Definition Cummings and Worley (1993) defined OD as a systematic application of behavioral science knowledge to the planned development and

reinforcement of organizational strategies, structures, and processes for improving an organization and effectiveness. "Organizational development is a long-term effort led and supported by top management, to improve an organization's visioning, empowerment, learning, and problem-solving processes, through an ongoing, collaborative management of organizational culture-with special emphasis on the consultantfacilitator role and the theory and technology of applied behavioral science, including participant action research." Organization Development, [French & Bell, 1999]

History
Kurt Lewin (18981947) 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. 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. Kurt Lewin played a key role in the evolution of organization development as it is known today. As early as World War II, Lewin experimented with a collaborative change process (involving himself as consultant and a client group) based on a three-step process of planning, taking action, and measuring results. This was the forerunner of action research, an important element of OD, which will be discussed later. Lewin then participated in the beginnings of laboratory training, or T-groups, and, after his death in 1947, his close associates helped to develop survey-research methods at the University of Michigan. These procedures became important parts of OD as developments in this field continued at the National Training Laboratories and in growing numbers of universities and private consulting firms across the country. Two of the leading universities offering doctoral level degrees in OD are Benedictine University and the Fielding Graduate University. 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" (Weisbord, 1987, p. 112). The failure of off-site laboratory training to live up to its early promise was one of the important forces stimulating the development of OD. Laboratory training is learning from a person's "here and now" experience as a member of an ongoing training group. Such groups usually meet without a specific agenda. Their purpose is for the members to learn about themselves from their spontaneous "here and now" responses to an ambiguous hypothetical situation. Problems of leadership, structure, status, communication, and self-serving behavior typically arise in such a group. The members have an opportunity to learn something about themselves and to practice such skills as listening, observing others, and functioning as effective group members.

As formerly practiced (and occasionally still practiced for special purposes), laboratory training was conducted in "stranger groups," or groups composed of individuals from different organizations, situations, and backgrounds. A major difficulty developed, however, in transferring knowledge gained from these "stranger labs" to the actual situation "back home". This required a transfer between two different cultures, the relatively safe and protected environment of the T-group (or training group) and the give-and-take of the organizational environment with its traditional values. This led the early pioneers in this type of learning to begin to apply it to "family groups" that is, groups located within an organization. From this shift in the locale of the training site and the realization that culture was an important factor in influencing group members (along with some other developments in the behavioral sciences) emerged the concept of organization development.

National Training Laboratories Kurt Lewin founded the National Training Laboratories, known as NTL, an American non-profit behavioral psychology center, in 1947. NTL became a major influence in modern corporate training programs, and in particular developed the T-Group methodology that remains in place today. Lewin died early on in the project, which was continued by co-founders Ron Lippitt, Lee Bradford, and Ken Benne, among others. The NTL produced or influenced other notable and influential contributors to the human relations movement in post-World War II management thought, notably Douglas McGregor (who, like Lewin, also died young), Chris Argyris and Warren Bennis. The NTL continues to work in the field of organizational effectiveness. The original center in Bethel, Maine continues to operate, but the organization has moved its headquarters to Arlington, Virginia.

T-groups
A T-group or training group (sometimes also referred to as sensitivity-training group, human relations training group or encounter group) is a form of group training where participants themselves (typically, between eight and 15 people) learn about themselves (and about small group processes in general) through their interaction with each other. They use feedback, problem solving, and role play to gain insights into themselves, others, and groups. The concept of encounter as "a meeting of two, eye to eye, face to face," was articulated by J.L. Moreno in Vienna in 1914-15, in his "Einladung zu Einer Begegnung" ("Invitation to an Encounter"), maturing into his psychodrama therapy. It was pioneered in the mid-1940s by Moreno's protege Kurt Lewin and his colleagues as a method of learning about human behavior in what became The National Training Laboratories (now NTL Institute of Behavioral Science) that was created by the Office of Naval Research and the National Education Association in Bethel, Maine, in 1947. First conceived as a research technique with a goal to change the standards, attitudes and behavior of individuals, the T-group evolved into educational and treatment schemes for non-psychiatric people. A T-group meeting does not have an explicit agenda, structure, or express goal. Under the guidance of a facilitator, the participants are encouraged to share emotional reactions (such as, for example, anger,

fear, warmth, or envy) that arise in response to their fellow participants' actions and statements. The emphasis is on sharing emotions, as opposed to judgments or conclusions. In this way, T-group participants can learn how their words and actions trigger emotional responses in the people they communicate with. Many varieties of T-groups have existed, from the initial T-groups that focused on small group dynamics, to those that aim more explicitly to develop self-understanding and interpersonal communication. Industry also widely used T-groups, particularly in the 1960s and 1970s, and in many ways these were predecessors of current team building and corporate culture initiatives. Carl Rogers reportedly described the T-group as "...the most significant social invention of the century."[citation needed] A number of experimental studies have been undertaken with the aim of determining what effects, if any, participating in a T-group has on the participants. For example, a 1975 article by Nancy E. Adler and Daniel Goleman concluded that "Students who had participated in a Tgroup showed significantly more change toward their selected goal than those who had not." This type of training is controversial as the behaviors it encourages are often self-disclosure and openness, which many people believe some organizations ultimately punish. The feedback used in this type of training can be highly personal, hence it must be given by highly trained observers (trainers).[citation needed]. In the NTL-tradition, the T-group is always embedded in a Human Interaction Laboratory, with reflection time and theory sessions. In these sessions, the participants have the opportunity to make sense of what's happening in the T-group. A more recent version of the T-groups is the Appreciative Inquiry Human Interaction Laboratory, which focusses on strengths-based learning processes. It's a variation of the NTL T-groups, since it shares the values and experiential learning model with the classic T-groups. Encounter groups are also controversial because of scientific claims that they can cause serious and lasting psychological damage. One 1971 study found that 9% of normal college students participating in an encounter group developed psychological problems lasting at least six months after their experience. The most dangerous groups had authoritarian and charismatic leaders who used vicious emotional attacks and public humiliation to try to break participants. However, a peer-reviewed review of studies published in 1975 concluded that "No study yet published provides a basis for concluding that adverse effects arising from sensitivity training are any more frequent than adverse effects arising in equivalent populations not in groups". A commercialized strand of the encounter group movement developed into large-group awareness training. Other variations have included the nude encounter group, where participants are naked, and the marathon encounter group, where participants carry on for 24 hours or longer without sleep.