Organizational Development: Driving Change
In the 1960's, Organizational development (OD) emerged as a field identifiable with survey research, action research, T-groups, open system theory, humanistic psychology, building team and channeling process consultation. The methods and ideas have thus broadened and enriched its range and approach. Since the 80's, these methods and ideas have converged in a form of OD which begs to vary from the OD of the 60's in both theory and practice. This new development has been labeled as 'Dialogic OD' and compared with many shapes of 'Diagnostic OD', founded on previous held ideas and practices (Bushe and Marshak, 2009, Marshak and Bushe, 2013). The aim of this chapter is to introduce Dialogic OD and examine waysit's similar to and begs to diversify from OD. There are some practices and methods related to it and proper implementation period to use it. References are made to information from Dialogic OD theory and practices from time to time.
This paper will start off by comparing the OD and Dialogic OD structure and then further analyze the tools in the dialogic OD structure that can help the organization in focus for this paper when applied from the CEO across the entire staff of the organization.
Key difference between Dialogic Organization development and diagnostic organization development
During the last three decades, the social sciences have taken a linguistic and postmodern approach, discoveries have been made in natural sciences and nonlinear sciences; the change practices and change ideas have also taken a drastic turn.
Many new methods have arisen such as open space, appreciative inquiry, world cafe, art of hosting, re description and conference model to name some (Bushe, 2013). They are philosophically different in terms of paradigm from the diagnostic OD. The Dialogic OD doesn't base the organization as an open-based system; instead the Dialogic OD is founded upon the concept that organizations are dialogic system. In this case, the group action, organizational action and individual action is driven from self-organizing, creating new socially apt realities and driven by present narratives, interactions and stories people derive from their experiences.
The organizations are deemed as complex phenomena where people's thoughts and action is a nonstop process involving, making, meaning and emergence. From this angle, change derives from modifying the conversation which occurs on a daily basis and maps the daily thinking and behavior by engaging more opinions and voices, talking to different individuals, and by producing generative / alternative images, the thinking pattern of people also changes.
The Dialogic OD is also easy to misinterpret, the Dialogic OD is not about driving nice interactions and exchange information. It's more than that. The change is driven in order to align the elements of an organization with the growing demands of the broader environment as indicated by open system theory. It's a new way of inviting novel thinking strategies keeping the present organizational conversations in conjunctionredesign and reframe comprehension and action (Barrett, Thomas andHocevar, 1995, Grant & Marshak, 2011;Nistelrooij & Sminia, 2010; Whitney, 1996).
The Dialogic OD practice
The Dialogic OD practice can vary from episodic change practices to nonstop change practices. The episodic change concentrates on more than one event to assist a group. The group can be small or big. It can be limited to one stable state to some other. In case of continuous change practice, continuous interactions take place in order to modify the group or an organization. This drives the group into a transformed state.
In both cases, there is a clear need from the sponsor to have the ownership of an organization or a group which uses the assistance of Dialogic OD consultant for fostering change. In case of addressing difficult problems, for instance, health care, education; sponsoring groups comprise of many organizations. The sponsors are unsure of what changes will be implemented and how will they will be implemented. They may react to certain issues and concerns, or they might seek a plausible outcome; rest assured they are unsure about how to tackle the change and it's after effects.
During entry, the concerned Dialogic OD consultant will assist the sponsors to recognize, the thoughts and range of the afflicted stakeholders who are entailed in the Dialogic OD process. They may agree or not agree on a general hosting group / planning group, which can assist in arranging the afflicted stakeholders with a change scenario. This is quite important in case of change targeting a particular issue for instance, regional transportation, where a desire to involve a big group with numerous people is entailed or when working with a change mindset.
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