
  • How many hours you study in a day?
  • How many times you have revised the topics you have finished
  • What percentage of the classes you have watched?
  • Have you attempted mock tests or practice tests yet?
  • How many tests you have taken?
  • Did you manage to finish the test papers on time?
  • How is your health in general?
  • How is your food habit?
  • Any interest in yoga or exercise or play sports regularly?
  • Planning to sleep well nights before the exams?
  • Planning to have light food and water before exams?

Organisational Development values for Organisational Theory and Behaviour Mcom sem 1 Delhi University


Organisational Development values for Organisational Theory and Behaviour MCOM sem 1 Delhi University:- we will provide complete details of Organisational Development values for Organisational Theory and Behaviour MCOM sem 1 Delhi University in this article.




Organizational Development (OD) is a management discipline designed to improve an organization’s effectiveness and productivity. Rooted in behavioral science foundations, OD focuses on complex interpersonal skills as they affect the problem solving activities critical to the organization/s. Following an in-depth assessment of organization’s select needs, activities such as coaching, visionary planning, and group change processes are utilized to address pivotal areas necessary for success.

Organizational Development is a systematic approach to organizational improvement that applies behavioral science theory and research in order to increase individual and organizational well-being and effectiveness. It is a term used to include a collection of planned change interventions that seek to improve organizational effectiveness and employee well being.

Organization development (OD) applies behavioral-science knowledge and practices to help organizations change to achieve greater effectiveness. It seeks to improve how organizations relate to their external environments and function internally to attain high performance and high quality of work life.

OD emphasizes change in organizations that is planned and implemented deliberately. It is both an applied field of social practice and a domain of scientific inquiry. Practitioners, such as managers, staff experts, and consultants, apply relevant knowledge and methods to organization change processes, while researchers study those processes to derive new knowledge that can subsequently be applied elsewhere. In practice, this distinction between application and knowledge generation is not straight-forward as OD practitioners and researchers often work closely together to jointly apply knowledge and learn from those experiences (Lawler et al., 1985). Thus, OD is an ‘action science’ where knowledge is developed in the context of applying it and learning from the consequences (Argyris et al.1985).

OD encompasses a diversity of concepts and methods for changing organizations. Although several definitions of OD have been presented (Beckhard, 1969; Bennis, 1969; French, 1969; Beer, 1980;Burke, 1982), the enormous growth of new approaches and techniques has blurred the boundaries of the field and made it increasingly difficult to describe. The following definition seeks to clarify emerging aspects of OD while drawing on previous definitions of the field: “Organization development is a system­wide process of applying behavioral­science knowledge to the planned change and development of the strategies, design components, and processes that enable organizations to be effective.”

OD addresses an entire system, such as a team, department, or total organization. It also deals with relationships between a system and its environment as well as among the different features that comprise a system’s design. This system-wide application follows from an open-systems approach to organizations (Thompson, 1967; Katz & Kahn, 1978; Cummings, 1980).

OD focuses on changing and improving three key aspects of organizations: StrategiesStrategies have to do with how organizations use their resources to gain competitive advantage. This includes choices about the functions an organization will perform, the products or services it will provide, and the markets and customers it will serve.

Design ComponentsDesign components include decisions about organization structure, work design, measurement systems, and human resources practices.

ProcessesProcesses have to do with how organizations go about doing things and include how members relate to each other and their tasks and how different functions, such as communication and decision-making, are performed.

OD seeks to bring congruence or fit among strategies, design components, and processes so they mutually guide and reinforce organizational behavior in a strategic direction.

Finally, OD focuses on improving organization effectiveness. This includes helping organizations achieve high performance, good quality of work life, and capacity for continued problem-solving and improvement. Effective organizations perform at high levels while meeting the needs of various stakeholders, including owners, customers, employees, suppliers, and government regulators. They have a high quality of work life that enables them to attract and retain talented members. Effective organizations are able to solve their own problems while continually improving and renewing themselves.


The OD paradigm values human and organizational growth, collaborative and participative processes, and a spirit of inquiry. The change agent may be directive in OD, however, there is a strong emphasis on collaboration. Concepts such as power, authority, control, conflict, and coercion are held in relatively low esteem among OD change agents. According to Robbins the following briefly identifies the underlying values in most OD efforts:

  1. Respect for people: Individuals are perceived as being responsible, conscientious, and caring. They should be treated with dignity and respect.
  2. Trust and Support: The effective and healthy organization is characterized by trust, authenticity, openness, and a supportive climate.
  3. Power Equalization: Effective organizations deemphasize hierarchical authority and control.
  4. Confrontation: Problems shouldn’t be swept under the rug. They should be openly confronted.
  5. Participation: The more that people who will be affected by a change are involved in the decisions surrounding that change, the more they will be committed to implementing those decisions.

Organisational Development values for Organisational Theory and Behaviour Mcom sem 1 Delhi University:-Some recent definitions of Organization Development

According to Burke(1994),

Organization Development is a planned process of change in an organization’s culture through the utilization of behavioural science technologies, research, and theory.’

Cummings and Worley (1993) defined OD as,

A system wide application behavioural science knowledge to the planned development and reinforcement of organizational strategies, structures, and processes for improving an organization’s effectiveness.

According to Porras and Robertson (1992) OD is,

“A set of behavioural science based theories, values, strategies, and techniques aimed at the planned change of the organizational work setting for the purpose of enhancing individual development and improving organizational performance, through the alteration of organizational members’ on the ob behaviours.”

Organisational Development values for Organisational Theory and Behaviour Mcom sem 1 Delhi University:-WHY IS ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT IMPORTANT?

Profitability, productivity, morale and quality of work life are of concern to most organizations because they impact achievement of organization goals. There is an increasing trend to maximize an organization’s investment in its employees. Jobs that previously required physical dexterity now require more mental effort. Organizations need to “work smarter” and apply creative ideas.

The work force has also changed. Employees expect more from a day’s work than simply a day’s pay. They want challenge, recognition, a sense of accomplishment, worthwhile tasks and meaningful relationships with their managers and co-workers. When these needs are not met, performance declines.

Today’s customers demand continually improving quality, rapid product or service delivery; fast turn-around time on changes, competitive pricing and other features that are best achieved in complex environments by innovative organizational practices.

The effective organization must be able to meet today’s and tomorrow’s challenges. Adaptability and responsiveness are essential to survive and thrive.

Organisational Development values for Organisational Theory and Behaviour Mcom sem 1 Delhi University:-IMPLEMENTING OD PROGRAMS

OD efforts basically entail two groups of activities; “action research” and “interventions.” Action research was originated in the 1940s by Lewin and another


U.S. researcher, John Collier. It is a process of systematically collecting data on a specific organization, feeding it back for action planning, and evaluating results by collecting and reflecting on more data. Data gathering techniques include everything from surveys and questionnaires to interviews, collages, drawings, and tests. The data is often evaluated and interpreted using advanced statistical analysis techniques.

Action research can be thought of as the diagnostic component of the OD process. But it also encompasses the intervention component, whereby the change agent uses actions plans to intervene in the organization and make changes, as discussed below. In a continuous process, the results of actions are measured and evaluated and new action plans are devised to effect new changes. Thus, the intervention process can be considered a facet of action research.


A standard action research model was posited by W.L. French in his essay “Organization Development: Objectives, Assumptions, and Strategies” in Sloan Management Review, (1969, Vol. XII, No. 2.). The first step in the OD process is recognition of a problem by key executives. Those managers then consult with a change agent (a group or individual), which gathers data, provides feedback to the executives, and then helps them determine change objectives. Next, the agent does new research within the context of the stated OD goals, gives more feedback, devises a plan of action, and then intervenes in the company to effect change. After (or during) the intervention(s), data is gathered, feedback is supplied, actions are planned and implemented, and the process is repeated.

Organisational Development values for Organisational Theory and Behaviour Mcom sem 1 Delhi University:-OD INTERVENTIONS

Organization Development (OD) is a unique organizational improvement strategy. The sets of structured/planned activities adopted by groups or individuals in an organization as a part of the organization development program are known as OD techniques or OD interventions. While change programs may involve either external or internal consultants, OD interventions mostly involve external consultants.

“OD interventions are sets of structured activities in which selected organizational units (target groups or individuals) engage in a task or sequence of tasks with the goals of organizational improvement and individual development.”

OD interventions are plans or programs comprised of specific activities designed to effect change in some facet of an organization. Numerous interventions have been developed over the years to address different problems or create various results. However, they all are geared toward the goal of improving the entire organization through change. In general, organizations that wish to achieve a high degree of organizational change will employ a full range of interventions, including those designed to transform individual and group behavior and attitudes. Entities attempting smaller changes will stop short of those goals, applying interventions targeted primarily toward operating policies, management structures, worker skills, and personnel policies. OD interventions can be categorized in a number of ways, including function, the type of group for which they are intended, or the industry to which they apply. In fact, W.L. French identified 13 major “families” of interventions based on the type of activities that they included—activity groups included teambuilding, survey feedback, structural change, and career-planning. One convenient method of classifying OD interventions is by group size and interrelationship, including: interpersonal relationships, group processes, intergroup systems, and the entire organization. Typically, an OD program will simultaneously integrate more than one of these interventions. A few of the more popular interventions are briefly described below.

Organisational Development values for Organisational Theory and Behaviour Mcom sem 1 Delhi University:-INTERVENTION TECHNIQUES

  1. Sensitivity Training
  2. Survey Feedback
  3. Process Consultation
  4. Team Building
  5. Intergroup Development

Organisational Development values for Organisational Theory and Behaviour Mcom sem 1 Delhi University:-SENSITIVITY TRAINING


Sensitivity training is often offered by organizations and agencies as a way for members of a given community to learn how to better understand and appreciate the differences in other people. It asks training participants to put themselves into another person’s place in hopes that they will be able to better relate to others who are different than they are.

Sensitivity training often specifically addresses concerns such as gender sensitivity, multicultural sensitivity, and sensitivity toward those who are disabled in some way. The goal in this type of training is more oriented toward growth on an individual level. Sensitivity training can also be used to study and enhance group relations, i.e., how groups are formed and how members interact within those groups.

The origins of sensitivity training can be traced as far back as 1914, when

J.L. Moreno created “psychodrama,” a forerunner of the group encounter (and sensitivity-training) movement. This concept was expanded on later by Kurt Lewin, a gestalt psychologist from central Europe, who is credited with organizing and leading the first T-group (training group) in 1946. Lewin offered a summer workshop in human relations in New Britain, Connecticut. The T-group itself was formed quite by accident, when workshop participants were invited to attend a staff-planning meeting and offer feedback. The results were fruitful in helping to understand individual and group behavior.

Sensitive Training in Practice An integral part of sensitivity training is the sharing, by each member of the group, of his or her own unique perceptions of everyone else present. This, in turn, reveals information about his or her own personal qualities, concerns, emotional issues, and things that he or she has in common with other members of the group. A group’s trainer refrains from acting as a group leader or lecturer, attempting instead to clarify the group processes using incidents as examples to clarify general points or provide feedback. The group action, overall, is the goal as well as the process.

Sensitivity training resembles group psychotherapy (and a technique called psychodrama) in many respects, including the exploration of emotions, personality, and relationships at an intense level. Sensitivity training, however, usually restricts its focus to issues that can be reasonably handled within the time period available. Also, sensitivity training does not include among its objectives therapy of any kind, nor does it pass off trainers/facilitators as healers of any sort. Groups usually focus on here-and-now issues; those that arise within the group setting, as opposed to issues from participants’ pasts. Training does not explore the roots of behavior or delve into deeper concepts such as subconscious motives, beliefs, etc.

Sensitivity training seeks to educate its participants and lead to more constructive and beneficial behavior. It regards insight and corrective emotional or behavioral experiences as more important goals than those of genuine therapy. The feedback element of the training helps facilitate this because the participants in a group can identify individuals’ purposes, motives, and behavior in certain situations that arise within the group. Group members can help people to learn whether displayed behavior is meaningful and/or effective, and the feedback loop operates continuously, extending the opportunity to learn more appropriate conduct.

Another primary principle of sensitivity training is that of feedback; the breakdown of inhibitions against socially repressed assertion such as frankness and self-expression are expected in place of diplomacy. Encounters that take place during sensitivity training serve to help people practice interpersonal relations to which they are likely not accustomed. The purpose is to help people develop a genuine closeness to each other in a relatively short period of time. Training encounters are not expected to take place without difficulty. Many trainers view the encounter as a confrontation, in which two people meet to see things through each other’s eyes and to relate to each other through mutual understanding.

Organisational Development values for Organisational Theory and Behaviour Mcom sem 1 Delhi University:-SURVEY FEEDBACK

Survey feedback is one of the means which is used for assessing the attitudes held by the members of the organizations, identifying discrepancies among member perceptions, and solving these differences.

Everyone in an organization can participate in survey feedback, but of key importance is the organizational family – the manager of any given unit and those employees who report directly to him or her. A questionnaire is usually completed by all members in the organization. Organization members may be asked to suggest or may be interviewed to determine what issues are relevant. The questionnaire typically asks members for their perceptions and attitudes on a broad range of topics, including decision making practices, communication effectiveness, coordination between units, and satisfaction with the organization, job, peers, and their immediate supervisor.

The data from this questionnaire are tabulated with data pertaining to an individual’s specific ‘family’ and to the entire organization and distributed to employees. These data then become the springboard for identifying problems and clarifying issues that may be creating difficulties for people. In some cases, the manager may be counseled by an external change agent about the meaning of the responses to the questionnaire and may even be given suggested guidelines for leading the organizational family in group discussion of the results. Particular attention is given to the importance of encouraging discussion and ensuring that discussions focus on issues and ideas and not on attacking individuals.

Finally group discussion in the survey feedback approach should result in member identifying possible implications of the questionnaire’s findings. Are people listening? Are new ideas being generated? Can decision making, interpersonal relations, or job assignments be improved? Answers to questions like these, it is hoped, will result in the group agreeing upon commitments to various actions that will remedy the problems that are identified.

Organisational Development values for Organisational Theory and Behaviour Mcom sem 1 Delhi University:-PROCESS CONSULTATION

Process Consultation has been descried as “the central discipline for helping professionals to build strong client-consultant relationships that result in sustained change and improvement.” This model has enormous practical significance, not just for OD consultants, but for counselors, managers, therapists, social workers, and others involved in building and maintaining “helping relationships.”

Edgar Schein defined the technique of process consultation as “the set of activities on the part of the consultant which help the client to perceive, understand, and act upon the process events which occur in the client’s environment.’ Process consultation concentrates on certain specified areas such as communication, functional roles of members, group problem solving and decision making, group norms and growth, leadership and authority and intergroup cooperation and competition.

Schein’s process consultation model has following underlying assumptions:

� Managers require special diagnostic help in knowing what is wrong with the organization.

� Most managers have constant desire to increase organizational effectiveness, but they need help in deciding ‘how’ to achieve it.

� Managers can be effective if they learn to diagnose their own strengths and weaknesses without exhaustive and time consuming study of the organization.

� The outside consultant cannot learn enough about the culture of the organization, to suggest reliable new course of action. He should, therefore, work jointly with the members of the organization.

� The client must learn to see the problem for himself, understand the problem and find a remedy. The consultant should provide new and challenging alternatives for the client to consider. However, the decision making authority on these alternatives about organizational changes remains with the client.

� It is essential that the process consultant is an expert in diagnosing and establishing effective helping relationships with the client. Effective process consultation involves passing those skills on to the client.

Organisational Development values for Organisational Theory and Behaviour Mcom sem 1 Delhi University:-Steps in Process Consultation

According to Schien, process consultation normally proceeds as given below:

  1. Initial Contact -Here the client comes into contact with the consultant and specifies the problem that cannot be solved by normal organizational procedures or resources.
  2. Define the relationship –After identifying the specific problem areas, the consultation and the client enter into a formal contract. The formal contract spells out the services, time and the fees of the consultant. Actually there is also a psychological contract because both parties are involved in the satisfaction of certain expectations.
  3. Select the method of work –It involves the clear-cut understanding of where and how the consultant would perform the job. Each individual employee in the organization is made aware of who the consultant is so that he can help the consultant by furnishing the required information.
  4. Collection of Data and Diagnosis –The consultant invests a great deal of time in collecting the relevant information. Normally, he gathers data through questionnaires, observation and personal interviews etc. and then makes an indepth diagnosis of the problems.
  5. Intervention –Various interventions by the consultant such as agenda setting, feedback, coaching, and structural suggestions are made in the process consultation approach. During this phase, the solutions designed by the consultant will be translated into action in the organization.
  6. Reducing Involvement and Termination –When the goals of OD intervention have been successfully achieved, the consultant leaves the organization by closing the formal contract with the client.

Organisational Development values for Organisational Theory and Behaviour Mcom sem 1 Delhi University:-TEAM BUILDING

“Teamwork doesn’t happen automatically, and it doesn’t result just from the exhortations of a single leader. It results from members paying attention to how they are working together, issues that block teamwork and working them through, and consciously developing patterns of working together that all members find challenging and satisfying.”(Peter Vail, Managing as a Performing Art, 1989).

Periodically a team’s ability to rally around goals is blocked by simple group dynamics, and the team gets stuck, lowering morale, productivity and job satisfaction. Group process facilitation is powerful tool introduced to break this cycle. During ongoing meeting with a team, group change activities, including insight-oriented techniques and experiential exercises, are used by an OD specialist to promote awareness among group members of their own unique personal styles in communication, collaboration, group roles and conflict resolution. Members develop increased sensitivity and enhanced perspective-taking skills as well as an understanding of different communication styles among group members. All of these skills promote greater group cohesiveness and an ability to work productively toward a common goal. As individuals develop greater interpersonal awareness, qualitative changes occur in the group as a whole.

Team building directly focuses on identification of problems relating to task performance and lays down concrete plans of their elimination. A team building programme deals with new problems on an going basis. It is an effective technique by which members of an organizational group diagnose how they work together and plan changes that will improve their effectiveness (Michael Beer).

Team building attempts to improve effectiveness of work groups by allowing the group members to concentrate on:

  1. Setting goals or priorities for organizational groups.
  2. Analyzing or allocating the way the work is performed.
  3. Examining the way the group is working.
  4. Examining the relationships among the people doing the work. (R. Bechard).

Thus, the fundamental aim of team building is to help the group members in examining their own behaviours and developing action plans that foster task accomplishment.

Organisational Development values for Organisational Theory and Behaviour Mcom sem 1 Delhi University:-Necessary Conditions for the Success of Team Building Programme

There are certain prerequisites to be fulfilled before making an attempt to undertake the team building exercises. These prerequisites have been identified by Hellriegel, Slocum &Woodman. They recommend that management has to ensure the following:

  1. The group members understand the stated goals clearly.
  2. The group members unanimously agree with the objectives.
  3. Basic interdependence among the members of the group exists.
  4.  The group is capable of taking corrective action on the problems identified or at least will be able to tackle some reasonable percentage of them.

Organisational Development values for Organisational Theory and Behaviour Mcom sem 1 Delhi University:-INTER GROUP DEVELOPMENT

Intergroup interventions are integrated into OD programs to facilitate cooperation and efficiency between different groups within an organization. For instance, departmental interaction often deteriorates in larger organizations as different divisions battle for limited resources or become detached from the needs of other departments.

Conflict resolution meetings are one common intergroup intervention. First, different group leaders are brought together to get their commitment to the intervention. Next, the teams meet separately to make a list of their feelings about the other group(s). Then the groups meet and share their lists. Finally, the teams meet to discuss the problems and to try to develop solutions that will help both parties. This type of intervention helps to gradually diffuse tension between groups caused by lack of communication and misunderstanding.

Rotating membership interventions are used by OD change agents to minimize the negative effects of intergroup rivalry that result from employee allegiances to groups or divisions. The intervention basically entails temporarily putting group members into their rival groups. As more people interact in the different groups, greater understanding results.

OD joint activity interventions serve the same basic function as the rotating membership approach, but it involves getting members of different groups to work together toward a common goal. Similarly, common enemy interventions achieve the same results by finding an adversary common to two or more groups and then getting members of the groups to work together to overcome the threat. Examples of common enemies include competitors, government regulation, and economic conditions.



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