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- Written by Brent A Duncan, PhD
Seo, Seo, Putnam, & Bartunek (2004) offer the concepts of duality and tension to explain the implications of different change practices and better understand the dynamics among the assumptions of different OD perspectives. Dualities are the polar opposites that work against one another. Dualities are not necessarily mutually exclusive alternatives, but “the choice to focus on one of the poles creates a tension and difficulty to enact both ends of the continuum simultaneously.” This section summarizes critical perspectives that have guided the field of Organizational Development, including the central debates, epistemological assumptions, strengths of weaknesses, and focus of each.
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- Written by Brent A Duncan, PhD
This précis of Mary Jo Hatch's "Dynamics of Organizational Culture" synthesizes ideas from evolutionary sociology and anthropology to explain how stability and change simultaneously exist in organizational culture. The purpose of this approach is to “build support for a theory of cultural dynamics that considers stability and change as dual products of the same cultural processes” (Hatch, 2004, 191).
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- Written by Brent A Duncan, PhD
A Silicon Valley manufacturing company decides to outsource manufacturing operations and lay off thousands of employees. Their approach is a model for transitioning employees into brighter futures while increasing operational efficiencies.
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- Written by Brent A Duncan, PhD
Group decisions illuminate individual psychology and group existence by explaining how groups influence individual motivation and change. A fundamental question of action research is how to prevent groups from reverting to prior behaviors after a change intervention. Social processes show that group decisions lead to lasting social change. The effectiveness of group decisions depends on the process and the group position within the social context. A group decision is “a process of social management related to social channels, gates, and gatekeepers; the problem of perception and planning; the relationship between motivation and action; and the relationship between individual and group” (263).
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- Written by Brent A Duncan, PhD
Traditional change management theory often begins with diagnosing an organization's issues, assuming this step precedes intervention. However, Edgar Schein (1995) challenges this notion by arguing that diagnosing itself is an intervention that alters the organizational dynamics. He elaborates on Kurt Lewin's idea that understanding an organization is intrinsically linked to changing it, stating, "Everything we do with a client system is an intervention… unless we intervene, we will not learn what some of the essential dynamics of the system really are" (Schein, 1995, p. 65). This perspective underscores that diagnosing and changing an organization are intertwined processes.