Ravalier PhD Theis.pdf - Anglia Ruskin Research Online

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Organisational development (OD) is a method by which
organisational changes across the structure, technology, task and/or
people can be implemented by focussing on the human and social
implications of these elements in organisations. Organisations are
modelled as social systems and organisational development refers to acts
or processes which advance or promote the growth of these systems.
(French, Bell & Zawacki, 1994). As such organisational change can be
defined as:
“a powerful set of concepts and techniques for improving
organisational effectiveness and individual well-being” (French, Bell
& Zawacki, 1994, pp. 1)
Organisational development therefore denotes the description of a
process of planned change which has the potential to comprise of many
elements. The desired change needs to be long-term, planned and
system-wide which requires a sustained, complex and multi-faceted
change. OD targets work-related groups of individuals and inter-group
make up, in combination with a more strategic focus on organisational
culture and processes. An OD intervention involves entering into an
ongoing system of relationships, to occur between or among systems,
groups or objects for the purpose of helping them (Millward, 2005).
2a) Theories of OD & Change: HSMC & SSMC
Von Bertalanffy (1968) illustrated the success of analysing and
defining problems of an industrial nature via the use of a systems
engineering approach, now known as Hard Systems Methodology (HSM).
Hard systems thinking, or the ‘functionalist systems approach’ to
organisational development and change, seeks to model the real world
environment of concern in a systematic manner with a view to optimising
its performance in accordance to pre-determined ends and objectives
(Petkov et al., 2008). The central assumption of Hard Systems
Methodologies (HSM) is that the ‘world’ consists of many interacting
systems of which some are not working effectively, but can be made to
work better. Therefore hard systems models of change (HSMC) view the