Organizational Development Article Review Example

Article Review on Organizational Development

Organizational development is a planned change effort in an organization that entails all the components of the business. It is initiated by the top management of an organization who manages it (Theodore, 2013). Organizational development is designed to ensure that there is the effectiveness of the management and employees. The organizational development aims at making the organization more adaptive to the changing regulatory environment. It increases the capability and the potentiality of an organization. An essential element of the organizational development is the learning organization. The article under review, therefore, discusses the organizational development interventions in the critical areas of the learning organization. Learning organizations are vital ways of developing the corporate culture of high-performance learners who are result oriented (Theodore, 2013). The author of this article focuses on a number of issues on organizational development. These issues include human resource development including its policies and procedures, human resource valuation, structure and design of the organization, communication, and leadership.
The article presents the findings of the research on learning organizations and organization development. First, organizational development is based on the human resources policies and procedures. According to Theodore (2013), policies are the parameters that people in an organization need to act on for the achievement of the organizational objectives. The policies and procedures provide a framework for the implementation of the organization goals and strategies. Procedures outline the manner in which the tasks are to be executed. The article stipulates that the policies and procedures are related to the mission, goals and objectives of the organization. Evaluation of human resources is yet another critical issue as far organizational development is concerned. The evaluation involves the performance appraisal of the human resources. Theodore (2013) defines performance evaluation as the systematic review and of an individual performance in the organization. Performance appraisal aims at ensuring there is improved performance of the organization. Evaluation of human resources relates to the goals and objectives of the organization. According to the research, the goal of the intervention is to ensure the right personnel are acquired and that the effectiveness of the human resources is continuously evaluated.
The structure and design of an organization indicate how the organization abides by its internal controls as it receives inputs for the production of output for the external environment. For organization development, Theodore asserts that the structure and design of the organization must be congruent. Organization structure and design set out the relationship that exists between various elements of the organization. The structure should develop positions and roles that ensure there is coordination of duties. Consequently, according to the article, there should be training and development of the human resources. Training and development ensure that the staff of the organization is equipped with the right skills that help the employees in performing their assigned tasks (Theodore, 2013). Finally, communication and leadership are necessary for the organization development. Efficient communication channels in the organization ensure that there is no conflict of roles. For example, any relevant information must be communicated to the management for appropriate decision-making.
The article analyzes the organizational development interventions in key areas of organization learning. However, there is need for the organizations to focus on other issues apart from the human resources for it development. For organization development, other issues like the financial resources and technological development are important to the organization’s development. The article, therefore, does not explore all the other aspects of organization development.

Reference

Theodore, J. (2013). Organizational development interventions in learning organizations International Journal of Management & Information Systems (Online): 17(1), 65.