TRENDS WITHIN OD AND THEIR IMPACT ON ODS FUTURE

Traditional:-The first trend has to do with increasing calls for a

return to ODs traditional and others, traditionalist argue that OD
should be driven by long established values of human potential,
equality, trust, and collaboration. It is proposed that OD should do
what is right by assuring that organizations promote positive
social change and corporate citizenship.
Pragmatic:-related to increasing demands for professionalization
of the field and an emphasis on relevance. Championed by
change management practices at large consulting firms and some
OD professional associations, pragmatists argue that OD
practitioners should be certified like most other professionals. OD
should require certification of members, create a common body
of knowledge, define minimum levels o f competencies, and
institute other regulatory infrastructure.
Scholarly:- focuses on understanding, predicting an controlling
change. Unlike traditionalist and pragmatist, scholars are
concerned with creating valid knowledge, and with generalizing
conclusions about how change occurs, how it is triggered, under
what conditions it works well and so on.
Scholars proposed a research agenda w/c includes
How multiple context and levels of analysis affect
organizational change
The inclusion of time, history, process and action in theories
of change
The link between change processes and organization
performance
The comparative analysis of international and cross cultural
OD interventions
The study of receptivity, customization, sequencing, pace,
and episodic versus continuous change processes
The partnership between scholars and practitioners is
studying organizational change

Implication (impact)of ODs Future

OD will have more conflicts in the Short term
Traditionalist fear that OD is becoming too corporate and
may unwittingly collude with powerful stakeholders to
promote goals inconsistent with ODs social responsibility
and humanistic values
Pragmatist on the other hand worry that relying too heavily
too heavily on traditional values will reinforce ODs touchy
feely orientation.
The debate over values demonstrates how difficult it will be
to gain agreement about standards, competencies,
enforcement mechanisms, and oversight.
OD will become more integrated in the long term
There is a considerable common ground among the diverse
trends within the OD, and the emergence f a more
integrated view of the field seems likely in the long term.

Contextual trends and their effect on ODs Future

The Economy
Increasing concern over social and ecological consequences
Cultural diversity Governments face the difficult choice of
preserving their culture ant the risk of being left out of the global
economy.
Income distribution globalization of the economy is closely
related to an increasing concentration of wealth in relatively few
individuals, corporation and nations.
Ecological sustainability there are increasingly clear warnings
that the ecosystem no longer can be treated as a factor of
production and that success cannot be defined as the
accumulation of wealth and material goods at the expense of the
environment.
The Workforce
The workforce is becoming more:

 Diverse organizations, whether they operate primarily in

their home country or abroad, will need to develop policies
and operating styles that embrace the changing cultural,
ethnic, gender and age diversity of the workforce.
Educated the workforce is becoming more educated. A
more educated workforce demands higher wages, more
involvement in decision making and continued investment of
knowledge and skills
Contingent the continued high rate of downsizings, reengineering efforts, and mergers and acquisitions is forcing
the workforce to become more contingent and less loyal.
Technology
Internet the backbone of global economy.
E-commerce an economy that knows no boundaries. It
involves buying and selling products and services over the
internet.
Two types of E-commerce relevant to ODs Future
Business-to-consumer garners much attention and
awareness because it is how the public participates in Ecommerce.
Business-to-business more complex
Organization
involves increasingly networked and knowledge based nature of
organizations. The interventions help organizations become more
streamlined and flexible, more capable of improving themselves
continuously in response to economic and other trends and more
effective.
Networks are highly adaptable and can disband and reform
along different task or market lines as the circumstances
demand.
OD will be more embedded in the organizations
Operations
This suggests that OD practices will become more
embedded in the organizations normal operating routines. OD
skills, knowledge, and competencies can and should become the
daily work of managers and employees.

OD process will be more technologically Enabled

Information technology is pervasive and will have a significant
affect on OD practice. First, it will enable OD to be synchronous
and asynchronous (anytime, anywhere) as well as virtual and less
face to face. Second, information technology will provide much
more data about the organization to a greater number of
participants in a shorter period of time.
OD Cycle Times will be Shorter
New information technologies will expedite certain steps in the
change process. In coming years, new technologies such as
groupware and video conferencing, will increasingly be used to
bring more people together faster than ever before. There is a
real potential to reduce dramatically the time required to perform
many OD practices.
OD will be Applied to More Diverse Organizations
In the future planned change will be applied to a more
diverse client base.
Types of organizations that are target of planned change
Small entrepreneurial start-ups important underserved
market for OD.
Governments increasingly applying OD interventions such
as strategic planning, employee involvement, and
performance management.
Global Social Change Organizations the increasing
concentration of wealth and globalization of the economy
will create a plethora of opportunities for OD to assists
developing countries, disadvantage citizens and ecology.
OD will become More Cross-Cultural
As organizations and the economy become more global, the
recent growth of OD practice in international and cross-cultural
situations will continue. The current trends of OD clearly point to
the need for OD applications that work across cultures.
OD will Focus more on Ecological Sustainability
Limits to the worlds ecosystem, including its capacity to absorb
population growth, function with a depleted ozone layer, and

operate with polluted waters, provide serious challenges to the

traditional business model.