Practicing Organization Development, 5th Edition

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREEPerspectives on Practicing OD: Survey of the Authors

D. D. Warrick

Organization Development, or Organization Development and Change as some prefer our field to be called, is an exciting, honorable, relevant, and greatly needed field to be involved in. How fortunate are all of us who are students and practitioners of this field to be involved in a field dedicated to making organizations more healthy and effective (Richard Beckhard’s stated purpose of OD). The potential benefits of OD to organizations, groups, individuals, and even society are far-reaching and admirable, as you will see in the survey results reported in this chapter.

It has been my privilege to be asked by the editors of Practicing Organization Development to survey the chapter authors in each new edition of this book regarding important issues in OD. The chapter authors include pioneers and leaders in developing the field of OD as well as highly regarded practitioners, researchers, and developers of key OD concepts. In this edition, the focus is on current skills in practicing OD in today’s times of accelerated, unpredictable change and advanced technology. The issues that will be covered in this edition are:

1. Potential benefits of OD in today’s business environment
2. Changes in the practice of OD
3. Personal changes the authors have made in practicing OD
4. The OD concepts that are most being used in practicing OD
5. Lessons that have been learned about managing change
6. The biggest challenges in practicing ...