Practicing Organization Development: A Guide for Leading Change: A Third Edition

CASE EXAMPLE

While not atypical, the following synopsis of an actual OD effort provides an illustration of a consultant’s managing the final phase rather poorly. The OD consultant had worked with his client for about nine months conducting the usual steps. Data had been collected via interviews from a majority of management and key staff personnel. The data were reported back to the CEO and his direct reports, followed by a similar summary of the interview results to the larger system.

The OD consultant’s diagnosis was that most of the data collected were symptoms and that the major underlying cause was the existence of two “camps” within top management who vehemently disagreed with one another as to how the company should be managed and ...