This document classifies and describes various types of organizational development (OD) interventions. It discusses 12 major categories of OD interventions, including diagnostic activities, team building activities, intergroup activities, survey feedback activities, education and training activities, techno-structural activities, process consultation activities, third-party peacemaking activities, strategic management activities, sensitivity training, organizational transformation activities, and force-field analysis. The interventions are grouped based on their objectives and targets within an organization.

1. CLASSIFICATION OF OD INTERVENTIONS
Some OD interventions include Sensitivity Training, Survey Feedback, Process
Consultation, Team Interventions and Intergroup Interventions, Third Party Peace
Making Interventions, and Structural Interventions. The most widely used structural
interventions are parallel learning structures, self-managed teams, Management by
Objectives (MBO), Quality Circles, Total Quality Management (TQM), Quality of work
life (QWL) projects, large-scale systems change, organizational transformation, and
process reengineering.
There are many, many different types of OD interventions. These are classified, or
grouped according to:
i) The objectives of the interventions
ii) The targets of the interventions
Some of the major “families” of OD interventions are as described below:
1. Diagnostic Activities: it is a fact-finding activities designed to ascertain the state
of the system or the status of a problem.
2. Team Building Activities: Such activities are designed to enhance the effective
operation of system teams. These can focus on task-related issues such as the way
things are done, necessary skills and resources, relationship quality between team
members and between team and leader, and effectiveness. In addition, structural
issues must be addressed (the nature of the team). “Outdoor Adventure” teambuilding
programmes are currently very popular.
3. Intergroup Activities: Such activities are designed to improve the effectiveness of
interdependent groups, ie those that must cooperate to produce a common output.
These focus on joint activities and the output of the groups as a single system rather
than 2 subsystems.
4. Survey Feedback Activities: These are the activities that focus on the use of
questionnaires to generate information which is then used to identify problems and
opportunities.
5. Education and Training Activities: These activities are designed to improve skills,
abilities and knowledge. Several activities and approaches are possible, depending
on the nature of the need.
6. Techno structural or Structural Activities are designed to improve organizational
structures and job designs. Activities could include either:
a) Experimenting with new organizational structures and evaluating their
effectiveness
b) Devising new ways to bring technical resources to bear on problems
7. Process Consultation Activities are activities that help the client “Perceive,
Understand and act upon process events which occur in the client’s environment”.
The client gained insight into the human processes in organizations and learns skills
in diagnosing and managing them. Emphasis on communication, leader and member
roles in groups, problem solving and decision making, group norms, leadership and
authority and intergroup cooperation and competition.
8. Third -Party Peacemaking Activities: These are the intervention by a skilled third
party aimed at helping 2 organizational members manage their interpersonal conflict.
Based on confrontation and an understanding of conflict and conflict resolution

2. processes.
9. Strategic Management Activities: It helps key policy-makers reflect on the
organization’s basic mission and goals, environmental demands, threats and
opportunities, engaging in long-range planning of both a reactive and a proactive
nature. Attention is focused outside of the org. and to the future.
10. Sensitivity Training: Sensitivity Training is a form of training that claims to make
people more aware of their own prejudices, and more sensitive to others. According to
its critics, it involves the use of psychological techniques with groups that its critic claim
are often identical to brainwashing tactics. Critics believe these techniques are
unethical.
11. Organisational Transformation Activities: Thses activities focus on largescale
system changes that will fundamentally transform the nature of the
organization. Virtually every aspect of the org. is changed: structure, management
philosophy, reward systems, work design, mission, values and culture.
12.Force-field Analysis: Force field analysis is an influential development in the
field of social science. It provides a framework for looking at the factors (forces)
that influence a situation, originally social situations. It looks at forces that are
either driving movement toward a goal (helping forces) or blocking movement
toward a goal (hindering forces). The principle, developed by Kurt Lewin, is a
significant contribution to the fields of social science, psychology, social
psychology, organizational development, process management, and change
management.