organizational development

Definition

A systematic approach to improving organizational effectiveness through planned interventions, change management, and cultural transformation. HR's attempt to apply social science to fixing workplace dysfunction.

Example Usage

The organizational development team facilitated a three-day retreat to address our collaboration problems, which mostly taught us we also have retreat-planning problems.

Origin

Emerged as a distinct field in the 1950s-60s from applied behavioral science and systems theory

Fun Fact

Organizational development interventions have a notoriously mixed success rate—studies suggest 70% of change initiatives fail, yet companies keep hiring OD consultants anyway.

Source: Industrial-organizational psychology and change management literature

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