Strategy Eight: Personal and Organization Development
Personal and organizational development strategies are grouped together because they both emerge from the same model of applied behavioral science. This strategy is founded on a substantial set of theories, models and techniques, beginning with the work of Kurt Lewin in the 1930s and early 1940s. A basic assumption is made that the process, as well as the substance, of change must be planned and managed if change is to be successful and productive. Both the personal and organizational aspects of change are emphasized, with attention being given to such issues as sense of ownership for the change process and the outcomes of this process.
Attention is also directed to development of collaborative rather than competitive relationships in the solution of personal and organizational problems, and to recognition of the personal as well as organizational benefits and costs of a specific policy. This strategy tends to place great emphasis on the creation of an organizational climate and culture that is characterized by trust, openness and interdependence. Appreciative perspectives on organizational life can be traced back directly to the optimistic and humanistic roots of this eighth HRD strategy.
The personal and organizational development strategy differs somewhat from the training and consultation strategies in that it is not oriented primarily toward the functional aspects of the organization. Rather, as the name implies, this strategy addresses personal and organizational dynamics—those dimensions of the organization which lie hidden behind such functions as management, program planning and production. Herein lies both the strength and weakness of personal and organization development strategies. In the recognition of personal and organizational dynamics that are common to all human systems, the applied behavioral scientist is able to translate important learning gained in one setting to quite different organizational settings.
These practitioners, however, often ignore some of the essential differences between the systems that they serve, and at times neglect the functional problem with which they were initially confronted by the client system. A HRD practitioner, for instance, who indiscriminately uses team building, process consultation, or life planning will often find that his client grows impatient in waiting for a more direct response to an entry problem that is likely to be defined in terms of functional issues. The client wants a management problem concerning employee attrition to be solved or the client is looking for an answer to a technical question concerning a newly installed network.
