Organisational development – a schizophrenic profession?

Organisational Development (OD) is not so much a discipline as the application of accumulated experience of dealing with differing theories, practices and models. Chris Nutt tackles the tangled web.
 

This often involves considering two or more apparently contradictory theories at the same time. When those theories involve different value sets and stress opposite attitudinal features, then the OD practitioner can truly be called a member of a schizophrenic profession!

Indeed, two OD perspectives are emerging and they are moving in different – even opposite – directions.

Proponents of conventional OD believe that successful change must be planned, multi-disciplinary, continuous and iterative; this delivers ‘predictable and logical’ outcomes. They assume that we can work it out in advance, that multiple practices operate in silos, that change is uninterrupted and that we can repeat steps in the change process. They also assume that we can ‘see into the future’ and that we can impose our own ‘rationality’ on other cultures.