Charlie's response - How about Others?

• Welcome to BOL's Organizational Development Forum! by John Grohol, 9/8/96
  • THOUGHTS ABOUT OUR MISSION by Charlie Seashore, 11/9/96
    • Just curious... by John Grassi, 11/29/96
      
      

Thanks for the inquiry. I am delighted to tell you what I had in mind when I wrote out the Mission statement. These are my thoughts and hpefully others can add theirs whether they share my sentiments or see things differently.

OD as I know it was founded on a strong sense of values, central of which was that of participation in decision making by those who were centrally affected. Many of the strategies in the field are power sharing strategies. Some of us go back to the days of Doug McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y in "The Human Side of Enterprise" in which he proposed that the results of management strategies would to some significant degree be a result of the assumptions that we make about human nature. The "evil" to which I refer lurking around the use of OD strategies has to do with the integrity of key managers. It is not unusual to see Theory X type managers propose and implement strategies based on Theory Y, only to have power which was thought to be distributed get pulled back into an authoritarian model. The words and the music don't match and what was proposed as an open system turns out to be a closed system--of communication, decision making, and influence. Working in a context of union-management relationships often surfaces significant discrepancies between what is promised and what is delivered. Careful contracting, open avenues for two way communication, and periodic outreach for evaluating the outcomes -both the hoped for and the unwanted side effects - are a few simple rules for keeping the values in place. What is your experience??? I would certainly hope that this forum is one place where the "evil" referred to can be brought out into the light of day. Looking forward to your responses. Charlie

• International Social Psychology Congress by dherrera@economia.ulima.edu.pe, 5/14/98