Organizational Development:

Organizations today are faced with tremendous forces for change, mainly stemming from competitiveness, the economy, and internationalization. A systematic planned way of managing this change is through the process of organizational development (OD).

Organizational development acknowledges that change cannot take place in a vacuum but change in structure, technology and people will interact. It also acknowledges that change is inevitable, that change is a fundamental aspect of historical revolution. Nature of organizations change over time and organizations today are not the same as they used to be and future organizations are likely to be different from those of the present.

In general terms, planned change can be described as consisting of three stages: Unfreezing, changing (moving), and refreezing.

1. Unfreezing creates the awareness of the need to change. The status quo is disturbed by reducing the strength of the current values, attitudes and behaviour.

2. Changing (moving) is the action oriented stage. Specific changes are brought about through the development of new values, attitudes and behaviours.

3. Refreezing stabilizes the change that has been brought about. The new state becomes the status quo and must be sustained.

Efforts to bring about change will frequently meet resistance as portrayed in the saying that "most people do not like change unless it will benefit them". People dislike uncertainty, yet change increases uncertainty. Individuals are required to trade in the known for the unknown. Employees in organizations want to know how a different work assignment, a transfer or new co-worker will affect them. Individuals and groups fear that change may adversely impact on their self interest. As a result, employees will frequently create significant barriers to block change, even if change may later prove to be beneficial to them.

It is probably safe to say that the environment within which an organization develops imposes certain characteristics on its structure. Organizations and individuals, if they are to function effectively, must be capable of diagnosing situations, possess the ability to act and be adaptable to change.