Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Final Role and Competencies of Od Practitioner
Final Role and Competencies of Od Practitioner
goal accomplishment.
Morale - degree of emphasis upon
relationships and participant satisfaction.
The Stabilizer Style
Communication
Member roles in groups
Group problem-solving
Group norms and growth
Leadership and authority
Intergroup cooperation
High
Cheerleader Pathfinder
Morale
Persuader
Stabilizer Analyzer
Low
Low High
Effectiveness
Therole of the OD practitioner is varied and
dynamic. Descriptions include; helper,
advisor, sounding board, navigator,
coach, facilitator, designer, developer,
leader, consultant, expert, partner,
problem solver, diagnostician, process
specialist and collaborator. These roles
can be practiced as an employee within
the organisation or as an external
consultant.
The truth is the OD practitioner role is varied and
purposed with helping clients to improve the
effectiveness of their organisation developing
both business processes and people processes
within the context of the organisation.
OD practitioners are by their very practice
humanistic and that makes their practice relational
based, and puts the OD practitioner at the centre
of change and development efforts; using ‘self’ as
an instrument to drive change and help the
organisation develop through each of the phases of
the OD cycle; Diagnostic, Intervention and
Evaluation
The OD practitioner is responsible for
bringing their whole self to the task in
hand, and build their reputation as a
trusted advisor with their clients. Not only
must the practitioner be an advocate of
development, but must focus on
continuously improving and developing
their own learning and understanding of
their practice.
Underlying Organizational Development
are humanistic values. Margulies and Raia
(1972) articulated the humanistic values of OD as
follows:
Providing opportunities for people to function as
human beings rather than as resources in the
productive process.
Providing opportunities for each organization
member, as well as for the organization itself, to
develop to his full potential.
Seeking to increase the effectiveness of the
organization in terms of all of its goals.
Attempting to create an environment in
which it is possible to find exciting and
challenging work.
Providing opportunities for people in
organizations to influence the way in
which they relate to work, the
organization, and the environment.
Treating each human being as a person
with a complex set of needs, all of which
are important in his work and in his life.
Theoretical and Technical expertise which can be applied
Influencing Skills
Spot and energise engagement in others
Innovative, Creative and Critical thinking
Ability to tackle difficulties and problems with positivity
Self-Confident
Credible communicators
Interpersonal and Facilitation skills, with an ability to ‘stand
back’
Emotionally Tuned in
Ethical, value driven and acts with integrity -
Traditionally, OD practitioners have promoted a
set of
values under a humanistic framework including a
concern for inquiry and science, democracy, and
being helpful. They have sought to build trust and
collaboration; to create an open, problem-solving
climate; and to increase the self-control of
organization members.
More recently, they have extended those values
to include a concern for improving organizational
effectiveness and performance. They have shown
an increasing desire to optimize both human
benefits and production objectives.
In addition to value issues within organizations, OD
practitioners are dealing more and more with value
conflicts with powerful outside groups. Organizations are
open systems and exist within increasingly turbulent
environments. Those external groups often have different
and competing values for judging the organization’s
effectiveness.
Practitioners must have not only social skills but also
political skills, They must understand the distribution of
power, conflicts of interest, and value dilemmas inherent in
managing external relationships, and be able to manage
their own role and values with respect to those dynamics.
Interventionspromoting collaboration and
system maintenance may be ineffective in
a larger arena, especially when there
are power and dominance relationships
among organizations and competition
for scarce resources. Under those
conditions, they may need more power-
oriented interventions, such as
bargaining, coalition forming, and
pressure tactics.
Ethical issues in OD are concerned with
how practitioners perform their helping
relationship with organization members.
Inherent in any helping relationship is
the potential for misconduct and client
abuse. OD practitioners can let
personal values stand in the way of
good practice or use the power inherent
in their professional role to abuse (often
unintentionally) organization members.
ETHICAL
GUIDELINES &Ethical
Dilemmas
Misrepresentation
Misuse of Data
Coercion
Value and Goal Conflict
Technical Ineptness