Are Organization Development Techniques Standardized or Tailored? Share Your Experiences!

Hello All,

During any course regarding Organization Development techniques, we have learned various ways like Sensitivity Training, Quality Circles, Feedback mechanism, etc. Are these techniques used by following a standard format? Or are they customized to suit the organization? Can anybody who has implemented these techniques please share the methodology and outcome with us.

Thanks,

Sree

Thank you, Promila. If you could, could you please explain? I was wondering, what is 5S and Kaizen? I just heard about it. It would be of great help if you could explain it. Thank you.

Sree

I haven't seen sensitivity training used in many years. In the US, it has a bad reputation. When OD first got started, some organizations had people take part in sensitivity training. They were encouraged to speak freely to each other. However, after the event, people got back to work and realized that they had been far more vulnerable than they should have been. The training made it appear that the political realities had been removed. It was only later that those trusting souls realized that they had seen things that would get them in trouble. I urge you to think carefully before considering sensitivity training as an intervention inside an organization.

Quality circles are part of an overall quality improvement effort. I imagine you can find a lot about them by doing a Google search. The most important thing is that they support an overall quality process. They usually cannot stand alone as an intervention that an OD person would use.

Hope this helps.

Please find the attached document.

Hello Promila,

You can learn more about Kaizen and other systems mentioned by doing a bit of research online. These systems are all production systems used by the Japanese automobile company Toyota. Toyota also utilizes many other production systems like JIT and gigo. While not extensive, I hope this provides a basic idea.

Ok, bye.

Neha
MBA (HR) IInd Sem