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

WHERE IS OD HEADED?

From its birth in the 1940s, OD has taken the shape of—or better, responded to—the environment in which it was happening. Looking ahead into the near-term future, which is all we can do these days, we see the following movements affecting the practice of OD:

• Globalization is going to continue to eat away at the “retiring” organizational models of hierarchical control and mono-cultures. The workforce in such a world will be more vulnerable as, in order to remain competitive—which means flexible and agile—radical change will become the natural state.

• Speed will continue to increase and will, as we are already seeing, ultimately affect every product or service, every department or function, and every business, large and ...