an internal staff person if he r she processes experience and expertise in behavioral sciences and intervention technology of organization development. Practitioners are needed when an organization Is confronter Walt a problem or a potential problem. I Nils determination of a problem is usually decided by top management or someone else that has the authority to do so. At this point management has already determined that a problem exist and now wants to take action or steps to seek help and solve the problem.
Organization development is based on the concept of a helping relationship. A change practitioner is not there to do as a physician would in writing prescription for an illness to fix the problem, but the change practitioner’s main function is to help the organization define and solve their own problems. The change practitioner helps the organization help themselves by doing a preliminary diagnosis, collect data, provide feedback of the data to the organization, data exploration by the organization, formulating an action plan based on the data received, and finally taking action.
When change practitioners are assisting organization to implement change they are concerned with the organization as a whole. They help the organization to see that change in one aspect of the business or one department affects the entire organization. The change practitioner is attempting to get the organization to handle its internal and external functioning and relationships (Robbins, S, 1998).
This would consist of improved interpersonal and group processes, communication that is more effective, being able to cope with all kinds of organizational problems, better decision making, better leadership, and establishing high levels of trust and cooperation among the members of the organization. If the change practitioner has done his Job he or she will have actually worked himself or herself out of a Job. The change practitioner will have left the organization with all the tools, behaviors, attitudes and a good plan of action that could be used to monitor their own success and progress.
During this monitoring they can take appropriate steps to correct any issues discovered. The change practitioner is an integral feature of organization development. The change practitioner must facilitate the process of organization development. Often time’s practitioners are consultants room outside the organization but they have experience managing organization development. Outside consultants provide an unbiased view of the organization’s problems and needs. Outside consultants do not have an in depth view and understanding of the issues that are key to a company.
This perhaps is the only major drawback of using outside consultants. Another drawback would be securing the trust of the employees because of being viewed as Just that an outsider. To work around this potential situation some organizations use a mixture of external and internal team members to facilitate the organization development. The change practitioner role in organizational development is an important responsibility that can only be Judged by the success or failure of the organization moving forward.
