Emerging Trends in Organizational Development - Mozenter

Emerging Trends in Organizational Development

By

Jonathan Mozenter

Boston University Graduate School of Management OB888

Independent Study

Supervised by Prof. Kathy Kram

6/22/99

87 Brighton Ave #1 Allston, MA 02134

617-254-9796 954-212-8221 (fax) jonathan.mozenter.1999@alum.bu.edu

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to personally thank those who contributed to making this ten-month project a success. I wish to thank my advisor Professor Kathy Kram for her guidance, support, patience and feedback. I also want to express my deepest gratitude to the fortytwo individuals who took the time to speak with me in depth about my research. I desire to thank Professor Janelle Heineke for her guidance with the statistics. I would like to acknowledge my sister, Allison, for helping me with the editing process. Similarly, I wish to acknowledge my other family members, Doree, Gerry, and Lesley, for their support and love. Finally, I would like to thank all other individuals whose ideas influenced my work.

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The following paper is intended to help Organizational Development (OD) practitioners to understand what macro forces are currently effecting organizations and how these forces will impact the future trends in OD. The paper walks the reader through the process I took to determine the five biggest new trends in the field. It begins with an introduction explaining my investment in researching this topic. Next, I describe my hypothesis and methodology. The majority of the paper is a discussion of the chosen macro forces (changes in technology, constant change, partnerships and alliances, changes in structure of work, increase diversity in the work force, shifting age demographics, globalization, and mergers and acquisitions) that result in the following five emerging trends in OD: (1) Expanding the use of OD (2) Combing traditional "hard" business competencies and OD (3) Creating whole system change- organizational design and culture change (4) Using OD to facilitate partnerships and alliances (5) Enhancing constant learning

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

1

Chapter 1: Research Hypothesis and Methodology

2

Chapter 2: Discussion of the Macro Forces

5

Chapter 3: Discussion of the Trends

21

Chapter 4: Conclusions

62

Appendices A-H

63

Bibliography

88

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INTRODUCTION

According to Warren Bennis, Organizational Development (OD) (1969) "is a response to change, a complex educational strategy intended to change the beliefs, attitudes, values, and structure of organizations so that they can better adapt to new technologies, markets, and challenges, and the dizzying rate of change itself." Some of the more common OD interventions include: change management, coaching, organizational design, visions, missions, values, and teambuilding. For a more complete listing, view the quantitative survey I used in my research (See Appendix B).

Since I plan to enter the field of OD after graduation, I was anxious to know more about the different applications of OD. I wanted to understand how the field of OD would change in the future so that I can proactively position myself within it for future growth. I wanted to become acquainted with different firms, their approaches, their challenges and their clients. I was also hoping to get a feel for what it is like to do research as that is something I am considering doing in the future.

This project helped me understand the complex process it takes to interpret the macro forces that influence the future trends of OD. Although the process is difficult, it is necessary in this rapidly changing environment.

Participating in this project had many benefits beyond discovering the trends in the field. Among the benefits of my project were the new relationships I made with interesting people in the business community. Another benefit was learning about new types of interventions in the OD field that I previously had little or no knowledge of.

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