Organization Development Practitioners

The system of organizations is very similar, if not the same as, the system of human beings -- after all, organizations are made up of humans! Therefore, when trying to understand the field of organization development, it might be useful to compare aspects of the field of organization development to aspects of the field of medicine.

For example, the study of the theories and structures of organizations (often in courses called "organizational theory") is similar to the study of anatomy and physiology of human systems. Similarly, the study of organizational behavior is similar to the study of psychology and sociology in human systems. Finally, the study and field of organization development compares to the study and field of medicine regarding human systems.

That is, in OD, practitioners might work in a manner similar to "organizational physicians" intending to improve the effectiveness of people and organizations by:

1) Establishing relationships with key personnel in the organization (often called "entering" and "contracting" with the organization);

2) Researching and evaluating systems in the organization to understand dysfunctions and/or goals of the systems in the organization ("diagnosing" the systems in the organization);

3) Identifying approaches (or "interventions") to improve effectiveness of the organization and its people;

4) Applying approaches to improve effectiveness (methods of "planned change" in the organization),

5) Evaluating the ongoing effectiveness of the approaches and their results.