Organizational Development, or OD as it's abbreviated, is a crucial contributor towards the prosperity of an organization. This function helps growing companies move forward and achieve their planned visions and goals.
The OD function touches the whole company, and is responsible for a number of initiatives or projects that are important in a company's business model. These include, but not limited to, designing and implementing a solid performance management system, development of a total talent management system, organizational structuring and change management etc…
Therefore OD is a major player in making or breaking an organization's plans of growth and expansion. By having solid OD systems in place, it acts as a vessel that the company can use to safely arrive at its destination.
The most important part of OD is the change management aspect of it. It is an ongoing, systematic process to implement effective change in an organization. OD is known as both a field of applied behavioral science focused on understanding and managing organizational change and as a field of scientific study and inquiry. It is interdisciplinary in nature and draws on sociology, psychology, and theories of motivation, learning, and personality.
As we all know change is very difficult to deal with and a lot of us tend to resist change especially if we were doing well and there is a need to change. We all feel threatened by the unknown, and that's where change management plays a vital role in clearing the doubts and fears. A proper change management initiative must work on gaining the buy-in from the top people in a company and educating the rest by explaining why do we need to change and what are the benefits that we will gain from going ahead with this change.
By implementing solid and well-planned change in a culture, or the way a company operates, it will help increase the efficiency of that company. By embracing the change we will be doing things better, we can see that we are doing things that we thought could not be possible or beneficial to us. Having said that, there must be a proper communications channels at all levels of the organization to create that sense of security and that everyone can feel they are playing a major role in the prosperity of the company, thus reinforcing the sense of belonging. By seeing the end results happening, it will create a positive energy within the company and everyone will be even more motivated and create a hunger for more success, this will ultimately lead to a motivated workforce that are willing to grow as the company grows and resulting in lower turnover rates, happier employees and a fast-paced organization that will be ready to tackle any challenge that it will face from the competition and the market.
© 2009 - Fareed Amin
