Organisational Development

Learning Outcomes

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• formulate an approach and business case for organisation development in response to appropriate organisational diagnosis, business imperatives and internal and external contextual forces.
• interpret a range of organisation data to gain insights into organisational effectiveness;
• evaluate the implementation of OD interventions and judge their usefulness against other change tools and techniques;
• collect and evaluate data to judge the effectiveness of OD interventions;
• identify the key roles and responsibilities of an OD consultant needed to develop and sustain long term OD interventions;
• analyse activity data from organisational systems in order to frame effective OD interventions;
• understand how human process issues can be used by the OD consultant to diagnose organisation effectiveness;

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• explain concepts clearly and critically in putting forward arguments.
• analyse your own and others roles and practices for securing effective change through OD;
• think analytically and creatively in your approach to e.g. organisational problem solving;
• provide persuasive arguments to support your position and cases;

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• the practice of action research in OD;
• the principles of OD located in human relations school of management;
• small group theory, group dynamics, teams and team building and their application in OD;
• OD interventions at group and organisational level.

Topic

• OD Principles and Values
• Systems Theory and Action Research
• Team Interventions
• Large Group/System Tools an dTechniques
• Small Group Theory
• Motivation and job Satisfaction
• Job Design and Sociotechnical Systems Theory
• OD in the different Sectors
• OD International and Cross Cultural Management issues including expatriate training.

This module will include traditional lecture style content delivery but will be augmented significantly with various other learning activities. Learning activities include:

• An individual assignment examining OD interventions in response to specific organisational problems
• Analysis of DD-related case studies in small groups
• Practical skills development through use of role play and video
• Private study

Action learning sets will also be facilitated as part of the small group working and to encourage self-directed and peer learning.

This module offers international dimensions through presenting you with examples of Organisation Development originating from different countries including the emerging economies. International/global issues are also addressed in the context of Organisation Development within multi-national companies and Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) that operate in the developing world. There is also a focus on cross-cultural management issues and how this can impact on our understanding of how small groups might work as well as personal relationships. You will gain a specific understanding of how to prepare expatriate training and preparation programmes.

Formative

This is how we’ll give you feedback as you are learning. It is not a formal test or exam.

Tutorial

• Assessment Type: Formative
• Feedback: Provided throughout the course on student-led discussions. Feedback on assignments will be provided through written comments on assignments and discussion with module tutors.
• Final Assessment: No
• Group Work: No

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat

An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.