The NTL Handbook of Organization Development and Change: Principles, Practices, and Perspectives, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREEA LEWINIAN LENS ON OD’S “EMERGING NOW”

Lennox E. Joseph and Jean E. Neumann

The OD field has witnessed a remarkable expansion in its approximately sixty-year history. It has grown from a series of experiments and an area of inquiry, through its childhood as a field of study and a discipline worthy of note into its young adulthood as a practice of professional services. Now in its adulthood as a reasonably established industry, it carries its own share of methodologies, success stories, heroic tales, and credentialing issues. Attempts to bring increased thoughtfulness to this scenario entail a deep understanding of the principles that undergird OD.

Much has been said about Kurt Lewin (1890–1947): social psychologist, scientist, ...