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

A POS FRAMEWORK

Why is there a need for scholarship that specifically focuses on positive organizing? First, as suggested by Figure 19.1, there is reason to expect that unique dynamics are associated with positive organizing that differs from normal organizing processes.

Loosely speaking, we can think of people and organizations in terms of three states: negative deviance, ordinary, and positive deviance. At the extreme left end of the continuum is negative deviance, or the dysfunctional state. In this state, people experience illness, and organizations are unprofitable, ineffective, and inefficient. Quality is problematic and errors in production are customary. Unethical behaviors may be evident. Interpersonal relationships between people ...