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The story of organization 

development

There  are  three  chapters  in  the  story  of  organiza-

tional development: the original version of the 1960s 

and  70s,  the  extensions  and  modifications  to  the 

original approach in the 1980s and 90s, and the new 

look at organization development of the 2000s.

The first chapter – the original 

version

Organization  development  emerged  as  the  ‘OD’ 

movement in the 1960s. It was based on the strong 

humanistic values of its early founders, who wanted 

to improve the conditions of people’s lives in organ-

izations  by  applying  behavioural  science  know-

ledge.  Its  origins  can  be  traced  to  the  writings  of 

behavioural scientists such as Lewin (1947, 1951) 

on group dynamics (the improvement of group pro-

cesses  through  various  forms  of  training,  eg  team 

building,  interactive  skills  training,  T-groups)  and 

change  management.  Other  behavioural  scientists 

included  Maslow  (1954)  who  produced  his  needs 

theory of motivation, Herzberg et al (1957) who wrote 

about the motivation to work, and Argyris (1957) 

who  emphasized  the  need  to  plan  for  integration 

and  involvement.  McGregor  (1960)  produced  his 

‘Theory Y’, which advocates the recognition of the 

needs of both the organization and the individual 

on the basis that, given the chance, people will not 

only  accept  but  seek  responsibility.  Likert  (1961) 

added his theory of supportive relationships.

The  two  founders  of  the  organization  develop-

ment movement were Beckhard (1969) who probably 

coined the term, and Bennis (1969) who, according to 

Buchanan and Huczynski (2007: 575), described OD 

as a ‘truth, trust, love and collaboration approach’. 

Ruona and Gibson (2004: 53) explained that:

Early OD interventions can be categorized as 

primarily focusing on individuals and 

interpersonal relations. OD was established as  

a social philosophy that emphasized a long-term 

orientation, the applied behavioural sciences, 

external and process-oriented consultation, change 

managed from the top, a strong emphasis on 

action research and a focus on creating change in 

collaboration with managers.

The objectives, assumptions and 

values of the original version of OD

As originally conceived, OD programmes aimed to 

increase  the  effectiveness  of  the  various  processes 

that  take  place  in  organizations,  especially  those  

relating to the ways in which people work together. 

It was also concerned with improving the quality of 

people’s working lives. The original OD philosophy 

was  that  of  humanism  –  the  belief  that  human 

factors are paramount in the study of organizational 

behaviour.  This  had  its  roots  in  the  conclusions 

reached  from  the  Hawthorne  studies  of  1924  to 

1932  (Mayo,  1933;  Roethlisberger  and  Dickson, 

1939)  that  the  productivity  of  workers  increases 

when  someone  they  respect  takes  an  interest  in 

them. The focus then turned to the needs of people 

as individuals and in groups with an emphasis on 

process – how people worked together and how this 

could be improved. The assumptions and values of 

OD were that:

 

●

Most individuals are driven by the need for 

personal growth and development as long as 

their environment is both supportive and 

challenging.

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