CEBU DOCTORS’ UNIVERSITY

The DODT Perspective

OD is both a profession, a field of social action and an area of scientific inquiry. The practice of OD covers a wide spectrum of activities with seemingly endless variations upon them. Team building with top corporate management structural change in a community, and job enrichment in a manufacturing firm are all examples of OD. The study of OD addresses a broad change and the factors influencing OD success.

A number of definitions of OD exist. One says - OD is:

• A system-wide application of behavioral science knowledge to the planned development improvement and reinforcement of the strategies, structures and processes that lead to organization effectiveness.

The definition differentiates OD from other approaches to organizational change and improvement such as management consulting, technological innovation, operations management and training and development.

OD is applied to the strategy, structure and processes of an entire system such as an organization.

OD is based on behavioral science knowledge and practice including micro-concepts such as leadership, group dynamics and macro approaches such as strategy, organization design and international relations.

OD is concerned with managing planned change. It is more on adaptive process for planning and implementing change. It also involves planning to diagnose and solve organizational problems and moves beyond the initial efforts to implement a change program to a long-term concern for stabilizing and institutionalizing new activities within the organization.

Finally, OD is oriented to improving organizational effectiveness for organizations to solve its own problems and focus its attention and resources on achieving key goals. OD helps organization members gain the skills and knowledge necessary to conduct the above activities.

We have observed the organizations now are in the midst of unprecedented uncertainty. Because of this, three tends are shaping change in organizations - globalization, information technology and managerial innovation.

Globalization is changing the market environment with new governments, new leadership and new markets.

Information technology is redefining the traditional business model changing how work is performed, how knowledge is used, and how the cost of doing business is calculated.

Managerial innovation has responded to the globalization and information technology trends and has accelerated their impact on organization.

Perhaps at no other time has OD been more responsive and practically relevant to organizations needs to operate in a complex and changing world.