OD for the Accidental Practitioner provides accidental, emerging, and experienced organization development practitioners practical tips and insights on implementing any change initiative within an organization. Facilitating and sustaining successful organizational change is a graceful dance between skills and knowledge. One misstep often makes the difference in an otherwise well-planned initiative. This book gives practitioners thought-provoking insights and tools to ensure many successful change initiatives, along with lively discussion questions at the end of each chapter to encourage application of the contents.

Written by two of the leading experts in the field, Organization Development is a guide to the basic principles of effective organization development. A compendium of theories, practices, diagnostics techniques and figures, it provides practical advice for identifying an organization's needs and determining the most appropriate course of action to maximize organizational capability. It provides an overview of the history and theory of OD and addresses the various phases, the role of the practitioner, aspects of power and politics, and the human resources context. The book also discusses organizational design, culture change, managing transformational change, and developing effective leadership. Bridging the gap between theory and practice, this fully updated new edition of Organization Development now includes coverage of complexity and chaos theory, new case studies describing OD practices and attitudes in countries outside of the US and UK, and new chapters on change and culture and on employee engagement and wellbeing. The authors also have added emphasis on the collaborations between OD and HR functions. It provides a wealth of helpful advice for OD practitioners, HR professionals and those with an interest in helping develop their organization.

Organization Development (OD) is a young social science. Little has been written on the intentional development of OD professionals. As a young field of inquiry it is important to understand how the future leaders of the field of OD are being developed. The focus of this work explores the education of scholar practitioners in OD. The research upon which this document is based examined the impact that professional research doctoral programs (affiliated with the field of OD) had on the learning and professional development of select doctoral graduates. Alumni reported important elements of their educational experience that contributed to their professional and personal growth. The nature of these educational elements suggest processes or methods of teaching that may be transferable to training OD professionals in a broader context outside of higher education. Even more directly this research provides well informed feedback to administrators and faculty of professional research doctorate programs from the alumni about their educational experience. This feedback could be used to advance both program and course development in universities that offer these types of degrees. The intended audience of this work includes practitioners of OD, professors of OD and management, faculty and administrators of doctoral education, talent management and leadership development professionals, and adult educators.

Organization Development, or OD as it is often referred to, is something of a sexy field that is part of the family of the Human Resource discipline, including training, coaching, mentoring, business strategy, change management, etc. The Title When being trained as an OD Practitioner at such institutes as National Training Laboratories (NTL) and some universities, one may hear the analogy that people fear change because it can mean the end of something with which we are familiar. Thus the concept of "death" (loss of job, status, position, group esteem, etc.) is part of the psychology noted in ones education in the field to help practitioners understand others angst over taking risks accompanying change. The title is, therefore, an obvious pun on "Overdose"/OD and living to tell about it relates to how to avoid unneeded risk for the practitioner and the client. Benefits of the Book The book is useful because it: - Is a new and unique perspective on OD - Is theoretically substantive and not academic - Provides practical actions and tools - Invites various approaches to OD - Is humorous/wry for a serious subject - Integrates theory with practice - Balances client and consultant relationships with business and organizational goals - Demonstrates key points with short cases - Gives the reader the whole loaf Reviewers Comments "Its not easy for someone with such a wealth of experience to distill it into a short tome. Bill has done his work and our profession a great service."(Nadine Pearce, Sr. Manager of OD, Nabisco) "Bill Beckers new book provides a practical and intelligent guide for those who want to help organizations become better at doing what they are trying to do." (Nancy Brown, Consultant to Organizations) "An excellent book! Its really good stuff! Bills approaches to various topics and ways of describing them are really useful. The books organization is also superb." (Donna Deeprose, Author, Speaker, Trainer) "The book validates a lot of what I do and I definitely learned some things about organization/structure and conceptual/operational how tos"...It sparks my creative juices, and is a catalyst for new ahas relative to consulting models, theories, and concepts that OD practitioners may not have access to in one book." (Karen Massoni, OD Consultant and Professor of Organizational Dynamics at The New School) "This book has something to add to the practice of OD, especially since it pulls so many theoretical strands together, socio-technical systems, chaos theory, expectancy-valence theory, large group change, specific future search processes, and situational leadership." (Victor Rhodd, OD and Employee Development Consultant, New York Power Authority) "It reads like a combination diary and practitioners tool kit by weaving in and out of personal views and some really good case examples." (George Truel, Author and OD Practitioner) "If you are going to read this book-and I strongly recommend you do....Beckers book is not a theoretical work. It is about the experience of OD, about the essential conditions that must be adhered to in order to do it profesionally, and about some of the mechanisms and guideposts that can be helpful in navigating through the huge complexity of a large-scale organizational change....it is worth reading. (Robin Stuart-Kotze,PhD., International Management Consultant and Professor)

A Dynamic New Approach to Organizational Change Dialogic Organization Development is a compelling alternative to the classical action research approach to planned change. Organizations are seen as fluid, socially constructed realities that are continuously created through conversations and images. Leaders and consultants can help foster change by encouraging disruptions to taken-for-granted ways of thinking and acting and the use of generative images to stimulate new organizational conversations and narratives. This book offers the first comprehensive introduction to Dialogic Organization Development with chapters by a global team of leading scholar-practitioners addressing both theoretical foundations and specific practices.

To effectively adapt and thrive in today’s business world, organizations need to implement effective organizational development (OD) interventions to improve performance and effectiveness at the individual, group, and organizational levels. OD interventions involve people, trust, support, shared power, conflict resolution, and stakeholders’ participation, just to name a few. OD interventions usually have broader scope and can affect the whole organization. OD practitioners or change agents must have a solid understanding of different OD interventions to select the most appropriate one to fulfill the client’s needs. There is limited precise information or research about how to design OD interventions or how they can be expected to interact with organizational conditions to achieve specific results. This book offers OD practitioners and change agents a step-by-step approach to implementing OD interventions and includes example cases, practical tools, and guidelines for different OD interventions. It is noteworthy that roughly 65% of organizational change projects fail. One reason for the failure is that the changes are not effectively implemented, and this book focuses on how to successfully implement organizational changes. Designed for use by OD practitioners, management, and human resources professionals, this book provides readers with OD basic principles, practices, and skills by featuring illustrative case studies and useful tools. This book shows how OD professionals can actually get work done and what the step-by-step OD effort should be. This book looks at how to choose and implement a range of interventions at different levels. Unlike other books currently available on the market, this book goes beyond individual, group, and organizational levels of OD interventions, and addresses broader OD intervention efforts at industry and community levels, too. Essentially, this book provides a practical guide for OD interventions. Each chapter provides practical information about general OD interventions, supplies best practice examples and case studies, summarizes the results of best practices, provides at least one case scenario, and offers at least one relevant tool for practitioners.