Reinventing Organization Development
Chapter One
The Crisis in OD
W. Warner Burke and David L. Bradford
This book is based on the premise that OD should be more relevant
today than ever before and the observation that, by and
large, executives ignore OD or relegate it to the bowels of the organization.
This leads us to a crucial and paradoxical question: "If OD
is so potentially relevant, why is it often ignored?"
The Potential Relevance of OD
Today change is constant and inevitable (as are death and taxes).
In fact, one could argue that producing and managing change is the
core task of leaders-and isn't OD synonymous with change?
With exponentially increasing movement toward knowledge
industries, tapping into and fully using human expertise is more
important than ever before. Offering approaches that "tap into"
member knowledge is a particular strength of OD.
Increasingly, knowledge is dispersed throughout the organization.
Those below may have special training and expertise not held
at the top. Further, they are likely to be closer to the problem and
certainly to the customers. Because ... read full excerpt from Reinventing Organization Development: New Approaches to Change in Organizations ebook
