Organizational Development Program and Change Models

Organizations should be responsive to change, innovative, and flexible. The ability to change defines the competitive advantage and success of organizations. In this respect, human behavior is critical in the change processes of an organization. Organizations must acknowledge that change is an on-going process that never ends and requires effective management. There are several types of change, which an organization may experience. They include technological, structural, people, and task changes. Accepting change is difficult and people tend to resist change because of fear, anxiety, uncertainty, and the need to perpetuate the status quo. However, organizations can manage resistance to change by using change models, such as Lewin’s and Lussier’s Change Models to implement change processes successfully.

Organizational cultures reflect shared values and beliefs among employees, which affect how they behave. Newcomers must learn such cultures. Organizational cultures have two dimensions, which are strong and weak, and positive and negative. There is also organizational climate, which reflects lasting qualities of internal aspects of an organization as defined by employees. The climate is imperative for organizational success. Whereas organizational culture reflects shared values and beliefs (an ideal environment that shows how things should be done), the climate depicts shared perceptions (the way things are done). It is vital to recognize that an organization may have a strong culture and a negative climate. Aspects like rewards, structure, responsibility, warmth, support, and risks among others depict dimensions of climate in an organization.

Another critical aspect is organizational development (OD), which is a continuous, planned process of change that helps organizations to enhance effectiveness in overcoming challenges and achieving their strategic objectives. Organizational development is critical in managing and changing the climate of an organization by diagnosing problems. This process requires a change agent (a person) to manage OD techniques. The techniques of OD include training and development, performance appraisal, survey feedback, force field analysis, and team building. All these techniques include training processes.

Globalization has brought about the concept of global differences in organizations. There are Big Five personality types globally. In this respect, people in all cultures depict variations in openness to change. However, cultural values have significant impacts on change. Whereas the US values change and create a sense of urgency, other countries respond slowly to change.

It is imperative to determine the relationship between organizational culture, climate, and development. While all these elements differ, they have defined relationships in an organization. Organizational culture informs its climate because the idea of culture entails that of a climate. In the recent past, the concept of climate has declined while that of culture has developed. Generally, organizational development is a means of transforming the culture and climate of an organization. The OD techniques are elaborate in approaches because they account for performance. Therefore, both culture and climate are a wider part of organizational development programs, which could be useful in addressing certain challenges.

Therefore, any organization can solve resistance to change by relying on a managed organizational development program. In this case, team building is a fundamental technique in overcoming change resistance. Organizations require a change model to guide their organizational development programs. In other words, an organization may use a change model to implement an organizational development program to transform its culture and climate as a way of achieving the desired outcome.