Organizational development in response to globalization and technological change

Organizational development theory has always been a multifaceted discipline, incorporating not only business theory but "a wide range of theoretical influences including social psychology, group dynamics, psychotherapy, industrial- organizational psychology, participative management, and sociology" (Church & Jamieson, 2014: 2). Today, organizational development has been profoundly affected by globalization and changes in technology. The reading identifies three different perspectives on the change as traditional, pragmatic, and scholarly (Cummings & Worley, 2010: 693). Traditionalists stress the need for organizations to emphasize employees having a better work-life balance and humanistic values such as diversity, spirituality, and self-actualization (Cummings & Worley, 2010: 693). Supporting the organization requires supporting the humanity of employees. In stark contrast, the pragmatic trend emphasizes enhancing employee effectiveness by setting performance outcomes and work processes in a quantitative fashion and emphasizing metrics as a way of forcing employees to set a higher bar for performance. Finally, the scholarly trend emphasizes expanding formal research to help understand change and to enhance the results of change through validated best practices and methods (Cummings & Worley, 2010: 695). These perspectives are not mutually exclusive, of course.

Factors particularly influential in the field of organizational development include changes in the structure of the economy; developments in technology; evolving perspectives of management; organizational size; globalization; the need for greater teamwork; and industrialization. Globalization has been particularly influential in creating a more diverse workforce. Integrating this workforce can potentially improve productivity and innovation but must be done so in a systematic and intelligent fashion for the benefits to be reaped. Corresponding with an expansion in technology and innovation, there has also been a demand for greater environmental sustainability which will also affect organizations in the future. Consumer demographics are also changing which will affect how organizations will deliver goods: traditional marriages and household divisions mean that the traditional target of the nuclear family is no more in many countries. Political developments affect educational levels, choices of occupation, and therefore the budget and personal resource allocations of consumers. What is most interesting, as reflected in the chapter is that all of this has created a profound cultural shift on the macro and micro level of the global economy. Even small-to-medium-sized businesses may be affected in surprising ways by this shift, given that their consumer base has been expanded through the Internet as has their competition.