THE FUTURE AND OD No one is omniscient about the future , but our look at OD history and present practice can help develop a picture of what might lie ahead . And what lies ahead is existing, rewarding, and full of challengesThe Changing Environment The environment in which organization operate is increasingly turbulent in an era of global, national, and regional commercial competitiveness.Fundamentals Strength of OD The central strength of OD is that the processes about which we have written in this book are fundamentally sound . These processes include: careful tuning in to the perception and feelings of people; creating relatively safe conditions for surfacing this data ; involving people in diagnosing the strengths and weaknesses of their organization.ODS FUTURE How large a role and how constructive a role OD will play in the drama that is unfolding depend upon a number of interrelated conditions . While most of the conditions we see are generally favorable to OD.Leadership And Values For OD to flourish it is important that the top management-CEOs, board of directors, top executives, including the human resources executive-and OD consultants place high value on strong individual, team, and organizational performance coupled with people-oriented valuesKnowledge And OD Top-management groups are likely to utilize OD to the extent that they are aware of and understand the process involved . While the extent of this knowledge is undoubtedly widespread, we suspect that much of it is constrained by lack of an experiential feel for what the process is like.Diffusion of Technique OD techniques and approaches have been widely disseminated in society, at least in the American and Canadian scene, and in many parts of Europe, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Latin America, and else where.

Chapter 18

The Future and OD

Submitted by:Bryan A. RombanoSubmitted to:Dean Ave D. Villanueva