Future of Organization Development: Enabling Sustainable Business Performance Through People, The

Organization Development Journal, Summer 2007 by Wirtenberg, Jeana, Lipsky, David, Abrams, Lilian, Conway, Malcolm, Slepian, Joan

Abstract

The following synthesis of a global business leader survey conducted by the research team of the Global Committee on the Future of Organization Development is juxtaposed with a case study from Sony Electronics to illustrate how effective organization development practices can be applied to, add value to, and enhance a world-class company.

Survey results reveal that leaders across a wide range of industries see increasing opportunities for O.D.-related work that is critical to the future of business and society. Since there is considerable room for improvement in the effectiveness of organizations in areas that organizational leaders consider critically important to the sustainability of their businesses, and the field of O.D. offers some of its greatest strengths in these very areas, this paper is a call for action for Organizational Development practitioners to help close the gaps that are identified in this study.

Overview

Corporate business leaders in the 21st century face daunting, complex and unrelenting challenges. In the competitive global marketplace, business leaders must simultaneously identify new opportunities for growth and innovation to remain agile and responsive, as they continue to lead organizations in:

* Becoming global and multi-cultural;

* Developing productive, performance-based work environments;

* Building their talent and organizational capabilities to fulfill future needs;

* Accommodating new and changing external regulation;

* Leveraging and integrating new technologies to support the business; and

* Meeting increasing expectations for socially responsible and sustainable business practices.

Additionally, corporations are increasingly asked to collaborate with government, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and non-profit efforts to support the social, economic, and natural environment - and to transform themselves into more sustainable enterprises within this larger ecosystem (Wirtenberg et al, 2007).

The key to meeting these enormous challenges lies in utilizing the knowledge, expertise, and commitment of people to enhance organizational performance. Not coincidentally, it is Organizational Development practitioners who possess the required organizational resources and competencies that can address these very issues. A recent study found that companies that "invest in human capital, work to develop and retain valued employees, and measure and hold people accountable for that investment, have a powerful competitive advantage" (IBM, 2005). Moreover, in a recent special issue of the Journal of Applied Behavioral Science (JABS) entitled: "Is Organization Development in Crisis?" Bradford and Burke (2004) argue that indeed Organization Development does have much to offer in its emphasis on releasing the human potential within organizations - "It has developed many valuable approaches. It has stressed the importance of values in a time when too much behavior seems valueless."

Scope of the Problem

The problem, then, appears to lie in the discrepancy between these strategic and operational management challenges and the actual utilization of Organizational Development practitioners to meet them. In the same JABS issue cited above, Greiner and Cummings argue that" O.D. can move ahead only if it learns more about substantive issues facing organizations and how to address them and only if it gains in power and reputation for helping senior management to resolve these issues." (2004, p.389)

Organizational Development practitioners are addressing these issues as a profession. Indeed, this is a significant development. For example, in their recent book "Reinventing Organization Development" David Bradford and Warner Burke (2005, pp. 5-6) point to the work of the Global Committee on the Future of Organization Development as "a positive sign that the major O.D. organizations have commissioned a study to assess the present state of affairs." But at the same time they question "whether the findings will be put into practice."

This is the starting point for our work as a special team of Organizational Development practitioners who have organized as a volunteer research team of the Global Committee on the Future of Organization Development. It is our mission to shape and shepherd our field of Organization Development along with the thousands of O.D. practitioners who are our colleagues to: (1) align the field more closely with the substantive challenges facing business leaders; (2) add value by leveraging the strengths O.D. can offer business; (3) blend theory with practice; and (4) create a significant and positive impact on business and society by infusing the values and process expertise that O.D. brings to mainstream business and society.

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall

This article describes the results of Phase 2 research conducted by the research team of the Global Committee on the Future of Organization Development1. These Phase 2 results complement Phase 1 findings (Wirtenberg et al, 2004) which analyzed the perspectives of O.D. practitioners toward their own professional field of O.D.. Phase 1 study was accomplished by a survey with more than 900 O.D. practitioner respondents, an extensive literature review, and in-depth interviews with more than a dozen business leaders, and yielded six key integrated themes (KITs) which organized substantive challenges and opportunities for business leaders and their organizations: