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Organization development 

programmes

The  traditional  OD  programme  was  behavioural 

science-based and almost entirely devoted to inter-

personal relationships, organizational processes and 

culture  change  in  the  broadest  sense.  There  may  

still be a need for such interventions today but organ-

ization  development  is  a  more  eclectic  affair  – 

anything  can  be  included  under  the  organization 

development  heading  as  long  as  it  contributes  to  

organizational  effectiveness.  As  explained  below 

there  is  a  choice  of  activities  and  some  examples  

are  given  of  approaches  to  a  major  organization  

development initiative, namely culture change.

Organization development activities

The choice is from activities such as those set out  

in Table 12.1.

These  activities  can  be  combined  in  many  ways  

so that they become mutually supporting. Ones such 

as  culture  change  and  team  building  can  include  

traditional OD interventions such as action learning, 

survey feedback and group dynamics. It can be argued 

that change management is not a separate organiza-

tion development activity but is a fundamental part 

of  all  such  activities.  Each  of  those  listed  above 

involves  change,  which  has  to  be  managed  using 

the sort of change management skills described in 

Chapter  54.  The  following  examples  of  culture 

change  activities  drawn  from  research  conducted 

by the CIPD (2011) illustrate the range of activities 

covered under the broad heading culture change:

 

●

Arts Council England Interventions focused 

on the organizational structure, embedding 

the new values and demonstrating leadership 

commitment for the culture change.

 

●

Children’s Trust Southampton Interventions 

focused on the organization’s structure, 

developing values to support the strategy and 

structure.

 

●

London Borough of Barnet Interventions 

centred on establishing a Lean team to drive 

the project. Front-line staff were at the heart 

of the process, which involves them 

identifying what’s wrong with the service and 

how things could be improved.

 

●

National Police Improvements Agency 

activities include a restructuring of the top 

management team, a review of existing 

processes, the involvement of stakeholders 

and a focus on retaining respect for past 

ways of working.

 

●

NP Paribas focused activities on the 

organization’s structure, processes, values 

and the importance of leadership.

 

●

Visa Europe established a culture change 

programme that was called ‘peak 

performance’. The process focused on the 

individual and helping each individual to 

recognize how their own values and 

aspirations could be connected with those  

of the organization in a mutually beneficial 

way.

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