New Paradigms in Organization Development: Positivity, Spirituality, and Complexity

Organization Development Journal, Spring 2009 by Karakas, Fahri

In addition to these emergent models, 1990s witnessed the emergence and rising popularity of a number of practice areas and intervention methods related to Organization developement such as executive training (Michael, 1993), executive coaching (Kilburg, 1996), mentoring (Conway, 1998), team building (Dyer, 1995), team development (Hut and Molleman, 1998), leadership development (Avolio, 1999), diversity programs (Gottfredson, 1992), process consultation (Schein, 1999), collaborative learning (Dillenbourg, 1999), e-learning (Bachman, 1999), succession planning (Liebman et. al. 1996), organizational design (Groth, 1999), and others (Tschudy, 2006, McLean, 2006). Moreover, a number of theories on organizational change have been developed that provided additional insights on the process and dynamics of change in human systems (McLean, 2006; Jones and Brazzel, 2006). Some of the theories and models of change that have been incorporated into the practice of Organization developement are theories of: large system change (Beckhard and Harris, 1977), organizational transformation (Adams, 1984), large-group interventions (Bunker and Alban, 1997), socio-technical design (Passmore and Sherwood, 1978), and new sciences of quantum physics, self-organizing systems, and chaos (Wheatley, 1994).

The 21st Century Context of Organizational Development

The twenty-first century is the century of uncertainty, chaos, dynamism, globalization, diversity, technology and hyper-competition (Waddock, 2006, Karakas, 2007). The 21st century context is complex, dynamic, fast paced, non-linear, multicultural, and knowledge intensive (Waddock, 2006). The world is experiencing global scale complex problems including global warming, postmodern terror, corporate scandals, pollution, wars, and the divide between the rich and the poor (Karakas, 2006). Moreover, there is increasing interdependence between people, organizations, and communities (Cox and Meda, 2004). There is no doubt that contemporary work in Organization developement is also becoming more and more multifaceted, multidimensional, and multi-focused (Tschudy, 2006). Practitioners and researchers in Organization developement draw upon a variety of disciplines such as psychology, social psychology, sociology, organizational behavior, strategy, human resources management, cross-cultural management, organizational theory, complexity sciences, systems sciences and ethics (Jones and Brazzel, 2006). The field of Organization developement is becoming fuzzy, more dynamic and trans-disciplinary in the 21st century, as seen in the following characteristics of organizations and organizational contexts.

Dynamic and fluid: The new world in the 21st century is becoming more knowledge intensive, global, fast-paced, dynamic, and organic. Organizations operate constantly in flux, with the rapid pace of technological innovations, globalization, financial shifts, reengineering, mergers and acquisitions (Waddock, 2006). Organizations try to change, adapt, and become self-organized dynamic systems (Karakas, 2007); focusing on strategies of empowerment (Byman, 1991; Conger and Kanungo, 1988, Rose, 1990) to enable and increase employee involvement and participation (Hyman and Mason, 1995; Cotton, 1993).