What is organizational development?

We explain what organizational development is, why it is so important for companies and what their main tasks are.

1. What is organizational development?

Organizational development is the set of techniques, tools and practices aimed at maintaining the proper functioning of a company , group or organization , revitalizing the processes and generating a favorable work environment. He is usually in charge of personnel specialized in human relations , organizational or business psychology and related professions.

Organizational development is a practice that places vital importance on relationships between people , how they develop, in what contexts and what are the factors involved . It is undoubtedly one of the most important factors so that any company or organization can develop optimally without suffering any inconvenience in its structure or with personnel.

One of the main problems that organizations are going through is the lack of adaptation. The market and the current world have only one fixed characteristic: they are always instead, in continuous movement . Therefore, it is necessary that organizations are permeable to constant modifications , but in turn do not lose their essence and do not fluctuate in an exaggerated way.

Gone are the times when companies were run by despotic bosses, based on perfectly defined and technically opposed structures. Today the values of democracy  and co-participation are the most important to carry out an organization.

2. What are the main tasks of organizational development?

To facilitate understanding of some of the most important steps taken in organizational development, we will present them in brief steps.

• Selection of suitable personnel :
   As a previous step, the company or organization must choose the specialized personnel. Managers should make this decision carefully. Once chosen, management must explain the reason why the help is necessary (either due to a situation of discontent, or rather structural problems of the company).
• Information collection : Once the problem is defined, the information will be collected based on questionnaires and interviews with employees. It is important to rescue the subjective aspect of people, what they think, how they visualize the present and future of the organization.
• General diagnosis and definition of strategies : Finally, the group of specialists must make a general diagnosis and explain the situation in detail to management. This must be accompanied by a series of strategies to follow, certain directives that it would be advisable to take to guarantee the functionality of the organization.
• Action plan : Finally, the measures that are deemed convenient should be taken. This may vary depending on the particular situation of the organization, it can include from recreational activities for employees (to strengthen interpersonal relationships) to talks or specific organizational courses.

As we can see, organizational development commits the entire company . It is what will or will not give continuity to a project , granting the tools to overcome the obstacles that are always present in every organization (and market, in case of competing in one). In a globalized and complex world, this type of knowledge is highly valued by organizations.