VALUES OF ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Values of Organizational development are a set of manners that individuals learn while working. They help employees as they move along their path of work. Organizational development is a continuous process and it accommodates many changes that occur in science and technology, economics, market, political environment, education, knowledge, values, attitude, and behavior of people, culture, etc.

It is essential for the organization to change the values and its structure to accommodate the new ideas, beliefs, and new technologies for progress. The organization must adapt to changes in order to face the forthcoming challenges. Organization development incorporates a variety of planned changes based on humanistic democratic values, that are seeking to improve the effectiveness of the organization and the well-being of its employees.

ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT VALUES

• Respect People – People are the inspiration of an organization and they are responsible for creating opportunities for growth. They should, therefore, be treated with respect and dignified manners. Treating every person as a person with a complex set of needs all of which are important in his work and in his life. In order to assist people, and maximize their potential in a company, we tend to respect that individuals are complex. Therefore, we work hard to understand that individuals have diverse needs, skills, and feelings and respect those differences in our work with them.
• Confidence and Support – Organizations are made up of people and they are to be believed and supported in order to have effective organizations. A healthy environment prevails when people are trusted and taken into confidence and necessary support is extended to them as and when needed.
• Dialogue and Collaboration – Any conflict on any issue should not be suppressed. It should be dealt with with openness. Suppression leads to a dampening of morale. Identifying the problem and its causes, discussing it openly, and finding out feasible solutions lead to boosting the morale of the employees and creating a good environment. Conflict is inevitable in teams and organizations. Therefore, we believe in using dialogue to address conflict in a healthy, open manner in order to move past the bad function that suppressed conflict can create.
• Employee Participation, Involvement, and Empowerment – The participation of employees who will be affected by the OD should be sought in decision-making. Providing opportunities for individuals to function as human beings rather than as supplies in the productive process. This may be the most fundamental value we hold as OD practitioners. We know that “people support what they help create.” Therefore, clients are encouraged to see the benefit of involving all organizational members in decision-making and change processes as appropriate.
• Expression – Human beings differ in experience, maturity, ideas, opinions, and outlook. The organization is at the receiving end. It gains from the differences in quality, ideas, opinions, and experiences of its people. Human beings are social animals; they have feelings, emotions, anger, sentiments, etc. They should be allowed to express their feelings and sentiments. This will result in building up high morale and the people will be motivated towards hard work ultimately resulting in increased efficiency.
• Seeking Cooperation – Managers should learn to seek cooperation from each of the employees working under them in their department. This will develop in creating an atmosphere of cooperation leading to organizational effectiveness and willingness to accept change in the event of the organizational development process.
• Importance of Groups and Teams – Organizations are made up of a variety of formal and informal groups and teams. Therefore, clients are encouraged to recognize the norms and beliefs that come along with these structures in order to help those groups and teams contribute most effectively to the organization.
• Growth, Development, And practitioners – OD practitioners have an optimistic view of people and teams. Therefore, they believe that their work with organizations should help people to learn the skills needed to help them navigate change in the future.
• Authenticity, Openness, and Trust – In order to create trusting environments, organizational leaders and members must consistently demonstrate honesty and transparency in their words and actions.

IMPORTANCE OF OD VALUES

Values of organizational development are important to the study of organizational behavior because they lay the foundation for the understanding of attitudes and motivation and because they influence our perceptions. Individuals enter a company with biased notions of what should be and what should not be.

Values of organizational development are tinged with moral flavor, involving an individual’s judgment of what is right, good, or desirable.

Thus values:

• Provide standards of competence and morality.
• Are fewer in number than attitudes.
• Transcend specific objects, situations, or persons.
• Are almost permanent and hard to change, and
• Are more interior to the heart of a person.

Individuals learn values as they grow and mature. They may change over the life span of an individual develops a sense of self. Cultures, societies, and organizations shape values.

Values of organizational development are learned and acquired primarily through experiences with people. As we tend to grow and develop, every source of influence contributes to our notion of what is important in life. Cultural beliefs have an influence on the formation of values. Basic opinions of what is good or bad are derived from one’s own culture. The practice of OD is grounded in a particular set of core values and principles that guide behavior and actions.