Fundamentals of Management, 8th ed

The Effectiveness of OD

Given the diversity of activities encompassed by OD, it is

not surprising that managers have reported mixed results from various OD interven-

tions. Organizations that actively practice some form of OD include American Airlines,

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Part 3: Organizing

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Texas Instruments, Procter & Gamble, and BF Goodrich. Goodrich, for example, has

trained 60 persons in OD processes and techniques. These trained experts have subse-

quently become internal OD consultants to assist other managers in applying the techni-

ques. Many other managers, in contrast, report that they have tried OD but discarded it.

OD will probably remain an important part of management theory and practice. Of

course, there are no sure things when dealing with social systems such as organizations,

and the effectiveness of many OD techniques is difficult to evaluate. Because all organi-

zations are open systems interacting with their environments, an improvement in an

organization after an OD intervention may be attributable to the intervention, but it

may also be attributable to changes in economic conditions, luck, or other factors.

ORGANIZATIONAL INNOVATION

A final element of organization change that we address is

innovation

, which is the

managed effort of an organization to develop new products or services or new uses for

existing products or services. Innovation is clearly important because, without new pro-

ducts or services, any organization will fall behind its competition.