A review on the organization development-对组织发展的回顾
04-09, 2014
A review on the organization development
对组织发展的回顾
对组织发展的回顾
1 Introduction 引言
Because of the process of globalization and international development, the world is changing more rapid than ever before including the economic, social and the cultural environments and presents a more complex surrounding for every organization. Today, you could feel the signal of unprecedented changes which happened in your everyday life and give your life a new impetus, including the field of communication, transportation and computer technologies. The advancements of transportation allow us to travel anywhere in the world within 24 hours. The technologies especial the computer and internet application allow the information from the world spread more quickly and become easy to access by everyone.
由于全球化和国际化发展的过程中，世界在变化比以往任何时候都快，包括在经济，社会和文化环境中，并且每一个组织都更复杂。今天，你能感觉到它发生在你的日常生活前所未有的变化，给您的生活带来新的动力，包括通信，交通与计算机技术领域。运输的进步，使我们能在24小时内到世界任何地方旅行。该技术特殊的计算机和互联网应用让来自世界的信息传播更加迅速，易于受到大家访问。
As a result, given the rapid changing over the world, the ways of doing business have to accept these consequence changes. In other word, the organization should keep the pace with these rapid changes in order to achieve the objectives. Today, the organizational development is an important tool for every organization. There, the organization is defined by its dynamic and changing environment. It is a considered as integrity of the diverse environment elements in social, cultural, and internal sides. The strategy plans for the organizational development allow the organization to adapt the changing environment, survive and develop continually. These kinds of strategies are as well as integrity or balance among the external and internal influence factors relating with the organization including economy, sociology, labor market, human resource management, production, finance management and service management and so on.
其结果是，由于世界各地的快速变化，做生意的方式必须接受这些变化的后果。换句话说，该组织应保持跟上这些迅速变化，以达到自身的目的。如今，该组织发展是一个重要的工具。目前，该组织的动态和不断变化的环境。它被认为是一个在社会，文化和内部两侧的不同环境要素的完整性。组织发展战略计划使组织能够适应不断变化的环境，生存和不断发展。这些类型的策略，以及与包括经济，社会学，劳动力市场，人力资源管理，生产，财务管理和服务管理等方面的组织与外部和内部影响因素之间的完整性和平衡。#p#分页标题#e#
Therefore, the organization development should show the corresponding evolutions for accommodating with the changing of organization and business environment. It is also necessary for developing new, effective strategies and taking into practice while managing the organizational development. This paper gives a latest review about the evolution about the organization development in 21st century. It reviewed the definition changing firstly and then offered some significant suggestion or strategies for modern organization development. Finally in this paper, it illustrated these evolutions about the organization development through the strategic examples of IBM Company.
2 Evolution about the Definition for Organization development 组织发展定义的演化
Since the society around the organization has changed through the over past decades, correspondingly, the concept and the definition for the organization development should keep the changing pace and stands for the needs of changing organization. As long as it happens, the organizational development is enough to be suitable for the today’s organizations. Hence, the definition of organizational development has modified according to changing surrounding from the traditional to the modern definition.
2.1 Old definition
The organizational development is traditionally an intervention-oriented and extensive method from the top management to influence the organizational changing and meanwhile increase the effectiveness of organization. This definition is used by Beckhard in his of book “organization development: strategies and models” in 1969(Beckhard, 1969). He defined the organization development mainly through the knowledge of behavioral-science, and gave a practice-based definition of organization development.
However, this definition is largely limited by its stable surroundings. Maybe in 1969, it is very useful for explaining the organizational development because in that time an organization is considered as a machine comprised of interlocking parts and neglected their external influence factors around it. As a result, it likes a diagnosis for organization development similar with a treatment from physicians in hospital. Whereas, the definition was still referred by many academic paper or meeting and described the field of organizational development before recent advanced and more reasonable definitions developed.
2.2 New definition
Today, the organizations is operated in a more changing surrounding fro the drive from the wide scale use of new information technologies(IT). And thus the organizational development should give the same changing signals for the sustainable development including the definition and the strategies. As well as the new organization being seen as distinctive, prestigious and competitive, removing symbols of previous identities and imposing new identification symbols is a key implication to ensure organizational success.#p#分页标题#e#
Therefore, the traditional definition of organizational development must change correspondingly as a result from the rapid changing business and organization surrounding. Perhaps, the most important characteristic for modern organization development is the ability to adapt the changes with the development of economy. As regard of this goal, Neilsen explained and gave detail definition of organization development in 1984. He argued that the organization development could impose some kinds of positive influences on the members in an organization which achieve their own goals while reach the shared or organizational goals. The organizational development could provide the more effective and new ways of working together. If the organization works badly and do not promise the common objectives to achieve, the organizational development would offer powerful suggestions to help the organization to make meaningful changes according to the external and internal environment (Neilsen, 1984).
Otherwise, in 1997, Cummings and Worley have published their definition which showed the full understanding about the organization development. They considered the organization development as a system-wide application of behavioral science knowledge involving to the planning of production, finance, human resource and other organizational strategies, structures and operational process for improving to achieve the objectives or goals effectively and completely (Cummings and Worley, 1997). Of course, this behavioral practice should keep the pace of changing with the environmental changes. They also emphasized the definitions or the strategies planning for organization development should update and adopted some advanced management experience in time in order to allow the largest interests achieved.
Regardless of which definitions, the ultimate objective is to allow the organization development to fit the changing of organization itself. Thus, the definition of organization development should hold the ability to understand the changes from the environment and give the effective strategies for create systemic change, root-based value improvement and satisfaction of employees and other development elements through the diagnosis for organization (Beckhard and Harris, 1987). In other words, this definition should offer the essence of guidance such as what we do and how we do it in the rapid changing business surroundings. As long as these kinds of planning have been made, it could be helpful for organization development.
3 Planning for modern organization development 现代组织发展规划
The globalization in the world has brought rapid changes to our society since the beginning of 1990s that cause the ways of life should show the related changes. The organization also do not present from these kinds of fortune. From that period, the systems of organization have been influenced gradually and the concept of organization development also evolved sophisticatedly to fit the changes from the environment.#p#分页标题#e#
As a result, the previous planning for the organization development maybe should reflected and make again for a updating. Because the lack of efficiency and less effective operation in an organization could largely prevent it from the potential and emerging opportunities, good performance and reactive responses to problems. Finally, the planning will lack the strategic guidance for the organization and lose their impact and the usefulness. This is true. The suggestions about this invalidation is reinforce some items or strategies in the planning in time including the system design, people, culture, leadership, policies and finance management. Moreover, all these activities or updating managements is operated by the people or the leaders. Without the competent people, the organization has no meaning to talk about the change, the production and all the facts relating with the organization development. Thus, more and more organization development practitioners put forward the concept of people oriented and start to respect their people in the cycle of operation.
3.1 Manage the changes
Managing the changes is an absolutely a new challenge for the organization development. The changes happen more frequently than ever before in the global and integrative world. Generally, the organization is integrity of leadership, finance, production, people, intensity of competitive rival and the social factors. These elements from the organization usually influence the activities and practices about the strategy design, human resource management, leadership styles and other management levels (Miles and Snow, 1978).
However, along with the wide applications of information technologies, the information from the management strategy, competitive rival, global workforce and other levels of organization is easier to access. The organization could obtain the recent information from internet about the field of business such as the development trends, the risk faced and the development suggestions. Correspondingly, the pace of doing business is largely accelerated in recent years. Even the ways of doing business has been underwent completely changes.
Thus, the knowledge of effective change management is popular with the organization development. Firstly, it is necessary to understand the divers of changes and the aspects of changes which could influence your organization values. Maybe it could show by the kind of paper reports. Usually, the analysis is concluded with the annual report in a company with precise statement of practice and achievable change managing objectives. Secondly, the change strategies are planned for the organization development according to the external and internal items which helps to achieve the values of organization and give the detail plan of practice. Thirdly, execute unremittingly. Performance oriented is the most important for managing the changes successfully.#p#分页标题#e#
From the efforts of reflective analysis and well performance, the change management will provide organizations the most change managing skills and create more opportunities in order to improve the ability to adapt to the changing environment.
3.2 People oriented
People in an organization should be valued and respected with dignity. They are not just a kind of cheap worker or resources which like a machine since the people may be the most important costs for an organization. There is the common statement among the most of organization development practitioners in the world including the developing and developed countries. The most of leaders believe that the human resource management should identified by trust, loyalty and empowerment. For example, the Indian firms have give the conversion about the concept of people from the traditional ideas to the modern concepts and give the fully understanding of people oriented. Today, the Indian firms must face the challenges from the globalization and the competitive of international firms from other countries. The objectives of world of managers and global process are becoming more common in the influence of changing world. Consequently, the domestic firms take the concept of people oriented in the first position while becoming global. These firms start the war of competent people in the worldwide and make out effective talent people planning (Chatterjee, 2007).
As well as the same transition happen in the organization of China according to the new labor system. This new kind of labor system should thank for the governmental new managing notion about people oriented. Under the protection of new labor system, the employees in China are offered more rights including the right of overtime pay, and the protection of labor contract while working for an organization. In other words, it means that both the government and the company have agreed to offer more respect for the employees than ever before.
Thus, the employment and recruitment of the talent people become the most important organization development in the new era. Without the appropriate talent people, the organization could not be effective in the design of structure and system, production practice and powerful leadership. Especially, the global labor market is more multi-culture and international due to the immigrant and the convenient transportation than ever before. Unfortunately, many firms do not give enough concerns and investment to adapt the fact (Pfeffer, 1998). The multi-culture workforce provides a new challenge which the employers must select the most appropriate people for organization while doing business oversea. However, the real challenges are come from the exotic culture which is quite different from your culture or your habits. In this case, maybe it is cleverer to make some compromises and offer more empowerment for the employees as long as the objectives for organization are achieved. It suggests that the people are first in the organization development.#p#分页标题#e#
3.3 Human resource department
Over the past decades, management researches are mainly focused on field of managing production, finances and technologies which related with the direct values of organization (Choo, 2007). The organization development usually holds the belief that the technologies and production practices are the blood of organizational objective or effectiveness. However, the environments are changing, and the organization itself should keep the changing pace to survive and prosper. So, it is the time for organization development to transfer into the human resource management from other management researches in today’s global economy. Recently, many surveys have proved this transition among the leaders involving in many large international companies and give the analysis about the increasing interest of human resource management.
Correspondingly, the human resource department has become a key field of organization department coincident with the emergence of people oriented for a few years. Compared with other management levels, the human resource department has the ability to integrate other levels of management into the concept of people oriented through the organizing and utilize the people effectively in an organization. Liking the brain of body, it promise the most effective system design, production operation, recruitment strategies and the rewards system than other management levels.
In the view of human resource, the leaders or managers should believe and respect their people. They should have the well knowledge how to manage them effectively. Of course, well designed human resource system is also necessary to attract the talent people and give the most effective utility. Generally, the human resource department reflects coverage of activity including the plan for recruitment strategy, rewards and bonus system, promotion strategy, retirement plan and the training strategies, etc. These works affect the objective of organization largely. The positive performances of people who could certainly make difference between organizational success and failure are based on the trust and loyalty, feelings of value and worth, as well as the commitment to the social responsibility. In other words, a well designed human resource management should give all qualities which influence the effectiveness of performance, such as showing humanistic leadership and respect values while managing the people to pursue the objectives of organization.
3.4 Leadership with top team management
The artistry of leadership has evolved largely since the beginning of 20th century. More and more researches and colleges invest the field of leadership for the effective practice in both public and private organization. Different situations need different style of leadership and leading strategies. Because of the changes occurred in the environment of global economy, the leadership as a result must change with surroundings of doing business. Mangy organization development practitioners argued that a powerful leadership with top team management is necessary for modern organization especially in changeful global business environment. Because this kind of leadership provides the most effective development frame flaw while planning the common shared desires with the group in an organization. Through the effective strategies and developmental planning, the leadership promises the organization more opportunities and competitive advantages of outstanding among the diverse rivals.#p#分页标题#e#
The notion about the leadership with top team management is not just concerned the side of leaders, it also expands the importance of the employees. Leaders can not complete the practice alone; they required the corporation of their people. Thus, the leadership could be considered as some kinds of particular directions or the organization objectives. If the direction is useful and very oriented, the organization may success; otherwise, it will bring to failure. As long as the powerful leadership corporate with experienced teamwork, the directions or objectives could hold the largely promises while practicing the organization development.
Therefore, the leadership and top team management are proposed together in this paper. Perhaps, leadership with top team management is not the first definition to explain the relationship between the leadership and the teamwork. In Japanese firms, the performance oriented concept has given the sparkle influences before in the human resource management. The managers who come from the Japanese firms usually express their idea of people oriented with the performance oriented. They respect both people and the effectiveness of work. They argue that the people could make many things if the people are organized by the leaders. The capability of together is huge and powerful to do anything. Since the focus on leadership with top teamwork, the Japanese corporations such as Sony, Toyota and Panasonic have performed well in today’s competitive global market for the last decades (Kishita, 2006).
4 Case study from the IBM Company IBM公司案例研究
In order to explain the importance of the people and organization development in the easy changing environment, this paper takes the legend success of IBM for an example to illuminate our understanding about the concept of people and organization development. As everyone knows, IBM, the world largest computer company, its process of globalization have been an excellent case study for understanding the notion of the Organization Development including the business strategies and people oriented notion in multi-cultural workforce, management strategies, the manipulation of the global market. IBM Company began its globalization development from the 1970s, and in the later years, IBM has implemented a number of innovative programs and services, policies and practices in international market, managing strategies and the employment planning which demonstrate the sustainable respect for its employees.
First, it is thought that the people are the most important treasure for organization development. The IBM’s founder, Thomas J. Watson, told his employees in October 1926: “They say a man is known for the company he keeps. We say in our business that a company is known by the men it keeps.” And the current CEO of IBM, Sam Palmisano, argued that “The employees of IBM represent a talented and diverse workforce. Achieving the full potential of this diversity is a business priority that is fundamental to our competitive success.”(Sam P., 2004). As the guidance of the concept of people oriented, IBM is busy to seeking for the qualified candidates who are competent and able to deal with the global markets served by IBM in today’s multi-cultural workforce. Every year, IBM human resource managers attend more than 40 diversity-focused conferences and career fairs to recruit across the world as long as their business reached (IBM, 2005). IBM’s innovative “Why work?” marketing campaign, which began in the spring of 1999, was designed to obtain the best and brightest campus and professional talent through an interview about the subjects of IBM’s strengths including people, work, rewards, and global presence(IBM, 2005). Through the special recruiting activities, IBM Company hopes to get the best and competent employees from diverse multicultural workforce without regardless of race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, or age.#p#分页标题#e#
Second, with the process of globalization and the formation of the international market, IBM have been devoted to the modification of their business strategies including the development of new products and good service improvement in order to adapt the changing world market effectively.
From a nothing grows a personal computer revolution, IBM has established eight research locations in the world. These research locations have different work characteristic for the common objective to improve the computer revolution of IBM Company even the world computer evolution. Each research location finish diverse research themes and corporate with each other according to global market needs, at the same time, the IBM products and researches step closely with the revolution of information and communication technologies development.
In addition, IBM’s global services is same important to success for the organization development in the global market. In early-1990s,IBM starts up its global service plans. From the “integrator” business model to IBM Global Services (IGS), IBM has combined the communication technologies such as hardware, software and services with the global customer service offer perfectly. Thus, customers could acquire diverse helps to sort out the new range of technology choices. In contrast, the company wanted advice on a coherent strategy for a better understanding on the impact of technology on their corporation tactics. Now IBM Global Services could responded rapidly to these emerging needs from customers, because it always believed serious e-business is what customers would eventually want. Increasing, IBM global services were becoming more important for value growth and business success.
From the example of IBM, it demonstrates that an organization wants to success in todays global and multicultural market, some common principles are of course important. It maybe the respect for the people become the first important factor that influence the whole innovation and the value production for IBM company. Also it could have the sight of managing changes is most obvious for IBM company. The leadership with the right people and give the effective strategic planning favored to the success of IBM through the top team management across the world research location.
5 Conclusion 结论
Along with the changes across the worldwide, the organizations have to face more challenges than ever before. These challenges come from external and internal surroundings. As a diagnosis tool of organization, the organization development also shows the same changes with the easy changing world. It should provide more and more detail detective ability for the organization including system design, strategic planning and the management. Managing the changes becomes an important quality in today’s global market since the changes decide the direction of organization. As regard for the internal elements, the popular notion of people oriented and leadership with top team management are welcomed by many companies and organization development practitioners. Of course, the department of human resource certainly wins its deserved focus in the organization development.#p#分页标题#e#
Based on these changeable trends of organization development, this paper reviewed and illuminated the importance principles which could influence the effectiveness of organization practice. Finally, the suggestion is that it is the right time to diagnose the problem minutely and immediately make out some modification or even some real-time practice if any organization wants to survive and prospect continually in the 21st century.
Reference 参考文献:
Beckhard R. Organization development: Strategies and models. Reading, MA: Addison- Wesley, Reading, MA, 1969.
Beckhard R and Harris R. Organizational Transitions. Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1987.
Chatterjee S R. 2007. Human Resource Management in India: ‘Where From’ and ‘Where To?’, Research and Practice in Human Resource Management, 15(2): 92-103.
Choo, H. G. (2007). Leadership and the Workforce in Singapore: Evaluations by the Singapore Human Resources Institute, Research and Practice in Human Resource Management, 15(2): 104-114.
Cummings T G and Worley C G. Organization Development and Change, 5th edition, West Publishing, St. Paul, 1993.
Kishita T. The HRM of Japanese Firms in the Days to Come of Global Competition, Research and Practice in Human Resource Management, 2006, 14(1): 29-48.
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