Kurt Lewin (1898–1947) is widely recognized as the founding father of OD, although he died before the concept became current in the mid-1950s. From Lewin came the ideas of group dynamics and action research which underpin the basic OD process as well as providing its collaborative consultant/client ethos.

1. History of organizational development

2. Prepared By
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Manu Melwin Joy
Assistant Professor
Ilahia School of Management Studies
Kerala, India.
Phone – 9744551114
Mail – manu_melwinjoy@yahoo.com

3. History of OD
• Kurt Lewin (1898–1947) is
widely recognized as the
founding father of OD,
although he died before
the concept became
current in the mid-1950s.
• From Lewin came the
ideas of group dynamics
and action research which
underpin the basic OD
process as well as
providing its collaborative
consultant/client ethos.

4. History of OD
• Institutionally, Lewin
founded the "Research
Center for Group
Dynamics" (RCGD) at MIT,
which moved to Michigan
after his death.
• RCGD colleagues were
among those who
founded the National
Training Laboratories
(NTL), from which the T-
Groups and group-based
OD emerged.

5. History of OD
• Douglas McGregor and Richard
Beckhard while "consulting
together at General Mills in the
1950s, the two coined the term
organization development (OD) to
describe an innovative bottoms-
up change effort that fit no
traditional consulting categories"

6. History of OD
• 1947 – National Training
Laboratories Founded NTL in USA
advances the research into applied
behavioural sciences, develops
understand of change agent role and
experiential learning.
• 1950’s – Human Relations
Movement Growth of social and
developmental psychology.

7. History of OD
• 1951 – Socio-Technical System Thinking
(STS) Tavistock Institute (UK) research
shows that combining social factors with
technological changes increases
effectiveness, efficiency and moral.
• 1967 – Survey Research Methods Likert
and Mann pioneer survey feedback to help
organizational leaders understand the
impact they have on the people and
performance of the organization.

8. History of OD
• 1968 – Creation of the T Group Lewin (USA)
and Tavistock Institute develops unstructured
group laboratory training, and action learning
sets.
• 1974 – OD as Planned approach to Change
Friedlander and Brown research OD as a
method of planned change effort
• 1980’s – General Systems Theory Neilsen and
Schein promote OD as activities that influence
the social processes within an organisation. -

9. History of OD
• 1997 – Organizational
Effectiveness Linking the
application of OD in planned
development interventions to
the improvement of
organizational effectiveness.
• 2000’s to Present – Complexity
Theory OD continues to be
informed by new insights and
research in a number of
disciplines including natural
sciences, biology and physics as
well as developments in the
social and behavioural sciences.

10. 1-10
Five Stems of OD Practice
CurrentPractice
Laboratory Training
Action Research/Survey Feedback
Participative Management
Quality of Work Life
Strategic Change
1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000