We explain what organizational development is, why it is so important for companies and what its main tasks are.
What is Organizational Development?
Organizational development is the set of techniques, tools and practices aimed at maintaining a proper functioning of a company, group or organization, streamlining processes and generating a favorable work environment. It is usually in charge of personnel specialized in human relations, organizational or business psychology and related professions.
Organizational development is a practice that places vital importance on relationships between people, how they develop, in what contexts and what are the factors involved. It is undoubtedly one of the most important factors so that any company or organization can develop optimally without suffering problems in its structure or personnel.
One of the main problems that organizations go through is the lack of adaptation. The market and the world today have only one fixed characteristic: they are always in flux, in constant motion. For this, It is necessary for organizations to be permeable to constant modifications, but at the same time do not lose their essence and do not fluctuate in an exaggerated way.
Gone are the times when companies were run by despotic bosses, based on perfectly defined and technically opposed structures. Today the values of democracy and co-participation are the most important to run an organization.
What are the main tasks of Organizational Development?
To facilitate understanding of some of the most important steps taken in organizational development, we will present them in brief steps.
- Selection of suitable personnel. As a preliminary step, the company or organization must choose specialized personnel. Managers will need to make this decision carefully. Once chosen, the management must explain the reason why the help is needed (either due to a situation of discontent, or rather structural problems of the company).
- Information gathering. Once the problem is defined, the information will be collected based on questionnaires and interviews with employees. It is important to rescue the subjective aspect of people, what they think, how they visualize the present and future of the organization.
- General diagnosis and definition of strategies. Finally, the group of specialists must make a general diagnosis and explain the situation in detail to management. This must be accompanied by a series of strategies to follow, certain directives that it would be advisable to take to guarantee the functionality of the organization.
- Action plan. Finally, the appropriate measures must be taken. This can vary depending on the particular situation of the organization, it can include from recreational activities for employees (to strengthen interpersonal relationships) to talks or specific organization courses.
As we can observe, organizational development engages the entire company. It is what will or will not give continuity to a project, providing the tools to overcome the obstacles that are always present in every organization (and market, if competing in one). In a globalized and complex world, this type of knowledge is highly valued by organizations.